Today’s Real Estate Scenario & Digitization Role for Closing the Deals

Let us get the recent prospective of real estate. Post RERA, demonetization & GST implementation the real estate is going through a very rigorous churn up leading to robust & transparent sector. 

Well with all this and business being down a bit (actually a lot) lately, everyone is inventing or thinking of innovative ways to market the product. The big picture is; it is turning consumer friendly. The first to know is not always the gainer. But the first to implement it with sensitive perception would be a huge gainer.

Stick to fundamentals

So how is that, you would gain in this bargain? One wiser realtor told me that it is actually simple; just stick to fundamentals.

But he is wiser & had to be probed (Wiser people needs probing by unwise people!).

The explanation:

Marketing is managing perception of customers. What you sell is second important thing than how you sell in marketing. So it is for real estate. But property is so huge and important for marketers too that they lose the plot sometimes.

Real estate is an emotional decision and is bought with little logic (20%) & lots of illogical, emotional, sensitive feelings and subconscious decision (80%). Still we lose them when we implement it. Why not stick to perceptions of target group. There is no logic in buying chocolates when you know it is bad for you & your well-being. Well, the logic is thrown out of window & marketers are smart enough to capitalize on other gratification mode; proof being the results.

Marketing Real Estate

Real estate was sellers’ market initially and they decided the way it was sold. Not anymore… real estate too is turning customer friendly and you have to catch them gratifying emotionally. Actually it was the same earlier but the choice with the customer was less. Now the market is turning around wherein developer at planning stage keeps end-users in mind unlike earlier times where the products were made according to his (developer’s) whimsical urge and then sold in the same way.

It has turn scientific with market intelligence, locality surveys, demographic dynamics and lot of other parameters coming into the play as like for launching outlets (McDs, CCDs, Starbucks and others) or any other consumer centres. But the research is on implementation /biz or selling and not on product.

For property market it is sadly not done with authenticity and much understanding.

You see full page ads in newspaper pressing on the price part or subvention scheme, which makes one blink and think ‘why they do not understand that property is never bought with price as in FMCG’ (considering the products are at par). It is too valuable to discard as a wrong decision as buying burger or pizza.

Real estate is a pricy decision and the consumer knows it. You would gratify them with other virtues and not money (It may sometimes offend them as no one likes to buy cheap homes). Gratifying them with pride, emotions or reassuring /associating with warmth would lure them to take decision. 

Digitization as a channel for realtors

After understanding the fundamentals of marketing, we come to conclusion that property need to be felt and not only seen virtually. It is a physical entity and we are going to stay physically in it literally, so physically visiting the site is a must (not walk through or other virtual ways).

This also applies to consumer goods. The retail king Mr. Kishore Biyani can vouch for this.

Yes, but you could use digital medium to trigger the sensitive spots of human brains. So it is one of the channels (or presale) used in marketing. The other channels being newsprint (very effective in real estate), OOH (hoardings & banners), sonic medium like radio, exhibitions, seminars / workshops & others.

Presale’s aim is choosing right medium effectively leading to healthy RoI.

As such in India the digital penetration is less & hence reaching prospective buying real estate is lesser. But the power of its reach via mobile & cost effectiveness cannot be denied. So you see lots of activity happening thro’ this medium, but effective conversion is far less than the popular medium of newsprint for real estate.

The main reason is the targets (decision makers), still in the bracket of baby bloomers and older generations who are less digital friendly comparatively. The next generation (millennials) are digital and when they make it to decision maker stage (already few are) in another 10 years the medium would play a huge role. So everybody wants to catch on this and the sector turning transparent is helping it.

Please remember the channel is important to reach the target audience and its role ends there but the content & message has to be effective, to make the prospect take the next step irrespective of the channels used.

“Digital or not”, use the channels effectively for conversion or closing the sales with right gratification & right target group.