Sell the Zone First and then your Real Estate Product.
The real estate branding is a concept that few developers such as developers of Park View City Islamabad apply in their promotional activities; and those who apply it ignore the fundamentals of branding to sell new housing.
From the developer’s point of view, real estate branding means that to sell the properties of a new residential complex, you must first sell the place where that residential complex is located. The real estate branding does not mean promoting (only), the name of the property developer to build credibility and trust.
To sell a real estate project or a residential complex abroad, to attract investors, you must first sell the area, then the real estate product and finally the company. In this order.
Moreover, if a promoter is selling abroad, he does not only have to sell the area; but also your country before you can sell your real estate product. A flag of your country and / or region as a branding tool has a greater influence on the perception of the buyer, than many of the data that the promoter can provide about their professionalism and honesty.
“Those of us who have attended many real estate fairs abroad, we have this very, very clear concept. For this reason, we always sell the benefits of the area first to capture the potential buyer; then we focus on selling the real estate product with benefits related to that area and finally we use real estate branding to end up gaining customer trust. “
| Using Real Estate Branding to Influence.
Basically, real estate branding consists of establishing certain particular characteristics of each region or country and implementing certain commercial strategies to make them known in a positive way to potential buyers.
If the client is not attracted to the area or has heard something negative about the area, (whether true or not), it is of no use that your apartments or villa you sell are the best in the market or the company has an established reputation.
A mistake made by some promoters is to prepare their marketing and sales strategy without taking this factor into account. They focus more on prices, payment conditions and the characteristics of the property such as views and close to something in particular, (the beach, the golf course, etc).
Another quite common mistake of the promoters is to think that a person who shows interest in buying a property in a certain area, will not change his opinion and end up buying in another. This is not true and I have experienced it personally.
Using smart real estate branding, you can influence that, for example, a person who wanted to buy in Puerto Vallarta, ends up shopping in Cancun. Or that I was interested in the coast of Malaga and ended up buying a villa in Alicante. The decision of the buyer can be influenced with the branding of the place. How?
Using a concept of real estate sales in your favor: the client knows what he DOES NOT want; But he doesn’t know what he wants. If you give the customer options using real estate branding techniques, there are chances that he will seriously consider your offer. On more than one occasion I have attended real estate fairs as a client being interested in an a Islamabad Property for a 2nd home; For example, on the coast of Alicante, he ends up buying his 2nd residence in Palma de Mallorca.
Potential buyers are influenced to buy in a certain place and not in another showing the benefits of the place from their point of view. A job that needs planning, knowing your potential client well and knowing how to show these benefits in your marketing campaign with images and text. Especially text.
The most attractive benefits for a potential buyer over a given area, (and this is already proven), are: 1.- physical security of the place; 2.- the legal security of the place; 3.- the infrastructures of the place; and 4.- the proximity to something that is important to the buyer; For example, hospital, shopping center, beach, golf course, etc.
“Including all this in advertising is not an easy task. You need to put yourself in the shoes of the buyer and know the product you sell well. If you start selling price, square meters, rooms and views, you will have a difficult time . “
| The Real Estate Branding. Improving Perception
Let’s forget the price and characteristics of the property for a moment. First you have to influence the perception that your potential customers may have about the area. Do not think that having requested information about your new promotion, your potential client already has a positive perception of your area.
Do not worry too much about the price. The client will always pay a little more if he feels safer living in that area. Shown!
However, the image of a country is not perceived equally in all countries. Each country has an already formed image of other regions and countries; Therefore, it will always be necessary to use several particularities and strategies of the same region or country to generate trust, interest and affection in different regions or countries. This is achieved with real estate branding.
The approach to selling a new promotion located in Alicante is different if you sell the promotion in the United Kingdom, than if you sell it in Germany or the Netherlands. I tell you from personal experience.
The perception, (wrong or not) , that you have of an area or country is an accumulation of factors : education, distance, idiosyncrasy, infrastructure, legal security, natural environment, economic situation … It should be taken into account that at the real estate level, Part of the sales work abroad is to modify or improve the branding of your region or country . For a promoter it is not enough with the work done by the national or regional government to create and maintain a positive perception of the area.
What you or the national or regional government do to promote the area, can be done with a negative comment that reaches your potential buyer.
If you exhibit at a real estate fair and a client interested in one of your properties arrives, you will realize that many of the questions he asks you are about the area; No to the property itself. This is when you must apply the techniques of real estate branding.
Use real estate branding : (sale of the country – sale of the area – sale of the product – sale of the developer) , to improve the perception that your potential buyer has about your area; Never to change it. Never tell the potential buyer that you are wrong about your perception of the place, since for him / her your perception is reality.
Even ignoring the area already carries a certain perception . In this situation, try to be you who believes that positive perception in the mind of the potential client.
| Real Estate Branding in Pure state.
Any comments made by your potential buyer about your area will always be true , because that is your current perception. In the presentation of your real estate product, focus on informing the potential client about the area, focusing on quality of life , physical security, legal security and convenience. Real estate branding in its purest form.
Once this stage of selling country + region or vice versa, begins to sell the benefits of your apartments, duplexes, chalets or villas to end up selling the honesty of the developer.
The honesty of a promoter is best perceived by the client, when payment conditions are easy, the purchase process is clear and fast, when real estate products with sustainable development are provided and when the developer demonstrates corporate social responsibility; such as belonging to an NGO.
Forget about the years that the promoter has been in the market, of all the promotions that he has made “successfully”, how big his company is… to your potential client this matters very little.
Your potential client will only be interested in your new residential complex if you have convinced him by talking about your area. That is why the previous recruitment work to filter potential clients before attending a real estate fair is so important .
Sadly, most of the real estate promotional actions carried out online prior to a fair, are focused on 20% in the area and 80% on the promotion itself. Sometimes the credibility of the promoter is not sold. For this reason it takes to sell a new promotion outside the area both nationally and internationally.
I give you 2 examples of how real estate branding should be applied for a new promotion.
One of my clients is a promoter from Santa Marta, Colombia, who wanted to sell his new development at the Bogotá real estate fair last August . His focus was to first sell the benefits of Santa Marta and then sell the benefits of his apartment building 400 meters from the beach. At the fair I attract more than 20 potential clients ; while another developer with a beachfront building was not as successful, because it focused on the characteristics of the apartments and the proximity to the beach.
Not everyone in Bogotá knows well what can be done in Santa Marta and this was what helped my client sell more.
Another example is my client in Puerto Vallarta. A builder who, thanks to his promotion at the Texas real estate fair in the United States, first sold Mexico and then the Puerto Vallarta area, was able to compete with the Acapulco, Cancun and Veracruz areas in Mexico and with Punta Cana in Rep. Dominican
The result of their attendance at the Texas fair was the sale of almost 25% of their new promotion in the following 3 months. This kind of promotion applying real estate branding gets you to sell the new promotion indirectly. The potential client will make the connection: zone convenience – convenience your real estate product, by itself.
With this type of promotion you get a greater number of visitors to your stand. Many of them attracted thanks to the effective use of real estate branding. The real estate branding is not only the logo and corporate design promotional material of the promoter. Start by selling the country and the area.
We would be grateful if you would leave us a comment on this article. What has been your experience with real estate branding ? Your opinion interests us. Thank you.