If you are based in Mumbai, you surely would have visited or seen R City mall, but do you know the name of the company behind this project? Surprisingly, only a few Mumbaikars would know the answer – Runwal. However, the name Runwal for many would only be associated with luxury residential realty projects and not the company’s broad portfolio which includes residential, commercial, retail and mixed-development projects. To strengthen its brand equity across segments, leading luxury retail player Runwal recently re-branded itself to Runwal Realty. Sanya Runwal, Director - Marketing & Retail, Runwal Realty says, “The rebrand was a desire to capitalize on what equity we hold in the market today, bring better exposure to the portfolio, the diversity and breadth of the portfolio we have, and communicate our story in a more concise way to our end consumers and all our partners across retail, commercial and residential.”
Last year, the realty firm had conducted a brand research study to understand its standing in the market today, the equity it held, and what relationship it had built with the customers. The study revealed that the firm scored high when it came Trust, and was seen as one of the trusted players, however people did not associate its diverse portfolio and marquee projects like R City, R Mall Mulund, R Mall Thane with the Group. Runwal says, “We were always pigeonholed as a suburban primary residential player, whereas our portfolio stretched across asset classes and across geographies. The second thing that we learned is that people didn't fully understand the quality, innovation and the processes that we used in our projects. For example, Runwal Elegante in Andheri Lokhandwala, had Mumbai’s first sky garden, and R City brought the concept of malls into Mumbai. The innovative spirit, the quality, partnering with world-class partners to bring the best to the table in terms of design, master planning, and materiality is what wanted to capture in the new brand story and brand narrative.” She continues, “The brand repositioning was about tapping into these things and capitalizing on it with our customer, building on the trust that we had and telling the story for generations to come. So, moving beyond trust and customer centricity and showing people how we elevate their lifestyles with the quality products that we bring to the table, our ability to tap into every space of their life, be it working, living or for leisure. We're able to exist in all these spaces. The new brand narrative and brand positioning is this idea of we're built and we're designing for generations to come.”
Mumbai’s Luxury Boom
Post the Covid-19 pandemic, Mumbai has seen a huge growth in luxury housing as people now understand the value of quality housing, a better lifestyle and are willing to go the extra mile for the extra space, extra privacy and better quality without any compromise. Runwal highlights, “Across the industry, specifically luxury housing, we are seeing heavy demand for houses priced from Rs 2 crores to Rs 7 crores.”
Catering to a well-traveled and highly educated consumers, Runwal says, “The cornerstone of our marketing has always been about representing the value we bring to the table and being authentic to who we are as a brand. As the customer is well-traveled and educated, gimmicks don't work with them and want to know that what is communicated is what is delivered to them.”
Targeting the uber cohort means ensuring that any communication content – be it hoardings or digital – has to be relevant and reflect their specific needs in the micro markets they're looking at as opposed to one blanket statement about the brand across different micro markets. Runwal adds,” Authenticity and making sure that what you communicate is what they will experience on the ground. This is a one-time try and if you don’t deliver, it's an instant put off. You also have to make sure that you've customized and personalized whatever communication you're doing for the market you're in.”
With a mixed-media approach, Runwal is present across hoarding, print and is spending considerably more on digital influencer marketing than earlier. Runwal explains, “With print and hoarding, it's a little harder to attribute direct ROI as opposed to digital where you can track to the minutest level. Digital has worked really well for us in terms of outdoor branding. I'm a big believer that even if you're not doing product marketing, brand marketing gives you a long run ROI. That’s where hoardings and print helps - presence and reach but if you talk about direct, like cause and effect conversion, we see good traction with digital.”
Runwal Realty was the pioneers of bring the mall culture to Mumbai with the first mall being R Mall Mulund followed by R Mall Thane and R City. To keep up with changing consumer trends, Runwal Realty undertook the journey to revamp its malls across Mumbai. Runwal says, “The philosophy and design, when the malls started, was different to the current customer needs and the way consumers engage with malls today. We have revamped R Mall Mulund, R Mall Thane and R City within the last few years. The philosophy behind it is to elevate the customer experience in terms of how luxurious do they feel when they enter, in the way they interact with spaces today, and just making sure that we stay relevant as our customer expects us to be.”
A big focus area for an elevated mall experience was events and experiential marketing for retail specifically. These include ghazal nights, stand-up comedy, rapping shows, flea markets, wedding fest, food markets, partnering with retailers and other diverse range of events and engagements for customers to come for a novel experience. Runwal adds, “Customers engage with different parts of the mall differently. The different initiatives allow them to shop differently and have a more engagement experience with the mall as opposed to just the retail brands. With limited outdoor event spaces in India, malls become the hub for the entire family.”
Runwal Realty also engages with its retailers when it comes to being a marketing support, a launch or entering a new market. An example of this is the Nitori, the Japanese furniture & home décor brand which entered India recently and has opened their first store in the country at R City. Runwal Realty helped Nitori and provided support in terms of understanding Indian households and the mindset of the Indian consumer. The company also helped the Japanese furniture major to gauge how people shop in India, especially furniture buying. Runwal Realty is also assisting Nitori by providing marketing support around the mall, OOH for visibility etc.
Commenting on the growth seen over the last year, Runwal mentions that the company has seen “good traction this year.” Runwal was also in the news recently for buying out Singapore’s sovereign wealth fund GIC’s entire 50% stake in their joint retail property R City Mall for around Rs 1,000 crore to get complete control of the asset in Ghatkopar suburb making this transaction one of the largest single property acquisitions in the Indian retail industry. Runwal adds, “We just bought out GIC stake in R City with four times their return. That's a good indication that we're doing well and are able to give our partners better returns than they expected and seen growth.”
On the anvil, Runwal will continue to amp up its presence across residential, commercial, mixed development and retail with focus particularly on mixed use developments and redevelopment projects. Runwal says, “We are doing a lot of work within redevelopment. In terms of retail, we are looking at high street retail, even looking at potentially more malls in the future. Right now, our immediate focus would be in terms of high street mixed use and redevelopment.” Runwal has also expanded beyond its stronghold Mumbai to Pune with a 26-acre mixed-use development project. Finally Runwal says, “You can expect a lot more of quality, innovation and a dynamic landscape in terms of retail and brand presence. We're focusing a lot on how can we create more value at the brand level, more than just selling products. You can always look forward to something new and fresh from us.”
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