Stepping into the office lift of Casagrand in Chennai, the first thing that captures your attention is a poster that says, “London and Scotland, awaits your arrival. Sales Target: Rs 8,600 crore.” Curiosity piqued, the first question posed to Diptakirti Chaudhuri, Chief Marketing Officer, Casagrand was, ‘How was the year for Casagrand and was the target achieved’. He responded, “It has been a great year for us. In the last three or four years, we have grown at a CAGR of upwards of 30%, and have grown in unit terms as well as grown substantially in revenue terms. More importantly, in the last few quarters, we have grown in our footprint as well.”
He continues, “From being a Chennai brand with a strong presence in Coimbatore, we have expanded to Bangalore, launched three major projects in Hyderabad and launched in Poona, our first foray out of South India. This mix of strong revenue and footprint growth is what makes last year very satisfying. From a relatively small Chennai based player, we are now one of the top builders in South India and hope to grow fast and bigger in the coming years.”
Going Beyond ‘Building Aspirations’
Launched in 2003, Casagrand initial projects were luxurious ‘villas’. However, the aspiration to become bigger led the real estate developer to expand to apartments and townships that were affordable, economically designed and efficiently located. This was followed by expansion in the economy and mid-premium affordable space.
Chaudhuri says, “Now as we are expanding and entering many different types of land parcels in different cities, we realized that we need to also develop villas and large apartments. It is a full circle from a villa to mid-premium and now again into premium projects.” Currently, the majority of the projects are in the mid-premium category at a price point between Rs 70 lakh to a crore and projects between 1.5 crore to 2 crore, making up one-third of units. Looking at commercial projects, Casagrand has launched couple of properties, with more on the anvil.
A Starry Affair
A key strategy of Casagrand’s marketing is driven by celebrity advertising, a celebrity for an individual project. A look at its current brand ambassadors and the names could be the starring cast of a multi-star film. For its recently launch in Pune, Casagrand onboarded the husband-wife duo of Genelia & Riteish Deshmukh as its brand ambassadors for West India. The brand also has actors Nayanthara and Nani as face of its latest luxury projects Casagrand Casamia in Chennai and Casagrand Evon in Hyderabad respectively.
For its residential community in Bengaluru - Casagrand Casablanca, actor Kareena Kapoor Khan is the celebrity endorser. The list continues with actor Samantha Ruth Prabhu endorsing its ultra-luxury development, Casagrand Belair in Hyderabad as well as actor Venkatesh Daggubati as its brand ambassador for Hyderabad region. Casagrand also has cricketer Sourav Ganguly as its national face and on-boarded actor Hrithik Roshan as the face of its luxury project - Casagrand Mercury in Chennai. The developer also has music composer and playback singer Anirudh Ravichander to endorse its residential project, Casagrand HolaChennai.
Asked about the celebrity endorsers and the matrix the real estate developer looks at Chaudhuri comments, “Every customer’s aspirations vary significantly across all the different projects we develop. For example, in the case of Casamia, it is a Spanish themed community and we wanted to bring in a royal international style and wanted to communicate the uniqueness of the property and create a story or an image to stand out in the cluttered advertising space. That’s why we brought in Nayantara who exudes a royal vibe and we created a storyline of a Spanish queen visiting India and where would she stay? At Casagrand Casamia.”
On a similar note, Casagrand brought in Genelia & Riteish Deshmukh for its Pune property, Casagrand Caladium, for their popularity and relatability. The key factor was that the couple could connect with people. He adds, “Riteish Deshmukh hails from Maharashtra and this association made sense as we need a face that the people of the state would connect with and trust. Also, this was an emotional hook about a very aspirational but relatable couple and they fit the bill perfectly. We needed to make a headway as a new entrant in the Pune market and this well recognized couple helps us build credibility.”
Similarly, Anirudh Ravichander was brought on board to connect with the youth while for its luxurious project, Casagrand Mercury, Hrithik Roshan fit the bill being a style icon. The brand also had Hrithik Roshan skydive from one of the towers to grab the eyeballs of a generation who insists on skipping the ad after every five seconds. Commenting on how celebrity association translates into sales, he says, “Celebrity association has worked very well because, all the projects have done exceedingly well in their respective geographies and the rub off the celebrity has defiantly worked.”
Marketing Approach
In addition to being a realty print advertiser, another strategy for Casagrand is advertising on television, one medium realty players rarely associate with. Explaining this rationale Chaudhuri states, “We would be one of the largest advertisers on print and use print fairly aggressively for launches. Among real estate companies, we are heavy on TV because we believe video helps gain attention, more so because of the multiple screens, TV, OTT and mobile. When we announce a project, you need to make a splash and this is best done either on print or TV, as you can hit a large number of eyeballs very fast. In the first few weeks we do television as this helps us get into every household as an awareness medium and then we follow it up digital and digital video more as a reminder medium.”
For Casagrand, an omnichannel approach works best with digital being the largest channel and the company also investing in BTL and out-of-home, which along with print, would be the next two largest spend, spend medium as OOH helps in the last mile nudge. He adds, “It is important to have reminders in the form of digital or out-of-home because home buying is long decision and we try to be through the whole journey across multiple channels.
Looking at investments, the spends in Chennai are performance oriented as in driving leads as the brand has a high top-of-mind awareness in the city. The spends in Bangalore, Hyderabad and Pune are split between driving business as well as building brand awareness and the spends in percentage terms will be higher in these markets.
A trend that has been seen in realty, is that the customer needs to be absolutely sure about a property before they visit it. This behavior is changing rapidly because earlier the consumer would focus on the touch and feel and visit each property they are looking at. Now, the customer does not visit many properties, is judicious, and shortlists properties that they want to visit after researching on it thoroughly on digital. In this scenario, augmented reality, 360-degree views are important instead off plain vanilla shoots.
Talking about AI he says, “AI is coming both in terms of communication and also customer engagement, with the focus being to connect to the customer at a time convenient to them. Many customers, such as NRIs, cannot visit the site, therefore creating augmented reality setups for them or 360-degree views, etc. is important. From customer engagement to customer experience point and communication, all three will have a significant element of AI in the coming years and it’s happening as we speak.”
Looking ahead, Casagrand is exploring other commercial ventures such as retail, hospitality, etc. On the residential front Chaudhuri says, “While Chennai will be our largest market, our fastest growing markets will be Bangalore, Hyderabad and Pune where we have land parcels or will be taking up land parcels and will be launching new projects in this financial year. Chennai will become a lesser part of our portfolio, not because it will grow slower, but as we will have launches in other markets which will grow faster.”
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