Real Estate Marketing In Post Covid-19 World

As part of our new series, ‘Marketers Playbook for 2020 Post Covid-19?, Prasun Kumar, Chief Marketing Officer, Magicbricks says the focus for real estate brands will be the  3Ts – Transparency, Trust & Technology as the business and marketing is set for tectonic changes These are challenging times for India’s real estate industry. The global outbreak of Covid-19 virus and the ensuing national lockdown has posed monumental challenges for the real estate industry that largely remained stable during 2019 and showed signs of comforting prospects for 2020. Real estate and construction accounts for 7% of India’s GDP, this is expected to double by 2025. The Covid-19 crisis has been a watershed moment of our lifetime, the Black Swan event that happens once in a century and changes the entire course for mankind. The world is now forever divided into pre Covid-19 and post Covid-19 narratives. It is likely to change the way we live our lives, the way we conduct our personal tasks, the way we drive our professional journeys et al. It is going to challenge fundamentals of every business practice and function. Consumer behaviour is likely going to change for ever and new set of rules will emerge. A new marketing rule book will have to be written. Real Estate marketing will go through a monumental shift. For long the industry has relied on supplies to generate demand and cared little about consumer experience or brand building or thought leadership. However, with consumers becoming cautious, more discerning and supply chasing a limited numbers of buyers, real estate players will have no option but to start working on new marketing fundamentals. While doing so, following Three Ts will be at the core – Transparency: For long real estate has remained opaque. The consumer didn’t have enough visibility on many important aspects including locality and project details, clauses of the deal, construction quality, timeline etc. Often the brand communication has been laced with T&C asterisks hiding more than revealing. With possession delays being rampant, consumers have often been on the receiving end. This has led to marketing challenges including lack of consumer empathy for real estate brands. Now real estate brands will have to take this head on. With consumers becoming cautious and discerning, they will choose a brand based on how much transparency it provides during the entire buying journey. Brands will have to share information transparently, engage transparently and deliver promises transparently. This confidence booster will be much needed if brand wish to accelerate consumers through the brand funnel from consideration to preference to purchase. Trust: Lack of transparency, delays in construction and possession, lack of adherence to quality norms and broken promises have led to massive erosion of ‘Trust’ between the real estate brands and consumers. The relationship between the brand and the consumer has been very transactional in nature. Brands have done very little to engage deeply with consumers beyond selling their product. This lack of trust impacts the entire funnel from acquisition to conversion. Given that the category is high stake, high investment and with high emotive pay-out, trust is the basic glue needed for brands to secure sales. Trust is as much a promise delivered to consumers as it is a meaningful dialogue with them. In a post Covid-19 era, brands with a purpose and meaning will resonate more with consumers looking for all possible reassurances. Therefore, it is time to communicate exactly that. Who are you? What’s your story? What drives you? Brands will have to humanise themselves to connect at a basic level. Any messaging which is only about what you sell will see an outright rejection from consumers. This will go a long way in laying the foundation for building trust. Organized players with strong brands will recover much quicker than others in the aftermath of this crisis. Technology: The adoption of digital technology among developers is likely to get a boost due to this crisis. With footfalls of home buyers likely to reduce for site visits, developers would go the digital way and leverage the use of live streaming solutions, AR and VR to give home buyers a glimpse of their projects. Digital spends of the developer accounted for just 25% of the marketing spends and this would certainly increase as they would leverage the use of digital platforms to reach out to the intended home buyers. Over a period of time, even transaction solutions are likely to see big adoption which will take the entire property purchase journey from offline to online. The online funnel will behave very differently from the current one and will have many benefits in store for both the buyer and the seller. Real Estate brands who wish to win this new era would smartly use marketing tools to - Communicate Who They Are And Not Just What They Sell: There will be a fundamental shift in consumer behaviour and how consumers look at brands. Consumers would demand more information, engagement and experience from sellers. Remain Contextual And Dynamic: With the impact of the Covid-19 lockdown to be felt over a long period of time, things will change and change frequently. So will a consumer’s priorities and preferences. It will be important for a brand to be as contextual and dynamic as possible since contexts will see a shift every now and then. Meaningful And Actionable Content: In an uncertain world, no one will have time for generalities and good to know material. Consumers will look for information which could help them in navigating their situation better, and decide better. Brands would need to keep their messaging meaningful as well as actionable. Every single piece of content will be seen from the prism of ‘what’s in it for me’. The post Covid-19 world is anyone’s guess right now, but one thing remains sure – Real estate businesses and marketing will undergo tectonic changes.