CHAPTER 1

INTRODUCTION

Marketing mix is a business tool used in marketing and by marketers. The marketing mix is often
crucial when determining a product or brand's offer, and is often associated with the four
Ps: price, product, promotion, and place. In service marketing, however, the four Ps are
expanded to the seven Ps: process, people, physical environment or Seven Ps to address the
different nature of services.

In the 1990s, the concept of four C's was introduced as a more customer-driven
replacement of the four P's. There are two theories based on four Cs: Lauterborn's four Cs
(consumer, cost, communication, convenience), and Shimizu's four Cs
(commodity, cost, communication, channel). In 2012, a new four P's theory was proposed
with people, processes, programs, and performance.

Marketing Real Estate is a workshop developed for the Urban Land Institute by Richard
Burns of the GNU Group and Becky Zimmermann of Design Workshop. The course presents a
holistic approach to the process of marketing real estate projects. The following materials are
synthesized from the course workbook and are intended to introduce the decision analysis,
planning, creative and budgeting methodology in the marketing of real estate.

The process begins with planning and research, proceeds through visioning, positioning
and goal setting and concludes with the creation of a specific action plan that includes the
implementation program, along with schedule and budget.

The lessons apply to virtually any real estate use, product or project in either the private
or public sector. Emphasis in the approach is on vision, branding, product and message
differentiation, and strategic outreach.

Every organisation works with certain objectives and these are to be achieved. To achieve
the pre-decided objectives a number of activities are to be performed. It is not necessary that one
all organisations would perform one type of activities. The activities may include production,
marketing, human resource, finance, transportation, service, research, logistics, purchasing, and

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storage, trading, assembling, distribution and others. These activities are performed and these are
related to each other so that the objectives can be fulfilled effectively. Similar way the marketing
activities are performed in some of the company those are interested in marketing the products or
services for use of customers. Marketing is one of the important activities of an organisation. It is
through marketing the products or services of the company are reaching to the customers. The
company gets the money back when the products are sold out in the market. So the business
cycle keeps on going further. It is required to coordinate the marketing activities without
activities also. It is necessary to work in close coordinationwith production. Production alone is
not going to serve the purpose. Production without marketing become useless for the company
and marketing without production is not possible. Similarly, marketing is related to other
activities like finance, research and human resource activities. So the main concerned here is
with the marketing activities.

Marketing is the process by which companies create customer interest in goods or

services. Itgenerates the strategy that underlies sales techniques, business communication, and
business developments. It is an integrated process through which companies build strong
customer relationships and create value for their customers and for themselves.

Marketing is used to identify the customer, to satisfy the customer, and to keep the
customer.With the customer as the focus of its activities, it can be concluded that marketing
management is one of the major components of business management. Marketing evolved to 20
meet the stasis in developing new markets caused by mature markets and overcapacities in the
last centuries. The adoption of marketing strategies requires businesses to shift their focus from
production to the perceived needs and wants of their customers as the means of staying
profitable.

The term marketing concept holds that achieving organizational goals depends on
knowingthe needs and wants of target markets and delivering the desired satisfactions. It
proposes that in order to satisfy its organizational objectives, an organization should anticipate
the needs and wants of consumers and satisfy these more effectively than competitors.

Marketing is a very important activity for the organisation. In marketing a lot of sub
activitiesare performed. Marketing includes the activities like identification of demand, research,
market segmentation, product development, launching of products, modification of products,
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deletion of products, product design, pricing, different types of pricing, promotion ofproducts
and services, sales promotion, personal selling, publicity, public relations, adverting,distribution
of products and services, consumer behaviour, internal and international market coverage,
branding, packaging, labelling and many other activities. It is very difficult to have clear idea
regarding marketing activities. For easy understanding and proper planning of activities, the
marketing activities are divided into four areas for products. These are product, pricing,
promotion and placement. For services the groups include product, price, promotion, placement,
people, process and physical evidence. In the research study the topic is related to promotion of
products. The focus is there on promotional activities of the products in FMCG sector in India
and mainly sales promotion strategies of the companies dealing in FMCG products in the
markets. Every company is interested to market its products or services to earn its profit. For this
promotion the awareness is to be created among the customers. Without creating awareness the
customers would not come to know about the company existence in the markets, products and
services they produced and features of their products and services. The messages regarding the
products, company, features of their products and services are to be communicated by using
different promotion methods. One of the methods is sales promotion and it covers the scope of
the study.

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 CHAPTER 2

REVIEW OF LITERATURE ON REAL ESTATE

The construction industry in India in more complex and subjected to greater risk as compared to
any other business and thus, it is important for the selection as well as implementation of
effective strategies of risk management in order for the project to be successful and thus forms
the core introductory principles of risk management. The completion of construction projects
within the projected time span has always been the most challenging task for the construction
companies and it is found that many construction projects have been unsuccessful in the
delivering the projects at time, cost and quality which the clients and their consultants had
perceived before the starting of the project and thus, it is important for the management to
efficiently design a plan of action to achieve the goals and requirements.

As per a report published by Economy Watch (2010) – Construction Industry Trends all
over the world show a rise in its rate of growth. This industry is composed of many components
including construction of heavy and civil engineering (highways, bridges, railway tracks,
airports, etc.), real estate (both residential as well as commercial) development, and specialized
construction products (such as architectural products, electrical connections, decorative items,
etc.). All these segments cannot be expected to show similar trends and in fact are showing
differential growth pattern all over the world. India is seeing a boom in the construction sector
mainly due to the government initiative in expansion of the developmental facilities. Economic
upsurge has also generated enhanced generation of demand in the real estate sector (both
residential as well as commercial). Construction Industry in India is rising at a phenomenal rate
of 7 to 8% p.a.

As stated by NargisNamazi (2011) in an article published in Business Review – across

the world, the construction industry is witnessing a tremendous boom. And India is no exception!
Government polices and expenditure in infrastructure, training and regeneration projects have
helped the sector grow at high levels and the same pace is likely to be seen in the coming year
too. This industry comprises of many components including construction of heavy and civil
engineering (highways, bridges, railway tracks, airports, etc.), real estate (both residential as well
as commercial) development, and specialized construction products (such as architectural

4
products, electrical connections, decorative items, etc.) The construction industry is currently
growing at 10 per cent per annum and has a size of 70 billion dollars but with the huge
investment in the construction industry, tremendous growth opportunities are expected.

AraghadeepLaskar and CVR Murthy (2011) state that the construction industry is the
second largest industry of the country after agriculture. It makes a significant contribution to the
national economy and provides employment to large number of people. The use of various new
technologies and deployment of project management strategies has made it possible to undertake
projects of mega scale. In its path of advancement, the industry has to overcome a number of
challenges. However, the industry is still faced with some major challenges, including housing,
disaster resistant construction, water management and mass transportation. Recent experiences of
several new mega-projects are clear indicators that the industry is poised for a bright future.

As per the market research report published by the Consolidated Construction

Consortium Limited (2011), our construction industry suffers from capacity constraints, lack of
trained manpower and managerial skills with performance much below international level. The
industry is starved of finance. Small and medium contractors do not have the wherewithal to
upgrade their capability, both hard and soft, to undertake high value time bound projects. Quality,
safety, environment and social aspects are also not being addressed appropriately. The report
concluded that in the years ahead, the construction industry in India has to overcome various
challenges with respect to housing, environment, transportation, power or natural hazards.
Technocrats associated with the Indian construction industry need to employ innovative
technologies and skilled project handling strategies to overcome these challenges. The
outstanding performance under demanding situations in the past will stand in good stead and
give confidence to the Indian construction industry to bring about an overall development in the
infrastructure of the nation. The gains of large investments in the mega-projects eventually will
feedback to the construction industry itself in the form of better economy and improved work
conditions.

According to NiranjanHiranandani, Managing Director, Hiranandani Constructions

(Project Manager, 2011), “the National Housing and Habitat Policy of the Government of India
was passed in October 1998 by Parliament. It talks about issues like liberalisation in the housing
sector. What we need to do now is to first scrap the Urban Land Ceiling Act. The Central

5
government has already scrapped the Act, but many states, including Maharashtra, have not
followed suit. If this is done, more land will be available for development. The second major
thing is stamp duty. Fortunately for us, Maharashtra has reduced the stamp duty on commercial
properties from 10 per cent to 5 per cent, and for residential properties from 8 per cent to 5 per
cent. The third important factor is the sanction of building plans. But since this process is riddled
with corruption, it is difficult to clear plans or procure non-agricultural land. If these steps are
taken, some problems faced by the real estate industry will be solved.”

A Report by CIDCI (2006-2007) remarked that the 10th Five year plan brought by the
Planning Commission, Government of India, which is a policy paper for the economy for the
next five years (2002 – 2007) has for the first time incorporated a chapter on Construction. This
shows the importance given by the Government of India to the Construction Industry. The plan
encourages 8% growth in GDP for which total investment is Rs. 4,081,700 Cr. The public sector
investment is 1,1212,802crore and private sector investment is 2,476,100 crore. Based on past
experience, construction accounts for 40-50% of the investment which means a figure of
2,000,000 crore in the next five years or about 4,00,000crore every year. Singh Vandana (2009)
concluded her research paper with the remark that the Real Estate is a very wide concept and it is
highly affected by the macro-economic factors like GDP, FDI, per capital income, interest rates
and employment in the nation. The most important factor in the case of Real Estate is location
which affects the value and returns from the Real Estate. India needs a stronger capital market
base for property financing. The debate on the potential introduction of REITs and real estate
funds points in the right direction. The introduction of REIT s in 2007, will give international
investors in particular a familiar investment vehicle. Private investors could also enter into
indirect investment in real estate. Although interest in new projects is most likely to come
primarily from institutional investors, the rising middle class is likely to seek new instruments
aside from direct property investments in the medium term. So, in the end we can say that the
investment in Real Estate in India is a very good investment opportunity. But one should be very
careful while taking decision in this direction due to rising inflation and interest rates. Legal
issues should also be kept in mind while choosing a property.

According to K. K. Kapila, Chairman and Managing Director of ICT Pvt. Ltd (2011), our
construction industry suffers from capacity constraints, lack of trained manpower and managerial
skills with performance much below international level. Though there are islands of excellence
6
in a sea of mediocrity, our companies must become global players by modernising, intensive
training of their manpower, enhancing their turnover and change of mindset. The industry is
starved of finance. Small and medium contractors do not have the wherewithal to upgrade their
capability, both hard and soft, to undertake high value time bound projects. FIDIC conditions are
not being rigorously followed and the contract agreements continue to be heavily loaded in favor
of the owner/client. Quality, safety, environment and social aspects are also not being addressed
appropriately.

According to Drake MacDonald (2011), like many emerging countries, India has a
problem with faulty construction. Sadly, the primary reason there are so many poorly constructed
buildings in India is due to greed. However, what makes matters worse is that greed is not
isolated to one particular segment such as builders or workers, but to the construction industry in
India as well a whole. Builders looking for cheap and quick ways to build often skimp on
materials, while the low wages received by contract workers encourages them to do little as
possible and take no pride of their work. Even the government is guilty of greed, as officials
often pocket bribes in exchange for awarding contracts or looking the other way. Clearly the
problem in India is not that there is a lack of regulation, but merely lack of enforcement for
existing regulations.

A study conducted by IHS Global (2009) concludes that the Indian construction industry
is highly fragmented. This is partially due to the fact that, for most projects, there are no long-
term relationships between the contractors and clients. For example, government agencies such
as the National Highway Authority of India (NHAI) do not provide any benefits to the long-term
contractors that have worked with them in the past. Because the sector lacks economies of scale,
smaller players may have better cost structures due to lower overhead costs.

Iyer K. R. (2011) remarked in his report that India today is facing a unique challenge of
dealing with high inflation, while continuing high growth. Boosting of supply in all industries,
including incentivizing of infrastructure development, streamlining of regulatory process to
reduce time and costs for business and tax incentives for low cost housing are all important areas
which will help reduce inflation and also enable growth rates to be maintained. Infrastructure
remains a vital sector for India’s growth story, which was reiterated by country’s Finance
Minister (FM) Pranab Mukherjee in his Budget 2011-12. Construction projects in various areas

7
like road, low-cost housing, ports and airports, bridges and special economic zones (SEZ) will
propel the growth and order book of construction companies.

HeamantaDoloi and et.al (2012) have identified factors that cause delay in construction
projects in India. From the factor analysis, most critical factors of construction delay were
identified as

 lack of commitment
 inefficient site management
 poor site coordination
 improper planning
 lack of clarity in project scope
 lack of communication
 substandard contract.

Regression model indicates slow decision from owner, poor labour productivity, architects'
reluctance for change and rework due to mistakes in construction are the reasons that affect the
overall delay of the project significantly. These findings are expected to be significant
contributions to Indian construction industry in controlling the time overruns in construction
contracts.

According to Singh Pradeep (2011), in a giant industry like construction, there are many
strains due to peculiarly irrational risk-sharing arrangement coupled with its competitive
character. Today there are increasing disputes and differences arising out of contractual relations
between contractors and owners whether owners are individual, firms or public. Construction
contracts have very sensitive arrangement of weaving many different agencies to perform
various obligations to execute the job. Because of complexity of such interwoven
responsibilities, superimposed by statutes, monitored by environmentalists, exposed to vagaries
of nature and uncertainties of markets, it could be a miracle if any construction project can come
out without getting greatly distorted on time-money or concept scale. He has identified the
following four categories of factors that lead to dispute and delay in construction projects:

 Changes include Additions, Alterations, Variations, Deletions.

 Delays and suspension.
 Different Site conditions.
 Unjust enrichment by owners.

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A study by Word Bank (2008) entitled ‘India - Indian Road Construction Industry: Capacity
Issues, Constraints and Recommendations’ made several recommendations to improve the Indian
construction industry and eliminate the hassles associated with inter-departmental coordination.
Some of these recommendations are:

 Mainstreaming the pre-construction process and clearances

 Setting up a Road Appellate Tribunal for faster dispute resolution based on the US and
Singapore models, rather than the current contract by contract approach
 Initiating a system on rating, grading and registration of construction companies and
individuals, as currently followed in US and several European countries, to improve
professionalization in the industry and facilitate improved access to finance
 Framing a construction law to improve the legal and regulatory environment in the
country.

According to G. K. Kulkarni (2012) construction workers are exposed to a wide variety of

health hazards at work. The exposure differs from job to job. The workrelated diseases form 5%
to 20% of work force. He identified some common problems of construction workers to be
physical injuries, hazards from harmful chemicals, dusts, mists, gases and biological hazards
such as malaria, dengue, etc.

The Report of the Second National Commission on Labour (2002), warns that the present
trend towards induction of modern technology in construction industry is likely to transform the
traditional labour market and indicates that there would be increased mechanization and manual
and women workers would, therefore, be increasingly eliminated from large construction
projects. When machines come in, the first to lose jobs are women workers as they are
considered the least skilled.

Prof. Deelip Kumar M. (2006) has made the following suggestions for improving the
conditions of labourers in construction industry:

 Investigate the abuse and exploitation of labourers by agents and employers and
prosecute such agents and employers.
 Create awareness of construction labourer's rights and set up mechanisms of redressal.
 Ensuring decent working conditions and proper contract systems and providing basic
health care for construction labourer's.

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  Adequate intervention from the government authorities required ensuring the health,
safety and welfare of the construction labourers.
 Effective implementation of the labour laws that making provision of better health, safety
and welfare of the construction labourers.
 NGO's working for child welfare should consider the difficulties of the construction
labourers and plan strategies to ensure free education of these children.
 NGO's working should extend open education to the labourers and to alleviate atrocities
against them.
 Organize public medical camps where constructions sites are located
 Constant inspection from the government part is required to reduce the plight of the
construction labourers.
 Constructive support from the trade unions to the construction labourers to be ensured
where the government and management couldn't support.
 Encourage the construction labourers saving habit by initiating thrift and banking
awareness.
 Ensure adequate insurance facilities for the construction labourers.

As per an article published in Time of India (2011), supply of sand is the another major
constraint in delaying construction projects across Mumbai city. Sand shortage has impacted
construction work in a big way. The past two months were particularly bad and building projects
slowed down because of the ban on sand mining. Builder Nayan Shah said remarked that sand
prices increased five times in the past one year. The quality is sub-standard and most suppliers
now indulge in illegal and surreptitious mining. A year ago, a truck of sand cost Rs 9,000. It has
since increased to Rs 30,000 to Rs 34,000. Shah said building projects are delayed and have
turned expensive. My projects are now making 30% progress compared to six months ago.
Builders use more steel because of the poor quality of sand. Construction cost has shot up by
15% and quality of structure has fallen by 40%, said Shah. He also remarked that the government
has failed to act. Property prices will shoot up if the issue is not resolved.

Aggarwal S. (2003) concludes that the construction industry of the developing countries
will face major challenges in future. Those which are often highlighted and considered relate to
the resource shortage and industry itself. Their research paper argues that issues which are not
normally considered to be relevant to developing countries are, indeed of significance to them,
and some may be critical. It is necessary for more work to be done on the issues of globalization,
the environment, and the various aspects of culture as they relate to construction activity,
10
construction enterprises and the construction industry in developing countries. The overarching
issue of construction industry development should embrace all these issues. In other words, the
developing countries should seek to develop construction industries which are well-poised to
benefit from globalization (rather than those which are victims of this inevitable process where
construction is concerned), enterprises and practitioners which are aware of, and activity seek to
limit, the negative environmental impact of their activities, and which effectively apply the local
culture to facilitate their efforts towards achieving success on their projects.

CHAPTER3.

RESEARCH METHODOLOGY

A. Research design
 Research design defines the study type, research question, hypotheses, variables, and data
collection methods. Some examples of research designs include descriptive, correlational,
and experimental. Another distinction can be made
between quantitative and qualitative methods.

 Consumer buying behavior research can be conducted via quantitative or qualitative

methods. Quantitative methods are useful when a researcher seeks to study large-scale
patterns of behavior, while qualitative methods are more effective when dealing with
interactions and relationships in detail.
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  Quantitative methods include experiments, surveys, and statistical analysis, among
others. Qualitative methods include participant observation, interviews, and content
analysis.

 An interpretive framework is one that seeks to understand the social world from the
perspective of participants.

 Many persons use a complementary combination of design types and research methods in
their research. Even in the same study a researcher may employ multiple methods.

B. Objectives of research
 To study about the impact factors of marketing mix in real estate.

 To examine about the relationship between the demographic issues with the acquiring
strategies.

 To recognize about the opinion of consumers related with structure, design, area, location
and price.

 To study present overview of the marketing mix in real estate.

 To examine the buying behavior in real esate.

C. Sources of data
 Primary data
I have taken great care while collecting primary data to answer that it is relevant,
accurate, correct and unbiased. I met them personally to get the primary data with the
help of face to face Interview and questionnaire. In some cases I have taken the help of

12
 telephonic interview too. I have met thirty respondents and collected as much as accurate
data I can from them.

CHAPTER4

DETAIL INTRODUCTION

 Strategy in Real Estate Development Firms

A real estate development firm develops a parcel of land (e.g., development of a residential
subdivision involving 30 single-family homes). Once the units are available for sales, the
marketing staff becomes involved in advertising and promotion of these units to prospective
buyers. In other words, the marketing function is essentially a selling function—nothing more,
nothing less. This is very different from a real estate development firm that takes the marketing
concept to heart. Selling is only one small element of the marketing function. Marketing involves
marketing research that guides the formulation of an integrated marketing plan. The goal is to
achieve customer satisfaction, which ultimately leads to profitability this means that the real
estate development firms starts out with good marketing research to understand the housing
needs of a customer group. Suppose a real estate development firm is planning to build a
retirement community with a variety of living options:

 active adult

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adult community for those 55 to 60 years old in which residents enjoy the benefits of home
ownership in single-family, low-maintenance homes

 independent living
Single-level homes designed for the active, independent senior (ages60 and older)

 assisted-living level 1
for residents who want a catered lifestyle in a safe and secure environment

 assisted-living level 2
for residents who require assistance with daily living activities but who are not quite ready for
long-term nursing care
 memory care
for residents with symptoms of dementia

 long-term nursing care

For residents requiring assistance with all or most activities of daily living and 24-hour nursing
care
To do so, the firm has to do thorough marketing research to uncover the exact housing needs
and preferences of six different market segments (active adult, independent living, assisted living
level 1, assisted living level 2, memory care, and long-term nursing care). The product (different
housing structures and amenities), the price (pricing of the different elements of the product
line), the place (the location of these different elements of the product line), and the promotion
(the messages and media placement of these different elements of the product line) have to be
guided by marketing research related to the aforementioned six market segments. Customer need
assessment (i.e., marketing research) is paramount to marketing effectiveness, and it is
essentially the first stage in the marketing cycle.
The information unearthed from marketing research should pave the way for formulating an
integrated marketing plan and implementing this plan (integrated marketing effort), which is
essentially the second stage in the marketing cycle. This means that the real estate developer uses
marketing research to plan the product mix (e.g., the various types of residential structures suited

14
for the six different market segments), to price the various housing structures (as a function of
cost, competition, and customers’ willingness to pay), to find optimal location sites for the
planned structures (as a function of customers’ location preferences and other structural,
environmental, and legal conditions), and to promote these housing structures to the various
market segments (as a function of understanding the housing needs of the various customer
groups and their media habits). The third stage of the marketing cycle is customer satisfaction.
This means that customer satisfaction is a very important objective. The marketing effort of the
firm is evaluated as a direct function of customer satisfaction.
Marketing success is acknowledged only if customer satisfaction is achieved. How do real
estate development firms recognize whether customer satisfaction is achieved? Through
customer satisfaction research! That is, the firm conducts periodic surveys of the various
customer groups to capture the degree of satisfaction they experience with the various elements
of the marketing mix (product, price, place, and promotion). The result of customer satisfactions
profitability—high levels of customer satisfaction should translate to high levels of profitability.
The feedback loop is reflected in situations when the firm does not achieve its stated goals and
objectives. This causes stress in the system, prompting the real estate developer to conduct more
marketing research to uncover problems in the planning of the marketing mix, the
implementation of the mix, and the method of performance evaluation (i.e., customer satisfaction
research). Once the problems are identified, corrective action follows to ensure that the system
meets the stated organizational goals and objectives.

 A FORMAL DEFINITION OF REAL ESTATE MARKETING

Here we present a formal definition of real estate marketing guided by the marketing concept.
Real estate marketing involves anticipating, managing, and satisfying demand via the exchange
process between buyer and seller of a property. As such, marketing encompasses all facets of real
estate buyer/seller relationships. Specific marketing activities include strategic analysis, target
marketing, property planning, and site selection, pricing of the property, promotion planning, and
marketing management.
This definition of real estate marketing can be depicted as another process or cycle as
shown in Figure. These are strategic analysis, prospect strategy (target marketing),

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  STRATEGIC ANALYSIS
Strategic analysis involves an assessment of the internal and external environments. An
assessment of the internal environment involves an analysis of sales and customers, whereas an
assessment of the external environment involves an analysis of the market and the competition.
Note that strategic analysis is not conducted in a vacuum. In other words, the marketing
manager does not simply start out with strategic analysis, and then all prospect, product, place,
price, and promotion decisions are based on the information reflected in that strategic analysis.
Strategic analysis is a continuous process of information gathering, data collection, and analysis.
The marketing manager starts out with an assessment of the internal and external environments,
but this assessment is further guided by the many decisions the manager has to make concerning
prospect, product, place, price, and promotion strategies. This point is accentuated by the double
arrows between strategic analysis and the five Ps (prospect strategy, product strategy, place
strategy, price strategy, and promotion strategy).

 Internal Analysis
As previously mentioned, internal analysis (or an assessment of the internal environment)
involves a sales analysis and a customer analysis.

i. Sales Analysis
A sales analysis focuses on plotting sales trends over the last several years (or as far back as
possible, depending on data availability) and making an attempt to explain sales fluctuations.
4 That is, the marketing manager makes an attempt to explain factors that may have contributed
to high levels of sales as well as low sales. The figure shows a sales trend of residential homes.
The x -axis shows the time scale: 1994–2014. The y –axis shows dollar sales in millions. The
sales trend for residential homes for retired people seems to have continuously increased up to
2003, then decreased slightly all the way to 2009, and then shot up in 2012 and 2013. The
challenge for the marketing manager is to explain this trend. Perhaps the slight decline between
2003 and 2011 was due to the sluggish economy, which then shot up in 2012 and 2013. Or
perhaps in the early years (1995–2003) the upward sales trend was due to increased promotion
expenditures, which decreased a little between 2003 and 2011, and increased again in 2012 and
2013. In this case we have two hypotheses:

16
(1) Sales of residential homes for the retired may have been influenced by changes in the gross
national product (GDP, a measure of economic well-being), and
(2) Sales of residential homes may have been influenced by changes in promotion expenditures
directed to retired consumers.
The marketing manager at this point should test these two hypotheses by gathering GDP
data and promotion expenditure data (campaigns directed toward retired consumers) from 1995
to 2013. These two trends (GDP and expenditures) should then be plotted. If the expenditures
trend curve looks more similar to the sales trend than the GDP trend, then one can conclude
promotion expenditures may have influenced the sales trend. This information is important
because such an inference is likely to prompt the marketing manager to allocate a higher level of
promotion expenditures to jack up sluggish sales. Of course, this analysis is highly superficial, in
the sense that marketing scientists would say that one cannot make a casual inference based on
such an “eye-ball inspection” of the trends. A more rigorous analysis has to be conducted using
multiple regressions, in which sales could be treated as the criterion variable and GDP and
promotion expenditures as predictor variables, with a host of other covariates. Even then one has
to be very careful in assuming causality because such tests are correlation in nature, not
experimental. However, given the nature of the data and in the absence of other information, the
marketing manager could rely on such analysis, as long as he is cognizant of the uncertainty of
the causal associations.

ii. Customer Analysis

Let us now turn to customer analysis. This type of analysis focuses on existing customers—
customers that have bought a property from the real estate development firm. Marketing

Customer satisfaction survey

Customer Customer Customer Customer

satisfaction Satisfaction satisfaction satisfaction
with aspects Survey with the with aspects
of product aspects of of the
the place promotion

17
Figure:-Elements of a Customer Satisfaction Survey
Researchers typically conduct customer satisfaction surveys (see Figure 1.6 ). The goal is to
capture the extent to which customers felt satisfied or dissatisfied about four major areas:
 The product (e.g., housing design, residential site, and energy conservation)
 the place (e.g., location in the neighborhood and the community, neighborhood, and
Community features)
 the price (e.g., price affordability, value for the money, and price negotiations)
 the promotion (e.g., quality and quantity of information provided to customers to help
Them with the buying decision)
This type of strategic analysis is vitally important to the marketing manager because it
allows the manager to identify problem areas and take corrective action. For example, suppose
the real estate developer has built a retirement community. The customer satisfaction survey
reveals that there are specific housing design features that customers are not happy with (e.g.,
many of the housing features are not designed to be sufficiently user friendly for those who have
arthritis, such as too many stairs, no railings, toilets that are too low, no handle bars in the
bathtubs, kitchen cabinets that are too high, etc.). Knowing that a significant segment of the
retired customers are likely to have some form of physical disability, it would be important to
make changes in the housing design to accommodate their housing needs.

 External Analysis
An assessment of the external environment (i.e., external analysis) involves two types of
assessments: market analysis and competitive analysis.

i. Market Analysis
Market analysis refers to collecting and analyzing data about issues directly related to target
marketing, product strategy, place strategy, pricing strategy, and promotion strategy. 6 Let us
discuss these different types of analyses (see Figure).

Market Analysis
Market Market Market Market Market
analysis analysis analysis analysis analysis
related to related to related to related to related to
prospect product place price price 18
strategy strategy strategy strategy strategy
Figure :- What Is Market Analysis?

Market analysis related to target marketing focuses on collecting data about specific
population segments to assess their market potential and the extent to which the firm may want
to target these segments. For example, suppose a real estate developer has the ability to develop
five types of residential communities:
 College student communities (e.g., apartment complexes well-suited for college students)
 Communities for small families (e.g., starter homes)
 gated communities for affluent families (e.g., luxury homes)
 communities for the newly retired (residential homes for the retired)
 communities for the frail elderly (assisted-living homes)

The developer is located in Northern Virginia and would like to focus its real estate
development efforts on specific municipalities in the Northern Virginia region. To assess the
market potential of college student communities, the developer focuses on those municipalities
that contain higher education institutions and identifies several areas. The developer then gathers
data from secondary sources related to the growth of the college student population in these
colleges and universities. Those municipalities that have colleges and universities with growing
student populations are selected for further review. Housing data are then collected from the
selected colleges and universities to examine how these institutions are meeting the housing
demand of their students—both on-campus and off-campus. Those institutions in which a
significant segment of the student population seeks off-campus housing are then selected for
further review. In those areas that have a significant off-campus student population, additional
data are collected regarding the occupancy rate of apartment complexes that are known to house
college students. Data showing that the occupancy rate is very high signal market demand for
additional off-campus student housing. Thus, those areas are identified for further real estate
development. Similar analyses can be conducted in relation to the other potential target market

19
segments (small families, affluent families, the newly retired, and the frail elderly) to assess
market demand. Once these analyses are completed, the real estate developer is in a better
position to make target marketing decisions—how the developer will allocate resources toward
the development of certain types of residential communities. See Cases/Anecdotes 1.1, 1.2, and
1.3 for a glimpse of market analysis related to the assisted living, immigrant segments, and
Generation Y home buyers.

CASE/ANECDOTE 1.1. IMMIGRANTS KEY TO HOUSING (AND ECONOMIC)

RECOVERY
Research by Housing America and the Mortgage Bankers Association found that immigrants
arehelping with the housing recovery. The study findings underscored the following:
(1) Home ownership has been increasing among immigrants and falling among Native-born
Americans,
(2) Immigrants are likely to account for 35.7% of the homebuyer Market segment from 2010 to
2020,
(3) The growth of the immigrant homebuyer market is projected to remain strong across the U.S.,
and
(4) this surge of immigrant buying homes is projected to account for $100 billion in the specified
period.

CASE/ANECDOTE 1.2. THE ELDERLY AND THE ASSISTED

LIVING MARKET
The market segment for assisted living seems to be decreasing in size. This may be due to the
fact that adult children are distressed financially and cutting down on spending because of the
poor economy. Placing one’s parents in an assisted-living facility is considered “discretionary
spending.” Instead of placing their parents in assisted-living facilities, many adult children are
making do using home care services and technology to assist their parents at home. Such
technology includes home monitoring devices and long-distance care giving. There seems to be a
rise in demand for compensatory services, including emergency room services and home- and
20
community-based services. In addition, delaying the use of assisted living means that as older
people become increasingly frail, they seek more acute services directly related to their frailty,
such as memory care services and nursing care.

CASE/ANECDOTE 1.3. GENERATION Y HOME BUYERS

Generation Y home buyers are tech savvy, armed with digital spreadsheets, instant
communication, and an inclination to buy homes that are technologically friendly. Gen Y home
buyers are young and are establishing roots to raise a family. Many are cautious because they’ve
been adversely affected by the economy, have much student debt, and yet to feel a sense of
stability in their new jobs. Many have been renting and waiting to seize the right moment to buy
a home. How might real estate developers target this market?
What do Gen Y buyers want in their homes? They may share some characteristics with
Gen X buyers, such as a preference for walk-in closets. They also differ from Gen X buyers in
that they are less interested in state-of-the-art kitchens but more in having fun.
Gen Y buyers most likely prefer a high-tech entertainment center, a game room, a home
gym, and quite possibly a swimming pool. Gen Y buyers are accustomed to using tablets,
laptops, and mobile phones. Gen X buyers use e-mail, whereas Gen Y buyers text on mobile
phones or communicate through Face book. Gen Y buyers are likely to use the Internet for
everything, such as researching their future home. The marketing manager should communicate
with these buyers accordingly. To appeal to this group, the marketing manager has to have a
complete, user-friendly, mobile-enabled Web site to help these buyers access information on their
own time, whether they’re lying in bed or brushing their teeth with Smartphone in hand.

Market analysis related to product strategy involves collecting and analyzing data dealing with
housing design, residential sites, and energy conservation. For example, if the real estate
developer is likely to target the college student market to build off-campus student housing in
selected municipalities in Northern Virginia, then identifying the various housing design options
and collecting secondary data regarding the popularity of certain options can be very helpful in
articulating a product strategy that adopts a popular housing design option.
Market analysis related to place strategy is equally important to the preceding analyses
(the analyses related to target marketing and product strategy). The focus here is on collecting
data on neighborhoods and communities to aid in the decision of where to build. Location,
21
location, and location! It matters a great deal to fi nd the right location to build. The location has
to meet the needs and preferences of the target market segment. To assist with this decision,
secondary information can be collected about the various neighborhoods and communities that
the developer is homing in on (e.g., selected municipalities in Northern Virginia) Data about the
physical, social, and economic features of neighborhoods should be collected. Examples of data
on the physical features include the location of the neighborhood vis-à-vis shopping,
employment, and highways; the extent of upkeep of property and landscaping in the
neighborhood; and the presence of any environmental hazards. Examples of data on the social
features include statistics on crime in the selected neighborhoods and the socio-demographic
profile of the neighborhood residents. Examples of data on the economic features include rate of
occupancy in the neighborhood and the market value of the homes in the neighborhood based on
tax assessment records. Such data on the physical, social, and economic features of
neighborhoods considered for development can play an important role in site selection. Market
analysis related to pricing strategy involves collecting and analyzing data about housing costs
and prices. For examples, if the real estate developer is leaning towards building apartment
complexes for off-campus housing for college students, then collecting data about rental fees of
various types of apartments (e.g., studio, 1-bedroom apartment, 2-bedroom apartment, 3-
bedroom apartment) could be very helpful in developing a rental fee policy once the units are
available for rent. If the real estate developer is selling these units, instead of renting, then
collecting data concerning recent sales of comparable units should help determine the asking
price once the units are made available for sale.
Market analysis related to promotion strategy involves data collection of the media habits
of information is needed to identify those mass media outlets they use most frequently (e.g.,
radio stations, newspapers, social media sites, television channels and shows they watch
frequently, outdoor bulletin boards they see most frequently, etc.). Information about media
habits assists in the development of a media schedule, which is an important element of
promotion planning. What is also important in promotion planning is identifying product benefits
that the target market perceives as very important in their decision to adopt the product offering
(e.g., product, price, and place features that college students believe are most important in their
decision to rent an apartment off-campus—features such as number of bedrooms, the sizes of the
bedrooms, access to high-speed internet, price, location of the apartment complex to the campus,
access to public transportation, etc.). Real estate developers cannot list all benefits in a single
22
promotional message. Developers have to zero in on the most important benefits and use only
these in their promotion. Part of this process involves generating a slogan that captures a core
benefit.

ii. Competitive Analysis

Similar to market analysis, competitive anal y sis involves data collection that can assist the
marketing manager with target marketing, product strategy; pricing strategy, place strategy, and
promotion strategy (see Figure).
Competitive analyses related to target marketing involves gathering information about
key competitors in an attempt to identify their target market. Such information is collected from
competitors’ promotional material (e.g., newspaper advertising, television commercials, radio
advertising, promotional brochures, messages embedded in their website). For example, if a key
competitor is targeting college students, messages directed to college students are likely to be
quite evident in their promotional material. Finding out which market segments key competitors
are targeting should be helpful in assisting the real estate developer make a decision whether to
occupy the same market space (i.e., engage in fierce competition) or look for a market niche that
is absent of key competitors (i.e., avoid competition altogether). Of course, the answer to this
important question is whether there is sufficient growth in the competitors’ market segment to
allow the developer to penetrate the same market and still be profitable. That is, can they survive
and prosper in spite of the competition? Thus, additional information

Competitive Analysis

Competitive Competitive Competitive Competitive Competitive

analysis analysis analysis analysis analysis
related to related to related to related to related to
prospect product place price promotion
strategy strategy strategy strategy strategy
23
Figure:-What Is Competitive Analysis?
Is required about the rate of growth of the target market to fully answer this question. To avoid
competition, the rate of growth of the target market that is untouched by the competition also has
to be assessed to determine market potential. In other words, the developer may decide to target a
market segment that is not targeted by the competition if the data show that it is of sufficient size
and profitability and may grow significantly in the foreseeable future.
Competitive analysis related to product, price, place, and promotion strategy involves
data collection about four areas:
 the competitors’ product line (i.e., information about layout, residential site, and energy
conservation related to all the property types of the key competitors targeting a specifi c
market segment, such as college students)
 the competitors’ place of their offerings (the location and neighborhood characteristics of
the offerings related to the market segment in question)
 the competitors’ pricing of their offerings (price of the offerings related to the target
market)
 the competitors’ promotion material (the message directed to the target market and the
media vehicles carrying the message)
Such information should assist the marketing manager to effectively position one’s offerings
Vis-à-vis key competitors’ offerings.

 PROSPECT STRATEGY
Prospect strategy (or target marketing) is a very important strategic decision. It is essentially
about market selection. Armed with the information from strategic analysis, the marketing
manager is now in a position to make a target market decision—which market segment to target
in the firm’s marketing program. Target marketing is foundational in the essence the all product,
place, pricing, and promotion decisions are made with a target market in mind. That is, one
cannot make effective four Ps decisions without knowing exactly who is being targeted (i.e., the
market segment that the firm should cater to). See Figure .

Target marketing involves identifying all the possible market segments for the real estate
development firm and then making a deliberate decision to go after certain segments while

24
ignoring others. In doing so, the marketing manager attempts to segment the market using certain
segmentation criteria and analyzes the viability of each segment. Market selection is thus a
decision based on prioritizing the identified market segments and targeting the most viable ones.

Prospect Strategy
(Target Marketing)

Product Place Pricing Promotion

decisions decisions decisions decisions
with with with with
target target target target
market in market in market in market in

Figure: - Target Marketing as a Foundational Decision

 Market Segmentation
How do marketing managers in real estate development firms go about segmenting the market in
prospect segments? A typical market segmentation model involves technologies, customer needs,
and customer groups. 8 Technologies refer to those particular products that can be defined and
distinguished from other products through technological features. For example, suppose we have
a real estate developer who would like to develop homes at a nearby lake. A home on the nearby
lake can be built with or without various technological features, such as a dock. Needs are the
functions or purposes a product (e.g., house on the lake) serves for prospects. Homes on a lake
can serve three functions:
 All-purpose living,
 Summer vacation home, and
 get-away home. Groups are “homogeneous” sets of prospective buyers.
A customer group can be viewed as an identifiable group of prospects that have the same
generic need that is well-suited to a specific technology. For example, a home on a lake with a
dock (technology) that serves year-around living (need) may best appeal to people who are
25
retired and who enjoy water sports. A home that has a dock (technology) serving as a summer
home (need) may best appeal to high income professionals who enjoy water sports. A home that
has no dock (technology) serving as year-around living may be best suited for retired couples
who are more sedentary (not actively engaged in water sports; they simply like the serenity of
being at the lake). Finally, a house without a dock (technology) serving as a summer home (need)
is well-suited for high income professionals who enjoy entertaining guests and holding social
events at the lake house. See Figure .
The product-market matrix shows the possibility of 12 different segments. The question
now is which one or more of these segments should the real estate developer target? We will
answer this question in the next section.

Technology Needs Groups

House that Retired couples

serves living who enjoy
year-round water sports
House with a
dock on the House that
lake serves as a High income
summer home professionals who
House on the
enjoy water sports
lake
House that Retired couples
House serves living who are
without year-round sedentary
a dock
House that High income
serves as a professionals who
summer home enjoy entertaining
guests

Figure: - An Application of Market Segmentation in Relation to a Real Estate Developer\ Whose

Goal Is to Build Homes at a Nearby Lake

26
  Market Selection
Marketing managers select market segments using a set of criteria:
 size of each segment
 anticipated growth of each segment
 identifiability and reach ability of each segment
 responsiveness of each segment
 ethical and societal considerations related to each segment
To better understand these market selection criteria, let us apply them to the example of the real
estate developer whose goal is to build homes at a nearby lake. Four concrete market segments
were identified:
 retired couples who enjoy water sports and who prefer a house built for year-around
living that has a dock;
 high income professionals who enjoy water sports and who prefer a house built for
summer vacation that has a dock;
 retired couples who are sedentary who prefer a house built for year-around living that
does not have a dock; and
 high income professionals who enjoy entertaining guests and who prefer a summer home
that does not have a dock.

i. Size of Segment
Let’s consider the first criterion: Size of each segment. The question then becomes: Can we do a
market analysis to determine the size of these four segments? Perhaps a regional survey of
households around the lake in question may be in order. Adults would be contacted and asked
about their income, retirement status, and their preference for water sports
Table 1:- Applying the Market Selection Criteria to the Lake House Example

27
 Segment 1 Segment 2 Segment 3 Segment 4
(retired couples (high income (retired couples (high income
who enjoy professionals who are professionals
water sports) who enjoy sedentary) who enjoy
water sports) entertaining
guests)

Size of the 3 5 4 3
segment
Anticipated 3 5 3 5
growth of the
segment
Identifiability 5 5 5 5
and
reach ability of
the
segment
Responsiveness 4 4 4 4
of the
segment
Ethical and 1 1 5 5
societal
considerations

Notes: Rating scale:

5 = Excellent
4 = Very good
3 = Good
2 = Poor
1 = Very poor

(e.g., fishing, boating, water skiing, snorkeling, scuba diving, swimming, etc.), their preference
for serenity with nature without active engagement in water sports, and their interest in the
purchase of a lake house. Based on the survey results, one can estimate the size of these four
28
segments. The idea here is that the selected segment should be sizable to enhance the
marketability of the lake homes.
Applying this market selection criterion to the developer whose plan is to build a
community of lake homes, let us assume that the developer has conducted a survey to estimate
the size of the four segments and, as such, rated them as shown in Table 1.1 . Based on these
ratings, the segment that seems to be the most viable for market selection is Segment 2 (high
income professionals who enjoy water sports), followed by Segment 3 (retired couples who are
sedentary), and Segments 1 and 4 (retired couples who enjoy water sports and the high income
professionals who enjoy entertaining guests).

ii. Anticipated Growth of Segment

Market segments that are anticipated to grow in size are customarily considered to be more
attractive than those that are anticipated to remain the same or decline in size. This is because
real estate development has a specific time horizon. If the real estate developer is to build a
community by the lake, then the time horizon is likely to be at least five years. That is, the
marketing manager has to anticipate the size of the market segment five years out. In other
words, it is not sufficient to estimate the size of potential market segments as they exist today;
the manager must estimate its size at the time the real estate offerings will be available.
How do marketing managers in real estate development estimate anticipated growth of
specific market segments? In many cases they use quantitative forecasting techniques such as
trends analysis. 10 This technique traces the upward or downward movements in a time series as
a result of basic developments in the population. For example, to predict changes in household
income, the marketing manager plots household income changes in the region (2–3 hours driving
distance from the lake region) over the last 20 years or so and examines the trend. Is the trend
going up or down? Is the trend stable over time? An improvement on this technique is the use of
regression analysis in forecasting. Regression analysis allows the marketing manager to predict
the size of a specific market segment at a future point in time (e.g., average household income in
2018) by identifying specific predictors of income in the region (e.g., number of jobs in the area
over the past 20 years, the average wages of jobs in the area over the past 20 years, retail sales in
the area over the past 20 years). Again, much of the data involving these predictor variables are
obtained through the census or other secondary sources.

29
 In the absence of quantitative data, marketing managers rely on qualitative information. A
common technique is the judgment method. 11 This method relies on experts to render their
opinion about the trend of a particular variable (e.g., household income in the area around the
lake—geographic distance of 2–3 hours driving time). For example, to predict changes in
household income the marketing manager may seek the input of economic development experts
in the region or newspaper articles reporting on the current and future economic development of
the region. Such information may provide the marketing manager with hints as to whether
household income is likely to increase, decrease, or remain the same over the next five years or
so.
For the purpose of illustration, let us refer back to the marketing manager’s ratings of the
four aforementioned segments as shown in Table 1. The focus here is on rating the anticipated
growth of these four segments. The marketing manger rates Segments 2 and 4 higher than
Segments 1 and 3. In other words, the marketing manager anticipates more growth of the high
income professional segments than the retired couple segments in the area around the lake. In
other words, based on the anticipated growth criterion, the high income professional segments
(Segments 2 and 4) seem to be more attractive than the retired couple segments (Segments 1 and
3).

iii. Identifiability and Reach ability of Segment

The second criterion is the identifiability and reaches ability of the segments. “Identifiability”
refers to the extent that the segment is clearly profiled in demographic, geographic, and/or
psychographic terms. Demographic variables are population characteristics such as age, sex,
education, income, education, marital status, and so on. Geographic variables are characteristics
defining a population in terms of physical location such as their zip code; neighborhood
residence; residence in rural, suburban, or urban community; and so on. Psychographic variables
are characteristics related to activities, opinions, and lifestyles of the population. Examples of
activities related to the lake house case include boating, fishing, water skiing, scuba diving,
hiking, lake viewing, entertaining guests, and so on. Examples of opinions related to the lake
house case include favorable or unfavorable opinions of water sports, purchasing a house on the
lake for year-around living versus seasonal living, opinions about the absence or presence of a
dock attached to the lake house, and so on. Lifestyle variables refer to characteristics that reflect
a set of activities, values, and beliefs related to a particular way of living. Examples related to the
30
lake house may include a fishing and boating lifestyle; a lifestyle of the rich and famous—those
who have second homes and use second homes to entertain guests; a lifestyle that reflects
vigorous water sports activities that may include water skiing, swimming, snorkeling, and scuba
diving; and a sedentary lifestyle that involves lake viewing, bird watching, and periodic hiking.
Now let us revisit the four segments that were identified in relation to the lake house:
 retired couples who enjoy water sports and who prefer a house built for year-around
living that has a dock;
 High income professionals who enjoy water sports and who prefer a house built for
summer vacation that has a dock;
 Retired couples who are sedentary who prefer a house built for year-around living that
does not have a dock; and
 High income professionals who enjoy entertaining guests and who prefer a summer home
that does not have a dock.
Note that these four segments are clearly identifiable in demographic and psychographic terms.
They are not identified in geographic terms. Nevertheless, all four segments are clearly
identified, making them all subject to market selection. But then let’s look at the “reach ability”
criterion. This criterion refers to the extent to which the segment can be contacted for survey and
promotion purposes. If the decision comes to selecting a particular segment (e.g., retired couples
who enjoy water sports and who prefer a house built for year-around living that has a dock), then
can a sample of these people be contacted to learn their preferences related to the design of the
lake house, the site orientation, energy conservation features, neighborhood characteristics, and
pricing and affordability? How do marketing managers reach prospects for survey purposes?
Customarily market researchers conduct surveys by several methods:
 phone (researcher contacts a prospect by phone and conducts an interview over the
phone)
 e -mail (researcher contacts a prospect by e-mail, asking the prospect to complete a
survey online)
 postal mail (researcher contacts a prospect by postal mail that includes a cover letter
asking the prospect to complete an attached survey questionnaire and mail it back in a
stamped and addressed envelope)
 face-to-face (research interviews prospect in person, possibly at the prospect’s home)
 focus group (researcher recruits a small group of prospects by phone, e-mail, or postal
mail; once they are recruited, the recruits assemble in a place chosen by the researcher

31
 and easily accessible to the recruits; the researcher then moderates a group discussion in
which the recruits express their feelings and preferences about many aspects related to
product, place, price, and promotion)
Can the same segment be reached for promotion purposes? That is, when the homes are
ready for sale, what media vehicles can be used to reach this segment? If a segment is deemed
difficult to reach for survey and promotion purposes, then this segment should not be targeted. It
is important that the selected segment be reachable if they are clearly identifiable
demographically, geographically, and psycho graphically. The marketing manager can use these
criteria to identify the best mix of media vehicles to reach the target segment.
Going back to the lake house case, the question becomes: To what extent are these four
segments reachable for survey and promotion purposes? There are many marketing research
companies that specialize in creating lists of people that have a certain demographic profi le. In
the case of the lake house example, the demographic criteria are essentially age (55+ to identify
retired couples) and income (to identify the high income professionals). Knowing the geographic
radius of the promotion campaign is important to identify the various media vehicles that can be
used to select the best mix of vehicles for promotion. The same can be said in relation to
psychographics. Understanding the psychographic profile of a segment allows the marketing
manager to select the best media mix.
In the case of our lake community, the marketing manager rates the four segments as
equally attractive (see Table 1). In other words, the four segments are judged to be equally
identifiable and reachable.

iv. Responsiveness of Segment

Can a market segment be influenced by a good marketing campaign? What confidence does the
marketing manager have regarding the effectiveness of the marketing campaign? For example, if
the target market were to focus on the retired couples who enjoy water sports (Segment 1), can
the marketing manager guide the developer to design lake homes suitable for year-around living
that have docks sufficiently attractive for these prospects? Can the marketing manager price
those properties affordably for these prospects? Can the marketing manager place those homes in
an attractive location at the lake with lakefront view and access with a dock? Can the marketing
32
manager effectively promote this offering to the target prospects who reside within 2–3 hours of
the lake? If the answer to these questions is YES, then the marketing manager would rate the
responsiveness of Segment 1 as high. On the other hand, if the marketing manager does not feel
that he may be able to configure an effective marketing program for these prospects, then his
rating of the responsiveness criterion for Segment 1 would reflect his lack of confidence and be a
low one.
Of course, to rate each segment on the responsiveness criterion requires a great deal of
experience. That is, it is not likely that a rookie marketing manager will be able to rate the degree
of responsiveness of potential market segments. Only the experienced marketing manager can do
so. To complete the ratings in Table 1 , we will assume that the marketing manager has sufficient
confidence that these four segments are likely to be responsive to his good marketing efforts. As
such, the manager rates the four segments at 4 to reflect his confidence.

v. Ethical and Societal Considerations

Similar to the last criterion (responsiveness), the ethics criterion of market selection is equally
“soft”; it relies on the subjective judgment of the marketing manager. The focus here, however, is
on the extent to which catering to one segment or another may be considered unethical. Consider
the following scenario. The real estate developer is focusing on developing a subdivision located
at part of the lake that has considerable fluctuations of water levels. The water level of that part
of the lake increases considerably when it rains but drops considerably during droughts. During
the drought season, the water next to the docks is so shallow that no boats could operate from
these docks. The marketing manager thinks that if he were to build homes with docking facilities
in that part of the lake, he would promote the lake properties only when the water elevation level
is high. That is, he would not disclose the problem about water elevation. This is of course
unethical. In this situation, the marketing manager should rate Segments 1 and 2 unfavorably
because marketing to these two segments may involve a breach of ethics. These two segments
(retired couples who enjoy water sports and the high income professionals who enjoy water
sports) would require homes that have docking facilities. Hence, it is not ethically wise to focus
on those two segments. The marketing manager rates these two segments (Segments 1 and 2)
low while rating Segments 3 and 4 high (because these two segments do not require docking
facilities).

33
 In sum, once the marketing manager completes the rating matrix ( Table 1), he is in a
position to make a determination as to which segment he should target. As shown in Table 1 , the
ratings are quite varied. Should the marketing manager simply sum up the ratings of each
segment and choose the segment that has the highest summative scores—the higher the
summative scores, the more attractive the market segment to the real estate developer? In this
case, Segment 1 has a total score of 16, Segment 2 a score of 20, Segment 3 a score of 21, and
Segment 4 a score of 22. Based on this analysis, the marketing manager has rated Segment 4
most favorably, followed by Segment 3, Segment 2, and Segment 1, respectively. However,
doing so assumes that these market selection criteria are equally important. This may not be the
case. If there is variability in importance, then the marketing manager should weigh those criteria
that are more important more heavily than those of lesser importance. Perhaps a weighted
summative score or a weighted average may work better in this situation.

 REAL ESTATE MARKETING IDEAS

 Your website

Your website is the foundation for all of your digital marketing efforts. A joint study by Google
and Loop net has shown that almost 80% of tenants and investors search for commercial real
estate online. This means your website is critical to gaining brand visibility, acquiring
prospects, and helping drive sales and lease-up efforts for your company. That said, there are a
few strategies that are highly likely to have a strong impact for you in 2016. Here are our favorite
ideas.

34
  Get a Responsive Website

Ensure your website is optimized for mobile devices. Your ability to reach and attract more
potential tenants, brokers and investors increasingly hinges on the user experience of the website
displayed on their device. Remember that more than 13% of CRE visits are from mobile
devices* . In order to communicate your brand and services effectively, it is crucial that your site
is optimized for all platforms (iOS, Android, Windows) and devices (desktop, smartphone,
tablet).

 Maintain an Active Blog

A company blog is a great marketing tool that can have massive impact for search engines, social
media visibility, and a great place to begin dialogue with your potential client base. Educate your
clients with tips and advice, highlight lease transactions, key company updates, and discuss
relevant industry and local market news. As an expert in your field, this is your chance to
demonstrate your knowledge and position yourself as an authority – and invite comments and
suggestions from your readers, of course.

 Update Company News

If a blog is too resource-intensive, you could consider creating a news section on your site to
feature important company updates, press releases, and survey/research results. This will give
search engines (and your clients) a positive signal that your company is active and growing, a
very valuable and important trust factor. Also, a new section typically requires less commitment
on your part and will be easier to maintain

 Publish Market Reports

A valuable real estate marketing idea would be to create a local market report for the markets
your operate in. Include data points like rentable square footage (RSF), average rent prices,
vacancy data, absorption rates and any significant transactions. Highlight it on your website as a
monthly (or quarterly) feature and you will surely generate more eyeballs and interested readers.

 Create Videos
35
Videos are a powerful medium that are still not very prevalent in the marketing mix of most CRE
companies. Not only does a marketing video give your audience a different kind of medium to
interact with (and one that generally encourages them to spend a while on your website), but this
also allows you to better showcase your company, your properties and make yourself stand out
from competitors.

 Include a newsletter sign-up

This is an easy and free way to help you build up a database of potential clients and partners.
Even if you don’t yet have a concrete email marketing strategy in place, it doesn’t hurt to ask for
emails and start building your list in the mean time.

 Improve SEO

Make sure your real estate website ticks off the right boxes in terms of SEO (Search Engine
Optimization). An effective SEO strategy can help generate massive “free” traffic from Google
and other search engines and help you generate visibility for targeted keyword terms related to
your business. More and more potential tenants and investors are using online searches to
research properties; don’t be left out of the game.

 Consistently Track Your Results

At a minimum, make sure you are running Google Analytics on your website to track marketing
performance and make sure you look at results at least once a month. This will help you make
better, informed marketing decisions and enable you to understand if your website is having any
significant impact. If your website is not generating prospects for your company or property, it’s
time to revisit and take action.

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  ONLINE MARKETING

Once you’ve updated and optimized the website, there are several things you can do to drive
people to it. By increasing exposure through online marketing efforts, you can boost
performance, raise the profile of the site and its brand, and stand out from your competitors in
new and exciting ways:

 Launch a Company Newsletter

Email remains one of the most effective forms of communication for brands moving into 2016
with a higher response rate than almost any other online format. Not only does a regular
company newsletter allow you to stay in touch with your most valuable prospects and customers,

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it provides a means to showcase the activity of your company, offer valuable free information,
and build a relationship that transcends the anonymity of your website.

 Get Active on LinkedIn

In recent years, LinkedIn has become the ‘de facto’ platform for professionals to network. Its 300
million user base consists of just about every professional in the commercial real estate, finance,
investing, or legal fields you could want to meet, and it offers a powerful marketing and
engagement system with blogging, group discussion boards, and search functions. Combined
with ultra targeted advertising, LinkedIn is an important focus for any business in 2016.

 Run Targeted Advertising Campaigns with Google

Google Ad Words offers a fast, efficient and scalable way to target potential tenants and investors
online. Programmatic advertising allows you to showcase your services or offers in specific
locations in search results, or with display and retargeted ads for people visiting your website or
those of your competitors. To put it simply, this is the fastest way to get in front of your most
likely prospects.

 Run a Remarketing Campaign

Remarketing allows you to recapture traffic on your website, showing ultra-targeted ads only to
people who have already visited or performed a specific action on your website. Because more
than 90% of your web traffic won’t take an action when they visit, you need to increase return
rates – retargeting allows you to do just that.

 Submit Guest Content

This tactic is effective for two reasons. To start, it gets your name and brand on large websites
(news platforms, blogs, trade journals) that your target market trusts. That content allows you to
gain exposure you may not be able to gain on your own website, at least not yet. Second, you get

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a powerful link to your website. This can drive traffic to your site, but also has important SEO
value and can improve your ranking in search engines.

 Launch a Video Marketing Campaign

Video is one of the highest engagement rate tactics in digital marketing. People like video and it
is more accessible than ever before. By producing high quality marketing videos of your
properties, publishing interviews, or creating high quality videos that showcase your company,
you can drive traffic from YouTube, Facebook, and Vimeo. All three platforms offer incredibly
targeted advertising as well to increase your online reach.

 Optimize Your Twitter Marketing Campaign

In the last year, Twitter has introduced several new marketing tools, including the ability to
showcase specific content from your site, embed multiple images in a tweet, and even capture
email addresses directly from an ad you run on twitter. Use these tools to share new ideas,
events, and property updates with your customers and prospects and to continue growing your
network in 2016.

 Create and Publish High Quality Content

High quality content is one of the most valuable currencies on the Internet today. “Okay” isn’t
good enough. You need to produce exceptional, well-written blog posts, informative articles,
high quality HD videos, info graphics showcasing interesting data, and other educational content
that can capture attention from prospects when they visit your website. Good content helps you
build an audience, create trust, and allow you to leverage the other distribution tactics listed
above as well.

 OFFLINE MARKETING
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More than ever, real estate professionals are investing heavily in their online strategies. But,
while online marketing is becoming one of the most powerful ways to grow your business,
offline strategies remain important and should be a core part of your marketing plan. By
combining the two and building a plan that moves seamlessly between online and offline tactics,
you’ll reach a much wider audience.

 Host a Broker Event

Hosted events are always popular, drawing people from across the spectrum of your industry,
giving your properties much needed exposure, and allowing you to meet new people. A good
broker event will allow you to engage with people and build relationships in ways you may not
be able to otherwise online.

 Attend Meetups and Professional Events

Meetup.com is one of the world’s most powerful real-world networking platforms, bringing
people together to discuss shared interests in thousands of groups. Create your own professional
group to gather people interested in real estate, finance or marketing, or join another group if
there is one that fits your interests. There may be several, offering you the opportunity to
network and build connections more easily.

 Create a Strong Presentation

A good presentation can be an incredibly effective way to convey your brand story and
communicate your services to prospective clients. But it needs to be of the highest possible
quality if you want to make a lasting impression. Invest in a professionally-made presentation
that is engaging, on target with your audience, and tells a compelling story.

 Update Your Print Collateral

The quality of the print collateral you send to your clients, says a lot about you as a company. If
it’s been some time since you last updated this or you still don’t have professional for your
marketing materials, consider investing in new collateral in 2016, updating any contact
information, social media links, website links, and imagery to match your online presentation.

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  Back a Local Charity or Organization

There is nothing more fulfilling than working with a local organization or charity that you feel
strongly about. It’s a great way to give back to the community, and it happens to get your name
out there and allow you to engage with people in ways that aren’t possible from a strictly
business perspective. Make sure to choose an organization that matches both your brand and
business goal – it should be one you feel strongly about.

 Buy Media in Traditional Outlets

While advertising dollars continue to shift online, there are still plenty of affordable and effective
options offline in trade journals, newspapers, and even on billboards or local print ads. If your
goal is to increase reach, build your brand, and make sure locals recognize you and your
property, this is still one of the best ways to do so. Just make sure to test your efforts to see what
drives the most interest. Consider making custom website URLs you can drive people to from
these ads to measure which is most effective.

 Impress with Drone Photography

Over the past two years drone photography and videography has become much more accessible
and affordable allowing real estate marketers to capture beautiful imagery of their real estate
assets. Consider upgrading your images with HD drone photos to give your marketing collateral
a much bigger “wow” factor.

 Ask for Referrals

It doesn’t get any simpler or more effective than this. Word-of-mouth marketing can help you
drive a significant increase in inquiries without having to spend heavily on marketing materials
or advertising. The key is to actually ask. Create a referral request program with potential

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partners, maintain close relationships with previous clients, and follow up frequently to ensure
you’re tapping every potential source in 2016.

 Building a Strategy for Real Estate Marketing

This begins with formulating a plan of expenditure. You will definitely need to spend a certain
amount of money each month for marketing. The budget needs to guide you well on the
strategies of marketing to employ. Set time targets for marketing as it will use up some of your
time. It is important to set targets for given duration to have a clear plan on how to proceed with
the marketing campaign. Below are approaches that you could employ in your marketing
strategy. It is best for you to select at least five of these strategies to achieve the best results.

 Comb the area for strategic homes

Drive through the area you target and identify those homes which seem to be in bad shape.

 Use intersection signs

A bandit sign on the busy intersection will definitely draw a lot of attention.

 Post your message on the windshields of people you target

This definitely means flyers! A flyer can be used to communicate a precise message to the
targeted audience.

 Catch their attention before they step into the house

A door handle can be a really good medium to call attention to your services. Ensure you make
them attractive enough so that they are not discarded without being read through.

 Exploit the allure of a post card

A post card gives your audience an easy means of reading your message. They do not have to
open an envelope to know what you are communicating and this striking feature can be used to
your advantage.
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  Make your message stand out with a letter done by hand
People are tired of junk mail. To give people the curiosity to read through your messages, how
about writing a letter literally. This has been shown to be an effective marketing strategy due to
the uniqueness it offers.

 Recommendations
These could be gotten from reputable players in the real estate industry. Title agents and realtors,
for example, could do your profile a lot of good with a referral.

 Network through conferences and seminars

Go to events hosted for players in the industry. You will form meaningful connections which will
do your goal a lot of good.

 Social networking platforms

This is a good strategy for targeting the numerous followers of social networking sites. Promote
your services in a way that gives general knowledge that people seek for as well.

 Send your messages across through videos

This has not been fully exploited as a means of marketing and you will find it inexpensive if you
choose to employ it.

 Carve a niche for yourself online

People appreciate finding out about services from websites. Through newsletters and direct chat,
you will be able to answer to potential clients’ needs and thus endear your services to them.

 Use the services of non-real estate industry players

You do not have to rely on connections with people in the real estate sector to forge ahead. If you
come across persons with the ability to hook you up with real estate opportunities, go for them.

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  9 Steps to an Unbeatable Real Estate Marketing Strategy

To be successful at marketing real estate (specifically commercial real estate), there is no “one
size fits all” solution or “magic program” to help individuals or teams grow their businesses
and/or sell their properties faster or better. Rather, one must look at the whole picture and

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understand that “marketing” is not a single act or a strategy in and of itself but rather a
complementary force to sales efforts and a key addition that both builds upon and enhances the
core strengths of a sales team.

Most of the commercial leasing and sales teams within my company—which includes
over 300 offices in more than 50 countries—are structured whereby a marketing person typically
supports a commercial real estate broker or a team of brokers who then conceptualizes, carries
out, and services both business development and property marketing strategies in order to assist
with growing the business unit.

As a marketing professional whose worked alongside some of Northern Nevada’s most

successful commercial real estate brokers for the past nine years at a company that has been
a leader in U.S. investment sales for the past six years, here are my nine steps to formulating an
unbeatable “holistic” real estate marketing strategy. (Steps 1-3 cover the need for building a
strong platform, steps 4-6 touch on ways you can cultivate successful habits that lead to
measurable business results, and steps 7-9 cover marketing’s specific role in the process.)

 Possess or develop core abilities

In an era of unprecedented lack of trust in financial institutions and financial services, it is

important that a real estate salesperson possess certain core abilities as a prerequisite to doing
business in that they understand not just the products and services they are selling, but the
environment in which they are conducting business, as well as the needs and wants of their
customers. A real estate salesperson must, at the very least, have the financial wherewithal,
business acumen, and understanding of the legal landscape in order to handle a variety of multi-
faceted, complex, and multi-party interactions both efficiently and effectively.

 Promote the perception of ability

A salesperson’s perception of ability is only as strong as their worst critic’s opinion of them.
According to Kyle Lacy, there are no shortcuts to establishing a good reputation. “Focus on
providing something awesome, gently ask the clients who love you the most to get the word out
for you, and wait. Your awesomeness will sell itself, in time.” In addition to working hard and
establishing a solid reputation, you can leverage your perception through public relations efforts,

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whether it be speaking at an industry event, writing a column for a local business journal, or
sharing a case study that is relevant to the community’s economic development efforts.

 Be consistent

According to John Jantsch, veteran marketing coach, award winning blogger, and author of Duct
Tape Marketing, “consistency builds trust.” Whether it be producing a monthly newsletter, a
quarterly report, a reoccurring event in your market, or always returning calls within a certain
amount of time, establishing consistency in your approach to business will build trust over time:
the foundation for solid relationships.

 Create S.M.A.R.T. goals (specific, measurable, attainable, relevant, timely)

From a recent article entitled “12 Things Successful People Do Differently,” the authors suggest
that successful people tend to create S.M.A.R.T. goals. This surely holds true for real estate
professionals. By formulating goals that are specific, measurable, attainable, relevant to the
business, and timely, S.M.A.R.T. goals are more fastidiously realized and achieved.

 Cultivate the right relationships

This one speaks for itself. Whether your goal as a real estate professional is to sell more
properties, represent more buyers, gain additional market share, or be a resource to the
community at large – make sure you’re spending time formulating the types of relationships that
lend themselves to accomplishing such objectives.

 Focus on being productive, not busy

There are brokers who talk about doing things and then there are brokers who get things done.
Spend your time accomplishing goals and objectives, resolving issues, and being proactive as
opposed to filling in extra time with distractions, unnecessary meetings that do not affect your
bottom line, or activities in general that do not tie in with your overall strategy.

 Find ways to efficiently match buyers and sellers

These days there are countless technologies, both proprietary and subscription-based, that strive
to quickly and efficiently match buyers with sales opportunities. While purchasing mailing lists
and email lists is generally frowned upon, there are still certain individuals who will subscribe to
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such marketing practices; fortunately this type of “annoying marketing” is not sustainable. In
fact, it is quickly dying because consumers are fast becoming immune to this type of
messaging. A better (and more authentic) strategy focuses on leveraging opt-in communication,
nurturing leads, and being a present, integrated force in your local market who is well-versed in
the needs of its respective buyers and sellers.

 Leverage platforms to promote product and service offerings

There are a variety of platforms (most notably Loopnet.com, Costar.com and your company web
site) that work to promote your product and service offerings. By continuously monitoring the
effectiveness of such platforms, you can adjust your usage of each service to meet the level that
most effectively matches your business goals.

 Create an inbound marketing plan

For brokers who rely on cold calling, direct mail, and newspaper advertising, the audience for
such messaging is quickly dwindling. Much more effective than an outbound marketing strategy
is an inbound marketing plan where business flows in to you based on the information and
resources you put out to the world so that people can find you, whether it be through establishing
a blog or Twitter account, joining a specific LinkedIn group, or formulating a social media
strategy in general. Click here for an overview of how one individual is managing his personal
inbound marketing effort.

In short, to be successful at marketing real estate there are no shortcuts. Building a

successful strategy requires taking a look at the whole picture; building a strong
business requires hard work, critical thinking, and strong execution skills. You must not only
have the know-how, the strategic approach, and the appropriate team in place to actualize goals,
but the alignment of sales and marketing efforts in order for the business to grow.

Above all, satisfying customer needs through a systematic approach to uncovering

opportunity and effectively servicing requirements through a foundation of strong relationships is
not only the most straightforward, but sustainable approach to growing your business. When
understood and leveraged properly, marketing can work to amplify and increase the reach of
such messaging to result in a simply unbeatable approach.

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  Some agents subscribe to the “3 P’s” of marketing, which allegedly are:

i. Put a sign in the yard.

ii. Put it in the multiple listing service (MLS).

iii. Pray.

There is nothing wrong with praying or burying the St. Joseph statue in your front yard, either,
but to be highly successful, you need methods other than this typical three-step approach.

The model I have adopted is called the “7 P’s” of marketing. The components of this
system are price, product, promotion, place/position, people, process and physical evidence (or
what I call “social proof”). I use this model throughout my business and in my listing marketing.

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Let me show you how I incorporate each one of these into my real estate listing business:

 Price

It can be argued that price is a function of marketing. If you don’t price an item correctly, then it
does not matter how much marketing effort you put forth. Agents should strive to be pricing and
market experts to guide sellers down the right path. The proper price will position the property
correctly in the market.

When I price a property, I do a lot of research, use similar methods as a licensed

appraiser, and determine the correct price to sell in 30, 60 or 90 days. I also use probability
models so I can maximize profit for my clients in the shortest amount of time. My pricing model
is infused with psychology. I do not position my client’s property in the marketplace like every
other agent. I believe in price “break points” and examine how buyers shop for homes.

For instance, if a property’s true market value is $200,000, I will strategically price it at
$200,000. You may think, what is so special about that? Well, 99 percent of the agent population
would probably price that property at $199,999. Is this not true? The reason that the latter is not a
good strategy is that according to most sources, 90 percent of buyers start their search on the
Internet. Buyers search by price points, or “break points.” If you price a home at $199,999, you
may miss the buyers starting their price range at $200,000. When you price at $200,000, you
capture both high and low sides of the search. So, a buyer looking between $175,000 and
$200,000 will find the property, and the buyer looking between $200,000 and $225,000 will also
not miss the property.

 Product

Product is the essence of what you are selling, your inventory, the properties you market. The
product is also an extension of your brand. Agents should work hard to control their inventory,
inventory costs and how product can influence their overall business.

For example, accepting the wrong listings into your business at the wrong price can be
detrimental for your clients and the overall longevity of your brand and company. One way to
determine the correct or marketable inventory is to do your research and become an expert.
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Knowing the turnover rates in each community, inventory levels, absorption rates and true days
on market are all components of expertise. If you can control your product, you will control the
market.

 Promotion

The promotion relates to how you will market, advertise and expose your product or property.
Being one-dimensional is a downfall of many agents. In my opinion, an agent should look at
every listing as a future return on investment.

For instance, if you take the right product at the right price, and you promote it well, then
you should attract buyers. Sellers will see you as the expert when you sell homes fast and at
market value. Each “saleable” listing should be viewed as a future benefit for your business.

How can you achieve this? Remember, price is a function of marketing. Promotion is all
about the actual marketing. Without the right blend of effective marketing, you may never
achieve your clients’ goals. It all starts with the photos, the description or script, and calls to
action. I would suggest that you syndicate or market your product online, participate in video,
share your listing through the proper social channels, and utilize your database of buyers and the
MLS.

Go overboard in your marketing efforts if the price is at market value. It always amazes me
when I hear agents say, “Wow, the property sold so fast, I do not have to market it!” This is the
wrong thinking. I market my properties up to the day they close.

 Place or positioning

This fourth “P” refers to how you position your product in the marketplace with the right price
and promotion. The question should be, “Whom are you trying to attract?” What message do you
want to convey? What is the story of the house? Every home has a story; the pictures and
description are imperative to paint the right picture and attract the right buyer.

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 Look what other agents are doing regarding their MLS descriptions and do the opposite. Stop
using all capital letters and short codes that make no sense to the search engines and the buyers.
There is a marketing science to positioning your product correctly.

 People

This refers to your team, assistants, agents or support staff members who help you run your
business and fuel the engine to your listing inventory or product. Hiring the right people is
essential. Training your assistants on automating your listing systems is imperative. As an agent,
you are only as good as the people surrounding you. Surrounding yourself with people who share
the same vision and passion is what you should strive for.

 Process

The process is the system or management of your product. This stage involves communicating
your marketing efforts with your seller client, providing clients with showing feedback, sharing
data for the number of property views from major listing portals and examining overall market
data each month. The goal is to provide your client with full transparency and an insight into
how your marketing system will help them. It is everything you do from the time you list their
property in the MLS until the property is fully sold and title docs are transferred at the closing
table.

 Physical evidence (or “social proof”)

The way you market the product is a direct representation of yourself. Your goal is to satisfy your
clients. You cannot make everyone happy; however, if you choose the right product at the right
price, and promote and position the product correctly, then you will have fewer problems and
happier clients. Homes will sell faster with fewer hassles. Testimonials are also crucial at this
stage. Testimonials will help build your brand and are another way to position you as the expert
or authority to give social proof.

This is a business model to help you help more listing clients at a higher level. It will also
help you stay on course, remaining true to your message, brand and reputation. Regardless of

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how many “P’s” or principles you have in your marketing mix, the key is to adopt a system, stay
consistent and reap the rewards

 35 Easy & Effective Real Estate Marketing Ideas

The real estate industry has had some interesting ups and down over the past decade - NAR
(National Association of Realtors) membership hit its all-time high back in 2006 with 1,357,000
realtors before dropping dramatically with the housing financial crisis. However, since its rock
bottom in 2012 (with 999,000 members), it has been steadily increasing, and with nearly
1,100,000 members in 2014, the competition among realtors is heating up. The competition is
fierce, and these days you’ll need expert online and offline marketing skills to set yourself apart
from the pack.

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While real estate agents are still key in the home buying process, buyers are increasingly looking
to do more leg work online before involving the experts. A study from the National Association
of Realtors showed that 92% of buyers use the internet to begin their house hunting quest,
driving home the vital need for real estate agents to have an active online presence. If you're not
active, engaging, and networking online, then you're missing out.

Here are our 35 best real estate marketing ideas for those looking to win the real estate
marketing game

 Set Yourself Up For Social.

Make sure you have social media accounts on all the big networks (Facebook, Twitter, Pinterest,
Google+, and even Instagram if you snap a lot of house pics). Interact with users, share good
press, and promote your properties.

 Add Social Sharing To Property Pages.

Chances are, home shoppers are eager to share their top housing pics with friends and family, so
make it easy for home buyers to email and share various properties online by adding social
sharing buttons.

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  Keep An Eye On The Competition.

What are other realtors in your area doing? What do their websites look like? How active are
they on social media? Take note of what competitors are doing – then avoid their mistakes and
replicate their success!

 Make Yourself Easy to Contact.

Put your contact info on every page of your website. Ideally, make an impressive contact us
page that grabs attention.

 Create a Killer Business Card.

Get an awesome looking business card and hand them out like pizza flyers on a Friday night.

 Make Use of Local Images.

In many ways, you’re not just selling a house, you’re selling a whole town or area. Showcase the
best that your area has to offer, with high-quality, beautiful photos of local town landmarks and
familiar sites.

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  Create an Irresistible Content Offer to Capture Leads.

Consider producing an ebook like “X number of things new home owners should consider before
buying” or “X most valuable features of a new home.” Offering free ebooks in exchange for an
email address (and zip code, in the case of real estate) is a great way to capture leads.

 Hire a Photo Pro.

Successful real estate relies heavily on great photography. Bad photos will diminish interest in
even the greatest of properties. It’s absolutely vital that you have gorgeous photos of your
properties. Hire a professional photographer (preferably with experience photographing homes
and architecture), or, if you have sophisticated equipment and are confident in your abilities,
have your own hand at it. Just remember this is one of those scenarios when it pays to bring in
the professionals.
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There are tons of great resources that provide in-depth detail about real estate photography – this
guide from Digital Photography School is helpful (so long as you have some basic photography
experience under you belt already).

 Create a Virtual Tour.

Your clients’ time is precious, and they want to understand as much as possible about a property
prior to visiting in person. Virtual tours are a great way to give a comprehensive, accurate
preview of the property for potential buyers.

Here’s one example of a virtual tour (although you’ll find some aspects of this video are
quite outdated). If you make your own, I’d beg you to not use music that resembles the
soundtrack of The Sims.

 Local Sponsorship.

Consider helping sponsor local festivals, sports teams, or school events. Signing up as a local
sponsor often means getting your business a spot on t-shirts, program pamphlets, or flyers.

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  Animated Video.

Consider outsourcing a quality animated video for your real estate businesses. Short, cute, high-
quality cartoon videos can help establish your brand as well as give a touch of personality. You
may even want to consider featuring local landmarks or sites in your animated video to make it
ultra-unique and targeted.

Your animated video doesn’t have to be super sophisticated – check out this short and
very simple animated ad from Geico.

 Pinterest Boards.

Pinterest boards are a great way to provide images and information for specific listings. You can
create a Pinterest board for a single property that, in addition, to property photos, highlights
major benefits of the area.

 Make Your Site Mobile-Friendly.

Tech-savvy consumers spend tons of time on their mobile devices. In fact, a recent study has
shown that 80% of Internet users use their mobile devices for online activity. It’s paramount that

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your website is mobile friendly. Even better, consider creating a mobile app that potential buyers
can use to review listings.

 Create a Newsletter.

Email marketing is one of the best strategies for building client relationships. Collect emails
from your website, local outreach, or any other methods you can think of. Send your email
subscribers the stuff they’re looking for – notices about upcoming open houses, new houses on
the market, news about seminars you’re offering in the area, etc. (Note: if you work in different
geographical areas, you’ll want to segment your newsletter subscribers based on their location,
ensuring that they only get relevant emails and updates from you).

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  Start an Email Nurture Campaign.

Nurture campaigns are like the breadcrumb paths of Hansel and Gretel, except instead of a
gingerbread house at the end, clients find their dream home (hopefully without a resident evil
witch).

Leave your clients a trail of high-end panko breadcrumbs by tailoring your interactions
with them based on previous actions they’ve taken. If they first attended an open house with you,
send them an email detailing other nearby houses on the market. If they attended your first time
homebuyer’s seminar, send them your “10 Things Every New Homebuyer Should Know “
ebook. Deliver content that will help your clients take the appropriate next step, depending on
where they are in their journey.

 Build Your Google My Business Page.

Google My Business is the latest in Google location-based pages. If you’re feeling confused,
don’t worry – it’s basically the same idea as Google Places for Businesses and Google+
Pages. Setting up a Google My Business account makes it easy for users to find you in Google
Search, Google Maps, and Google+. Trust me, this one is a no-brainer.

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  Consider Going Niche.

If you’ve got some real estate marketing competition in your area, you may want to consider
making yourself stand out by going niche. Become the go-to real estate agent for dog owners,
families with kids, divorced individuals, whatever. Making a name for yourself in regards to a
specific niche need can make you memorable, especially in saturated zip codes.

 Use Emotional Storytelling.

Utilize emotional storytelling with compelling copy and powerful visual elements. Humans
respond to stories – tell a good one and clients will flock to you.

 Host a Webinar.

If you feel comfortable enough, hosting a webinar can be a great way to garner attention for your
business. Host a “12 Little-Known Things to Look For In A New Home” webinar, providing a
Q&A at the end for questions. Webinars can also be repurposed as YouTube videos, with can
serve as valuable video content that can live permanently on your website! Here are some more
tips on putting together a great webinar.

 Saddle Up For Social Ads.

Don’t be afraid to dish out dough for paid ads on social media. With organic reach dwindling on
many popular social networks like Facebook, paid Facebook ads are often the most effective way
to get in front of clients. Facebook has tons of great targeting features that ensure you’re only
paying to get noticed by your key target audiences.

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  Old School Mailers.

The web is where it’s at, but that’s not to say traditional advertising doesn’t have its place,
especially when you have targeted audiences. Consider sending out postcards to qualified leads
or potential buyers in the specific zip codes you are active in.

 Become a Columnist in Local Magazines.

When it comes to real estate, it’s important that you get laser focused on local. Getting yourself
in local magazines or newspapers is a great way to get the word out about you and your brand.
See if you can write a column or feature for local publications. You don’t want to be blatantly
salesy – today’s consumers don’t like to be pitched to. Instead, try to showcase your knowledge.
Write about how rising prices of houses on the market shows that the town is doing well, or list
the reasons why your regional area is becoming more popular (maybe it’s the revitalized
downtown area or improved school system).

 Home Free Seminars For Home Buyers.

Make yourself and your knowledge available to the community by hosting mini-seminars.
Consider providing a basic 101 seminar about the basics of home buying and mortgages.

Remember, marketing today is all about inbound, and that doesn’t just apply online.
Users want you to share some of your knowledge for free before investing time and money in
you. A home buying seminar is the local equivalent of a webinar. Yes, it will take time and
energy, but attendees will walk away impressed and will have established a relationship with
you. That relationship will be worth its weight in gold when they’re ready to shop for a home.

 Get Branding.

Branding is your buddy – that means pens, drink koozies, and all those other freebies people
love. Give out some branded goodies at local festivals and events to spread your brand.

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  Partner With Local Businesses.

Developing relationships with other local businesses will be key for your real estate marketing
efforts. See if you can get local breakfast joints to let you buy them a set of new coffee mugs
with your logo on them, or buy a place on their paper placemat setting. Don’t be afraid to get
creative with local partnerships.

 Ask for Testimonials From Former Clients.

Testimonials are tremendous trust signals. Showing that real, live people endorse your services
means the world to potential clients. When a homebuyer has had a great experience with you,
reach out to them and ask for a testimonial. If possible, try to get a photo of them as well. Make
the most of these testimonials by placing them strategically on your website and sharing them
now and then on social networks.

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  Create an Awesome Website.

Today’s consumers like to do a lot of legwork themselves online when making major purchases,
and that includes home buying as well. I myself have only rented, but even when renting a
property I’ll Google Map the address, use Street View to get a feel for the area, see which
businesses are within walking distance, look at home photos, and, ideally take a virtual tour of
the property.

Make it easy for users to access all this information – make sure all your property pages
have great photos, virtual tours, and easy access to Google Maps and Google Earth. List the hot
spots nearby and their respective walking distances (mention the bus stop that’s just a five
minute walk, or the Starbucks at the end of the block).

 Make Your Site Easy to Navigate.

All the great property pages in the world won’t mean much if your site is a nightmare to
navigate. Your visitors need to have a good experience on your website, so take the time to brush
up on user experience design skills and information architecture.

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  Include Local-Oriented Copy.

Make sure you are including some local-oriented keywords in your copy to ensure that your
content is found by buyers Googling online for homes in your area.

 Get On Zillow.

Zillow is basically the Yelp of real estate marketing, and you really need to be on there if you
want any chance of being discovered - you can ignore the sun, but it will still burn you! Zillow
offers the ability to advertise as an agent on their website. This can get a bit pricey, but
considering the huge role Zillow plays in home buying, it’s probably your best bet. After all, sites
like Zillow account for 48% of all site traffic for real estate searches on the web.

Zillow also allows users to review real estate agents, so put on a smile and rack up that
rating, as a solid star rating will greatly increase your leads.

 Shared Scheduling App.

Use a scheduling sharing app to coordinate times to show a house to buyers. Scheduling apps
like Doodle can cut down on the endless back and forth timeslot swapping.

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  Give a Local Care Package After Closing.

Your relationship with a client doesn’t end right after they close. You want them to remember
your name so that hopefully they’ll share your info with friends, family, and acquaintances who
might consider moving in the future. Send a local care package to clients after they close, with
local movie or theater tickets, restaurant gift cards, etc.

 Keep In Touch.

Stay in touch (even months and years later) with past buyers in order to build in that good
relationship. Send anniversary cards, holiday cards, etc to stay fresh in their minds. When they
have a friend who is ready to buy, they’ll pass along your info.

 Create a Referral System.

Provide incentives for past clients to refer you to future homebuyers.

 Leverage Call Tracking.

Real estate is one of those industries that absolutely must use call tracking in their paid search
campaigns. Most people use the phone when trying to find a realtor or make an appointment to
view an apartment, condo or house. If those calls come about because someone saw your PPC
ad, you want to be able to track which ads and keywords are driving calls.

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 INTERNSHIP RELATED WORK WITH GLOBAL SOLUTION

INTRODUCTION: - I Alok Singh, used to work for Global Solution As a Sales Executive and
had many experience and ups and downs in that particular organization for 1 year.

Basic concept of company:- basically Global Solution’s main motive is to sell projects (flats) on
contract basis.

As, we all know, now-a-days people wants more luxuries and lavish life than they live. They
want their life to be easier as much as they can. That’s the reason they mainly shift to Flats as it
shows their status in society and make their life hazale free.

As we all aware about this concept “the sales person plays an important role in organization”.
Then for making much profit company used to give target and if the target was completed then
company gives incentives to their sales staff so they are motivated by this strategy.

IMPORTANCE: - An residential and commercial complexes plays an important role now-a-

days in everyone’s life because of new generation needs and demand. During my working period
I noticed that rather than using traditional methods 75% of people switched their mind towards
huge and comfortable area for living and also for the investment.

Main motive: - My main motive was to convenience customers to buy a Flats and shops. I and
my colleague were given different task by our seniors. When a particular customer used to visit, I
used to visit, I used to treat them as a special guest.

My contribution: - I used to be polite to the customer because he or she is the one because of
whom my company will earn profit. I used to make aware of a particular areas and there and
current rates in market to that particular customer. If the customer is demanding for specific Flats
and as per the Vastu Sastra which is not available in my company then that was the main task to
change his mind and turn him for the Flat and take some time to revert them as per his/her need.
The customer is only satisfy when his all demand are fulfill on a reasonable price. The main
policy is communication skills and listening skills. First listing customers demand and then
offering best to his/her and attract them towards that particular demand and make sure that they
go with full satisfaction and buy Flats from my company only. If the customers was not easily

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convinced with the price of Flats then negotiation process will occur which are beneficial to my
company also and at the same time customer should feel that he is not paying too much.

Questions asked by customers:-

What is the market reate of Flats or Areas?

Location of Flats?

What is the builder pofile?

Give us a surity that the site is legal.

Loan facilities are available?

OC(occupancy certificate) is there?

Conclusion: - relationship and loyalty towards customer is must important factor and it helps to
growth company’s sales.

What I learnt:-

Pricing and demand

Resources

History

Location

Demo

Customer expectations

Technical features of product

How to treat customer

Techniques of sale

Specialization

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Terms and condition

After sale service

Experience:-My experience as a sales person was very happening the time of 1 year in that
particular company was best. I learnt how to crack a deal, how to talk to a particular customer,
what’s new in market, met different customers, had different ideas etc. whatever I say is less. My
work, my colleagues, my friends, I got a nice and wonderful package of happiness, work and
experience. That particular time in my life will never come back. Last but not the least memory
and experience I got there.

CHAPTER 5

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 DATA INTERPRETATION

Questionnaire:-
A Questionnaire is a research instrument consisting of a series of questions and other prompts for
the purpose of gathering information from respondents. For my project, questionnaire format was
given by my company guide.

1. Name:

2. Age Group:

3. Educational Qualification:

4. Occupation:

5. Income group

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6. Have you seen any homes/investment properties that you really liked?
a) Yes
b) No

On the basis of above respondents the figure shows that maximum respondent i.e. 20 out of 30 is
already set their mind and seen particular homes.

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7. How soon do you need to move?
a) Within 3 months
b) Within 6 months
c) Yet not decided

On the basis of above respondents the figure shows that maximum respondents i.e. 12 out of 30
still yet not decided to purchase home.

8. How did you find out about our service?

a) Online
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b) Newspaper
c) Friend
d) Salesperson recommended property

On the basis of above respondents the figure shows that maximum respondents i.e. 10 out of 30
know about services by friends.

9. Where do you want to buy property?

a) Naigaon-Vasai
b) Vasai-Nalasopara
c) Nalasopara-Virar

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On the basis of above respondents the figure shows that the maximum respondents did prefer
Nalasopara-Virar area.

10. Do you need to sell a property before you can purchase another?
a) Yes
b) No

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On the basis of above respondents the figure shows that the maximum respondents i.e. 20 out of
30 are sell property before they purchased another.

11. Are you currently in a lease?

a) Yes
b) No

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On the basis of above respondents the figure shows that minimum respondents i.e. 12 out of 30
are stay on rent.

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12. What square footage do you prefer?
a) Under 400 sq. ft.
b) Under 800 sq. ft.
c) Over 800 sq. ft.

On the basis of above respondents the figure shows that maximum respondents i.e. 14 out 30 will
go for under 4000 sq.ft.

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13. What size lot would you prefer?
a) Small
b) Medium
c) Large

On the basis of above respondents the figure shows that maximum i.e. 12 out of 30 are prefer
large size lot.

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14. For which purpose you purchase a Flat?
a) Residential
b) Commercial

i.e. 25 out of 30are purchase flat for residential purpose.

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15. What’s your Budget to purchase a Flat?
a) Below 20 Lacs.
b) Below 30 Lacs
c) Below 40 lacs.
d) Over 40 Lacs

On the basis of above respondents the figure shows that maximum respondents i.e. 15 out of 30
are looking for variety availability at the time during purchase.

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 CHAPTER 6

CASE STUDY

Real Estate Web Design & Branding Case Study

 Website Design and Marketing Strategy for a Real Estate Developer and Sales
Company
Real estate’s marketing and sales strategies may have changed more than any other industry
since the invention of the internet. That’s why it’s important you choose an agency well versed in
traditional and interactive marketing strategies. We helped this client sell 40 condos in just 6
months (from the move-in date) during a very troubled housing market.

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  Our client was
 A real estate developer that built large condo complexes in New Jersey & New York. They
sell the units once they were completed (in this case). They also develop apartment
complexes where they manage the property.

 Our Client’s Position when we first met

 They came to us with all 44 condos to sell in a building that was near completion.
 They were using outdated traditional marketing methods coupled with a down economy and
were not able to obtain enough leads to close on the units.

 Actions
Kraus Marketing developed a strategy with these goals in mind:
 Create a brand for the building so that it could stand out in a market saturated with new
buildings.
 Create a web presence so that they could be found on search engines.
 Provide a better system of capturing cold leads and gathering their information in order to
contact potential buyers for an appointment.
 Created, developed and launched a website and full marketing plan with the following:
 A contact form linked to an email address created specifically for the property.
 A full interactive gallery showcasing the property.
 A traditional and interactive marketing plan created specifically to drive qualified leads back
to the website and building, executed and managed completely by Kraus Marketing.
 Optimized the website for search results (SEO).
 A mobile version of the site so that people with smartphones could view the site with ease.

 Results
Following are the results from the date of launch to current numbers:

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 Within 6 months of the Grand Opening (move in date) out of the 44 condos, 40 were
sold.
 Today all of the units have been sold.

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 CHAPTER 7

CONCLUSION

Indian economy is going through a very good time and is posting new highs on a regular basis.
The per capita income growth rate during 2006-2007 was 13%. As the real estate sector has a
high correlation with the overall economic growth of the economy, so the expansion of this
sector is also phenomenal.

 Two main reasons behind the boom in real estate sector in India are
High rate of growth of the industrial sector amounting to 10.8 % during 2006-2007. In addition,
the manufacturing sector grew at the rate of 11.8 % which is itself a commendable performance.
Inception of L-P-G policy has helped the contractors and the builders in bypassing the red-tapism
as well as the “license-raj”. Allowing the foreign investors to invest in the mega real estate
projects in the year 2002 has broadened the scope for growth in the same.

 Some of the facts related to Indian real estate sector

The worth of Indian real estate has been estimated by Manoj Vaish, President and CEO of Dun
& Bradstreet to be around fourteen billion US dollars. According to him this sector is growing
at a tremendous speed of 30% per annum. The main reason behind this growth is the demand
generated by the off-shoring businesses. The stratified picture of the demand pattern of the real
estate market in India shows that eighty percent of it comes from residential real estate sector
and the real twenty percent from the commercial real estate one.

Real estate market boom in India is making the Asset Management Company(s) like SBI,
TATA, LIC, etc. to float new mutual funds investing solely in the stocks of the listed real estate
sector companies. The most significant phenomenon seen in this sector is the speculative
investments happening in this sector even for the short term. This has prompted the contractors
and builders to add an additional clause for holding the concerned real estate for a minimum
period of 1 year. The future prospect of this industry is looking very bright because of the retail
sector boom that India is going to observe in a couple of years. Big players in the retail sector
like reliance, Bharti, Walmart, etc. have already making their foray in India either directly or
through back door channel. This would require the construction of a lot of shopping complexes

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and retail outlets which would only help in mopping up the growth rate of the real estate sector
in India. Organized Retail sector's contribution to the growth of real estate sector has been
estimated to be 49.53%.

Contribution of the Indian real estate sector to the GDP of the economy has been
calculated to be around 7 %. One of the very important indicators for real estate sector growth is
the demand for loan for the same. It has been observed that the total disbursed amount of loan
for real estate purposes in the year 2006 has increased by almost 12000 crores from the previous
year. But this enthusiasm came out to be too much for the apex bank of India as it felt that the
economy is becoming overheated. So, the frequent churning of the repo and reverse repo by
RBI has cooled down the demand for home loans. The rate of interest rate associated with the
home loan is now at 9.25-10.5 level.

Real estate sector has come up as the second largest employment generator in India
coming only after agriculture sector. It has been estimated that 15% of the educated workforce
are attached with real estate sector in India.

Positive steps taken by the Government of India for for the development of Indian real
estate sector The most significant step taken by the Indian government in this end is the granting
of permission for 100% FDI in Real estate sector Government has succeeded in introducing a
trust called Real Estate Investment Trust (REIT) which has made it possible for the small
investors to earn a formidable dividend from the real estate investments.Some of the regressive
aspects that are associated with the Real Estate Sector in India The structure of the Stamp Duty
required to be paid are not standardized yet all over India. Though according to the Urban
Development Ministry the stamp duty has to be rationalized at the rate of 5 %, differential rate
are applied in different states which most of the times cross the 5% mark. Urban Land Ceiling
and Regulation Act is one of the major obstacles in the path of real estate growth in India
because it barres real estate development on valuable piece of land.

Some of the Reputed Real Estate Companies In India are 21st Century Realtors, Adhiraj
Construction Pvt Ltd., Adarsh Group, Jhavar and Associates and many more.

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