"The real estate industry needs to become more agile and more sophisticated to survive. As an agency heavily involved in marketing real estate, we see property companies, both developers and middlemen, in a state of angst about the uncertainty gripping the sector and very unsure about how to shift their marketing gears to adjust to these new realities and challenges."

The changes in the industry are manifold and significant: there is a shift from seller’s market to buyer’s market as well as the reshaping of property transactions due to credit crunch dynamics. There are certainly things than none of us can change. But we advise our clients that the first and most important step towards a logical reassessment of their marketing strategies is a recognition and validation of the tectonic change that has taken place in the ‘buyer profile’, and ergo  ‘buyer behavior.’ 
 
Sure the market is drying up with the exit of the investor-maverick who flips properties for quick profit, but that can’t be a bad thing. Every mature marketer knows that that climate of frothy, unrealistic sky high prices was transitory, and has the kept real buyers away for so long.  So the adjustment in the property sector is actually a healthy reality check, and one that offers good opportunities for those with street smarts. As a marketer you need to realign yourself to the New Buyer. He or she is different, certainly far more likely to buy the property as a long term investment, to actually live in it.

The other side of the coin of the buyer profile is the new ‘commercial investor,’ an entity with deep pockets and market savvy; lasciviously awaiting already badly battered properties to hit rock bottom. For the purpose of this article we will focus on the first kind of buyer.We tell our clients that the new realities of the property sector will necessitate a huge paradigm shift in the way they craft their marketing strategies and design their sales tactics.

Your new marketing plan will need careful deliberation, calculated insight and a great deal of common sense. Put bluntly, we tell clients that they will need to “differentiate, or die.”  Let us see review how property is typically sold in the UAE. At principal level we see billboards for corporate branding and huge (and often wasteful) ad spreads for both branding and single property promotion. We also see mall kiosks (also by the property owner/developer), some internet selling, and finally the bread-and-butter of real estate ads: the classified listings in broadsheets and magazines (by a veritable sea of middle-men).   Mall kiosks work exceptionally well, but they are expensive to maintain and are geographically limited.  The internet is one of the most powerful vehicles for property selling  but unfortunately few companies here have the skill and staying power to keep listings relevant and updated long enough to build credibility and develop business.

Let us focus on real estate marketing in the form classified listings in print media, only because this approach is in the direst need of a makeover and one if done well can work  deliver stunning results to capture  ‘the New Buyer.’ In fact this is probably the most vital tactical tool a  company can use to sell cost-effectively while differentiating itself on a branding level.Today’s property listings, managed by an increasingly desperate band of middle-men, are “dry” details that offer name of the property, size of the property, number of rooms, location (in vague terms), price and who to call.

What your potential target sees is an endless list of the same properties, presented in mind-numbing columns or boxes, all crammed together in newspaper and magazine property sections, sold by different agencies.  A picture helps  but only a little because if it is included it is usually a sketch rendering that looks like it is too good to be true, or it is a truncated façade of yet another tower block in a sea of sameness.  Does this kind of advertising work?  It used to, as it was aimed at the short term investor who wanted to flip the property and needed only to know only that he is buying something  that looks passably sellable. That was in the days when people queued and plopped down the first installment check after hearing the first press announcement.

Today’s buyers are more pragmatic and cautious with their money. The New Buyer wants to know as much detail as possible about the property he or she is buying. He or she cares about the number of rooms, the orientation of windows to morning light,  the quality of hard floors, the finish of the wardrobes, the sense of space in the living room, decorative features on ceilings and light fixtures, the brand of kitchen appliances, the location of the property, the social dynamics of the neighborhood as well as  proximity to schools, cultural centres, parks, markets, metro or taxi stations.  You have to sell not just the physical attributes of the property but make a visceral connection with the buyer. 

Fundamentally, you pull at the heart strings and sell that warm feeling of ‘home.’ If the buyer can actually visualize living in the property: settling in the quiet reading nook, the little yard for the kids to play, the graduation celebration in the dining area, then he or she is far more likely to reach out for their check book.  Practically speaking whether you are a middle man, or the property owner, this new approach means that have to focus on less but present it with more. Think of it as a dish, that is served  with  appetizer, garnish and dessert. Listing everything under the sky, using cryptic shorthand is exactly what everyone is doing, and it doesn’t work. So strive to be smarter, more targeted, more differentiated.Of course an inherent dilemma in Gulfwide property marketing  is that off plan properties (a dying phenomenon to be sure) means marketing a property that doesn’t actually exist, so you have to be that more adept to making the dream come alive.

You need to be able to communicate the personality of the property using outstanding visual imagery in renderings and language. Here we come to the importance of brand identity.  I speak not of the manic logo infatuation currently gripping the land, but rather of well thought out strategies that should reflect precise positioning of the property and express the entire  brand ‘promise;’ from the physical details that  make it special right  to the ‘values’ that govern location, design, environment, community, management of the property and the many other intangibles that are important to a home-owner. Branding success is more assured when everyone in the ‘cycle’ starts working together early, before design blueprints, before ground is broken, and way before interior design takes place.  It is important to align the corporate visionary with architects, interior designers, property managers, marketing agency and other key players to come up with a singular, powerful identity that is well differentiated, clearly positioned and consistent at all critical touch points. Such coordination is extremely rare, even in the best of companies.  But it may well be the very crux of advanced branding and positioning that is needed in today’s economy, to deliver a compelling and integrated home-owner experience.

Today’s buyer needs to be confident not only that the property will deliver on all the qualities promised, but wants iron-clad assurance that the property will continue to be serviced well after he or she moves in.Another important dynamic that every property developer and owner needs to be aware of is the formidable competition that is coming from the outside.  Your New Buyer is likely to be an expatriate; one ready to live in the UAE for a lengthy period of time.  But that buyer is now being wooed by other markets, maybe those of his or her own home, perhaps in the US, UK, Europe, the subcontinent, the Far East where home prices have taken a tumble and marketers are offering hard to resist deals.  And because those property markets are far more mature than here, the advertisers there are also employing those same intelligent marketing strategies that you should now be thinking of using here.

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"Uninspired, undifferentiated and lacking strategic direction," wrote Sana Bagersh, BrandMoxie's CEO in the June issue of Gulf Marketing Review, on the UAE's enormously cluttered real estate advertising environment. 

Much of advertising in the real estate sector of the UAE is characterized by ambiguous branding and messaging. In some cases, a single ad displays a myriad of logos, for everyone from the real estate owner, the developer, the broker, the broker’s dealer, the small time rep, the project financing bank and the brokerage bank. Sometimes the architect’s own branding, along with that of the technology partner and the equipment outfitters are thrown in for good measure.  No wonder buyers are often confused.

On a corporate identity level, a couple of winners emerged from Abu Dhabi, which though new to the real estate boom seems to be certainly holding its own.  Hydra and Tomouh came out with corporate branding that was more standout than many of their peers.  Fairly decent creative came out of new entrants 5 Pioneers and Al Rayan, but with copy vaguely wanting. 

An interesting brand with inspired communication is Tanmiyat,  a heavy advertiser in May. Tanmiyat managed to cut through the clutter with clever creative. Quite reminiscent of Omniyat’s techno focus, Tanmiyat’s creative is well executed, clean and clear; managing to communicate the offering’s features without straying from the human element.
The report shows that shoddy ‘patchwork’ advertising was abundant everywhere, from both property companies and brokers. The cheap way out in real estate advertising has always been to slap a few building images together, add a strip of image-library lifestyle pictures and paste a cluster of logos.  These ads, many of them mostly tactical in nature, are stripped of any branding qualities, which is such shame given that property marketing is vitally dependent for its long term sustainability, on image, credibility and strong brand positioning.
 
Companies bereft of consistent branding visual elements include Damac, Al Barari, Abdul Rahim Al Zarouni, FalconCity and Al Deyaar. Unfortunately in an industry where only reputation sells the property, image is everything. That’s because investors can’t see an ‘unbuilt’ property and have to go by how credible, professional and robust a company appears. Companies requiring a brand review and revamp include MBC, GSS and Al Odaid, who have resorted to supermarket style advertising creative—all great examples of how sometimes it is better not to advertise at all than to advertise mediocrity.

The report shows that brand hierarchy and extension development is emerging as a key issue, and many property companies need to establish clear guidelines early to build their assets on powerful foundations (excuse the pun).  A disappointing brand extension exercise was evident from The One which publicized its foray into the real estate sector by running an ad for The One Tower. The One would have been better served by first developing a creative worthy of, and consistent with, its already established retailing brand. The One has become a powerful brand in the region, and it certainly  doesn’t need to be compromised by inferior partner branding.  Brand extension was also evident in advertising from ETA trying to reconcile the identities of its investment and real estate arms.

The challenge in real estate advertising is always how to communicate and sell to investors and end users projects that are often in drawing board stage. Marketers have resorted to elaborate architectural designs, 3D models, art drawings, sketches and abstract imagery.   The intention is clearly to convey the scope and often majesty of a project using only creative, a visionary slogan and the pull of the brand. This is evident in the May ads of companies like Sorouh, which overused an arty but rather dreary sketch, as well Escan which presented a grid to epitomize the breadth of its activities, to others like Fortune Avenue and ACI which used blueprint-like abstracts.  Although these approaches provide an easy way out (i.e communicating vision without actually committing to details), many of these are devoid of the human element which makes them quite irrelevant and totally ineffectual.

With the continuing boom of the real estate sector, the self-regulating controls that may need to be put in place are in branding consistency and communications structuring.  One way to do this would be for the big property owners to take control, establish branding guidelines for all their partner property developers, brokers, financiers and technology partners.  The ‘brandbook,’ in the vernacular, would include everything from templates, look and feel, typography, logo placement hierarchy and on-messaging. It would serve as a consolidated guide to ensure all trickle down activity has one streamlined voice.

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BrandMoxie's CEO on Dubai Eye Radio: "We are trying to create a new kind of advertising agency," BrandMoxie's CEO Sana Bagersh told Dubai Eye Radio.

Bagersh outlined BrandMoxie's holistic approach to marketing and the strong focus on the strategic link between advertising and financial goals. "Our focus is rock solid strategy, outstanding service and first rate creative," said in an interview on 12 February on Dubai Eye's Morning Breakfast Show. To hear the full interview (click or copy/paste): http://www.zawya.com/Channel.cfm/objE1209090997221122765512AD-9-12-2333-11/