Property developers are very good at marketing. When the market is buoyant almost anything will sell. For prospective buyers, it is often a race against time in fear of missing out a bargain or the dream property. But as buyers become more sophisticated, marketing alone may not be enough especially if the aim is to differentiate from the mass product and create extra value.
UrbanEyes have been working on Aranya’s latest lifestyle property development project in the popular coastal resort Beidaihe located in the city of Qinhuangdao on northeast China’s Bohai Sea. Our takeaway on product branding and marketing for the targeted buyers are summarised below.
- Buyers want the brand. This high demand means the new way of marketing is based on invitation, instead of persuasion, which is the old-school of marketing.
- Sell what people buy. Most buyers like to buy, but they do not like to be sold.
- The offering is better than the competitor’s.
- Buyers desperately want to be part of the project.
- The direct benefits buyers receive is connected to the offering. In this specific project, this includes the infamous quality, brand, and arts and culture facilities and lifestyle.
- It combines style with substance. In the mass market, there are many projects that have style without substance, and vice-versa.
In a sellers market, developers can rely on the standard and well tested approach which is extremely efficient and can generate returns quickly with a degree of certainty on profit margin. But when market sentiment changes, or there is increasing competition in the market place, or a space has been identified in the market for a new product, the above may offer some pointers on brand development and marketing. As evident in the earlier phases of the project, it attracted a massive buyer demand and achieved a much higher price than the market average.
