Positioning Strategies For Real Estate Brands
Concept: Villa del Soffio, image courtesy of Nicholas Preaud
In the competitive world of real estate development, differentiation and targeting are vitally important to effective marketing. The need to differentiate is especially important to real estate developers or marketers building and selling properties.
A strong positioning strategy creates positive consumer perceptions and attracts interest from your core target market, leading to higher prices and profit margins. On the other hand, failing to create a strategic positioning strategy will leave your sales team fumbling with low-quality leads, lower close rates and shrinking operating margins.
What is a positioning strategy in real estate marketing?
A positioning strategy for your real estate brand is a foundational part of your marketing strategy. The end goal is to clarify achievable objectives regarding where you want your brand to exist in the market relative to competitors, how it should be perceived by potential clients, and what key offerings and messages should be included to accomplish those goals.
Brand positioning is so much more than having a catchy name, a clever tagline or an eye-catching logo. With top real estate companies it’s all about capitalising on opportunities to maximise brand leverage by emphasising key market differentiators.
Types of positioning strategies
Quality-based
A quality-based positioning marketing strategy for a real estate developer might emphasise:
higher-quality materials
more focused, personalised services
sustainable building practices or other mission-driven business practices
Service oriented
A service oriented strategy may involve handling all enquiries as if the client is the most valued client, and being responsive and attentive, both pre-purchase and during after sales, ensuring that the overall buying experience can help justify premium prices.
Price focussed
Adopting a price focussed strategy can target either end of the spectrum. A real estate brand can position itself as offering the most affordable option in order to generate a larger customer base (i.e. cheaper housing suitable for the mass market), or adopt premium pricing for the “exclusive few.”
Differentiation
This type of strategy relies on a company’s uniqueness or innovative qualities when compared to its traditional competition—maybe the real estate developer has bespoke property management systems, or is the only one in the area building swimming pools into its developments.
Convenience based
This strategy will highlight why a company’s product or services are more convenient to use than those of its competitors and might be based on factors such as the location of the developer’s pre-sales office (i.e. near to a shopping mall or with good parking) or the convenience of a new development to road or rail transport networks;
Some example of positioning strategies
Positioning is often easier to see when looking at hotel brands rather than at residential or commercial real estate. Whilst the same rules apply to all sectors, hotel brands need to sell their product on a daily basis, so they invest more time and thought into how their brands are perceived.
Examples of the positioning of some luxury hotel brands:
Images courtesy of Six Senses
Six Senses
This brand has targeted a market segment that prioritises wellness. The brand’s focus on wellness is completely integrated – visible in the name, the amenities, the content tone of voice, even the photography. Six Senses offers all the same elements as their boutique luxury rivals, but it increases its chance to capture the high-growth wellness market with the sustained focus.
Images courtesy of Aman
Aman Resorts
This brand positions itself at the highest end of the market, as illustrated by the ultra luxe and world class design, the offerings of exclusivity, privacy, and personal attention. When this type of positioning strategy marketing is successful, the brand will command premium prices, even in larger city markets that have a multitude of residential real estate brands such as Bvlgari, Versace or Porsche jostling for position at the highest end of the market.
The three keys to strategic positioning of a brand
Karl Lagerfeld HQ, image courtesy of Frame Work
A successful strategic positioning statement results in clear answers to the following questions that your ideal customer will ask when investigating your offering.
‘Who’ is this brand?
Brands have personalities, likes, and dislikes – just as people do. A clearly defined brand persona should support the brand’s position in the market.
Why should I buy this?
A positioning strategy identifies a market segment that the brand wants to position itself to attract. Because the target market is clearly defined, the brand’s core messaging can answer the (sometimes unspoken) questions that every prospective buyer will have: Why do I want to buy something like this? What desires and fears are driving me to consider this purchase?
Why should I buy this and not something similar?
Although it is tempting to try to position your brand as attractive to all, you will create more persuasive messaging – and more conversions – if you select a target market and speak directly to that market’s preferences. For example, potential clients seeking to buy mountain vacation homes have different reasons and requirements for the purchase. Are they buying on a budget or to demonstrate wealth? Are they seeking a large home for multigenerational gatherings or an intimate couples retreat? When your marketing strategy is informed by a clear positioning statement that identifies your target market segment, you can craft messages that speak to the deeper needs of your prospects.
How to create an effective brand positioning strategy
Image courtesy of BonVivant Concept
Creating an effective brand positioning strategy involves identifying what makes a brand different, more recognisable; its unique value proposition. Once the target customer is understood and the strengths and weaknesses of competitors analysed, it will be possible to work on differentiation to make a brand unique and endeavour to provide services and/or products better than anyone else.
Research the end user
Appropriate research of the subject market and the requirements of the end user or “ideal customer” should drive all positioning decisions made throughout the process.
For any real estate group, such processes may involve:
Establishing a detailed understanding of the target market, e.g. whether they prefer to buy or rent; understand the markets preferences in terms of key locational or spatial needs (ie size, 3-bed units) and facilities, plus optional extras
Categorising target groups once the relevant information has been collected and analysed, establishing priorities or preferences;
Studying regional and national macro-economic trends to understand how such trends may affect the broad target market’s propensity to rent or buy.
Research the market
A competitive and comparative set of other real estate developers can be established and their strengths and weaknesses studied.
Competitive analysis
To create your competitive set, include other developers that may be:
Local or immediate competitors in the same geographical area
Regional competitors that cover various sub-markets with, perhaps, a more varied client base
Competitors that are national or aspire to be, perhaps as aspirational competitors
International competitors, whilst not directly competitive, may provide a useful case study(ies) on how to grow beyond the boundaries of local and national markets.
A competitive set must be similar in the price or rental points, quality level and type of offering a real estate developer is looking at creating.
Comparative analysis
A second step will be to look at the comparative offerings of developers who are included in the competitive set.
This may include:
Assessing the facilities, features and amenities on offer and recording any differentiators, especially in the more aspirational competitive sets
Preparing a detailed list of amenities and facilities and identifying those which have proven to be particularly successful in terms of supporting sales
What’s included in such offerings and identifying those additional extras which can easily be delivered at enhanced prices.
Validate or adjust the target market profile and consider pricing range
After completing these detailed assessments, review the data to consider whether the information assembled on competitive sets requires any adjustment to the target market profile. You may uncover previously hidden market gaps to target or gluts to avoid.
Based on competitive sets identified and evaluated, determine high/low prices for the proposed development.
Determine points of differentiation
Based on information collected from the various channels, start to identify, define and refine possible differentiators. Once identified, these can be assessed and prioritised, with a selection of the most useful and those which can acquire the most beneficial media exposure being adopted.
This can be an ongoing process with further review and adaption as circumstances change.
Let us help you build a brand positioning statement and framework
The next step is to build a brand position framework to form the foundation for your brand positioning strategy.
A unique brand positioning strategy is essential in making a statement about a business, and attracting the attention of target clients and, in turn, successfully growing the brand.
Visit our Real Estate Positioning Strategy page to see a range of our services.
