branding

What’s different about you?

I was fortunate enough to spend some time around about 80 marketeers and members of the local real estate and development industry yesterday and they gave me some interesting things to think about. Here’s one of them.

In Malaysia, the real estate industry is fairly effective in marketing and branding itself. Consider this - we for the most part practice a ‘sell and build‘ concept as opposed to some of our European or US based examples where you commonly build a property and then  sell it.

So local real estate developers consistently convince consumers (and banks) that they’re good for the money - agree to pay us hundreds of thousands if not millions of dollars and we’ll build you a house/ building sometime in the future.

This speaks to creating tremendous amounts of both trust and reliability - two aspects of branding and public relations that we’d be well placed to remember in other industries.

The challenges these marketing experts face however is one that should be more familiar - the pressure to differentiate yourself from the competition.

Given the weakening economies of the region; the continuing development of tremendous swaths of land for commercial and residential use; and the on-going credit crunch; businesses in the real estate business must differentiate or fade away. Just like businesses in just about any industry when you stop and consider it.

An example that was quoted during the session included a developer that had taken the simple step of turning the areas behind the houses they built into themed landscapes. Japanese, Balinese and Roman gardens were placed in areas that would normally be nothing more than empty gravel or back lane roads.

A simple change. Not exactly rocket science. But it allowed them to differentiate themselves from the other developments in the area AND charge a premium to potential home owners.

There’s always going to be that group of brands that lead the way. They differentiate at an extreme level and they are rewarded with the price premiums and the most awe.

Then you have the middle of the road offerings that attempt to copy but not to innovate. They will for the most part compete on price and become commodities.

Let’s not even go near the rest of that list as these are brands that come and go on a regular basis. So where are you going to be?

So, here’s a thought - what’s different about you?

What’s different about the brands that you choose to support?

Seen a PR campaign that was different recently?

© 2009 Journeys Through The Line.