By A Correspondent
Bhartiya City from the Delhi-based Bhartiya group is a 125-acre integrated real estate development. Positioned as the ‘City of Joy’ in Bengaluru, it is envisaged as an integrated township.
The Insight: Target consumer research conducted by the Bhartiya Group showed that key milestones in life such as marriage, children and career go hand in hand with property purchase, and all of this happens between the age group of 25-34-years, with over 40 percent of the potential segment considering a property purchase falling in this age group.
The Marketing Approach: The objective was to launch and market Nikoo Homes, branded residences that were the first product line to be launched. This was a B2C marketing programme. In parallel or subsequently other products such as an IT SEZ, a hotel, a hospital would be launched which would be broadly B2B marketing.
Focusing the key value proposition and the phasing of the supporting elements was important – Bhartiya City had to be positioned as a city with a vast array of features, facilities and advantages without overwhelming the customer.
The Challenge & Opportunity: Real estate is a highly cluttered category and a typical newspaper issue had a number of players offering similar products. There was limited differentiation between brands and products and real estate advertising typically also followed a standard format. Focus group research showed that credibility for real-estate ads was minimal with readers discounting most of the communication and relying on the evidence of their eyes at site visits, past track record of the builder and word of mouth.
Integrated Approach: There was close linkage between the product design and positioning, the marketing collateral and communication strategy. The role of the campaign was to make Nikoo Homes and Bhartiya City top-of-mind and generate site visits. At the site a 40,000+ sq feet ‘Discovery Centre’ displayed life-size flats and multimedia tools to walk potential residents through the making of the city.
Creative Route: The creative challenge as per Wieden+Kennedy, Delhi, was to capture the feeling of living in a city, with simple pleasures brought to life through complex design and planning. The thought was brought to fruition by W+K with a true-to-scale image created by illustrator Rod Hunt for the launch campaign as well as across integrated media such as press, OOH, sales collaterals, films, the website and installations at the Discovery Centre.
An integrated media campaign orchestrated by Lintas Initiative ensured that the campaign was visible across print, outdoor, buses, radio – each with its own story, yet aligned with the master communication plan. Activation was a key and unique element to position the city – within three months the grounds had played host to Slayer, Santana and Guns ‘n’ Roses. The promotion and subsequent concert attendance ensured that Bhartiya City was on the map.
During the launch and subsequent days over 1,000 people visited the site daily and conversion rates from those visits have far exceeded the industry average.
Jessie Paul of Paul Writer, who advised Bhartiya on the marketing effort, said, “A key factor has been focusing on building the product and brand with the belief that sales will follow. Some of the elements – like concerts – are unique to our marketing mix and have enabled a rapid ramp-up of awareness.”
According to Subhas Warrier, EVP, Initiative, Bengaluru, the consumer insights analysed on a typical property purchase scenario in bengaluru helped them to establish the role for a multi-media strategy that included TVCs, print, radio, outdoor and digital. “Outdoor played a crucial role in addressing the IT catchment area in different parts of the city. We were able to provide sound communication plan that cut-through the clutter and reached out to our potential customers in the most cost-effective manner,” he said.
Wieden+Kennedy has hired Santosh ‘Paddy’ Padhi as Chief Creative Officer for India. The hire also means an expansion for the independent creative agency into Mumbai, where Padhi will build out the shop’s second India location. Wieden+Kennedy has been established in Delhi since 2007, over the years working on brands loike IndiGo Airlines, Royal Enfield, and the Government of India.