This was one of the most cost effective promotions by Tata Value Homes: Pawan Sarda

Interview with Head of marketing, Tata Value Homes

What has been the most interesting sales promotion you have engineered so far?

To break the clutter, Tata Value Homes, a 100 per cent subsidiary of Tata Housing Development Company, announced a unique offer for the potential consumers to purchase their dream home online during the Great Online Shopping Festival by Google. This platform has benefitted the consumers as they can purchase products at economical and discounted rates. Impressively, Tata Value Homes have sold more than 50 apartments in four days with sales totalling more than Rs 25 crore. Of the 50-plus apartments sold, around 40 per cent were bought by people from Tier-II cities. Non-resident Indians contributed a little over 30 per cent to the overall sale.
 
Who did you primarily target with the promo?

We decided to partner with Google to target consumers in metros who were waiting to book their dream homes but were unable to do so as the conventional method of buying a home is very time consuming. This is when we decided to go online and integrate a payment gateway that enabled consumers to book apartments across four projects in Ahmedabad, Pune, Talegaon and Bengaluru from the comfort of their homes through credit/debit cards.

Why did you go online?

We were toying with the idea to go online because of the ease of transaction it offers. Buying a property is a time consuming process. So when Google approached us with an option of participating in the Great Online Shopping Festival we lapped up the opportunity. This was the first time a real estate player was going online to sell a house, wherein both the marketing of the project, and the sale transaction were conducted online. With this we have opened a new avenue not only for Tata Housing but the industry at large.

How was the campaign designed?

We decided to integrate a payment gateway to enable consumers, wherever they were, to book their dream homes at the click of a button. We set ourselves the goal of creating India's first online payment gateway for a real estate brand to facilitate transaction by consumers across the globe.

What were the challenges?

Buying a home is one of the most important and often once in a lifetime decision. It involves life's savings of an average Indian. Hence, an average home buyer wants to consult others, seeking expert opinion before deciding on a project.

So the challenge here was to change the way homes were bought by people. We did that successfully by building confidence and trust among our consumers by ensuring quality construction and timely delivery of homes.

How effective was the exercise?

We received a phenomenal response. We logged more than 10 bookings within the first few hours of going live and concluded with sales totalling more than Rs 25 crore. Along with Tata Value Homes, Tata Housing also focused on premium and luxury housing, which also received an overwhelming response from NRIs and consumers from Tier-I and Tier-II cities during the festival. Tata Housing's projects with special offers were Amantra (Mumbai), Aveza (Mumbai), Primanti (Gurgaon), Ariana (Bhubaneswar), Riva (Bengluru) The Promont (Bengaluru), and Myst (Kasauli). This well-priced sale offer attracted buyers from places like UK, US, Kenya, Malaysia, Dubai, Muscat and cities like Jodhpur, Ajmer, Baroda, Surat, Kanpur, Mangalore, Chikmagalur and others in India.

Don't sales promotions incur high long-term costs for the company?

This was one of the most cost effective promotions by Tata Value Homes and the success of this sale has strengthened our belief that the accessibility and convenience of the internet makes it an ideal medium for end-users and investors alike. Following the success of this inaugural sale - where both the marketing of the project, and the sale transaction were conducted purely online - we plan to add several more to the calendar, providing consumers more frequent avenues for accessing quality homes.

---

Click and book a house at Rs 20,000
Aim
To enable consumers book apartments across four projects in Ahmedabad, Pune, Talegaon and Bengaluru from the comfort of their homes through credit/debit cards

Target
Consumers in metros who are waiting to book their dream homes but are unable to do so as the conventional method of buying a home is very time consuming

Plan
We decided to partner with Google to enable consumers purchase their dream home online during the Great Online Shopping Festival by Google. The marketing of the project and the sale transaction were conducted purely online. We created India's first online payment gateway for a real estate brand to facilitate transaction by consumers across the globe

Outcome
Tata Value Homes has sold more than 50 apartments in four days with sales totalling more than Rs 25 crore. Out of the over 50 apartments that were sold, around 40 per cent were bought by people from Tier-II cities