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What has been the most important sales promotion you have engineered so far?
One of our most important and successful promotions has been the 60 days 60 cars carnival with Rs 1 crore as a bumper prize (in association with Saviour Builders). The idea was to offer 60 cars during the period of 60 days of this carnival with the chance of winning Rs 1 crore in a bumper draw on the last day of the event. With this initiative, we were celebrating 18 years in the real estate business.
Who was the primary target for the promotion?
We launched the carnival especially for our residential project, Gaur City, which is located at Greater Noida (West), near Delhi. This is primarily aimed at the middle and upper middle class consumers.
Can you explain the media plan?
While the media plan typically covered the traditional media, including print, outdoor, radio, and television, we realised that to reach out to a larger section of the consumers, we had to push ourselves further. We decided to run the campaign at cinema halls (setting up kiosks there) as well. Since an increasing number of our target consumers was going online and searching for real estate projects on property portals and websites, we decided to reach out to our target consumer base through this medium quite aggressively.
Why was the sales promotion designed in such a manner?
Though real estate companies provide houses to consumers, it is rare that a "bond" is actually forged between the company and the buyer. Also, for any real estate company, image is a premium commodity - it is when the buyer is getting introduced to the company that the first impression is create. And that is critical.
This campaign was designed to create a great first impression. We had kept a close watch on the market and consumers for some time before the launch of the offer; we noticed the key behavioural changes among consumers and then designed and executed this "carnival".
What were the challenges?
One of the major challenges was to ensure that this campaign was not a farce. In short, we did not want the campaign to affect our image of a committed player that delivers projects on time. It was important for us to gain the consumers' trust because the location itself (Greater Noida West) had faced some disturbances earlier. Successfully completing the "carnival" with tangible results then was very important.
Eventually, our buyers did recognise that Gaursons was in the business of providing value-for-money projects. What the campaign also did was to create buzz in a market that was in the grips of a slowdown. Given the value attached to the campaign (cars and a bumper prize), many customers found it exciting. It also allowed us to bring on board those customers who were anyway out in the market looking to acquire a new property.
What have been the direct and measurable impact on your brand and on project sales?
The offer found many takers; we managed to sell 700 units in 60 days, especially at a time when the sector was not performing too well. Plus there were issues with the project site itself. During the carnival, the company registered business of Rs 300 crore. What's best, even after the offer was over, we continued to see consumer interest in our properties.
While we were apprehensive in the beginning, it reinstated our belief that the buyers trusted us, our brand. Very often such promotions are seen as gimmicks and people lose faith in the claims made by brands. It is important that companies, when they undertake such campaigns, are sure of delivering on the promise.
We were certain of delivering on the promise we made to the consumer and that is the reason we had a grand celebration once the sales promotion came to an end. We announced the winner of the bumper prize at a ceremony (this also allowed us to engage and interact with a lot of the customers who had purchased homes, won cars through the promotion) and in a way, this assured our patrons that we will keep to the time-frame for the delivery of the flats as well.
Don't sales promotions incur high long-term costs for the company?
You must understand that sales promotions undertaken by any company in any sector are a means to build brand image and fuel business growth. Of course, such promos involve financial commitments, and yes, in that sense, we have made huge investments, but look at the results. We feel the investment has given us good returns.
That said, you cannot over-promise and under-deliver. That would be detrimental to the interests of a company. It is ultimately the decision of a company how much it would want to invest in brand building. Saviour and Gaursons had come together for this promotion, and it is a win-win for both.
FROM THE HORSE'S MOUTH
60 days 60 cars carnival
Aim
To create the impression of a committed player that delivers projects on time
Target
We launched the 60 days 60 cars carnival especially for our residential project, Gaur City, which is located at Greater Noida (West). This was primarily aimed at the middle and upper middle class consumers
Plan
To offer 60 cars during the period of 60 days of the carnival with the chance of winning Rs 1 crore in a bumper draw on the last day of the event
Outcome
We managed to sell 700 units in 60 days, especially at a time when the sector was not performing too well given the overall state of the economy
