Consider a scenario where you are telling a friend about your experience with eating biryani. While the dish itself is common and popular among food lovers, your experience of enjoying the dish will involve details that excited you – the kind of spices that went into it, the scent and flavor. Even the presence or absence of meat and veggies, that made the dish extraordinary.
It is often said that ‘God lies in the little details’. While large perspectives can be generic and vague, it is the deeper understanding of micro details where it becomes truly specific and precise.
Defining real-estate (residential) Micro Markets involves looking at the term from two perspectives;
- Tangibles: Real estate land parcels physically segmented into smaller areas, with clear, well-defined local features, including amenities and facilities such as local businesses, hospitals, schools, co-working spaces, transport accessibility, etc.
- Intangibles: These include a set of behaviors, thinking, working pattern and lifestyles of end consumers; their needs and requirements. For instance, people living in the city center look for certain non-negotiables such as business accessibility, in contrast to those who stay on the outskirts looking for nature or isolation.
In real estate, averages tend to blur out the finer details, therefore resulting in missed opportunities. This translates into contrasting scenarios; the trend of looking at homebuyers in general versus what they individually like or dislike. Inventories in specific areas that sell, and those that don’t. For example, Whitefield as well as Sarjapura in Bengaluru are both micro markets. However, if one were to use a broad brush, say ‘East Bangalore’; then we would miss the nuances of the two individual areas, their uniqueness in what gets purchased and sold, how people view the living areas across either of these markets.
A deep understanding of micro-markets is essential to a successful Sales & Marketing strategy. Without it, we would likely be throwing random darts across the board – unplanned budgets, large marketing ideas, ill-conceived strategies and half-baked plans.
Instead, with a micro-market focused strategy,
- We include hyper-local information on infrastructure and catchment areas when considering localities and specific areas.
- Understand and identify Target Customer groups.
- Match budgets and preferences.
- Undertake strong analytical research and assess market dynamics including competition.
- Deep dive into customer choices in micro-markets and their likely purchases.
THE IMPORTANCE OF 5 MICROMARKET SALES INSIGHTS
1, Micro-market knowledge enhances customer behavior insights
People in cities are in a constant state of flux, moving, renting, purchasing homes. Their location changes constantly, they adapt and engage with the community in which they settle. They adopt the habits and way of life of the local community. This doesn’t happen over decades (as in earlier times) but over the course of a few weeks today. Micro-market understanding at the consumer level helps in location specific, geographical segmentation that targets specific people for their way of life, actions, likes and needs. This gives sales and marketing driven decisions more context and relevance. It helps in consumer connection, building conversations and understanding their desires and needs.
2. Buyers are evolving, so are their likes and tastes
Home buyers are ever evolving and changing. For example, large and luxurious 3-4BHK spaces are in demand today than they were before the pandemic. Buyer thinking has undergone a sea change.
Their intent behind purchasing decisions also changes with time. If proximity to schools may be the intention of young couples with small kids, retirement options or relaxation are the purchasing drivers for older families. Additionally, buyers today constantly keep changing localities to find spaces that they most connect with, and which can satisfy the majority of their needs. In such cases, connecting to the evolving needs of homebuyers and aligning features, specifications and amenities that add value to them, can be a win-win situation for everyone concerned. This helps fetch the best revenue yield for the developer.
3. Optimizing offline connections to leverage online marketing
Digital marketing is powerful, reaching more people with similar interests, habits and social standing. But digital marketing without purpose and intent, is a waste of budget, time and resources. While advertising does garner leads, understanding people in the micro-market segments allow us to understand the audience deeply, separate them based on their lifestyles, and the drivers of their purchase decisions. This is an expertise that is hands-on, borne out of interacting with customers face-to-face, engaging with those from different geographies and demographics across a wide range of channels – on-ground surveys, sample analysis, homebuyer interviews and information exchange.
4. Spending purposefully for effective marketing that converts
Digital marketing for the most part is about thoughtful expenditure. What if we could know for sure that the people connecting with us, are doing so because they have a need to be addressed? Understanding micro-markets and doing everything possible – including research and analysis – is ultimately undertaken to ensure that money we pour into marketing plans and strategies, is utilized effectively. Building thought-through audience segmentation and deep-diving into micro-market realty eventually lowers marketing costs, brings down investment risks and makes the overall sales strategy more effective. Every task that is undertaken can be tied to deliverables, every rupee spent becomes value-driven, and more can be achieved with a lot less, defined by 360 targeting.
5. Making customers the core driver of sales & marketing
Micro-market realty strategies are a customer-led approach to sales and marketing. When we look at it this way, we are not just selling a product but addressing their need, letting them decide what they want, and ensuring we create the right fit for them. This knowledge helps create a niche where sales are not just driven by money, but customer relationships and connection. This holistic way of understanding markets boosts loyalty, trust, creates a feel-good factor and a more trusting brand connect.
Micro-markets are a coming together of micro dynamics and macro economics. One cannot do without the other. Yet for an effective, optimized sales and marketing strategy as we at WeOwn have run for the last 11 years, it is important to understand and deeply connect to audiences – an expertise we’re continuously building. This ultimately results in faster sales and better margins, higher brand capital and timely revenue realization for the Builder.