Brotin Banerjee has been instrumental in the success of Tata Housing Development Company Ltd and mentoring the company to scale greater heights. He has spearheaded the concept of affordable housing and sustainable green developments that has been an ace for Tata Housing. Brotin joined the company in 2006 as its Deputy CEO there after in the year 2008 was appointed the MD & CEO. He holds an MA in International Studies from Jawaharlal Nehru University, New Delhi and joined the TATA Administrative Services in 1998.
How do you see the real estate market poised in India today?
From a sector steeped in murky deals to the one led by corporate entities, the Indian realty industry has undergone a tremendous change in the past few years. The transformation started since 2005, when government allowed FDI in real estate, which saw lot of interests from corporate and MNCs in this space. The next wave of transformation started with the entry of more number of corporate houses into the business giving the sector an image makeover. Led by corporates with strong business foundation, the sector started adopting corporate governance practice where corporate social responsibilities were given prominence and transparency has started to be the norm in the industry
Indian real estate has huge potential demand in almost every segment including commercial, residential, retail, industrial and hospitality, etc. The pan India demand for office space is estimated to be 196 million sq ft by 2013. The pan India residential demand is estimated to be over 7.5 million units by 2013 across all categories including Economically Weaker Sections (EWS), affordable, mid and luxury segments. (Source: Cushman & Wakefield)
There have also been radical changes in the dealings of the sector, which previously lacked ethics though is turning more investor-friendly with the onset of corporate governance, transparency and an increased sense of accountability among the players.
Why do you think that there is so much stress on luxurious lifestyle in real estate marketing these days, is that the only way to move ahead?
In a competitive market where there are multiple players, real estate developers are going all out to put forth their market differentiator. Luxury-lifestyle housing projects helps cater to a niche audience which is impressed by facilities such as club-houses, swimming pools or health clubs.
One cannot say if that’s the only way to move ahead as during slowdown or recession all developers who have
been into premium and luxury projects quickly turn to affordable segments and when there is an improvement in the market, they go back to premium and luxury. Hence it totally depends upon the business model the developer is comfortable with.
As far as Tata Housing is concerned, we straddle across all consumer segments from value to luxury housing, by offering products ranging from Rs. 7 lakhs to over Rs 14 crores. We have launched a subsidiary company, Smart Value Homes Limited, that focuses exclusively on value and affordable housing while the parent Tata Housing focuses on developing premium and luxury residences. We have found successes in both the business model owning to unique process and technologies adoption.
Tata Housing has been doing some innovative marketing like entering Limca Book of Records and its IPO style booking. What has been the marketing mantra for Tata Housing? How has these initiatives worked for the brand?
The real estate sector has become highly competitive in the past few years with new projects coming up across India. Developers have to constantly endeavour to create unique, innovative marketing and sales strategies in order to create visibility for their projects. At Tata Housing, the onus of driving the project and taking it to the next level is primarily the responsibility of the marketing team. Along with the entire team of brand, media and communication managers, we focus immensely on distinctive planning and execution of our innovative projects instead of developing a typical run- of-the-mill strategy.
Audiences in India are more receptive towards the advertisements they witness on various ad platforms. Specifically, outdoor / billboard advertisements act as a follow up medium and create top of the mind recall for patrons which effectively lead towards building further awareness and sale of the brand. Given the clutter of existing players, the market demands differentiation in the presentation of messages led by innovative idea and technologies. We prefer playing with new ideas and adopt innovative methodologies that have come to our aid in minimizing our marketing spends by 2% with faster turnaround of the project.
Tata Housing made it to the prestigious Limca Book of Records 2013 for ‘Mumbai Wallbook’, the lengthiest wall painting activity held in Mumbai. Tata Housing’s Gateway Capital made history with a unique strategy of selling its units through an IPO-styled concept where we generated an order booking worth Rs.450 crores in a single day.
Our successful projects are the result of our in-depth understanding of the market and customers need, which time and again differentiates us from the competition.
You have also come out with a project targeting senior citizens, can you talk about the project and the potential in this segment for Tata Housing?
Research and data pointed towards this segment which seemed to be going unattended and showed a huge deficit in terms of the number of senior citizens in the country as opposed to housing facilities available to them. Riva Residences is one of India’s largest integrated residential complexes for the senior emeritus in Bengaluru
been into premium and luxury projects quickly turn to affordable segments and when there is an improvement in the market, they go back to premium and luxury. Hence it totally depends upon the business model the developer is comfortable with.
As far as Tata Housing is concerned, we straddle across all consumer segments from value to luxury housing, by offering products ranging from Rs. 7 lakhs to over Rs 14 crores. We have launched a subsidiary company, Smart Value Homes Limited, that focuses exclusively on value and affordable housing while the parent Tata Housing focuses on developing premium and luxury residences. We have found successes in both the business model owning to unique process and technologies adoption.
Tata Housing has been doing some innovative marketing like entering Limca Book of Records and its IPO style booking. What has been the marketing mantra for Tata Housing? How has these initiatives worked for the brand?
The real estate sector has become highly competitive in the past few years with new projects coming up across India. Developers have to constantly endeavour to create unique, innovative marketing and sales strategies in order to create visibility for their projects. At Tata Housing, the onus of driving the project and taking it to the next level is primarily the responsibility of the marketing team. Along with the entire team of brand, media and communication managers, we focus immensely on distinctive planning and execution of our innovative projects instead of developing a typical run- of-the-mill strategy.
Audiences in India are more receptive towards the advertisements they witness on various ad platforms. Specifically, outdoor / billboard advertisements act as a follow up medium and create top of the mind recall for patrons which effectively lead towards building further awareness and sale of the brand. Given the clutter of existing players, the market demands differentiation in the presentation of messages led by innovative idea and technologies. We prefer playing with new ideas and adopt innovative methodologies that have come to our aid in minimizing our marketing spends by 2% with faster turnaround of the project.
Tata Housing made it to the prestigious Limca Book of Records 2013 for ‘Mumbai Wallbook’, the lengthiest wall painting activity held in Mumbai. Tata Housing’s Gateway Capital made history with a unique strategy of selling its units through an IPO-styled concept where we generated an order booking worth Rs.450 crores in a single day.
Our successful projects are the result of our in-depth understanding of the market and customers need, which time and again differentiates us from the competition.
You have also come out with a project targeting senior citizens, can you talk about the project and the potential in this segment for Tata Housing?
Research and data pointed towards this segment which seemed to be going unattended and showed a huge deficit in terms of the number of senior citizens in the country as opposed to housing facilities available to them. Riva Residences is one of India’s largest integrated residential complexes for the senior emeritus in Bengaluru
and fits in perfectly with the Tata ethos and philosophy. Apart from safety, which is held at the highest, the entire housing complex is professionally maintained, with services offered on a monthly payment basis.
According to a recent Jones Lang LaSalle report, almost 9% of Bengaluru’s population is above 60 years of age. Residences for senior citizens, as a concept, are fast gaining recognition. This segment is financially independent and lifestyle-oriented which has opened doors to a new set of residences which range from Rs 60 lakh to Rs1crore and upward. There is a big market for such an integrated township and many concerns that are specific to senior citizens are looked into while planning these townships.
How has Tata Housing’s communication evolved over the years?
We understand that real estate is an unorganized sector and business is cyclical in nature. The sector had suffered greatly from the slowdown that happened earlier in 2008- 09. We balance our growth aspirations with a prudent approach. In every organization, there is one department that leads the entire company towards new heights and drives innovation. We at the marketing department along with our entire team of brand, media and communications manager emphasize and focus a lot on planning and executing innovative products instead of developing typical run-of-the-mill apartments for our project.
We try to bring in innovation and uniqueness in every medium we use for communicating our messages right from hoardings and billboards to adopting digital and social media platforms. You will see a distinct differentiation in every campaign as compared to any realty player and that’s because we benchmark our marketing efforts with top non realty players from high advertising segments like FMCG, telecom etc.
In the next two years, what are the two trends that will define the future of the industry?
Two trends that will define the future of the Indian real estate industry are:
a) the emerging micro-markets. They are a huge potential for investment opportunities for both investors and end-users alike.
b) The evolution of the professional real estate investor. This includes the burgeoning middle class which has come out and invested in homes ranging from affordable to premium. They have been a huge catalyst in the growth of the real estate industry in India.
Can you shed some light on Tata Housing’s digital strategy?
Property buying is a high involvement decision and generally it occupies about 40% of an individual’s total net worth. Inevitably, property buying involves tremendous amount of research and innumerable interactions with various influencers. Most conversations these days at least in the SEC A & B segments of the urban society happen over the internet, via social media, blogs, forums, review sections etc. As marketers, our approach towards digital is two pronged, one is to be present in all these conversations via internet advertising through Google adwords, banner ads, pay-per-click and pay-per-impression campaigns.
The second is engaging with prospects over the long term by using social media and integrating our marketing initiatives with our social media outreach through non-business content which is aimed at striking a conversation with people belonging/aspiring to a certain kind of lifestyle and engaging with them via various marketing activities.
The results have been phenomenally encouraging, in case of our Pune project – Inora Park, entire phase 1 was sold through online space. Also, for our other project in Talegoan, Pune, we have been able to fetch 25% of our sales via digital at hardly 10% of the cost as compared to print.
We have driven engagement using various applications on platforms such as Facebook, where we developed unique applications such as Love U My Home, La Tomatina etc., while on Twitter our hash tags were trending on few occasion as well. As an extension of our brand philosophy we reach out to younger audiences who eventually grow into Tata Housing customers. Various engagement platforms have led us to have more than 88000 fans on Facebook.
As an industry, what do you think real estate players should be doing to bring trust and transparency in the business?
The government needs to focus on the real estate sector as it is the second-largest employer, next only to agriculture. Growth in this sector has a direct impact on the ancillary industries like steel and cement and it creates a ripple effect in the market and helps push the economy. I also believe that there is a strong need to set up a real estate regulator to ensure fair play and transparency in the industry and protect consumer interests. The main idea is to create a level-playing field.
This interview first appeared in the Real Estate issue of Marketing Booster magazine
