Traditional marketing for a new housing development used to be as simple as a glossy brochure and a fancy sales home to show people around, but the industry has grown over the past decade and now property development branding is an integral part of the whole process. The branding needs to inspire, appeal, and engage customers – it needs to make people want to live there – if you are to stand out in a very crowded market place – and it needs to work hard to achieve sales.
Coming up with a suitable name and identity for a new property or housing development is now just as important as its location and can have a huge impact on the public perception of the site.
Whether it’s a new shopping centre like Whiteley, or a new housing development that’s being created, every new development needs a strategic approach to branding and identity before the bricks start going up.
At Frost Creative we work with all of our property clients to create a clear, strategic approach to identity, which supports their marketing and sales and helps to increase the number of leads.
From developing clear messaging to designing marketing collateral, and materials to support the sales team, we support our property clients every step of the way – have a look at how our branding strategy helped to increase leads by 303% for Radian Smart.
How does branding support a development?
In the hyper-competitive housing space, standing out isn’t easy. And it’s not enough. A brand needs to inspire, appeal, and engage. But above all else it needs to deliver real results.
Successful branding of a property development is far more than pasting a fancy logo on the site plans. Most major developers are working with creative and strategic marketing agencies from day one to make sure it’s integral.
A strategic approach from the very beginning can make all the difference to the success and number of sales a development achieves – which is why it needs to be carried out professionally – with a brand agency like Frost Creative.
By working carefully to create an identity which connects with the community and demonstrates thought on behalf of the developer, a strong brand can help to enhance a positive view of the site among the public and potential campaigners.
One of the ways branding can support a development is through the creation of a development name which will connect and resonate with any would-be customers as well as local residents and businesses.
Research into the heritage of the site and taking people’s views into account during the creation of the development name can help people engage with it, and ensure the development has a place in the future as well as the present. This is just one of the key ways strategic branding supports modern property developers.
How does a strategic approach support sales?
Over the past few years competition in the property industry has increased, making it harder and harder to secure successful sales. It’s no longer enough to print a brochure and wait for the customers to arrive.
A strategic approach to marketing a new development will start with the audience – identifying them clearly and researching the kind of lifestyle they are aspiring to by buying the property at hand.
Knowing the audience is key to creating messaging that will appeal to them and engage their senses – the marketing material needs to help them imagine that the life they are looking for can be achieved by buying into your development.
At Frost Creative, our team worked hard with Pegasus Life to create a whole suite of materials for their new development, The Landing, in Dorset. The design and wording have all been styled to promote the lifestyle that living there would generate.
How can our property development connect with a community?
One of the creative ways in which developers are marketing their sites is to make the site open to the community; by hosting pop-up coffee shops or temporary street markets, until the actual building work begins.
This is a way to help the local community connect with them in a different way, particularly if the site in question has a negative history in the area. It also helps to start conversations with the local residents and businesses.
By showing the developer has taken the heritage into consideration they are demonstrating they have understood and recognised its importance to the local area, which can help to connect the site better with the community.
If the developer is sensitive to the surroundings and elements on the site, such as trees or parkland which might have an affinity for the local community, it will help to improve the connection with the public and ultimately with the new development.
We worked on a property development called The Willows which had links to nature and trees, so have a look at our approach and how it worked for our developer Radian.
How do I create a strategic approach for my property development?
The best way to create a strategic marketing approach is by working with a professional branding agency like Frost Creative. We are an agency that will ask in-depth questions about the development.
It’s about getting to the heart of the site and the area – finding out what it’s about, what used to be there, why people will want to live there in the future, and what perceptions the audience might already have – both negative and positive.
Areas where there has been a lot of regeneration, or promise of affordable housing that then didn’t materialise, for example, might be far more vocally opposed to compared to new developments.
A strategic take on creating a new name and personality for the site requires a lot of digging and ground work. Just like putting up the buildings themselves, the name and brand need a solid foundation if they are to stand tall and survive into the future.
What value does branding add to a development?
Property and development branding has grown hugely, particularly as consumers become more savvy and more demanding and the market is a buyer’s market. It is clear that strategic branding should be an integral part of any property development going forward.
A good strong brand identity can help to connect a development to the community where it lies, help to improve public perception of the site, and it can also help to boost leads and sales. After all, without clear messages to portray even the best sales person will struggle to close the deal.
If you would like to talk to our property development branding experts then please do get in touch with the team at Frost Creative today and we will be happy to have a chat to find out how we can help support your development.