MARKETING Building brands
Sheraz Dar, Marketing Director of Digital Property Group, discusses the current obsession with branding.
I
t’s difficult to imagine a world without brands. My journey started at the age of ten when Sharp Electronics sponsored Manchester United. While I had little emotional connection with the manufacturer other than the fact Mark
Hughes bore the brand proudly, a relationship had started. If I’d had more pocket money, I would have certainly bought their wares. Fast forward several years, we spend our lives interacting with brands; we’re constantly wowed, disappointed or surprised – in many cases without realising.
HOW DO THEY DO IT? Brand owners have got brighter. They know their audiences and what makes them tick; their financial means, social status and what they eat for breakfast. This insight is enhanced by the latest
technology, especially online, to help brands interact with consumers across many more touch-points. The online display sector generated £4 billion in revenues in 2010, growing by 14 per cent against the previous year, as companies sought to build relationships with their target audiences. Entrepreneur and marketing expert Seth
Godin defines a brand as “
...the set of expectations, memories, stories and relationships that, taken together, account for a consumer’s decision to choose one product or service over another” and it’s hard to argue with that. A successful brand resonates with its audience; it’s sympathetic to their motivations and chimes with their needs. It’s a recognition that a one-size-fits all approach is hard to achieve.
WHAT MAKES A BRAND? At Digital Property Group, our obsession with brands and what makes a leading brand has never been greater. We obsess about our brands because our success lies in having a portfolio of sites with distinct audiences attracted to bespoke websites that constantly target differing customer bases.
FindaProperty.com’s lifeblood is the
18 MAY 2011 PROPERTYdrum
A brand is a set of expectations, memories, stories and relationships.’
mass market, from aspiring home hunters moving up the ladder to those neatly settled on it. A polar opposite is
Primelocation.com, which has a legacy of attracting an affluent and aspirational audience. It is the only genuine prestige portal and through our brand investment in magazines like GQ, Tatler and Homes & Garden – amongst many – and our first TV advert for five years running in May, we expect our position to continue. The portfolio strategy works as long
as the individual constituent elements are strong. Luckily, ours are and we’re attracting audiences that don’t visit other portals. We’re investing several millions in marketing in 2011 to keep it that way. We’re ensuring our market remains targeted and relevant – only five per cent cross over between our brands – adding more value for our advertisers.
BRAND LOYALTY EQUALS ENQUIRIES There’s an argument that a visitor who has a greater affinity with a brand, often defined by their trust of it, is more likely to interact with the site and most importantly, submit an enquiry. Gaining enquiries is why you advertise. The DPG portfolio attracts searchers with genuine intent, which converts into more leads and enquiries than our competitors because we better deliver against our visitors expectations. In 2010,
Primelocation.com,
FindaProperty.com and
Globrix.com together generated 38 million enquiries for our advertisers. Rightmove generated 19 million over the same period.
We’re focusing on enquiries rather than
impressions.Visitor figures important but we aspire to be a leading portal for enquiries because it is the enquiries that really matter.
USE OUR BRANDS TO PROMOTE YOURS But there’s more to advertising on our portals than enquiries. You use the major portals to build and enhance your own brand; from vendor and landlord pull through to
Globrix.com enquiries which send visitors direct to your sites. On
PrimeLocation.com and FindaProperty. com, your properties are advertised on well known brands that support and enhance yours. A significant 87 per cent of vendors and landlords consider it vital that their properties are on
Primelocation.com and
FindaProperty.com. Another way of enhancing your brand
is via
Globrix.com. As a trusted brand and the recipient of high volumes of visitors
Globrix.com builds your brand by sending home searchers direct to your website. It’s also free. Given the popularity of our sites, are you
promoting your affiliation with us? Fresh literature with our new logos is winging its way over in early May. Today, our brands are very relevant to the home searcher; three out of four are aware of a DPG portal. We haven’t always achieved that number, and we aim to improve on it. DPG and its brands will continue their evolution and having significant backing for our marketing helps. Building successful brands never stops.
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