Lalit Makhijani, Chief Marketing Officer, Godrej Properties Ltd, talks of the recent brand campaign ‘Jahaan Khushiyan Badi Hoti Hai’, renewed demand for residential properties in both mid-income and luxury segments and bringing to life the company’s signature project, Godrej RKS.
Give us a sense of how the real estate category has been faring post pandemic, and what are the trends you see today? What is the consumer sentiment?
We have been seeing good traction in the demand for residential properties. Earlier, there was demand only in the mid-income segment; now in addition, we have started seeing demand even in the luxury segment. There has been a considerable increase in enquiries with most customers preferring the digital medium in addition to visiting our project sites for house-hunting and project shortlisting. The pandemic has undoubtedly accelerated the pace of digitization within the industry.
What is the insight behind the digital campaigns you launched with the tagline ‘Jahaan Khushiyan Badi Hoti Hai’? What did you set out to convey with it?
Our new campaign introduces Godrej Properties’ purpose of creating spaces that enable everyday joys; one community, one family, and one home at a time. The three films we’ve released as part of this campaign capture the beauty of everyday family moments that we all enjoy in our homes. They reinforce that a home is integral to most of our best memories. While the landmark milestones in life happen occasionally, the everyday joyful moments are what keep us going. Everyone has their favourite corner, their daily routines and their ideal family moments at home and the films try to capture these moments. Brand Godrej Properties has always enjoyed the trust of its customers, and now, we are creating a strong and unique brand association through the ‘Everyday Joys’ campaign. With these films, we are asking viewers to pause and savour the little moments of joy, and realise that this is what a home is all about - a place where everyday joys have no limits.
What has been your marketing and advertising strategy, and the quantum of marketing spends, during the lockdown and post it?
We are helping our customers provide a beautiful home for their family, and to enable that, we ensure that our messaging should be present on all the platforms that our customers are present on. Our marketing plans have always been based on this philosophy, and we work with our media partners to ensure that we are able to make our project information easily accessible to customers wherever they look for it.
The lockdown led to an increase in our digital efforts. But even before the lockdown, we had a diverse media mix, and we have been at the forefront of embracing newer mediums of reaching our customers. Our systems and processes are aligned internally to measure the effectiveness of every rupee we spend on all online and offline channels, so we are able to maintain a strong sense of clarity when planning our media mix for each project. This focus has enabled us to maximize the efficiency of spends independent of the lockdown.
What has been the response to your signature project, Godrej RKS? What are the current talking points in the company and major upcoming projects?
Godrej RKS has been really close to all of our hearts at Godrej Properties. We have seen a strong response from customers who are connoisseurs of good taste and who have a true understanding of flagship-level developments. These customers have appreciated the value of the Godrej Properties brand, the iconic art-deco design we have developed, and the heritage of the location. We are truly excited to bring to life our vision at Godrej RKS and are looking forward excitedly to its delivery.
As for the future development pipeline, we have two launches planned in Bangalore in Q3, Q4; we have about four launches planned in Pune, two launches in NCR and a couple of launches planned in Mumbai and also in Kolkata. Getting approvals on time is always a challenge in our sector, but if we do, we expect to continue our strong, positive momentum.
Which markets do you see contributing majorly to the brand’s growth in the next couple of years? How do you plan to take Godrej Properties ahead of its competitors?
Our key focus has been on the markets of Mumbai, NCR, Pune, and Bangalore, and we see these markets continuing as our growth drivers into the future. We see our hold on these markets strengthen as we continue to launch a mix of group housing, mixed-use, township, and plotted projects.
In terms of competition, we have a strong presence in all four of our key markets. In the last FY, we emerged as the country’s largest listed real estate developer in terms of sales bookings. The Global Real Estate Sustainability Benchmark (GRESB), an organisation that provides environmental, social and governance (ESG) benchmarks for real estate organisations across the world, recognized Godrej Properties as a real estate development sector leader globally for listed residential real estate, two years in a row. We keep our Purpose as our true North Star, and strongly obsess over each aspect of the customer experience, aiming to deliver through Brand Godrej Properties ‘Everyday Joys’ in the form of a living experience.
