SMS ADVERTISING

Realtors are beginning to warm up to SMSs and web applications to advertise their products, which are quite cost effective, says Namrata Kohli

JJ... launches K... with Golf Course 2/3/3+1 BHK@ 21.5 LACS onwards, Sector 134, Noida Call 9911943127... Do you receive at least two-three such SMSs per day? Do you delete them/retain them/think about exploring further, or simply let them be. In any case, love it or hate it, but you surely cannot ignore them - this in-your-face advertising is surely having its desired impact and will rule the roost in times to come. Or so say, branding pundits on this latest advertising tool being deployed by many real estate developers.

Drawing a comparison between different media for advertising the real estate offerings, Jayanta Barua, a PR person, says, “SMS and the WEB will clearly hold the future as messaging with database is both forceful as well as extremely cost friendly.

” Even though, currently, it is the print media, which most developers swear by, to create both brand awareness and conversions (of readers to buyers of their product), SMS marketing offers a far better spread than conventional media.

Plus, the results in conventional media come at a huge price, something that is marginalized substantially in SMS marketing. Barua draws a comparison between the cost dynamics in these media saying that in print media, an ad in a leading English news daily on the front page costs at least Rs 13 lakh (having a circulation of 13 lakh) whereas an SMS only costs 8 paisa for a 160-character ad and if it were to be sent to 13 lakh people with 320 characters, it works out to only Rs 2.08 lakhs.

“In print, when we spent Rs 13 lakh, it only generated around 300 queries leading to a per query cost of Rs 5,000. Whereas, recently, we did a radio campaign for Rs 16 lakhs, which generated 700 queries, taking per query cost to approx Rs 2,300. However, in an SMS campaign which costed us approximately Rs 1 lakh, 100 queries were generated and the cost per query was a reasonable at Rs 1,000.” He adds that by advertising in newspaper they get clear results in two days while radio gets them queries on the same day.

According to Sunil Jindal, CEO of SVP Builders India ltd, “Print will be there for the next 10 years, but the future will ride on mobile value added applications as well as on web applications. According to me, SMS/WEB will be the future mediums of advertisements.” He says that he attributes the reason to technology, which will drive SMS way ahead of other media for advertising purposes. ‘’For example, if a customer gets an SMS of a project launch from SVP, as soon as he reverts to the SMS, instead of my executive calling you in 24 hours, the panel will directly connect customer to my executive who will take care of the hot call.”

All real estate developers have channel partners who undertake the job of sending SMSs and these associates (brokers) are seen using this medium more than conventional classifieds in newspapers. However, crispness of the communication is vital to the success of an SMS campaign. The better and more factual the advertisement is, the better will be the response.

What then is the frequency of sending SMSs? According to Jaypee Greens’ Manu Goswamy, head of business development, “We have various channel partners who do send SMS as part of the promotional activities.

The frequency of SMS broadcasting normally increases at the time of new product launch. But we do not have the exact numbers, as normally we do not interfere in channel partner businesses.”

As a thumb rule, it is sent on important days like Navaratra, Diwali, long weekends such as Independence Day weekend etc. Various advertising and promotional activities are undertaken at the time of launch such as offline advertisements, online advertisements and outdoor advertisements. SMS campaigns are something that complements these other mainline promotional activities or a support function.

What do the realtors primarily achieve — brand awareness or are there real conversions too? Says Goswamy, “It depends on the type of communication sent in the SMS as to what objective we are trying to achieve. Normally, at the time of any new launch the objective is to create brand awareness by sending some teaser SMSs to generate curiosity, which is followed by a detailed SMS on the product along with a call to action, ultimately resulting in generation of leads and sales conversions.”

Branding experts feel that a clear advantage of advertising through mobile value added applications is that the service reaches the target market within seconds and it helps in building new relationships and keeps active the regular contact with existing customers. On the flipside, the characters of the text message are very limited, hence it is essential to create a text message that is clear and concise, which is difficult at times, to promote a real estate project, says a developer.

There is the other view that this form of advertising is plain irritating for end users. Amongst the developers who prefer traditional ways of marketing and who do not indulge in SMS marketing are Vipul. Says Guninder Singh, chief executive, Vipul Ltd, “There is no definite or reliable report available on the effectiveness of SMSs marketing and with ‘Do-not-disturb’ services available, we believe the effectiveness of SMS service will remain very limited. Still, a real estate buyer would like to get in touch with the property developers directly or through an agent.”

He adds that based on the marketing research they did internally, they found that print media would be the most effective medium at present.

“Though it is expensive, yet it provides a maximum recall value to the product, its sustainability is longer and we get connected to a couple of lakh people through a single ad. It is most likely that a customer will visit a sample flat after seeing it in a newspaper. Also emails, which are quite cost effective, are on our radar.”

Courtesy: - TOI dt:- 17-10-09