A Delhi education department official once candidly admitted that it took merely one celebrity show to promote the benefits of primary education what an entire government propaganda paraphernalia was unable to do for decades! With more and more public causes espoused by celebrities, the chances of real estate developers staying behind in the race for sweepstakes are obviously remote.
Apparently, it is not easy to market a top class or even a decent residential property without the endorsement of celebrities these days. Naturally then, with residential property prices breaching their lifetime high prices again, real estate developers are pulling out all stops by luring customers to buy houses – by hiring celebrities to sell them.
So, you have Bollywood diva Sushmita Sen endorsing Assotech Properties, singer Kailash Kher asking you to be his neighbour in a project launched by Anthem Infrastructure and iconic Indian cricket team captain Mahendra Singh Dhoni selling projects for Amrapali.
Indranil Das Blah, vice-president at KWAN Entertainment, feels celebrities can work well in the realty sector, just like any other space in this celebrity-obsessed country. The main reason, he explains, for more players in this segment to opt for celebrities these days is the fact that real estate prices are expected to touch a new high and brands always have additional money to spend on brand ambassadors. And why not?
“Celebrity endorsement works little better if there is a direct connect with the celebrity and the brand. For example, if Sahara which has a connect with cricket, signs cricketers like Dhoni or Suresh Raina as endorsers, it will work for the brand. Similarly in the realty sector celebs such as Amitabh Bachchan, Om Puri who stand for strength, credibility will work well. Getting a glamorous face may or may not work here,” Das said.
Such celebrity approvals, naturally, do not come cheap. “Be it realty or any other space, their charges remains the same. The cost depends on the type of celeb you choose. An SRK, Amitabh or Dhoni will cost more than someone like Neil Nitin Mukesh or Kailash Kher. One gets a better rate from celeb for good recognised national brands, as compared to brands that aren’t very popular where the celeb may charge a premium,” he added.
At times, says Das, compensations are made in terms of property packages. “If a celeb who has charged Rs 5 crore, is offered a property worth Rs 2 crore, I don’t think he will disagree given the rising real estate prices.”
“Roping in a celebrity as brand ambassador gave us good eyeballs on our advertisements, be it print or hoarding, and it has brought us not an unsubstantial number of customers. About 20 per cent of our buyers said they were attracted because Jackie Shroff who has purchased a flat (No. 405) in Fortuna Centre Park. Many customers request for a flat next to Shroff,” Naresh Kumar, managing director at Fortuna Projects, said.
But it is not only about dollar and dimes. Kumar, for instance, said that they have not made any payments to the actor for being the brand ambassador for the project. “He is my best friend and he accepted my request. Shroff used to say that Bangalore is his second home and he will be staying at this flat whenever he comes here,” Kumar said.
Take Fortuna Centre Park at Sahakar Nagar on the international airport road in Bangalore, for example.
“In the present scenario, brand ambassadors are fuelling a new trend in the realty sector. But the celeb’s personality and the positioning of the brand needs to merge well. There should be a connection between the both and only then it would create an impact,” Vijay Gupta, managing director at Orris Infrastructure, said.
Ace tennis star Mahesh Bhupathi is not just the brand ambassador of Bengal Peerless Housing Development, he has also set up his own tennis academy on the rooftop of one of the company’s more ambitious projects ‘Axis’ at Rajarhat.
“When a brand ambassador is the user himself, it gives an emphatic validation. That is exactly the case here. Apart from his skills with the tennis star, Mahesh is known and considered to be a good soul and a sportsman on and off the field, which helps us in building our corporate image,” Kumar Shankar Bagchi, managing director, Bengal Peerless Housing Development told FC build.
Kolkata-based Eden Group, the Rs 300-crore realty player with over 100 projects in its portfolio, has signed up silver screen diva and two time national award winning actress, Konkona Sen Sharma to be its brand ambassador. This is possibly the first time a realty developer originating out of this city has taken this route to build its brand.
“These days people are very brand conscious, or shall I say brand loyal. Whatever they buy, they always look for a trusted brand. We always wanted to build a brand so that whenever a customer looks for a home, that’s value for money, one should look for our brand,” Anirudh Modi, director at The Eden Group, said.
“In Konkona’s on and off screen image we found a tremendous brand connect. So far, she has always portrayed an intelligent woman and a person of substance with unquestionable professional competence and yet down-to-earth. And that’s exactly how we want to build our brand. Those are the characteristics we want our brand to get associated with,” Modi added.
The Eden Group’s association with Konkona is a long one and she will now be seen in all Eden Group’s campaigns — be it affordable housing complex, premium housing or mixed development (residential and commercial), Modi said, declining to divulge the signing amount.
The choice of Konkona Sen Sharma had also been driven by the fact that she has tremendous acceptability not only amongst the Bengali households, but also outside the state and even amongst the NRIs.
“We plan to be a national brand. We have already moved out of the state by taking up a project in the national capital region (NCR). Besides, we have a sizeable NRI clientele from countries like the US and the UK. In our future projects also we expect positive response from the NRIs,” said Modi.
There are a few exceptions though. New Delhi-based 3C is oppposed to the idea of a celebrity endorsement. “We are definitely not looking at any celebrity endorsing our projects as home buyers are rational customers and they would like to look and feel the property as this is not a volume business like mobile phones or consumer durable products. The credibility of a housing project comes from the developer and not the celebrity,” Brijesh Bhanote, senior vice-president sales and marketing at 3C, said.
Bengal Shrachi Housing Development, a joint venture between Shrachi Group and West Bengal Housing Board, has got its township project in Burdwan called ‘Renaissance’ endorsed by the famed actor and the original Kolkata superstar Mithun Chakraborty.
“Burdwan being a district or a suburban town, having a brand ambassador like Mithun Chakraborty, whose celluloid and social contributions are widely regarded in this part of the country, along with rest of the country, pays off. The brand ambassador for a realty brand should be someone whom people can trust and respect,” said Rahul Todi, managing director, Bengal Shrachi, without divulging the signing amount. ‘Genex Valley’ is the other project in and around the city, which followed the same route, by appointing the famed percussionist Bickram Ghosh and his actor wife Jaya Seal Ghosh as its brand ambassadors.
Harish Bijoor, brand consultant, feels that celebrity for realty market can offer great advantage, fundamentally because most realty firms operate as commodity in the market with no distinct identity of their own.
“It is very helpful in converting non-interest into enquiry. Bigger the celeb, greater the response. And most of the people who enquire in this space are serious buyers. However, celebs don’t play much role in converting enquiry to actual purchase since it’s a rational process and is chiefly based on the quality of the product.”Piyush Pandey feels celeb engagement should be more than ordinary endorsements. It will have more effect if a celeb maintains a house in the said project. “When one sees SRK sporting a particular brand on TV, he doesn’t have a chance to test if SRK actually subscribes to that brand in real life. But here a nameplate says it all and chances of conversion will be way higher,” Pandey said. Seems like a gain gain situation all the way.
