Thursday, June 30, 2011
Tuesday, September 1, 2009
Understanding of Real Estate Business in Dhaka City: Branding Philosophy
UNDERSTANDING OF
REAL ESTATE BUSINESS IN DHAKA CITY:
BRANDING PHILOSOPHY
TABLE OF CONTENTS
Page
EXECUTIVE SUMMARY
1. COMPANY INFORMATION
1.1 INTRODUCTION
1.2 BRAND FORUM’S UNIQUENESS
1.2.1 Partnering Institutes & Association
1.2.2 Target Groups
1.2.3 Initiatives
1.2.4 Best Brand Award
1.2.5 Unleashing Youth Unleashing Bangladesh
1.2.6 TV Program
1.2.7 Marketing World
1.2.8 Brand Communication Award
1.3 BANGLADESH BRAND FORUM MAGAZINE
1.4 BRAND FORUM SEMINAR
1.5 MARKETERS MEET
1.6 LEADERSHIP SUMMIT
1.7 KNOWLEDGE CENTER
1.8 Vision, Mission & Goals
2. PROJECT PART
2.1 Introduction
2.2 OBJECTIVES OF THE STUDY
2.3 METHODOLOGY
2.3.1 Data collection
2.3.2 Variables
2.4 LIMITATIONS OF THE STUDY
2.5 REAL ESTATE INDUSTRY BANGLADESH
2.6 URBANIZATION AND POPULATION
2.7 THE MAIN BARRIERS OF HOUSING PROBLEM
2.7.1 Increasing Land Value
2.7.2 Price Increase of Cement In Last 20 Years
2.7.3 Increase Price of Construction Materials
2.7.4 Increase Price per Brick
2.7.5 Increase Price per Cubic Foot Sand
2.7.6 Increase of Land Value in Different Location Of Dhaka City
2.7.7 High Interest Rate Loan Compare to Other Neighboring Countries
2.8 ROLE OF PRIVATE REAL ESTATE DEVELOPERS
2.9 COMPANY ANALYSIS
2.9.1 Concord Real Estate
2.9.2 building technology & ideas ltd.
2.9.3 Navana Real Estate Ltd.
2.9.4 Advanced Development Technologies
2.10 CONSUMER UNDERSTANDING
2.10.1 Parameters for an Ideal Real Estate Project
2.10.2 Consumers Are Aware of the Basic Fundamentals of Real Estate
2.10.3 What Do They Want from Real Estate?
2.10.4 How Do Consumers Communicate?
2.10.5 Real Estate Touch Point
2.10.6 AD (TV) Expenditure of the Industry in Dec’08
2.10.6 Customer Purchase Process
2.11 MEDIA USED BY THE DEVELOPERS FOR ADVERTISEMENT
2.12 REAL ESTATE MARKETING COMMUNICATION BANGLADESH
2.12.1 Concord Real Estate
2.12.1.1 Ad Analysis
2.12.1.2 Brochure Analysis
2.12.2 bti
2.12.2.1 Brochure Analysis
2.12.3 Asset
2.12.3.1 Brochure Analysis
2.12.3.2 Ad Analysis
2.12.4 Navana
2.12.4.1 Ad Analysis
2.12.4.2 Brochure Analysis
2.13 MISSING IN BROCHURES
2.14 MISSING IN PRINT ADS
2.15 BRAND POSITIONING
2.15.1 Unique Brand Values
2.15.2 Important Consideration for Brand Positioning:
2.16 RECOMMENDATION
2.17 CONCLUSION
EXECUTIVE SUMMARY
This report focuses on the understanding of real estate business in Dhaka city. Real estate business is a growing business in Bangladesh. Presently, some of the businesses are growing faster along with our increasing population. Real estate business is one of them. The objective of this report is to find out the current business scenario in the real estate industry. This study will also identify the factors that are influencing the real estate industry. As urbanization is taking place very fast, the real estate business is also becoming more significant business in the last couple of years. This study will investigate why branding is important for a company. Real estate always been sold as a commodity. We have to change the concept of thinking. People cannot judge materialistic things. How branding can help to create a competitive advantage? Real estate branding helps a company to create more opportunities in the market. As the competition is growing, a company needs to focus on more the unique values that can help a company to survive in the long run. Apartment buying is a life time buying. So, without emotional attachment, a company cannot stay inside the mind of their consumer. Emotional Branding will help to companies to connect with its consumers. The four pillars of emotional branding have much importance in developing the mind of consumer. The four pillars of emotional branding are based on the relationship, sensorial, experiences and imagination. Relationship helps to indentify who your customer and what emotional benefits they want. Sensorial experience helps to create brand contact what is finally establish brand preference and loyalty. So, emotional branding is much important for the positioning of the real estate business.
PROJECT PART
INTRODUCTION
Dhaka is the most important city of Bangladesh where every year people are increasing. People are coming to Dhaka for various reasons. The population of Dhaka city is increasing terrifyingly. The current population growth of Bangladesh is 2.06% (2007 CIA EST.) and the population growth of Dhaka city is 4.2% . How fast the city is growing? In reality, Shelter problems are extremely familiar problems in Dhaka city. It was seen that In the middle of the 1970 and by 1985, apartment buildings were so popular that there was an acceptability of concept of living in a flat. At that time, there was an acute shortage of land and in a situation of rapid increase of land prices and the cost of constriction. However, Urbanization sense actually stared in the British period when they had a tendency to build their administrative centers on the banks of large rivers. A recent study of World Bank has estimated that about 40% of people of Bangladesh will be living in urban areas within 2025. Dhaka, the prime city of Bangladesh, its share of national urban population was 25% in 1981, 31% in 1991 and 34% in 2001 respectively . So, it is very clear if we want to solve housing problems beside the increasing population, we should have a proper plan of doing it. Real estate is playing an important role in the economy which is certainly important for a county like Bangladesh. As urbanization is taking place very fast, real estate business is also becoming more significant business in the last couple of years.
OBJECTIVES OF THE STUDY
• To get an explicable thought regarding the real estate industry in Dhaka city;
• To identity the problems that hampers the growth of the industry;
• To get an idea about the common marketing practices followed by companies in apartment business;
• To identify the absence of branding philosophy in real estate business;
METHODOLOGY
Data Collection
I collected the data from six companies among them five are most prominent companies operating in Dhaka, and one of them is going to start its operation soon. I had an opportunity to work with two other real estate projects conducting by Brand Zeal Consultancy. I also used Questionnaire method to collect the information. Apart from this, observation methods were also used to find out the relevant information. Since there is a scarcity of published materials on real estate business, the study is conducted with the help of primary data, online resources, newspaper articles, REHAB publication and Dhaka university journal of Business studies.
Table 1: List of the real estate companies
Serial No List of the real estate companies
1. Advanced Development Technologies Ltd
2. Asset Development & Holdings Ltd
3. Building Technology & Ideas Ltd.
4. Concord Real Estate & Building Products Ltd
5. Dhakeshwari Heights ( Narayanganj based, starting operation soon)
6. Suvastu Development Limited.
Variables
Some important variables are considered for the analysis of the real estate business in Dhaka city. These are the variables actually playing an important role in making the real estate business more complex and problematic. Some important variables are - increase value of land, increase price of construction materials, registration fees and other charges, bureaucracy and illegal Harassment, purchasing power, communication, government support ( totally unsatisfactory ) customer class (higher and middle higher), problems in high rise building development, bureaucratic and legal problems, government cordialness, Government intervention.
LIMITATIONS OF THE STUDY
The limitation of the study of this paper is the availability of published materials. Due to the scarcity of the published materials, the research is conducted by the help of primary data. Both structured and open-ended questionnaires have been used to collect the information. The research might be more accurate and true if the sample size would be larger. Only six real estate companies are taken into consideration for this research.
REAL ESTATE INDUSTRY BANGLADESH
Average Investment in housing and construction
US$ 1274 million per year
Scope of Competitive Rivalry
Still, most of the major competitors are concentrated in Dhaka, competing based on the location, price and size.
Industry Growth Rate
4.8-6 percent annually (real estate and housing)
Stage in Lifecycle
Growing
Number of Competitors
Total numbers of Rehab listed members are 454. The number of housing projects under construction is 2500.
Number of Apartments
Only 8000-9000 apartments are built per year where at least 1, 00,000 apartments are needed.
Management style
Most of real estate organizations are unstructured in nature. Generally, decisions are taken by top level management.
Market segmentation
Still, most of the market is concentrated in the posh areas like Gulshan, Baridhara, Banani, DOHS, Uttra e.t.c. Price variation among many flats is mainly depending upon the location of the project. The competition of the price is depending upon the flats offering by different development s in the same location.
Concentrated vs. Fragmented Industries
The industry is entirely concentrated. About 95 per cent of this business is still dominated by the top 10 companies. These ten companies have a large share of total private investment.
Ease of entry or exit
There are moderate entry or exit barriers in real business in Dhaka city.
Technology
Technology changes have been very slow in real estate business in Bangladesh.
Physical Characteristics
The buyers cannot understand the differences of the apartments as its physical attributes are alike.
Economy of Scale
Almost the cost is same both for luxuries apartments and high rise buildings.
Capital requirements
A big amount of money needs to be invested to start the business.
Profitability
The business is much profitable one. On an average, 30% profit margin come out of total investment.
URBANIZATION AND POPULATION
The current population growth of Bangladesh is 2.06% (2007 CIA EST.)
And the population growth of Dhaka city is 4.2%
Population in millions 140.66 (2007)
Percent of population in urban areas 25.0 (2006)
GDP growth (% change per year): 5.3 6.3 6.0 6.6 6.5
A recent study of World Bank has estimated that about 40% of people of Bangladesh will be living in urban areas within 2025
Dhaka, the prime city of Bangladesh, its share of national urban population was 25% in 1981, 31% in 1991 and 34% in 2001 respectively
THE MAIN BARRIERS OF HOUSING PROBLEM
1. Increasing Land value
The main problem of housing in Dhaka city is the scarcity of land. Price of land is increasing speedily.
AREAS 1975 1990 2000 2007
Taka/katha Taka/sq.m Taka/katha Taka/sq.m Taka/katha Taka/sq.m Taka/katha Taka/sq.m
baridhara 25000 373 600000 8955 2500000 37361 9000000 134328
Gulshan 25000 375 600000 8955 2200000 32877 8000000 119403
banani 25000 375 600000 8955 2000000 29888 8000000 119403
mohakhali 25000 375 600000 8955 1800000 26900 8000000 119403
dhanmondi 25000 375 600000 8955 2200000 32877 9500000 141791
lalmatia 20000 300 600000 8955 1800000 26900 6000000 89552
azimpur 17500 261 600000 8955 1600000 23911 3500000 52239
mohammadpur 25000 375 500000 7463 1200000 17933 4000000 59701
shantinagar 20000 300 500000 7463 1500000 22417 6000000 89552
D.O.H 20000 300 500000 7463 1600000 23911 6000000 89552
shamoli 17500 265 300000 4478 1000000 14944 3500000 52238
Uttra 20000 300 300000 4478 1000000 14944 3500000 52238
cantonment 20000 300 400000 5970 1000000 14944 3000000 44776
kamlapur 17500 265 400000 5970 800000 11956 2500000 37313
gandaria 10000 150 400000 5970 700000 10461 2000000 29850
Basabo 2000 30 3000000 4478 800000 11956 2000000 29850
Kalanpur 17500 265 300000 4478 800000 11956 2000000 29850
Mirpur 10000 150 300000 2985 700000 10416 2000000 29850
Badda 4000 60 200000 2985 600000 8967 2000000 29850
Goran 4000 60 200000 2985 600000 8967 1800000 26265
Demra 4000 60 200000 2985 600000 8967 1500000 22388
Motijheel 50000 750 1200000 17910 3500000 52305 11000000 164179
Kawran bazar 41500 620 1000000 14925 2500000 37361 8000000 119403
Table 1: Increasing Land value
2. Price Increase of Cement in Last 20 Years
Figure 1: Price increase of cement in last 20 years
3. Increase Price of Construction Materials
Year Price Per Brick Per Cubic Foot Sand Price Per Bag Cement Price Per Ton Steel
Local Shylet
1988 1.00 3.60 5.25 105 11000
1989 1.10 3.68 6.30 110 11000
1990 1.10 4.73 6.70 115 11500
1991 1.12 5.10 7.50 125 11700
1992 1.13 6.80 7.90 125 12000
1993 1.15 7.00 8.10 125 12300
1994 1.20 7.63 8.20 150 12700
1995 1.50 7.00 8.50 162 13500
1996 1.50 7.50 9.00 170 14200
1997 1.75 7.50 9.20 175 15200
1998 2.00 7.10 9.00 182 17500
1999 2.10 7.50 9.80 190 21300
2002 3.40 8.00 13.50 198 23800
2003 3.40 8.00 14.00 225 31500
2004 3.25 9.00 15.00 240 37000
2005 3.15 8.00 22.00 283 39700
2006 3.80 9.00 20.00 313 42700
2007 4.20 9.50 21.50 337 49200
Table 2: Increase price of construction materials
4. Increase Price per Brick (Tk.)
Figure 2: Price per Brick
5. Increase Price per Cubic Foot Sand (Tk.)
Figure 3: Price per Cubic Foot Sand (Tk.)
6. Increase of Land Value in Different Location of Dhaka City
Figure 4: Increase of Land Value in Different Location of Dhaka City
7. High Interest Rate Loan Compare to Other Neighboring Countries
Country name Interest rate
Bangladesh 14%-16%
India 8%-10%
Pakistan 9%-10%
China 4.14%-5.76%
Japan 2.37%-3.05%
Malaysia 6%-6.60%
USA 4.86%-6.00%
UK 5.25%-7.39%
Australia 7.34%-8.22%
France 3%-5%
New Zeeland 7.25%-9.25%
Table 3: High Interest Rate Loan Compare to Other Neighboring Countries
ROLE OF PRIVATE REAL ESTATE DEVELOPERS
It was seen that in the middle of the 1970 and by 1985, apartment buildings were so popular that there was an acceptability of concept of living in a flat. (It is also important to know that after 1971 Bangladesh government did nationalization of much of the industrial sector--resulted in inefficiency and economic stagnation. However, in 1975, government gave greater scope to the private sector participation in the economy. That was encouraging. Isphani group was the pioneer in this sector. But, the business started Flourishing with the inception of Eastern housing Ltd. in the early 80s.
Total Number of Rehab Members Increase
Figure 5: Total Number of Rehab Member Increase
Total Number of Flats Supplied By Rehab Members
Figure 6: Total Number of Flats Supplied By Rehab Members
COMPANY ANALYSIS
Concord Real Estate
Core Value:
• Authenticity: That is the reason why customers come to them.
• Quality Commitment: Their finishing is best.
• Good Materials: Cement reinforcement, GI pipe, Ready mix cement, Hollow blocks.
• Reputation: More than 600 projects.
• Back up Support: Five concrete batching plants with a fleet of truck mixers, four concrete block plants.
• Experienced Professionals: Even their chairman is also an engineer.
• Design and Appearance: Even, they do design from KTGY (Singapore).
Weakness:
• Weak Customer Care: Most of the times application process is delayed by administrative problems.
• Weak Sales Team: They don’t go outside to look for prospects.
Communication Tools:
• Newspaper : Daily Star, Prothom Alo
• Referral : People come to them through referee
Average Price: 3500-1500 sft
Problems:
They don’t search land owners rather landowners want to give them land. Even, they don’t have agents for land search. The main reason of offering land to concord is its goodwill in the market. Landowners think that if they will provide land to concord, their value will be more. Even, they don’t give cash to landowners for their land. Concord just goes for win-win business.
building technology & ideas ltd.
Communication Tools:
• Newspaper
• TV
• Fair
• Web site
• Billboard
Consideration for making a good recognition: They consider the insights and outsights of their clients:
• Commitment: REHAB Membership No. 001. As we are a member of an association, people can believe us.
• First ISO Certified real estate company in Bangladesh
• Handed over more than 2000 flats
Core Value:
• RAJUK approved projects
• Dispute free lands
• High quality construction
• Modern Functional Design
• In time handover
• After Sales Service
• Skilled human resource
• excellent goodwill
Corporate Philosophy:
"Give the customer value for money"
Navana Real Estate Ltd.
Size: 1700-2000 sft
Average Price: 3500-1200 sft
Core Value:
• On time delivery
• Consider emotional values ( as it is a life time purchased)
• Consider Desire ( comfort living, peaceful living)
Communication Tools: Popular newspaper
Prospects: Non Resident Bangladeshi, Doctors, and Engineers
Reference: Most of sales are through referee
Advanced Development Technologies
Communication Tools:
• Newspaper
• TV
• Billboard
• Fair
• Leaflet
• Brochure
• Dairy
• Calendar
• Moneybag
• Table cloth
• Tissue Box
• CD
• Web site
• Email list
• SMS
Consideration for making a good recognition: They consider the insights and outsights of their clients:
• Insights: we are providing good materials that can make our buildings more strong.
• Outsights: we are providing you good technologies, structural design which has a sound market value
Core Value/ Strength
• Ready mix (3 Concrete batching plants from united kingdom)
• Mitsubishi lift
• SDMO generator
• Good tiles
They are trying to say that they really giving the buildings good structural designs. They are making the buildings more strong as they are not using Brick chip that can make a building weaker. They think that we are the only developers providing good materials for making strong buildings.
Offering:
Flat and commercial space
Average Price:
2500- 9000 Tk. Sft
Market Trend:
They consider that the current condition is good. An average monthly sale is good.
Corporate Clients:
Holcim, scan, BSRM
Consumer understanding
Parameters for an Ideal Real Estate Project
Infrastructure
Location
Security
Utilities
Price
Aesthetics
Brand
Consumers Are Aware of the Basic Fundamentals of Real Estate
Functional
Hassle free convenience
Moving up from basic ( even in mid layer solution)
Need for Customization
What Do They Want from Real Estate?
Trustworthiness
Desirable Locations & Convenience
Responsive Customer Service
Good Value for the Money
Delivers on Time
GREAT place to Live
Environmentally oriented
Amenities, facilities, intangibles
Safety and Security
Focus on value, culture & community
How Do Consumers Communicate
Figure 7: How Do Consumer Communicate
Real Estate Touch Point
Before
Communication ( brochure, ad, billboard)
Actual land
Sales team interaction
Telephone conversation with any office representatives
Word of Mouth from influencers
During
Project progresses on time
Interaction with office representatives ( sales and others)
Financial transaction
Word of mouth
Land Hand-over
Presence of elements as promised
After
Management of project
Neighbors
AD (TV) Expenditure of the Industry in Dec’08
Only in TV they spend around 117.69 million tk
9077 Ads in total 6260 Minutes
Customer Purchase Process
Print , outdoor, advertising, word of Mouth:
Providing a clear reason and way to engage, learn more and to be surprised about the brand.
Sales Centre/ Model Flat
This is where the senses must be fully engaged, Quality of construction, design taste, and service must impeccable. Convert Prospects into buyers
Brochures/ Print Materials
Focus on Content. Give the brand experience
Follow Up/ Customer Service:
Don’t underestimate the need to service, educate, assist and encourage prospects to become buyers
Media Used by the Developers for Advertisement
Media Percentage
Newspaper 100
Hoarding 100
Brochure 100
News letter 50
Television 37.50
Sponsoring 37.50
Magazine 25.00
Neon sing 12.50
Table 4: Media used by the developers for advertisement.
Real Estate Marketing communication Bangladesh
Concord Real Estate
Ad Analysis:
Ideologies the Ad Evoke: postabito noy!!! Bastobey desher prothom satelight city
• True Dream
• Complete living
• Free from pollution ( we are environmentally aware)
Straight Message: Discount on flats
Message Appeal: certain gifts
Unique Selling Proposition: concord lake city
The logo is focused
Brochure Analysis
Ideologies the Ad Evoke: postabito noy!!! Bastobey desher prothom satelight city
• (True Dream)
• Complete living
• Free from pollution ( we are environmentally aware)
Straight Message: Discount on flats
Message Appeal: certain gifts
Unique Selling Proposition: concord lake city
Creative Strategy: 36 years experience
(Poychate parechi manusher moner onek gobire, joy koresi sobar bisas o asta).
Position: an image showing the concord lake city
The logo is focused
Communication Problems: no office address is given
bti
Brochure Analysis
Ideologies The Ad Evoke: a reputed old company (...since 1984)
• Specific Target segment (exclusive apartment, Your prestigious new address, For you and your family, Ideal home for living)
• Complete living ( details floor plan)
Unique Selling Proposition: The Park Radiance
Position: an image showing the park Radiance
Focused on: ISO 9001: 2000 Certified, REHAB: MEMBERSHIP 001
The logo is used 2 times
Asset
Brochure Analysis
Ideologies The Ad Evoke: focused on company information (Asset’s Vision)
Straight Message: list of apartment projects
Creative Strategy: using of different colours
Position: images showing Asset Development office
Slogan is given
Ad analysis:
Unique Selling Proposition: Silverstone Sapphire
• An image of Silverstone sapphire
Straight Message: for Silverstone sapphire
Slogan is given
NAVANA
Brochure Analysis
Ideologies the ads evoke: years in Real Estate (12 years accomplishment)
• Company information
• Many projects with images
• Finest living
Focused on: REHAB Member
Logo is used two times
Ad analysis:
Unique Selling Proposition: Residential projects
Focused on customer care (22 mobile numbers), REHAB Member
MISSING IN BROCHURES
Brochures
Is there any uniqueness in Brochures???
Can you guess the company name???
MISSING IN PRINT ADS
ALL BRANDS LOOK ALIKE.
CAN I CHOOSE ONE EASILY???
Brand Positioning:
Unique Brand Values:
1. Reliability: service is carried out dependably and accurately. Emotional benefit: customers feel they can rely on the service provider.
2. Assuredness: service staff demonstrates trust and confidence. Emotional response: customers trust the work being done and statements that are made.
3. Tangibility: service staff and premises are clean and look good. Emotional judgment: customers sense the organization takes pride in itself.
4. Empathy: Service staffs are caring and provide individualized attention, emotional reaction: customers feel recognized as individuals.
5. Responsiveness: Service staffs are willing to rapidly help customers. Emotional experience: customers fell they are important to the organization.
Four pillars of emotional branding
Emotional branding is based on four pillars:
• RELATIONSHIP
• SENSORIAL
• EXPERIENCES
• IMAGINATION
• VISION
1. RELATIONSHIP: in touch with and showing respect about who your consumers are really are and giving them the emotional experience they want.
2. SENSORIAL EXPERIENCE: pro viding consumers with a sensorial experience of a brand is key to achieving the kind of memorable emotional brand contact that will establish brand preference and create loyalty.
3. IMAGINATION: Imaginative approaches to the design of products, packaging, retail stores, advertisement, and web sites allow a brand to break the ceiling of the expected and reach the hearts of consumers in a fresh, new way.
4. VISION: is the ultimate factor of a brand long term success.
Important Consideration for Brand Positioning:
1. Root Strength: Try to find out the important aspects of original product, values or benefits that can make the brand grand. It is important to identify the appeal of consumer.
2. Competitive Environment: Competitive environment is an environment where there are many choices. The question is now whether customers can trace your brand from the available choices.
3. Target: can your brand is the best choice among the choices?
4. Insight: Can your brand understand the need of the consumer?
5. Benefits: The differentiating functional, emotional and sensory benefits that motivate purchase.
6. Values, Beliefs & Personality: Values describe why the brand stands for. Beliefs are the conviction the brand holds. Personality describes how the brand behaves, which includes its style of communication with its audience.
7. Reasons to Believe: Can your customers believe that your brand is the best one from the alternatives?
8. Discriminator: The single most compelling reason for the consumer to choose the product. What are competitive reasons for the buying?
9. Essence: The core idea or promise of the brand
RECOMMENDATION
The main housing problem in Dhaka city is for its scarcity of resources and high prices. There is a big gap between the affordability and price. It is very also true that if we can fill up the gap between housing price and affordability, thus, it is possible to give a good solution for a standard of living.
• We can reduce the cost of housing through proper designing .Design is one of important factors for the real estate business. If we can engage experienced and innovative architects (efficient use of floor area) and engineers (proper structure and service design and strict supervision). Thus, it will be possible to reduce the cost of the construction.
• The Government may acquire land in the sub-urban areas and build apartments on joint venture with the real estate developers who have good track records.
• Registration cost should be minimized to reduce the price of apartments.
• Long- term bank loan should give to the apartments with minimal interest rate.
• The government should adopt policies to encourage the developers in meeting the housing needs of middle-income groups.
• For Company, Branding can help create buyer interest in the property by stirring his emotions. It can tell the prospective buyer why he should check out one developer's flat first instead of his competitor's.
• Real estate always been sold as a commodity. We have to change the concept of thinking. People cannot judge materialistic thing. We have to give more emphasis on emotion and functional benefits as it is important know those human beings are powered by emotion not by reasons.
• In the real estate business, it is important to recognize the quality and the value that customer is looking for. The following factors make up the value of a real estate property, say a flat: location, premises (their physical and operational functionality, performance, etc)
• Companies should also emphasis on the unique brand values that are already discussed in the previous section. The unique brand values can offer much emotional benefits by which customers can feel that they can rely on the service provider. These values are also important for creating trust and confidence. So, finally consumers can get an emotional experience with the service.
• For positioning to a particular brand, companies can follow brand positioning strategy where a company needs to uncover values and benefits that can make the brand great. If the company can implement it in proper way, thus, the prospects can choose the right brand among many choices. Here keep in mind that the company has to deliver promises what are promised.
• For any real estate buying, emotional branding is much significant. Apartment buying is a life time buying. Companies need pay more attention on emotion rather than just simply selling. Companies can apply here four pillars of emotional branding which help a company to enter into inside the mind of consumer. The four pillars of emotional branding are based on the relationship, sensorial, experiences and imagination. Relationship helps to indentify who your customer and what emotional benefits they want. Sensorial experience helps to create brand contact what is finally establish brand preference and loyalty.
CONCLUSION
The above analyses show that apartment business in Dhaka city entered into a new era. It is really very important for the government of Bangladesh should take necessary steps for the development of real estate business in Bangladesh.
BIBLIOGRAPHY
Barlow, Janelle, and Paul Stewart. "Branded customer service: the new competitive edge.".
"DemoFigureics of Bangladesh." 21 Feb. 2009.
“Dhaka.” 21 feb.2009
< http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dhaka>.
Gobe, Marc. "Emotional Branding." 20 Feb. 2009.
Jamil, Gazi Mohammad Hasan, and Mosabbir Ahmad. "Housing for Low Income People in Bangladesh: Problems and Prospects." Dhaka. 20 Mar. 2009.
M. seraj, Dr. Toffiq. "Prospects of private housing and future action." Rehab Week-2007. Westin Hotel, Dhaka. 19 Nov. 2007.
Rahman, Mahbubur. "Apartments for all: Cutting superfluous costs." The Daily Star [Dhaka] 05 July 2008.
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Ullah, Mahmud, Md. Zakir Hossain Bhuiyan, and Md. Akteruzzaman. "Situation Analysis of Apartment Business in Dhaka City." Dhaka University Journal of Business Studies Xxi (2000): 71-81.
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REAL ESTATE BUSINESS IN DHAKA CITY:
BRANDING PHILOSOPHY
TABLE OF CONTENTS
Page
EXECUTIVE SUMMARY
1. COMPANY INFORMATION
1.1 INTRODUCTION
1.2 BRAND FORUM’S UNIQUENESS
1.2.1 Partnering Institutes & Association
1.2.2 Target Groups
1.2.3 Initiatives
1.2.4 Best Brand Award
1.2.5 Unleashing Youth Unleashing Bangladesh
1.2.6 TV Program
1.2.7 Marketing World
1.2.8 Brand Communication Award
1.3 BANGLADESH BRAND FORUM MAGAZINE
1.4 BRAND FORUM SEMINAR
1.5 MARKETERS MEET
1.6 LEADERSHIP SUMMIT
1.7 KNOWLEDGE CENTER
1.8 Vision, Mission & Goals
2. PROJECT PART
2.1 Introduction
2.2 OBJECTIVES OF THE STUDY
2.3 METHODOLOGY
2.3.1 Data collection
2.3.2 Variables
2.4 LIMITATIONS OF THE STUDY
2.5 REAL ESTATE INDUSTRY BANGLADESH
2.6 URBANIZATION AND POPULATION
2.7 THE MAIN BARRIERS OF HOUSING PROBLEM
2.7.1 Increasing Land Value
2.7.2 Price Increase of Cement In Last 20 Years
2.7.3 Increase Price of Construction Materials
2.7.4 Increase Price per Brick
2.7.5 Increase Price per Cubic Foot Sand
2.7.6 Increase of Land Value in Different Location Of Dhaka City
2.7.7 High Interest Rate Loan Compare to Other Neighboring Countries
2.8 ROLE OF PRIVATE REAL ESTATE DEVELOPERS
2.9 COMPANY ANALYSIS
2.9.1 Concord Real Estate
2.9.2 building technology & ideas ltd.
2.9.3 Navana Real Estate Ltd.
2.9.4 Advanced Development Technologies
2.10 CONSUMER UNDERSTANDING
2.10.1 Parameters for an Ideal Real Estate Project
2.10.2 Consumers Are Aware of the Basic Fundamentals of Real Estate
2.10.3 What Do They Want from Real Estate?
2.10.4 How Do Consumers Communicate?
2.10.5 Real Estate Touch Point
2.10.6 AD (TV) Expenditure of the Industry in Dec’08
2.10.6 Customer Purchase Process
2.11 MEDIA USED BY THE DEVELOPERS FOR ADVERTISEMENT
2.12 REAL ESTATE MARKETING COMMUNICATION BANGLADESH
2.12.1 Concord Real Estate
2.12.1.1 Ad Analysis
2.12.1.2 Brochure Analysis
2.12.2 bti
2.12.2.1 Brochure Analysis
2.12.3 Asset
2.12.3.1 Brochure Analysis
2.12.3.2 Ad Analysis
2.12.4 Navana
2.12.4.1 Ad Analysis
2.12.4.2 Brochure Analysis
2.13 MISSING IN BROCHURES
2.14 MISSING IN PRINT ADS
2.15 BRAND POSITIONING
2.15.1 Unique Brand Values
2.15.2 Important Consideration for Brand Positioning:
2.16 RECOMMENDATION
2.17 CONCLUSION
EXECUTIVE SUMMARY
This report focuses on the understanding of real estate business in Dhaka city. Real estate business is a growing business in Bangladesh. Presently, some of the businesses are growing faster along with our increasing population. Real estate business is one of them. The objective of this report is to find out the current business scenario in the real estate industry. This study will also identify the factors that are influencing the real estate industry. As urbanization is taking place very fast, the real estate business is also becoming more significant business in the last couple of years. This study will investigate why branding is important for a company. Real estate always been sold as a commodity. We have to change the concept of thinking. People cannot judge materialistic things. How branding can help to create a competitive advantage? Real estate branding helps a company to create more opportunities in the market. As the competition is growing, a company needs to focus on more the unique values that can help a company to survive in the long run. Apartment buying is a life time buying. So, without emotional attachment, a company cannot stay inside the mind of their consumer. Emotional Branding will help to companies to connect with its consumers. The four pillars of emotional branding have much importance in developing the mind of consumer. The four pillars of emotional branding are based on the relationship, sensorial, experiences and imagination. Relationship helps to indentify who your customer and what emotional benefits they want. Sensorial experience helps to create brand contact what is finally establish brand preference and loyalty. So, emotional branding is much important for the positioning of the real estate business.
PROJECT PART
INTRODUCTION
Dhaka is the most important city of Bangladesh where every year people are increasing. People are coming to Dhaka for various reasons. The population of Dhaka city is increasing terrifyingly. The current population growth of Bangladesh is 2.06% (2007 CIA EST.) and the population growth of Dhaka city is 4.2% . How fast the city is growing? In reality, Shelter problems are extremely familiar problems in Dhaka city. It was seen that In the middle of the 1970 and by 1985, apartment buildings were so popular that there was an acceptability of concept of living in a flat. At that time, there was an acute shortage of land and in a situation of rapid increase of land prices and the cost of constriction. However, Urbanization sense actually stared in the British period when they had a tendency to build their administrative centers on the banks of large rivers. A recent study of World Bank has estimated that about 40% of people of Bangladesh will be living in urban areas within 2025. Dhaka, the prime city of Bangladesh, its share of national urban population was 25% in 1981, 31% in 1991 and 34% in 2001 respectively . So, it is very clear if we want to solve housing problems beside the increasing population, we should have a proper plan of doing it. Real estate is playing an important role in the economy which is certainly important for a county like Bangladesh. As urbanization is taking place very fast, real estate business is also becoming more significant business in the last couple of years.
OBJECTIVES OF THE STUDY
• To get an explicable thought regarding the real estate industry in Dhaka city;
• To identity the problems that hampers the growth of the industry;
• To get an idea about the common marketing practices followed by companies in apartment business;
• To identify the absence of branding philosophy in real estate business;
METHODOLOGY
Data Collection
I collected the data from six companies among them five are most prominent companies operating in Dhaka, and one of them is going to start its operation soon. I had an opportunity to work with two other real estate projects conducting by Brand Zeal Consultancy. I also used Questionnaire method to collect the information. Apart from this, observation methods were also used to find out the relevant information. Since there is a scarcity of published materials on real estate business, the study is conducted with the help of primary data, online resources, newspaper articles, REHAB publication and Dhaka university journal of Business studies.
Table 1: List of the real estate companies
Serial No List of the real estate companies
1. Advanced Development Technologies Ltd
2. Asset Development & Holdings Ltd
3. Building Technology & Ideas Ltd.
4. Concord Real Estate & Building Products Ltd
5. Dhakeshwari Heights ( Narayanganj based, starting operation soon)
6. Suvastu Development Limited.
Variables
Some important variables are considered for the analysis of the real estate business in Dhaka city. These are the variables actually playing an important role in making the real estate business more complex and problematic. Some important variables are - increase value of land, increase price of construction materials, registration fees and other charges, bureaucracy and illegal Harassment, purchasing power, communication, government support ( totally unsatisfactory ) customer class (higher and middle higher), problems in high rise building development, bureaucratic and legal problems, government cordialness, Government intervention.
LIMITATIONS OF THE STUDY
The limitation of the study of this paper is the availability of published materials. Due to the scarcity of the published materials, the research is conducted by the help of primary data. Both structured and open-ended questionnaires have been used to collect the information. The research might be more accurate and true if the sample size would be larger. Only six real estate companies are taken into consideration for this research.
REAL ESTATE INDUSTRY BANGLADESH
Average Investment in housing and construction
US$ 1274 million per year
Scope of Competitive Rivalry
Still, most of the major competitors are concentrated in Dhaka, competing based on the location, price and size.
Industry Growth Rate
4.8-6 percent annually (real estate and housing)
Stage in Lifecycle
Growing
Number of Competitors
Total numbers of Rehab listed members are 454. The number of housing projects under construction is 2500.
Number of Apartments
Only 8000-9000 apartments are built per year where at least 1, 00,000 apartments are needed.
Management style
Most of real estate organizations are unstructured in nature. Generally, decisions are taken by top level management.
Market segmentation
Still, most of the market is concentrated in the posh areas like Gulshan, Baridhara, Banani, DOHS, Uttra e.t.c. Price variation among many flats is mainly depending upon the location of the project. The competition of the price is depending upon the flats offering by different development s in the same location.
Concentrated vs. Fragmented Industries
The industry is entirely concentrated. About 95 per cent of this business is still dominated by the top 10 companies. These ten companies have a large share of total private investment.
Ease of entry or exit
There are moderate entry or exit barriers in real business in Dhaka city.
Technology
Technology changes have been very slow in real estate business in Bangladesh.
Physical Characteristics
The buyers cannot understand the differences of the apartments as its physical attributes are alike.
Economy of Scale
Almost the cost is same both for luxuries apartments and high rise buildings.
Capital requirements
A big amount of money needs to be invested to start the business.
Profitability
The business is much profitable one. On an average, 30% profit margin come out of total investment.
URBANIZATION AND POPULATION
The current population growth of Bangladesh is 2.06% (2007 CIA EST.)
And the population growth of Dhaka city is 4.2%
Population in millions 140.66 (2007)
Percent of population in urban areas 25.0 (2006)
GDP growth (% change per year): 5.3 6.3 6.0 6.6 6.5
A recent study of World Bank has estimated that about 40% of people of Bangladesh will be living in urban areas within 2025
Dhaka, the prime city of Bangladesh, its share of national urban population was 25% in 1981, 31% in 1991 and 34% in 2001 respectively
THE MAIN BARRIERS OF HOUSING PROBLEM
1. Increasing Land value
The main problem of housing in Dhaka city is the scarcity of land. Price of land is increasing speedily.
AREAS 1975 1990 2000 2007
Taka/katha Taka/sq.m Taka/katha Taka/sq.m Taka/katha Taka/sq.m Taka/katha Taka/sq.m
baridhara 25000 373 600000 8955 2500000 37361 9000000 134328
Gulshan 25000 375 600000 8955 2200000 32877 8000000 119403
banani 25000 375 600000 8955 2000000 29888 8000000 119403
mohakhali 25000 375 600000 8955 1800000 26900 8000000 119403
dhanmondi 25000 375 600000 8955 2200000 32877 9500000 141791
lalmatia 20000 300 600000 8955 1800000 26900 6000000 89552
azimpur 17500 261 600000 8955 1600000 23911 3500000 52239
mohammadpur 25000 375 500000 7463 1200000 17933 4000000 59701
shantinagar 20000 300 500000 7463 1500000 22417 6000000 89552
D.O.H 20000 300 500000 7463 1600000 23911 6000000 89552
shamoli 17500 265 300000 4478 1000000 14944 3500000 52238
Uttra 20000 300 300000 4478 1000000 14944 3500000 52238
cantonment 20000 300 400000 5970 1000000 14944 3000000 44776
kamlapur 17500 265 400000 5970 800000 11956 2500000 37313
gandaria 10000 150 400000 5970 700000 10461 2000000 29850
Basabo 2000 30 3000000 4478 800000 11956 2000000 29850
Kalanpur 17500 265 300000 4478 800000 11956 2000000 29850
Mirpur 10000 150 300000 2985 700000 10416 2000000 29850
Badda 4000 60 200000 2985 600000 8967 2000000 29850
Goran 4000 60 200000 2985 600000 8967 1800000 26265
Demra 4000 60 200000 2985 600000 8967 1500000 22388
Motijheel 50000 750 1200000 17910 3500000 52305 11000000 164179
Kawran bazar 41500 620 1000000 14925 2500000 37361 8000000 119403
Table 1: Increasing Land value
2. Price Increase of Cement in Last 20 Years
Figure 1: Price increase of cement in last 20 years
3. Increase Price of Construction Materials
Year Price Per Brick Per Cubic Foot Sand Price Per Bag Cement Price Per Ton Steel
Local Shylet
1988 1.00 3.60 5.25 105 11000
1989 1.10 3.68 6.30 110 11000
1990 1.10 4.73 6.70 115 11500
1991 1.12 5.10 7.50 125 11700
1992 1.13 6.80 7.90 125 12000
1993 1.15 7.00 8.10 125 12300
1994 1.20 7.63 8.20 150 12700
1995 1.50 7.00 8.50 162 13500
1996 1.50 7.50 9.00 170 14200
1997 1.75 7.50 9.20 175 15200
1998 2.00 7.10 9.00 182 17500
1999 2.10 7.50 9.80 190 21300
2002 3.40 8.00 13.50 198 23800
2003 3.40 8.00 14.00 225 31500
2004 3.25 9.00 15.00 240 37000
2005 3.15 8.00 22.00 283 39700
2006 3.80 9.00 20.00 313 42700
2007 4.20 9.50 21.50 337 49200
Table 2: Increase price of construction materials
4. Increase Price per Brick (Tk.)
Figure 2: Price per Brick
5. Increase Price per Cubic Foot Sand (Tk.)
Figure 3: Price per Cubic Foot Sand (Tk.)
6. Increase of Land Value in Different Location of Dhaka City
Figure 4: Increase of Land Value in Different Location of Dhaka City
7. High Interest Rate Loan Compare to Other Neighboring Countries
Country name Interest rate
Bangladesh 14%-16%
India 8%-10%
Pakistan 9%-10%
China 4.14%-5.76%
Japan 2.37%-3.05%
Malaysia 6%-6.60%
USA 4.86%-6.00%
UK 5.25%-7.39%
Australia 7.34%-8.22%
France 3%-5%
New Zeeland 7.25%-9.25%
Table 3: High Interest Rate Loan Compare to Other Neighboring Countries
ROLE OF PRIVATE REAL ESTATE DEVELOPERS
It was seen that in the middle of the 1970 and by 1985, apartment buildings were so popular that there was an acceptability of concept of living in a flat. (It is also important to know that after 1971 Bangladesh government did nationalization of much of the industrial sector--resulted in inefficiency and economic stagnation. However, in 1975, government gave greater scope to the private sector participation in the economy. That was encouraging. Isphani group was the pioneer in this sector. But, the business started Flourishing with the inception of Eastern housing Ltd. in the early 80s.
Total Number of Rehab Members Increase
Figure 5: Total Number of Rehab Member Increase
Total Number of Flats Supplied By Rehab Members
Figure 6: Total Number of Flats Supplied By Rehab Members
COMPANY ANALYSIS
Concord Real Estate
Core Value:
• Authenticity: That is the reason why customers come to them.
• Quality Commitment: Their finishing is best.
• Good Materials: Cement reinforcement, GI pipe, Ready mix cement, Hollow blocks.
• Reputation: More than 600 projects.
• Back up Support: Five concrete batching plants with a fleet of truck mixers, four concrete block plants.
• Experienced Professionals: Even their chairman is also an engineer.
• Design and Appearance: Even, they do design from KTGY (Singapore).
Weakness:
• Weak Customer Care: Most of the times application process is delayed by administrative problems.
• Weak Sales Team: They don’t go outside to look for prospects.
Communication Tools:
• Newspaper : Daily Star, Prothom Alo
• Referral : People come to them through referee
Average Price: 3500-1500 sft
Problems:
They don’t search land owners rather landowners want to give them land. Even, they don’t have agents for land search. The main reason of offering land to concord is its goodwill in the market. Landowners think that if they will provide land to concord, their value will be more. Even, they don’t give cash to landowners for their land. Concord just goes for win-win business.
building technology & ideas ltd.
Communication Tools:
• Newspaper
• TV
• Fair
• Web site
• Billboard
Consideration for making a good recognition: They consider the insights and outsights of their clients:
• Commitment: REHAB Membership No. 001. As we are a member of an association, people can believe us.
• First ISO Certified real estate company in Bangladesh
• Handed over more than 2000 flats
Core Value:
• RAJUK approved projects
• Dispute free lands
• High quality construction
• Modern Functional Design
• In time handover
• After Sales Service
• Skilled human resource
• excellent goodwill
Corporate Philosophy:
"Give the customer value for money"
Navana Real Estate Ltd.
Size: 1700-2000 sft
Average Price: 3500-1200 sft
Core Value:
• On time delivery
• Consider emotional values ( as it is a life time purchased)
• Consider Desire ( comfort living, peaceful living)
Communication Tools: Popular newspaper
Prospects: Non Resident Bangladeshi, Doctors, and Engineers
Reference: Most of sales are through referee
Advanced Development Technologies
Communication Tools:
• Newspaper
• TV
• Billboard
• Fair
• Leaflet
• Brochure
• Dairy
• Calendar
• Moneybag
• Table cloth
• Tissue Box
• CD
• Web site
• Email list
• SMS
Consideration for making a good recognition: They consider the insights and outsights of their clients:
• Insights: we are providing good materials that can make our buildings more strong.
• Outsights: we are providing you good technologies, structural design which has a sound market value
Core Value/ Strength
• Ready mix (3 Concrete batching plants from united kingdom)
• Mitsubishi lift
• SDMO generator
• Good tiles
They are trying to say that they really giving the buildings good structural designs. They are making the buildings more strong as they are not using Brick chip that can make a building weaker. They think that we are the only developers providing good materials for making strong buildings.
Offering:
Flat and commercial space
Average Price:
2500- 9000 Tk. Sft
Market Trend:
They consider that the current condition is good. An average monthly sale is good.
Corporate Clients:
Holcim, scan, BSRM
Consumer understanding
Parameters for an Ideal Real Estate Project
Infrastructure
Location
Security
Utilities
Price
Aesthetics
Brand
Consumers Are Aware of the Basic Fundamentals of Real Estate
Functional
Hassle free convenience
Moving up from basic ( even in mid layer solution)
Need for Customization
What Do They Want from Real Estate?
Trustworthiness
Desirable Locations & Convenience
Responsive Customer Service
Good Value for the Money
Delivers on Time
GREAT place to Live
Environmentally oriented
Amenities, facilities, intangibles
Safety and Security
Focus on value, culture & community
How Do Consumers Communicate
Figure 7: How Do Consumer Communicate
Real Estate Touch Point
Before
Communication ( brochure, ad, billboard)
Actual land
Sales team interaction
Telephone conversation with any office representatives
Word of Mouth from influencers
During
Project progresses on time
Interaction with office representatives ( sales and others)
Financial transaction
Word of mouth
Land Hand-over
Presence of elements as promised
After
Management of project
Neighbors
AD (TV) Expenditure of the Industry in Dec’08
Only in TV they spend around 117.69 million tk
9077 Ads in total 6260 Minutes
Customer Purchase Process
Print , outdoor, advertising, word of Mouth:
Providing a clear reason and way to engage, learn more and to be surprised about the brand.
Sales Centre/ Model Flat
This is where the senses must be fully engaged, Quality of construction, design taste, and service must impeccable. Convert Prospects into buyers
Brochures/ Print Materials
Focus on Content. Give the brand experience
Follow Up/ Customer Service:
Don’t underestimate the need to service, educate, assist and encourage prospects to become buyers
Media Used by the Developers for Advertisement
Media Percentage
Newspaper 100
Hoarding 100
Brochure 100
News letter 50
Television 37.50
Sponsoring 37.50
Magazine 25.00
Neon sing 12.50
Table 4: Media used by the developers for advertisement.
Real Estate Marketing communication Bangladesh
Concord Real Estate
Ad Analysis:
Ideologies the Ad Evoke: postabito noy!!! Bastobey desher prothom satelight city
• True Dream
• Complete living
• Free from pollution ( we are environmentally aware)
Straight Message: Discount on flats
Message Appeal: certain gifts
Unique Selling Proposition: concord lake city
The logo is focused
Brochure Analysis
Ideologies the Ad Evoke: postabito noy!!! Bastobey desher prothom satelight city
• (True Dream)
• Complete living
• Free from pollution ( we are environmentally aware)
Straight Message: Discount on flats
Message Appeal: certain gifts
Unique Selling Proposition: concord lake city
Creative Strategy: 36 years experience
(Poychate parechi manusher moner onek gobire, joy koresi sobar bisas o asta).
Position: an image showing the concord lake city
The logo is focused
Communication Problems: no office address is given
bti
Brochure Analysis
Ideologies The Ad Evoke: a reputed old company (...since 1984)
• Specific Target segment (exclusive apartment, Your prestigious new address, For you and your family, Ideal home for living)
• Complete living ( details floor plan)
Unique Selling Proposition: The Park Radiance
Position: an image showing the park Radiance
Focused on: ISO 9001: 2000 Certified, REHAB: MEMBERSHIP 001
The logo is used 2 times
Asset
Brochure Analysis
Ideologies The Ad Evoke: focused on company information (Asset’s Vision)
Straight Message: list of apartment projects
Creative Strategy: using of different colours
Position: images showing Asset Development office
Slogan is given
Ad analysis:
Unique Selling Proposition: Silverstone Sapphire
• An image of Silverstone sapphire
Straight Message: for Silverstone sapphire
Slogan is given
NAVANA
Brochure Analysis
Ideologies the ads evoke: years in Real Estate (12 years accomplishment)
• Company information
• Many projects with images
• Finest living
Focused on: REHAB Member
Logo is used two times
Ad analysis:
Unique Selling Proposition: Residential projects
Focused on customer care (22 mobile numbers), REHAB Member
MISSING IN BROCHURES
Brochures
Is there any uniqueness in Brochures???
Can you guess the company name???
MISSING IN PRINT ADS
ALL BRANDS LOOK ALIKE.
CAN I CHOOSE ONE EASILY???
Brand Positioning:
Unique Brand Values:
1. Reliability: service is carried out dependably and accurately. Emotional benefit: customers feel they can rely on the service provider.
2. Assuredness: service staff demonstrates trust and confidence. Emotional response: customers trust the work being done and statements that are made.
3. Tangibility: service staff and premises are clean and look good. Emotional judgment: customers sense the organization takes pride in itself.
4. Empathy: Service staffs are caring and provide individualized attention, emotional reaction: customers feel recognized as individuals.
5. Responsiveness: Service staffs are willing to rapidly help customers. Emotional experience: customers fell they are important to the organization.
Four pillars of emotional branding
Emotional branding is based on four pillars:
• RELATIONSHIP
• SENSORIAL
• EXPERIENCES
• IMAGINATION
• VISION
1. RELATIONSHIP: in touch with and showing respect about who your consumers are really are and giving them the emotional experience they want.
2. SENSORIAL EXPERIENCE: pro viding consumers with a sensorial experience of a brand is key to achieving the kind of memorable emotional brand contact that will establish brand preference and create loyalty.
3. IMAGINATION: Imaginative approaches to the design of products, packaging, retail stores, advertisement, and web sites allow a brand to break the ceiling of the expected and reach the hearts of consumers in a fresh, new way.
4. VISION: is the ultimate factor of a brand long term success.
Important Consideration for Brand Positioning:
1. Root Strength: Try to find out the important aspects of original product, values or benefits that can make the brand grand. It is important to identify the appeal of consumer.
2. Competitive Environment: Competitive environment is an environment where there are many choices. The question is now whether customers can trace your brand from the available choices.
3. Target: can your brand is the best choice among the choices?
4. Insight: Can your brand understand the need of the consumer?
5. Benefits: The differentiating functional, emotional and sensory benefits that motivate purchase.
6. Values, Beliefs & Personality: Values describe why the brand stands for. Beliefs are the conviction the brand holds. Personality describes how the brand behaves, which includes its style of communication with its audience.
7. Reasons to Believe: Can your customers believe that your brand is the best one from the alternatives?
8. Discriminator: The single most compelling reason for the consumer to choose the product. What are competitive reasons for the buying?
9. Essence: The core idea or promise of the brand
RECOMMENDATION
The main housing problem in Dhaka city is for its scarcity of resources and high prices. There is a big gap between the affordability and price. It is very also true that if we can fill up the gap between housing price and affordability, thus, it is possible to give a good solution for a standard of living.
• We can reduce the cost of housing through proper designing .Design is one of important factors for the real estate business. If we can engage experienced and innovative architects (efficient use of floor area) and engineers (proper structure and service design and strict supervision). Thus, it will be possible to reduce the cost of the construction.
• The Government may acquire land in the sub-urban areas and build apartments on joint venture with the real estate developers who have good track records.
• Registration cost should be minimized to reduce the price of apartments.
• Long- term bank loan should give to the apartments with minimal interest rate.
• The government should adopt policies to encourage the developers in meeting the housing needs of middle-income groups.
• For Company, Branding can help create buyer interest in the property by stirring his emotions. It can tell the prospective buyer why he should check out one developer's flat first instead of his competitor's.
• Real estate always been sold as a commodity. We have to change the concept of thinking. People cannot judge materialistic thing. We have to give more emphasis on emotion and functional benefits as it is important know those human beings are powered by emotion not by reasons.
• In the real estate business, it is important to recognize the quality and the value that customer is looking for. The following factors make up the value of a real estate property, say a flat: location, premises (their physical and operational functionality, performance, etc)
• Companies should also emphasis on the unique brand values that are already discussed in the previous section. The unique brand values can offer much emotional benefits by which customers can feel that they can rely on the service provider. These values are also important for creating trust and confidence. So, finally consumers can get an emotional experience with the service.
• For positioning to a particular brand, companies can follow brand positioning strategy where a company needs to uncover values and benefits that can make the brand great. If the company can implement it in proper way, thus, the prospects can choose the right brand among many choices. Here keep in mind that the company has to deliver promises what are promised.
• For any real estate buying, emotional branding is much significant. Apartment buying is a life time buying. Companies need pay more attention on emotion rather than just simply selling. Companies can apply here four pillars of emotional branding which help a company to enter into inside the mind of consumer. The four pillars of emotional branding are based on the relationship, sensorial, experiences and imagination. Relationship helps to indentify who your customer and what emotional benefits they want. Sensorial experience helps to create brand contact what is finally establish brand preference and loyalty.
CONCLUSION
The above analyses show that apartment business in Dhaka city entered into a new era. It is really very important for the government of Bangladesh should take necessary steps for the development of real estate business in Bangladesh.
BIBLIOGRAPHY
Barlow, Janelle, and Paul Stewart. "Branded customer service: the new competitive edge."
"DemoFigureics of Bangladesh." 21 Feb. 2009
“Dhaka.” 21 feb.2009
< http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dhaka>.
Gobe, Marc. "Emotional Branding." 20 Feb. 2009
Jamil, Gazi Mohammad Hasan, and Mosabbir Ahmad. "Housing for Low Income People in Bangladesh: Problems and Prospects." Dhaka. 20 Mar. 2009
M. seraj, Dr. Toffiq. "Prospects of private housing and future action." Rehab Week-2007. Westin Hotel, Dhaka. 19 Nov. 2007.
Rahman, Mahbubur. "Apartments for all: Cutting superfluous costs." The Daily Star [Dhaka] 05 July 2008.
"Towards real estate brands." The Times of India 19 Feb. 2005.
Ullah, Mahmud, Md. Zakir Hossain Bhuiyan, and Md. Akteruzzaman. "Situation Analysis of Apartment Business in Dhaka City." Dhaka University Journal of Business Studies Xxi (2000): 71-81.
"World Environment Day 2005 : From Grim City to Green City." 21 Feb. 2009
Friday, June 20, 2008
Selling Technique in Shoe Store
I have visited four different places of
Belal told that “I can understand my prospective customers by seeing his or her face.” I asked him how you understand it. He told me that “when a customer first enter into our store, I can just say whether the customer is willing to buy a shoe or not” “Nothing is special here” But, I understood that Belal was using sales techniques unknowingly.
Belal is very simple in dressed, but he is very polite in nature. His behavior is good and attractive. However, when I asked him about communication matter with his customers, he told me that it is not that much difficult. I asked him about the language using to communicate with the customers is formal or informal. He told me that it’s totally depends upon the customers i am taking to. First, I see how my customers are talking; then I act like this.
Objection handling is another important task in shoe stores. I asked Belal that “It is seen that when a customer come for replacement, sellers want to avoid it after sales” Do your shop do replacement? Belal answered me “Yes, we do”. I told him that “you usually charge more money that time.” Belal relied “No” He said to me “No”. Sometimes it happens that the shoe size is not properly matched; then we have to do replacement.
After that, we started our conversation about customers. I asked Belal “What is your idea about selling a product to a customer?” Belal told me that “It totally depends upon the customers” “some customers don’t like bargaining. They just say one fixed price to buy” “There are some customers who bargain too much” I asked him “you don’t feel bad that time” “No” he replied and added that customers are customers. “They can say whatever they like”
Finally, I asked Belal “what do you think? How can you be a successful salesperson in this business?” He told me that “I think the most important thing is customer preference. We always try to do what our customers like”.
After that, I visited Elephant road. There are many shoe stores in Elephant road. Finally, I have got someone to talk. His name is Bappy, who is a salesman of “Asamoni Shoe Store”. Bappy is very friendly. Most of the idea that I have got from Belal are repeated by Bappy again. He also told me that” customer preference is the most important thing. Look what customer wants”
The most important facts about this shoe store is that they know that customer life time is very important. He also told me that “70 percent of their customers are old customers” They are doing repeat purchase because of our quality and behavior. He also added that “To be a successful in sales, we have to understand our customer”
Finally, I went to
The next day, I visited to Rajdhani market in Tikatuli They also added that “customer preference is much important”
From this survey, I have felt that most of the sales people they just don’t know better sales techniques. People working in this shoe stores are not that much educated or well trained as well.
Wednesday, May 14, 2008
Case on Shaheen Corporation
Introduction
Shaheen Corporation was established in Tongi in 2001 as the sole agent and distribution in
When the sales increased over a period of time, the firm started to grow in size. After three years of operation of the firm was able to set up a small factory for manufacturing electrical appliances and at that time the number of the employees was nearly 100 skilled and semiskilled. Besides importing, supplying and manufacturing for the private sector, the corporation took big government and private contact for electrical installations. The firm made steady progress in sales, employment and profits. The company was able to capture the 60 percent of the market because of no competition in the product line. Its employees increased to 200 in 2005 from 5 in 2001. The corporation was a family concern, with the father serving as chairman and his sons serving as directors and heads of the department.
Company Profile
With the increase of the employee, the company should have a personal officer to look after the personnel management activities of the company. But chairman replied “we don’t need one as I am keenly interested in the well being of the employees and so I handle personnel matters myself. Moreover, most of the employees in my organization from my own district and therefore I have no difficulties in getting the desired good activity from them” But it was totally impossible to manage all the employees with the help of a single person.
Environment Analysis
Later on the factory was organized the workers formed a trade union and elected some of the company’s employees as vice president and general secretary. The company set up another new factory in Gazipur for the assembly of another electrical product. Additional 100 skilled and non-skilled workers along with the three supervisor and two foreign technicians were employed to staff the new plant.
Problem statement
The problem of this company is raised from its management system. There is no human resource department in this company, even not a single HR manager. There is a big gap between company and its employees. When employees working in the organization don’t feel they are one part of the company, they feel that we are not getting their actual rights. Exactly, this is reason why unions are formed in an organization. The union was so powerful that a charter of demands was submitted by the union officers. Some of the demands submitted by the union were as follows:
- A flat five percent raise in the basic wage and salaries of all the firm’s employees
- A grant of two months salary bonuses to all the employees for the year
- Free medical care for all the employees of the company and their families
- Increase the present quantum of causal leave from seven to ten days
- Tk. 75 month to be granted to all employees as transport allowance
- All vacancies to higher positions to be filled by promotion from within
- The union to be allowed to set up an office on the premises of the establishment and
- The company to construct a small mosque for prayers on the company’s premises
Solution
In my own point of view, I think the problem has come from the lack of management capabilities.. The managing director of the company himself wants to solve the problem without appointing any personal officer. But this was quite impossible when the workers of the company are increasing rapidly. The director should have understood it very well that he could not manage the entire employees.
Finally, I think that the company should manage the union primarily and must appoint personal officers in the company to make a good relationship with the workers. The company should understand their problems. Otherwise, the company will run properly in near future.
Saturday, September 1, 2007
SOLID WASTE MANAGEMENT
BUSINESS PLAN
Description of My Business/ company:
My company name is Green World Company. We are working for solid waste management. Solid waste management has become a major environmental concern in the city of
Targeted Market and Customers
Solid waste management practice has a big market in developing countries. For example in
| Year | Total urban population | Percent of urban population | Average annual growth (%) |
| 1991 | 20872204 | 20.15 | 5.43 |
| 2001 | 28808477 | 23.39 | 3.27 |
| 2025 (projected) | 78440000 | 40.00 | ---- |
Source: UMP, Asia News, summer, 1999
Due to heavy consumption, waste can increase many new problems especially serious diseases and environment pollution. If we know how to formulate waste, thus it can be a great invest for our lives.
Position/ place of my business
Solid waste management plant will be in the city as the population of
Product and services
Our main product is organic fertilizer. We will produce organic fertilizer from waste. By creating the value of waste, we are not only earning money but also reducing carbon emission. On the other hand, by using organic fertilizer we can produce safe food and protect our land from chemical fertilizers. In
Key player in the market/ competitors
Waste concern is a non-profit organization that works with municipal governments to use solid waste as a resource by composting waste in 5 community-based composting plants rather than burning/flaring it and then selling it to fertilizer companies. To scale-up its model, waste concern as a Social Business Enterprise partnered with a for-profit private Dutch company using CO2 emissions trading of CDM (Clean Development Mechanism). Only waste concern is the major one working actively. However, solid waste management has still a remarkable market size as urbanization is the main reason behind it. Specially, waste concern has no competitors right now because of not understanding the market.
Project cost and how it will work
How will it work?
· City will provide public land for community composting
· Green World facilitates with the city to collect house-to-house solid waste in rickshaw bicycles and bring it to processing plants
· Waste is composted into enriched bio-fertilizers
· Green World arranges for fertilizer companies to purchase and nationally market the compost-based fertilizer
Financial costs
| Items | 3 ton/day | 10 ton/day |
| Land Required / Plant | 7 | 20 |
| Fixed Cost / Plant (Tk) | 1,008,000 | 2,880,000 |
| Operating Cost /Plant(Tk) | 300,000 | 1,000,000 |
| Total Labors / Plant | 4 | 12 |
| Compost Produced (Daily) | 750kg | 2500kg |
| Expected Revenue from | 600,000 | 2,000,000 |
| Expected Revenue from | 205,312 | 684,375 |
| Profit with CER/carbon credits per year | 505,312 | 1,684,375 |
| Profit per year without CER/carbon credits | 300,000 | 1,000,000 |
| Pay Back Period (with carbon credits) | 2 Years | 1.71 Years |
| Pay Back Period ( without carbon credits) | 3.36 Years | 2.88 Years |
* CER means certified emission reduction (which is reduction of methane gas by composting). The methane gas reduced by composting can be sold at a price of US 6/ton using CDM mechanism) I US $ = Tk. 70[i]
Marketing strategy
Green world will purchase the plant from waste concern. But we will use our own strategy which is described earlier.[ii] From the project of waste concern it is seen that we can choose two items based on our required capital. The plant can be whether 3ton/day or 10 ton/day. Our pay back period is 3.36 years for 3ton/day plant and 3.88 years for 10ton/day.
Sales and distribution
- We will sell our fertilizer directly to the farmers.
- our product price will be lower than other competitors products.
- We will use the economies scale of model – the larger size of the market that will result in lower cost per unit.
Tuesday, August 21, 2007
Do Economic Growth and Environmental Conservation Go Together?
Do Economic Growth and Environmental Conservation Go Together?
Table of Contents
1. Introduction
2. Saving and Accounting for Natural Capital and Wealth
3. Natural Resources are Priceless
4. Natural Resource Degradation
5. Water Problem in
6. Economic Growth vs. Social/ Environmental benefit
7. Conclusion
Economic growth is one of the most important economy goals, especially in a developing country. The objective of economic growth is to raise the people’s standard of living. During the industrial revolution, manufactured capital-- money, factories, machinery-- was the principal factor in industrial production; natural capital was considered only a marginal input of the production. Uncontrolled use of natural capital makes our environment vulnerable. Dr. Jay Forrester, professor at the Sloan School of Management at MIT, predicted that "sometime in the next hundred years, if then current-trends in population growth, industrialization, and resource depletion continued unchanged, the world would face actual physical limits to growth."[ii] General awareness of this issue arose with the publication of the Brundtland report, Our Common future, in 1987. The most remembered quote from the Brundtland report is the definition of sustainable development as “development that meets the needs of the present without compromising the ability of future generations to meet their own needs.”[iii] What will be the process of development that will not compromise the ability of future generations to meet their own needs? In my point of view, I think that sustainable growth a concept which will refer to do in the rest of this paper is pure development, must happen in such a way that 1) every person is treated equally. “The pattern of investment should be so designed as to ensure a balanced development of various sectors.”[iv] Pure Development depends on sustaining the total wealth-- produced, human, institutional, and natural-- of which economic growth is just one factor.
We all know that natural resources play a vital role for the economic development
of a country. We can see this importance of natural resources by analyzing the
following graph.
Figure 1: shares of wealth by income group, 2000
Source: Where is the Wealth of Nations? World Bank 2006. Oil States Excluded.
This graph shows the total wealth of low, middle, and high income countries. According to Kirk Hamilton, this wealth can be divided into three categories. As he writes, Produced capital is the familiar blend of buildings, machines, and Natural capital is the value of agricultural land, forests, and subsoil resources such as minerals and energy. ‘Intangible’ capital is the value of everything else—human capital, social capital, and governance. In poor countries, natural capital is a larger share of total wealth than produced capital. So, the depletion of natural resources is a serious problem in poor countries.
3. Natural Resources are Priceless
We should know that environment is a source of multiple, interrelated qualities. For example, soil, Biologist Evan Eisenberg explains that “one teaspoon of good grassland of soil may contain 5 billion bacteria, 20 million fungi, and 1 million protoctists”[v] Biologist F.O. Wilson has commented that “the multitudinous diversity of obscure species don’t need us. Can we say with certainty the same about them?”[vi] Many economists continue to believe that natural and manufactured capitals are interchangeable, that one can replace the other. Look at this human-oriented list and try to think that if it is possible for technologies to replace these services:
- Production of oxygen
- Maintenance of biological and genetic diversity
- Purification of water and air
- Storage, cycling, and global distribution of freshwater
- Regulation of the chemical composition of the atmosphere
- Maintenance of migration and nursery habitats for wildlife
- Decomposition of organic wastes
- Sequestration and detoxification of human and industrial waste
- Natural pest and diseases control by insects, birds, bats, and other organisms
- Production of genetic library for food, fibers, pharmaceuticals, and materials
- Fixation of solar energy and conversion into raw materials
- Management of soil erosion and sediment control
- Flood prevention and regulation of runoff
- Protection against harmful cosmic radiation
- Regulation of the chemical composition of the oceans
- Regulation of the local and global climate
- Formation of topsoil and maintenance of soil fertility
- Production of grasslands, fertilizers, and food
- Storage and recycling of nutrients[vii]
The answer is no. Technologies can not replace these services. The best example of this environment importance is "Biosphere 2", "it took a $200 million investment to Minimally keep eight people alive for two years"[viii] Now try to think how much it would cost to replicate all of the functions in the preceding list? These are priceless.
4. Natural Resource Degradation
Another important matter of economic development is limiting factors. Former
World Bank economist Herman Daly believes that “humankind is facing a historic
Juncture: for the first time, the limits to increased prosperity are due to the lack not of
Human- made capital but rather of natural capital."[ix]
A limiting factor is one that prevents a system from surviving or growing if it is absent. If marooned in a mountain snowstorm, you need water, food, and warmth to survive; the resource in shortest supply limits your ability to survive. One factor does not compensate for the lack of another.[x]
Similarly, we can not survive without an ecosystem. We should know that there
are many limiting factors and the ecosystem is one. We can not think of our existence
without an ecosystem. So, we should not think that achieving high economic growth
alone necessarily lead to the development of a country.
I think the most critical problem for
Studies have indicated that:
The Indian- based centre for Sustainable Development recently provided figures for
There is a saying attributed to W.H Auden that "few have died for lack of love; many have dies for lack of water”.[xiii] We also need to minimize system loss in the water sector. As the World Bank estimates, "corruption undermines efficiency in the water sector by 20 to 40 percent."[x]
To solve the problems of a country, I think the process of development needs to be thought differently. It is really important to know how freedoms of development are working among the people of a country. According to Amartya Sen “their relevance for development does not have to be freshly established through their indirect contribution to the growth of GNP or to the promotion of industrialization. As it happens, these freedoms and rights are also very effective in contributing to economic progress"[xv]
He also writes:
Development is a process of expanding the real freedoms that people enjoy. In this approach, expansion of freedom is viewed as both (1) the primary end and (2) the principal means of development. They can be called respectively the "constitutive role" and the "instrumental role" in development.[xvi]
On the other hands instrumental freedoms are:
(1) Political freedoms (2) economic facilities (3) social opportunities (4) Transparency guarantees and (5) protective security.[xvii]
Why am I telling about these freedoms? I think that freedom of choice has deep relation with the development process.
At present, deforestation rate is very high in
The average annual destruction of forest land in the country was 8000 ha in 1980 and subsequently it increased to 38000 ha in 1981-90 according to FAO (1993). But probably the rate of destruction of forest is more severe than the official statistics. It is very difficult to estimate the real picture indeed.[xviii]
If the development process happens in this way, a country will face difficult problems in the long run. We are trying to solve one current problem, but at the same time, we are creating many new problems too. For example, we are using forest resources indiscriminately. As a result we are making other resource vulnerable too.
We should know that freedom works for two distinct reasons. Because of constitutive freedoms and instrumental freedoms, people are exploiting natural resources drastically. People in the developing countries are finishing their natural resources very quickly and accordingly they are facing problem rapidly. Unequal distribution of income is another serious problem in developing countries and another obstacle to the pure development process. From the human development report 2005, it is seen that unequal share of income or consumption between rich and poor is very large in Bangladesh Bangladesh
7. CONCLUSION
To make economic growth fruit, we have to sustain our total wealth-- produced, human, institutional and natural. “The basic point is that the impact of economic growth depends much on how the fruits of economic growth are used"[xix] How can we sustain our total wealth? I think we need to follow the "capital investment" rule where sustainable yield will calculate these resources. We can classify our natural resources into two types. One is stock resources and another is flow resources. Stock resources are gas, oil, minerals, whereas flow resources are forest, land, water river e.t.c. As stock resource is limited and their replacement time is at least 1000 million years. We need to use these resources carefully. On the other hand, flow resources replacement time is within human life span. for example: we assume that our total natural resources is 100 and we invest 10 for 10% annual interest rate, our annual rate of return will be 1. For the next year we will invest 11. Then that year our annual return will be 1.1. I am giving this example and trying to make it clear that we need to achieve an annual rate of return which will be of use for our economic development only. Initial investment will be always 100. We also need to improve our human resource in order to sustain our total wealth. If we want to make human resource strong, we need education and health care first. I think these two things are a further condition of the development process.” A poor economy may have less money to spend on health care and education, but it also needs less money to provide the same services, which would cost more in the richer countries."[xx] "
[ii] Natural capitalism, PAUL HAWKEN, AMORY LOVINS, L. HUNTER LOVINS, p.144
[iii] The sustainability revolution, Andres Rewards, foreword by David W. Orr, p.17
[iv] modern economic theory, k.k dewett, p.653
[v] Natural capitalism, PAUL HAWKEN, AMORY LOVINS, L. HUNTER LOVINS, p.150
[vi] Natural capitalism, PAUL HAWKEN, AMORY LOVINS, L. HUNTER LOVINS, p.151
[vii] Natural capitalism, PAUL HAWKEN, AMORY LOVINS, L. HUNTER LOVINS,p.153
[viii] Natural capitalism, PAUL HAWKEN, AMORY LOVINS, L. HUNTER LOVINS, p.153
[ix] Natural capitalism PAUL HAWKEN, AMORY LOVINS, L. HUNTER LOVINS, p.157
[x] Natural capitalism, PAUL HAWKEN, AMORY LOVINS, L. HUNTER LOVINS, p.157
[xi] Strengthening cooperation and security in south
[xii] Better management of water resources by Muhammad zamir,
[xiii] Water resource management in
[xiv] Better management of water resources by Muhammad zamir,
[xv] DEVELOPMENY AS FREEDOM BY AMARTYA SEN, P.5
[xvi] DEVELOPMENY AS FREEDOM BY AMARTYA SEN, P.36
[xvii] DEVELOPMENY AS FREEDOM BY AMARTYA SEN, P.38
[xviii] Depletion of tropical forests with particular reference to
[xix] DEVELOPMENY AS FREEDOM BY AMARTYA SEN, P.44
[xx] DEVELOPMENY AS FREEDOM BY AMARTYA SEN, P.48
[xxi] DEVELOPMENY AS FREEDOM BY AMARTYA SEN, P.41
[xxii] BANGLDESH: STATE OF THE ENVIRONMENT 2001, P.119
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