Show, Don’t Sell: Is Innovation Part of Your Real Estate Marketing Strategy?
Marketing for commercial and residential real estate often relies heavily on the hard sell, actively pushing people to make a purchase. But how does this align with a brand’s ability to forge a long-term relationship with its customer?
Customer acquisition in real estate is ultimately about connecting with people, and an authentic approach that’s based on innovation, community and connection may be an alternative to conventional real estate marketing strategies in an overcrowded market where buyers have very little attention to spare.
Innovative Responses to Customer Challenges
Award-winning Australian real estate developer Mirvac introduced Cultivate, a business that converts under-used spaces from car parks, basements and vacant retail or office spaces into urban farms.
Their innovative approach to urban farming is the product of a collaboration between Mirvac and Melbourne start-up Farmwall, and relies on using sustainable low-waste methods to transform “dead spaces” into food-producing ecosystems.
With skyrocketing electricity prices, solar has become an increasingly compelling way to cut down on carbon footprints and expenditure. In Australia however, technical and regulatory obstacles have meant that apartment owners and residents in multi-dwelling buildings are often left behind.
In response to this challenge, Mirvac partnered with Allume, an Australian startup making solar accessible to multi-metered buildings. The company installed solar panels on the roof of Mirvac’s 102-apartment development in Doncaster in Melbourne’s north-east.
Mirvac is also a pioneer in the fledgling build-to-rent sector with three build-to-rent projects in Sydney and Melbourne. The company has set itself a target to be net energy and water positive by 2030.
This innovation is no accident. Innovative thinking is actively encouraged within the company as part of its employee culture and ethos. The Hatch Innovation Capability Accelerator (HICA) is a school of innovation that drives innovative thinking at Mirvac. Teams from across the company are trained at Hatch in innovation methodology and apply it to real life projects.
The accelerator has boosted innovation skills at Mirvac, changing the real estate company’s culture by fostering customer-focused lean experimentation in a safe-to-fail environment. Their approach has paid rich dividends. Mirvac attracts many of the industry’s most prestigious organisations and retailers to its assets. Their impressive record of creating value is down to Mirvac’s unique ability to tailor each of its assets to the unique needs of its customers. Mirvac differentiates from its competitors in their ability to develop deep and mutually rewarding relationships with their partners over the long-term.
Their innovative approach to urban farming is the product of a collaboration between Mirvac and Melbourne start-up Farmwall, and relies on using sustainable low-waste methods to transform “dead spaces” into food-producing ecosystems.
With skyrocketing electricity prices, solar has become an increasingly compelling way to cut down on carbon footprints and expenditure. In Australia however, technical and regulatory obstacles have meant that apartment owners and residents in multi-dwelling buildings are often left behind.
In response to this challenge, Mirvac partnered with Allume, an Australian startup making solar accessible to multi-metered buildings. The company installed solar panels on the roof of Mirvac’s 102-apartment development in Doncaster in Melbourne’s north-east.
Mirvac is also a pioneer in the fledgling build-to-rent sector with three build-to-rent projects in Sydney and Melbourne. The company has set itself a target to be net energy and water positive by 2030.
This innovation is no accident. Innovative thinking is actively encouraged within the company as part of its employee culture and ethos. The Hatch Innovation Capability Accelerator (HICA) is a school of innovation that drives innovative thinking at Mirvac. Teams from across the company are trained at Hatch in innovation methodology and apply it to real life projects.
The accelerator has boosted innovation skills at Mirvac, changing the real estate company’s culture by fostering customer-focused lean experimentation in a safe-to-fail environment. Their approach has paid rich dividends. Mirvac attracts many of the industry’s most prestigious organisations and retailers to its assets. Their impressive record of creating value is down to Mirvac’s unique ability to tailor each of its assets to the unique needs of its customers. Mirvac differentiates from its competitors in their ability to develop deep and mutually rewarding relationships with their partners over the long-term.
Connecting with Partners and People
Brands that build communities that want to hear from them, and want to connect both online and offline enjoy a tremendous multiplier effect — the community drives product appreciation and collaborative relationships mean that products more closely reflect the needs of their customers.
This process relies on tapping into human truths, and addressing those truths in a fully fledged project, rather than a one-time marketing push, revealing creative and longer-term ways to connect the brand to culture.
The more innovative and social the product is, the better the engagement. In early 2023, Aviva partnered with property developer, Stories, to invest £100m in UK real estate and infrastructure projects to benefit local communities and promote social and environmental sustainability. The joint venture is the first funding commitment from Aviva Capital Partners (ACP), Aviva’s new in-house capital unit which originates infrastructure assets using Aviva group capital.
These companies also actively use partnerships both in initial phases when they’re in zones that fall outside their expertise (as Mirvac’s collaborations with Allume and Farmwall) but also when they’re ready to release a new project. They recognise that while they have brand equity of their own, the value of teaming up with another strong brand makes the interaction even more powerful. Investing in innovation and business development is an often overlooked first step that can drive marketing that’s authentic, highly visible and closely aligned with customer needs.
The Value of Human Connection
Product innovation and community building ensures that marketing is based on genuine human connection. It doesn’t try to force people into making a purchase. It lets companies stand out by creating better outcomes for everyone. With an emphasis on trusting the audience’s intelligence, there’s no need to create artificial scarcity or a push to sign up, laying the ground for more empowered buying in the future.
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