The days are past when a prospective commercial property buyer or tenant would get in their car and waste an enormous amount of time driving around looking at billboards showing artist illustrations of new projects.
Today, tenants and buyers are rethinking their approach to acquiring commercial property aided by the proliferation of property websites, regional economic development offices, agencies and assorted Business Links which are giving them greatly improved access to what is available and who is handling their type of property.
Consequently, with most new buildings on the market for an average of three years before being fully occupied and with a huge supply of buildings spoiling occupiers for choice (competition in the South East is particularly fierce), commercial property marketers are having to raise their game to shift floor space.
The advent of the web (the biggest innovation, saving property-seekers huge amounts of time and money) and the growing sophistication of direct mail are enabling marketers to research their targets in ever greater detail and to reach them with ever greater accuracy. It has also become virtually mandatory for a development to have a features-laden website.
At the same time, ‘touchy-feely’ materials have lost none of their appeal, and digital printing is allowing marketers to produce bigger and glossier brochures, while no self-respecting new building would be without a Hollywood special effects-style scale model.
As a result, the industry has seen some quirky and humourous initiatives. For example, surveyors Jones Lang Lasalle recently sent out half a brochure for the London Gate building in Hayes to indicate that it had been 50 per cent let and that prospective tenants no longer needed the other half. The envelope also contained the remnants of the rest of the brochure, and the new brochure was sent out the following day. Jones Lang Lasalle also once installed a putting green in a building to get people in to view it.
For its PeopleBuilding project in Hemel Hempstead, developer Stanhope customised the Tetras computer game which, appropriately, requires players to line up different length buildings blocks as they fall out of the sky. Aimed at leasing agents, the game could only be accessed via the PeopleBuilding website (a password was emailed to agents), and a weekly top 10 was posted to let players see how their peers were faring against them. Played over four weeks, the game drew consistent attention to the PeopleBuilding and proved a real talking point within the property industry.
Stanhope director Henry Williams says: We wanted to ensure that our property was at the forefront of people’s mind when they were looking for something in North London. Rather than doing tried and tested advertising, which is a scatter-gun approach, we thought we’d target those agents who were active in that area.
For Alec Rattray, director with the branding consultancy Henrion Ludlow Schmidt, these one-off marketing gambits do not go far enough. Advocating that commercial property marketers devise an holistic branding proposition, he says: For such an essential segment of business life, property has strangely failed to grasp the opportunity of branding making a clear statement of intent and purpose to gain the respect, trust and preference of the stakeholders.
Is this because property people are sales-orientated rather then marketing-orientated, deal-makers rather than relationship-builders? Is it because they take a narrow view of stakeholders, ignoring the wider community interest, including the public and neighbourhood groups.
Rattray recommends a root-and-branch rethink of how commercial property marketers communicate to partners, tenants and the public. The starting point, he says, should be vision, not visualisation.
Rattray’s comments would not be lost on the developers of a more fundamental and enduring phenomenon that is changing the face of commercial property marketing: branded developments. These are schemes which create a whole environment, as opposed to just placing a building on a greenfield site with tress and landscaping around it. Now, coffee bars, creches, restaurants and gyms are becoming de rigeur to make life a bit easier for tenants and staff. (See boxout page 28.)
As client needs have changed, with facilities for workers playing a larger role, so too has the ‘target’ which commercial property companies must reach within organisations in order to make a sale. While the financial director, facilities director and managing director are still
Pioneered by London’s Canary Wharf, this new trend has produced some high profile examples. West London’s Chiswick Park, a one million square foot development where branding was mixed in with the bricks and mortar, uses the theme ‘Enjoy Work’ to lure tenants. And so agents might receive frisbees from the developer to enjoy in summer, every single person in the park might be handed a doughnut and workers might sign up for sailing lessons or Italian classes or be treated to a fireworks display. It all serves to create a real sense of community. Chiswick Park was developed by Stanhope, whose director Henry Williams explains: A lot of property marketing is about where it is and what it costs per square foot. The ‘Enjoy Work’ brand is aimed at the occupiers, who are trying to attract and retain key staff. It’s a totally different offer. [Commercial property marketers] are being much more focused and targeted at their audience. They’re doing their homework beforehand to identify the people they should be attracting to the scheme. This strategy has paid off for Stanhope, and by promoting Chiswick Park as a focus for media occupiers, they have attracted big name tenants like the Discovery Channel, CBS News Europe, Teletext and Disney-owned Corinthian.
