Summary
Winning Through Rejections This case illustrates how Housing.com, a newcomer, challenged established real estate platforms by disrupting inventory. While competitors emphasized a wide range of choices, Housing.com focused on providing reasons to reject houses, recognizing the emotional aspect of home selection. The innovative approach, "Reject More," resulted in 50% more website visitors, showcasing the success of this distinctive strategy.
Challenge
Business Objective: GAIN AUDIENCE LEADERSHIP from established real estate search platform giants: MagicBricks, 99 acres, NoBroker KPI: Gain 20% visitors from competition's platforms The key success metric of an online marketplace is the audience visiting its platform vs. its competition. Benchmark: Avg monthly visitors of the competition: 14mn visitors Marketing Objective: Increase consideration and penetration through organic app downloads of Housing.com KPI: Organic app downloads Organic app downloads are critical because they determine base of the business. Benchmark: Avg. organic app downlaods of the category is at 15-18% of the total downloads Campaign Objective: Gaining mind measures - In a market filled with similar offerings, engaging house hunters became a necessity for standing out. KPIs: Awareness, Spontaneous Recall, Brand Search Volume For Housing.com to truly become the go-to house hunting platform, it needed to get mind measures over market share. Benchmark: Growth in spontaneous recall over LY against competition Winning over competition with higher awareness Increase in brand search volume over LY STRATEGIC CHALLENGE: HOW COULD HOUSING.COM PITCH ITS RANGE OF CHOICES ANY DIFFERENTLY TO YOUNG MILLENNIALS?
Objective
2006 -2007: THE BIRTH OF PROPTECH (PROPERTY TECH) - ONLINE MARKETPLACE FOR REAL ESTATE: The pains & woes of house hunting shifted from on-ground to online. The big switch in process: from going door-to-door, lane to lane to the convenience of searching properties from home. Magic Bricks and 99 acres led this transformation with a focus on listing a wide range of properties, providing information on localities, and facilitating connections between buyers, sellers, and renters. ENTER HOUSING.COM, UP AGAINST ESTABLISHED GIANTS: Today, 68% young Indians dominate the rental real estate. Their job switches dictate their house switches. This has led to house hunting now more than ever before. Housing.com was a late entrant in the category trying to attract these millennials. SAMENESS OF COMPETING PLATFORMS: For a swipe right generation, much like dating apps, all the real estate platforms serve one purpose – CHOICES. CHOICES. CHOICES. All players pitched the same: top properties, budget-friendly rent, and no brokerage. Housing.com, with a similar offering, struggled to distinguish itself. In a market saturated with identical listings, achieving recall is crucial for late entrants to stand out and establish significant audience leadership in the competitive real estate category.
Strategy
GAINING MIND MEASURES: A MULTIMEDIA CAMPAIGN TO POSITION HOUSING.COM AS A PLATFORM THAT HELP HOUSE-HUNTERS FIND PERFECT HOUSES THROUGH REJECTIONS. STEP #1 OVERSHADOWED COMPETITION BY BECOMING A HOUSE-HUNTER CENTRIC PLATFORM House-hunting is a rational process, but the eliminations are often irrational. Housing.com recognized that competition mainly focused on rational parameters and checklists, treating it as a left-brain decision. Addressed a Gap: Recognized the gap in the market where competitors were missing the emotional aspects of house hunting. The communication strategy allowed Housing.com to tell house hunters that it's perfectly okay to reject houses for reasons others might think to be irrational. Because Housing.com has enough and more for them to find the perfect one. STEP #2 MASS MEDIA LAUNCH: PERFECT HOUSE THROUGH REJECTION ('PARR' SE PERFECT) The idea, "Reject More," was born from the understanding that the method of elimination during house hunting is a method of choice, and the emotional factors often outweigh the rational ones. We weaved this idea into four humorous films encouraging house hunters to embrace their quirks by making rejection part of the process. REACHING THE MASSES: Through television and digital channels. Utilizing an advanced algorithm for TV impact analysis and creating over 30 customized videos addressing various house-hunting concerns, with influencer-led (10mn+ subscribers) content emphasizing the quirks of the process. STEP #3 USER ENGAGEMENT: EQUIPING THE RATIONAL BRAIN Housing.com launched "Ask Housing," an initiative to educate house hunters with practical questions they wanted answers to but had never asked. This included informative content and tools to assist house hunters in making informed and emotionally satisfying decisions. 300+ videos and blogposts on various topics. The three-step strategy for Housing.com involved understanding the rational and emotional needs of house hunters, disrupting the approach to house hunting, and equipping house hunters with valuable knowledge.
Data
Search for a home is unlike any other. We don't look for a home, we look for the perfect home. To understand house hunters' journeys, we followed their search process & found an unexpected pattern. THE RATIONAL LEFT BRAIN BEGINNING When people start the house hunting process, they let their left brain do the heavy lifting. They shortlist options and narrow down choices basis rational parameters: "Does the rent fit my budget?" "Is the locality safe? Is it close enough from my office?" "Does the apartment offer good amenities like gym, clubhouse?" ELIMINATION BY RIGHT BRAIN When we are closer to making the final choice, we start eliminating our options. And often, elimination process becomes less about rationality and more about intuition and emotions. The Reasons to reject an otherwise perfect house could be "I didn't like that flatmate's vibe." "The neighbours felt a bit nosy." Our right brain kicks in and we go with ‘what vibes with us'. We go after an inexplicable sense of ‘feels like home' than going for what's traditionally pragmatic. INSIGHT: WHILE HOUSE HUNTING STARTS AS A RATIONAL PROCESS, REASONS OF ELIMINATIONS WHEN MAKING THE FINAL CHOICE ARE OFTEN IRRATIONAL.
Solution
Results
The campaign not only improved the house hunter experience but also played a pivotal role in establishing the platform as a market leader in the highly competitive online real estate search category, making it India's No. 1 property destination. Business Results: THE UNIQUE QUIRK & HUMOUR OF THE CAMPAIGN CREATED A MARKET DISRUPTION WITH MORE WEBSITE TRAFFIC THAN THE COMPETITION BY A PHENOMENAL MARGIN. Marketing Results: WITH IT'S INNOVATIVE CAMPAIGN, HOUSING.COM HAD A HUGE IMPACT ON HOUSE HUNTERS. Activity Results: THE EMOTIONAL & RATIONAL APPROACH OF THE CAMPAIGN: HOUSE-HUNTERS DOWNLOADED THE APP TO REJECT MORE HOUSES AND FIND THE PERFECT ONE WITH HOUSING.COM. Business Objective Results: Within four months of campaign being on-air, it attracted 76.6 mn house hunters, which was 50% higher (average) than the closest competition. Marketing Objective Results 28.14% jump in organic app downloads: From -8.14% in the pre-campaign year to 20% in the campaign year Campaign Objectives Results: 1.07X increase in brand search volume, Highest growth in spontaneous recall (12 pp) over LY amongst competition, 1.25X better brand awareness than YouTube's BLS benchmarks, 15% increase in TOMA
