Adding Value by Capturing Hearts AND Minds

In order to make decisions, we need to be able to make rational considerations.

Which means that successful marketing of a property development requires good accurate imagery, clear detail, and useful and informative facts.

However… whilst undoubtedly important, for the most successful marketing, that alone is not enough.

Because if you are only focusing on the rational arguments for your development, you are a) massively underselling it, and b) missing a massive trick in terms of capturing the attention of your prospective customers.

Why? Because rational is one core factor that enables us to make decisions. But of absolute equal importance (if not, in all honestly, perhaps an even greater one) is that of emotion.

 So an approach that appeals to both sides – to the rational ‘this is exactly what I need’ part of the brain AND to the emotional ‘this is exactly what I want’ part – is far more likely to both succeed, and add a great deal of value to your development.

The key to the most successful type of marketing…

 The starting point for any marketing is always going to be presenting the rational facts and arguments. And there's no doubt this does need to be put across in the best light possible.

 You need to communicate the fundamentals: the size, the shape, the purpose, the functionality, the location, the easily reachable or commutable address…

 You then need to show it off in its best light: the ways in which the space can be used, the benefits of that specific area, the functionality of the proposition…

 But then… you need to address the emotions.

 Emotions are tied up with the human stories. They come from relatability, and from aspirations. They come from seeing something, recognising how it could impact or affect your own life, how it could be yours, what that would mean to you, and wanting to be a part of it.

 Emotions are what make the rational details more exciting...

 ‘What a great place this would be to work in!’

 ‘I'd be proud to run my cherished business from here.’

 These are the emotions that push people to buy or commit. And they almost always hold heavier weight than the rational arguments alone.

 So, next question – how do you elicit these emotions in your marketing visuals?

 Making marketing emotive…

 Love them or loathe them, there's no denying that Apple are experts at elevating their marketing – with that magic intangible essence – to something way beyond just that of product marketing.

 They make their products about far more than just the product itself. They make it about the feeling, the status, the ideologies, the values…

 They focus on the emotions of their customers, tapping into their desires and aspirations. And they focus on their own brand, making it one people want to be a part of… again, tapping into people's emotions… making it aspirational.

 Basically, when it comes to adding emotion to their campaigns, they've nailed it.

 And whilst Apple's marketing success is about a lot more than just following a few core principles, following those few core principles does make the world of difference.

 It's about revealing your brand, your humanity, the ‘human face’ of you – the developer. Make yourself both accessible and relatable, and you make yourself a more appealing prospect on a personal, emotional, level.

 It's about showing your pride and your passion for your vision. Showing your values. Showing your sense of humour. Showing your passion for the environment around you, for the future good of society, for creating comfortable, sustainable, beautiful, functional, affordable… or whatever your core value and passion is… solutions.

 It's about showing it, and making it real. It's about making it human.

 And by doing so, just as Apple has, you add a whole world of value to your proposition. You make it about much more than just the value of the product itself… you make it about the value of the whole package.

 Nailing visuals for property marketing

 Getting all this across in your development scheme's marketing may sound a tall order, but to those that know what they're doing, it's not… even with industrial buildings, which so often suffer from the ‘it's just a shed’ syndrome.

 Focus on the importance of capturing both the mind AND the heart, and suddenly something as simple as a photo taken on a cold damp day, or an unengaging, overly factual and rather dull video, seems obvious in its lack of suitability. Yet all too often these are what are used… particularly for those poor ‘sheds’.

 At its most basic level, just adding a bit of colour, warmth, vibrancy and humanity to those visuals means you'll immediately elevate those images in a way that starts to tap into people's emotions… and makes them start wanting what you're offering, rather than only needing it.

 At it's ‘less’ basic, it's utilising a variety of different and varied techniques to create films – and not necessarily long ones – that excite, inspire and fully capture the imagination…

 There is a world of different options when it comes to providing architectural visuals that will elevate your marketing from that of well-presented but dull facts, to ‘I want to be a part of THAT’. And the bonus of working with the right visualisation team is that they'll not only know how to produce them, but they'll be able to advise you on just how to encompass both of those critical factors – the rational AND the emotive – into your imagery.