Since my last post, there have been a few interesting discussions that i had with a few well informed people. These conversations have helped me gain some insights about Celebrity branding of Real estate projects.
In particular, when one speaks of branding Real estate projects, one name comes to mind in Dubai - ACI Real estate. While the concept of bringing in Michael Schumacher, Boris becker and Nicki Lauda is great; the real question that many people ask ( and which to me now seems relevant) is : Who or what is ACI ?
Just because the company has an investment portfolio and a few thousand investors from Germany doesnt make it a credible real estate firm. Does it ? What projects have they executed ? What is their background ? What is their experience in taking on and executing successful real estate projects ? How successful have they been, what is their USP as builders ?
By all these tokens, the company does not offer conclusive answers, as it is not a developer. It is a mere branding firm which sub-contracts the projects to others and oversees the marketing.
This in many people's eyes makes it suspect. As the chairman of a multi-billion dollar Abudhabi group remarked that such operators should not be allowed to even operate in Dubai, there is a growing consciousness among certain people ( both media professionals as well as end-users) to question the background of these builders.
As the market matures and people become more selective about where they invest their monies, these questions become all the more important and pertinent. As in PR, so in business; sometimes the most important question one has to answer is :Who the hell are you and where do you come from ?
And the answer to this determines how credible one is perceived to be.
