Question

Topic: Advertising/PR

Launching New Real Estate Magazine - Need Ideas

Posted by Anonymous on 10/3/2006 at 11:08 PM ET 250 Points
My fiancée and I have purchased the rights to exclusively represent/publish a new luxury real estate magazine. The magazine will only feature homes that are priced at a minimum of 800,000.00 and each home listing must take a minimum of one full page. The magazine is now in 6 states, but the first location is only in it's third printing, so it's a very new magazine. Our territory is North Carolina and the main focus will be the Charlotte area.

Charlotte is the 24th largest US metro area, but with it's high concentration of wealth, it's number 4 in the US for retail spending. There are two professional sports teams, NASCAR, and the headquarters of several banks including Wachovia and Bank of America. There are well over 1,000 homes currently listed on the MLS for 800,000.00 or more.

Although not practiced in other states, we plan to limit the number of agents featured in each magazine to 50. We believe this will foster a more exclusive image and instill a sense of urgency.

We feel there is great potential for success, but because the magazine is new, we need help in a few areas:

Pre-marketing: generating buzz.
Due to the high end nature of the magazine, we thought the proper way to introduce it to the market would be a "preview party." We would invite all of the top agents and have a cocktail reception, but we have no idea what will draw the agents to the party. Should we invite a keynote speaker? Should we give out awards for the top selling agents? We need a way to draw the agents into the event and we need to know how to keep them entertained once we have them there.

We have considered approaching real estate agents at open houses. We understand there is a very small window of opportunity and we don't want to get in the way. We would enter the open house (when there are no visitors), carrying a gift baskets with cheese, crackers, cookies for the open house (or to be used at a later date). The basket would also have a copy of our magazine. It would be a very soft sell. More of a "good luck with the open house, I'll call you tomorrow to schedule an appointment." Any opinions on this idea? Any other ideas?


We would very much appreciate any feedback you have for our ideas. Please feel free to suggest any additional ideas you have to introduce our magazine to the marketplace.

Thank you.
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RESPONSES

  • Posted by Harry Hallman on 10/4/2006 at 8:54 AM Accepted
    In my experience high flying agents are all about making sales. Is it possible to create your target list (I would do 75 or so) and then feature them in an article in your mag. If you have time you can interview each to get information. During this process they will want to know about your mag and you can show them examples. This should lead to some sales.

    When the mag with the article comes out you can do the basket idea and start to develop an even tighter relationship. By then you should know who will be your long term clients.

    You might also satrt by focusing on the top performers on the list. If they get in then others will follow.

    Charlotte is a great area, lot's going on. Almost as good as Atlanta (:-). I wish you luck.
  • Posted on 10/5/2006 at 5:26 AM Accepted
    Your Product: Advertising Space in your Magazine
    Your Tgt Segment: Real Estate Agents
    Your end goal: Get them to buy space consistently in your magazine.

    Your pre marketing buzz should have data on who the magazine is targeting- readership. Since you are very new to the market, you will not have concrete data on demographics of who are reading your magazines- are they home buying aspirants or are they people who look at getting ideas of space decoration from your magazine? It will do you good to understand who your readers are before you sell space to advertisers.

    In fact get some readers to answer coupons slogans and give them free tickets to movies/ some event of their interest. Get them to fill in a form of their house ownership, ability, intention and time frame for looking at alternate properties/ upgrading from current homes.
    Collate the responses and cut the data age, income, gender etc wise. This quantitative study will help you talk to the agents.

    High flying agents will need more than a free party to get them to join in. Organise an event art exhibition-cum-wine-and-cheese party or photo exhibit or important persons who they all look upto like Million Dollar agents to give them a talk. Have a registration desk. Then get mailing and telecalling done on them.

    Alternatively organise events where your reader would like to join in and ask the real estate agents to come and prospect in that event.

    I think the house call is a great idea. Most agents twiddle thumbs while awaiting buyers. They would love to have cookies and someone to chat with.

  • Posted on 10/5/2006 at 1:51 PM Author
    Thanks for the responses so far.

    To expand:
    The magazine will be direct mailed to ever house in the Charlotte area
    with a home valuation of 800k an up and/or a household income of 200k
    and up. For a unique selling point, we're making sure that every
    professional athlete in Charlotte is on our list (over 100 athlete
    millionaires) we're also considering mailing the CEO's of all the
    fortune 500 companies (where they are in the world) who would consider
    the area for a second home.

    The list company we're buying the info from will be able to provide us
    with additional demographic information. We'll also be mailing a few
    magazines to each law office, plastic surgeon, high-end auto
    dealerships, country clubs, etc.

    We REALLY like the idea of the art/wine/cheese party. From our
    experience, real estate agent tend to be a little egotistical, so
    we're expecting a decent turn out to the party if we can find an idea
    to have it, besides previewing the magazine (awards given to top
    agents?), maybe a guest speaker speaking about local real estate
    trends?

    We have to have at least 20 pages of advertisement to go to print, so
    the preview party would be used as a launching point for our sales
    team. I think we can sell more than 20 pages during the party if we
    get a good turn out.

    The idea of limiting the number of agents in any one edition (there
    are only 6 editions a year) is to induce a sense of
    urgency/exclusivity - keeping in mind that one agent could advertise
    on multiple pages, so the total number of ads could far exceed 50.

    Please keep the ideas/thoughts coming:

    -Ideas on ways to further develop the sense of urgency/exclusivity of
    the product (in the agent's minds)

    -Ideas on a unifying concept for the party. We know how to entertain
    them once they're there, but WHY are they coming in the first place.
    Just to be seen? For example, the local Ruth's Chris Steakhouse just
    hosted a "Best Doctors" social for a local magazine.

    -Ideas on selling tactics - like the open house idea. Any others?

    Your ideas/opinions are greatly appreciated.
  • Posted by kannanveeraiah on 10/8/2006 at 12:44 PM Accepted
    Dear,

    The question is how to attract the top class agents to participate in the very luxurious real estate magazine for which the ultimate customer would be the creamy layers (the richest ones) of the society.

    The strategy needs to be lavish. That is, the product - magazine- should be a class in itself - in the design, content and the delivery. Launching should be a grand event in itself but still it could be organised in such a way that it becomes a premium real estate event. You could tie up with the top most furnishers, interior decorators, builders and real estate agents. If well published, such events would bring all those premium visitors as well. In the venue you could launch your magazine through a celebrity. So, the agents would find a strong reason to be there in the venue as well as in your magazine.

    Announce well in advance these details to the real estate agents you are targeting at through an attrative letter /mail. In your list you could include others too (like, interior decorators, decorative lighters, furnishers etc) who have stake in the real estates (homes) and who too would be interested to be there in the magazine. Extent a formal invitation to these exclusive agents and other must-be-participants for a pre-launch discussion meeting-cum-dinner at a venue / hotel that suits this. Solicit their ideas for or seek their opinion about for the magazine. Involve them and make offer for the advertisment spaces.

    Best Wishes,

    kannan
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