Apart from using scintillating texts and illustrations in ads and marketing materials to woo prospective buyers or clients, brand ambassadors are strategic in getting sales leads in every sector and industry. Meanwhile, using brand ambassadors has both negative and positive outcomes.
In a number of studies and fora, it has been noted that brand ambassadors are contributing significantly to the product and brand images. We have seen how local and international brand ambassadors recently disrupted sales growth of some products because of the public perceived attitude and behaviour of the ambassadors in relation to the features and benefits associated with the products.
Away from these insights, our checks reveal that using brand ambassadors, as noted earlier, is not exclusive to a particular industry, a sector or a company. Anyone has the right of using it when the need arises. However, having the right does not translate to better usage and sustainable outcomes in most cases.
From Lagos to Abuja real estate markets and Port-Harcourt to Ibadan real estate markets, brand ambassadors are being used to woo prospective homeowners and investors. Our checks show that these ambassadors range from entertainment and media industry to sports industry. For instance, Yinka Ayefele, Femi Adebayo, Peter Rufai, Mary Onyali, Bash Ali, Lateef Adedimeji and Bidemi Kosoko are ambassadors of real estate companies located in Lagos, which also have products in places such as Ibadan, Port-Harcourt among others.
In our earlier analysis of incentive marketing strategy in Ibadan real estate market, we noted how good roads, stable electricity, recreational centres and other facilities, which are non-materials, are being used by the developers to market lands or completed houses our experts say prospective homeowners’ and investors’ lack of information in the locations of the lands or completed houses is being filled. We also pointed out that, when incentives such as buy a plot and get a ram, a bag of rice and a keg of vegetable oil are being employed the developers are only appealing to the motivational void and exploiting socioeconomic status of the prospective homeowners and investors.
The current analysis shows that brand ambassadors were used for marketing products that are less than N4.5 million mostly. This is not the only surprising result from our analysis. We also discovered that ambassadors were used for marketing lands than completed houses between 2019 and 2021. It also emerged that getting prospective buyers’ attention through brand ambassadors’ personality traits are sufficient in getting the needed sales leads than combining the ambassadors and non-material incentives discussed earlier.
On the other hand, according to our analysis, developers believe that marketing lands and houses to buyers of low socioeconomic status using ambassadors and material incentives noted earlier would deliver better results than using either of them alone. Our analysis suggests that developers are not considering price as a significant determinant for using brand ambassadors. However, it is a significant factor for marketing lands more than completed houses in Ibadan.
Additional reports by Mubaarak Abdulhameed [a Builder and Quality Engineer] and Mariam Akanni [a Real Estate Marketer]
