Virtuality and Why It's The Most Important Tool in the Marketing "Kit" for Pre-Construction Real Estate Developers

Virtuality” refers to “the seeming of anything, as opposed to its reality.” In real estate and condo development, Persona pioneered virtuality as a key plank of any marketing build for pre-construction. Virtuality also applies to products sold online (where the customer cannot "touch" or "try" the product— for example with our marketing launch of cars4u.com, where the entire sale of the car is "virtual" and online.

Pre-Construction Real Estate

Virtuality Brochure for Tridel's The Richmond, by Persona, includes lifestyle images, floorplans and elaborate production values. The "lure" brochure is a stand-in for the project that is not under construction.In pre-construction real estate, everything is virtuality. Even the construction of a "model suite" can be argued to be a "virtuality" tactic.

Sales Office for Tridel's The Richmond must give the "flavor" and virtuality of the lifestyle being offered. Interior design and displays by Persona Corp.Condominium developers—as hot as the market is right now—must always struggle with the issue of virtuality. Prospective home-owners must get a solid and credit sense of the lifestyle being offered from displays, two-dimensional paper or screens, and sales pitches. While a highly successful condominium developer such as Persona-client Tridel, can sell on virtuality and their reputation, smaller developers do not enjoy this credibility advantage.

Virtuality tactics include:

• Lure brochures prior to actual construction: Virtuality of the project (making it reality for the customer who cannot see an actual home)

• Floorplans and their presentation: allows prospectives to visualize life in the home
• Virtual tours: online or projected/played in the sales offices, to give a solid sense of virtual three dimensions and lifestyle of the space
• Sales office displays: not to be confused with interior design, the fundamental presentation in the sales office is always critical to both impact and virtuality.

Advertising

Classic Virtuality in Advertising: the famous Keith and Brenda campaign by Persona for Tridel's The Consilium. Here, to "shorten" the story of lifestyle virtuality, we fictionalized an ideal couple of prospective buyers, and presented a short dialogue of their "argument" about where to buy a home. The headline uses light humour to ensure readership.Advertising is classic virtuality, although it's rarely thought of as such. The ad, in the shortest possible time (seconds for TV and radio, 10 words or less for print ads) must capture the entire flavor and virtuality of the product, service or message. This applies to any product, not just real estate. This is why we pioneered our famous S=URGE story-telling methodology. This is also why Persona's team have the best story-tellers in the business. The short story is always the most difficult to write.

Persona is a specialist in virtuality, with its pioneering work in animated trailers, virtual tours, sales office display designs, and lure brochures.

For more on S=URGE, refer to new posts in the first week in June.

The Credibility of Business and Brand Maturity

One of the most important criteria for judging credibility is maturity. If you operate an established venture, you have a great deal of mature equity compared to a start-up. You may want to change your positioning or strategy after a Persona Inventory, but your company's years in business can still lend credibility to your new direction. You can gain extraordinary marketing mileage out of a well-established history. For example, IBM is undergoing major management, developmental, and marketing changes, but it will never destroy its hard-earned name recognition by creating an apparent revolution. The company is evolving its Persona. Start-up companies should avoid entirely the issue of age in their marketing. The best launch is nonlaunch. Don't announce grand openings, new products, or revolutionary services. They have no credibility. People don't want to be the first to try something new (with the exception of a very small percentage of techno-junkies, who enjoy buying into the latest idea). Even if your product or service is revolutionary, avoid radical marketing statements

Image and Brand Trends

Why is image so important in a world that is apparently moving away from core brands and wastefulness? Isn't it good enough just to be the best and wait for your prospects to come to you? Many Persona students ask these questions.

Persona strategy becomes crucially important in our changing world. We have analyzed five major trends in the world socio-economic structure that make Persona indispensable to your success. These trends will strongly affect the businesses of the future. They are important because of Persona Code 24, Code of Collective Conscious. Fighting trends will result in disastrous defeat. You must learn, appreciate, and use the trends of the next millennium.

Our new century will be defined by its trends. We can expect it to be characterized by the Five Ages.

A Perfect Track Record

The Persona Principle is the only Image-Marketing formula that exploits this fundamental truth. The Persona Principle is a proven science. We have executed Persona Plans for all company sizes, from start-up to IBM. Persona has a perfect track record in building successful ventures on image alone. It recognizes that relying on basic truth is not enough.

This is not an exaggeration. This is not hype. The idea that image is more important than substance has been recognized since mankind became civilized. Even tribal societies wore trophies of their hunting conquests to show their prowess to other members of society. It is not enough to be the greatest hunter in the village. The entire village must know it.

In 1819, Washington Irving wrote, "In civilized life, where the happiness, and indeed almost the existence, of man depends so much on the opinion of his fellow man, he is constantly acting a studied part." The Persona Principle takes this concept to the ultimate conclusion. We have turned an intuitive art into a mathematical science. This science does not depend on trends or changing morals. It is based on two unchanging human truths:

• Image has more value than reality.
  
  
• To last, image must be built only on truths.

Persona Profile: The Lasting Image — The Top Five Brands

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N.B. This ranking is 1996. Historical article.

It is not enough to be visible. To last is to succeed. And to last, Persona is the most effective weapon in your marketing war chest. The top five advertisers have been leaders for decades:

#1 Brand: AT&T telephone

#2 Brand: Ford cars, trucks, and vans

#3 Brand: Kellogg's cereals

#4 Brand: Sears stores

#5 Brand: McDonald's restaurants

Not surprisingly, these brands lead in spending. But they started from modest beginnings – using many of the principles outlined in The Persona Principle – to become the giants of today. Although McDonald's spent $208,992,400 in 1994, this figure is only a small percentage of its extraordinary revenue. In fact, as a percentage of revenue, McDonald's spending is below average. Spending may seem the main rule of success for these big brands, but of more importance is image. Even an exorbitant level of spending would not have built McDonald's into the number one fast-food chain without a clear and consistent persona. Without image – corporate culture, advertising character, restaurant decor, all of which must appeal to the specific target audience – no amount of spending would bring McDonald's to the top.

McDonald's controlled every ad and expenditure in marketing to maintain a consistent image. The McDonald's persona is the true secret to its success. Ronald McDonald and the Hamburglar have been so consistently promoted that they are a part of the North American culture. The credibility message "billions served" has been a cornerstone of McDonald's persona-building for decades. Such consistency of message and image is crucial to any persona success story.

All brand leaders have something in common: they all value long-term image. But how did they become these giants that practically every citizen of the United States and Canada knows by name? Without exception, Persona leaders had humbler beginnings. They followed the most important codes of the Persona Principle:

• They invented or refined their product to be different from any similar product (see Persona Code 53, Code of Invention).
  
  
• They made credible claims (see Persona Factor 4, the Credibility Factor).
  
  
• They never compromised, treating their persona as an inviolable culture (see Persona Factor 5, the No-Compromise Factor).
  
  
• They allowed their persona to become a distinct, almost living, entity, complete with unique characters, names, logos, and styles (see Persona Factor 8, the Independence Factor).

It is difficult for the average start-up entrepreneur to relate to these giants. Yet these were once small ventures. McDonald's began humbly as a single restaurant and then a handful of unknown restaurants. Finally, McDonald's was bought by a shrewd entrepreneur who developed the McDonald's culture. This culture became an empire. Every code and factor of the Persona Principle is feasible, applicable by ventures of any size, whether young start-up or McDonald's. If you use the codes, your Image-Equity will grow (see Persona Factor 6, the Growth Factor). Your venture could become a McDonald's or a Kellogg's with steady, precise, uncompromising application of the Persona Principle.