Different Modes of Promotions used by Small Agents and Builders in the real

estate business and Effect of Internet Advertisement on them.

REPORT ON SUMMER TRAINING PROJECT BY

Praveen Gupta

In partial fulfillment of the requirements of

EASTERN INSTITUTE OF MANAGEMENT KOLKATA
For the award of
MASTERS IN BUSINESS ADMINSTRATION
Of the University of Kalyani
(2011-2013)

INDEX

No

Particulars

Page

1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
9
10
11
12
13
14
15

Acknowledgement
Declaration by the Student
Certificate from Internal guide
Executive Summary
Brief Background of the Industry
Overview of the company
Products of the company
Domestic Real estate scenario
Objectives
Modes of the promotion
Growth and effect of Internet advertisement
Methodology
Areas visited (map)
Limitation
Analysis and Interpretation

1
2
3
4
5
6
7-8
9
10
11-12
13-15
16
17-18
19
20-30

16
17
18

Findings
Recommendations
Conclusion

31
32
33

19

Questionnaire

34

20

References

35

ACKNOWLEDGEMENT
First and foremost I would like to thank Mr. Atanu Upadhayay, Zonal Manger of
MAGICBRICKS.COM for providing me an opportunity to do my project work on
Different Modes of Promotions used by Small Agents and Builders in the real
estate business and Effect of Internet Advertisement on them. Mr. Upadhayay has
been my external guide during work and has assisted me in every possible way in

understanding the workings of the company. It has been a good experience being
with him and working under his guidance. He has guided me with his valuable
inputs to overcome the obstacles faced during my work.
I would like to express my sincere gratitude towards Prof. Biswanath Ghosh for
letting me the opportunity to pursue my summer interns in Magicbricks.com. Prof.
Biswanath Ghosh was my internal guide during the internship I remember I called
him after my first day of internship when I was demotivated and tired and he
motivated me by saying its the time to feel the heat you have to work hard that
helped me throughout my work he also by gave some valuable information as to
how to go about with the project.
I would also like to thank Mr. Avik Goswami, Mr. Sudarshan saha , Mr. Siddharth
Bhattacharya, Mr. Amit Bose , Mr. Rajiv Biswas , Mr. Samindra Banerjee, Mr.
Pranay Jain of MAGICBRICKS.COM for their support and assistance throughout .
Finally I would also like thank my Parents specially my brother for his always kind
Support throughout my career.
Thank you all!
PRAVEEN GUPTA

STUDENT DECLARATION

I declare that the project titled Different Modes of Promotions used by Small
Agents and Builders in the real estate business and Effect of Internet
Advertisement on them . has been done by me as a part of the curriculum for the
degree of Masters In Business Administration at Eastern Institute of Management ,
Kolkata during my Summer Internship .

(Signature of Student)
Name in full
Date

CERTIFICATE FROM INTERNAL GUIDE

This is to certify that the work embodied in the project titled

Different Modes of Promotions used by Small Agents and Builders in the real
estate business and Effect of Internet Advertisement on them was conducted
under my supervision.

Signature of Faculty:
Name of Faculty: Biswanath Ghosh

Executive Summary
My work as a Summer Trainee in Magic Bricks was to collect Raw Data from the
market or we can say from different localities which was allocated to us so as to
find out the different modes or medium used by small agents and builder to

promote their business to expand their business in which one of the medium was
Internet which has been a recent trend my work was to scan the locality look for
the agents and builders also if the agent or builder was interested in advertising
through our portal we did that by fixing an appointment through our seniors.

Apart from above work , as a Summer Trainee I was also Suppose to ask them
which mode of advertisement they use more often if they showed interest in Online
advertisement we used to fix appointments with them and then a representative
from magicbricks meets that agent and explains the procedure and thus sells the
product

Thus after doing the Studies we can say that there is a huge scope for internet
advertising in the years to come builders already rely in internet advertisement but
the small agents still rely on advertisement done through newspaper slowly they
are getting used online/internet advertisement.

Brief Background of the Industry

Real Estate Industry is rapidly growing at a fast pace in India, the drastic change in
population is demanding for more residential apartments , multistoried buildings
thus more and more construction is taking place which in return benefits the Real
estate industry, it also plays a critical role in the development of Indias economy.
It is the second largest employer after agriculture.
High Growth in services as well as manufacturing sector has also resulted in high
demand for commercial and industrial real estate.
Real estate industry is divided into four sub-sectors: Housing, Retail, Hospitality
and Commercial. The housing sub-sector contributes five-six per cent to the
country's gross domestic product (GDP). Meanwhile retail, hospitality and
commercial real estate are also growing significantly.
Growth in the Indian economy has stimulated demand for land and developed real
estate across industries. Demand for residential, commercial and retail real estate is
rising throughout India, accompanied by increased demand for hotel
accommodation and improved infrastructure.

Overview of the Company

 Magicbricks.com was launched by Times Business Solution Ltd in August

2006, as a platform to bring together property buyers and sellers in the real
estate industry .

Within three months of its launch it became the No.1 property portal.

Magicbricks.com offers pan coverage of over 800,000 listings.

MagicBricks.com currently records over 10 million page-views per month.

Magicbricks.com has over 6 lakh registered users, including over 65000 real
estate agents and more than 13,000 builders.

It offers services like location Map Service, Email Alerts, Exclusive

developer Micro-Sites, Magic SMS service, Click to call, etc.

Products of the company

FOOT BANNER Homepage/ City Special Page

It is a unique Banner which Displays the Projects / properties every time the page
is opened.

Benefits: - A well Planned Banner is placed on the page footer which scrolls with
the page, which constantly attracts attention.

AGENTS GALLERY City Page

Advertise on the city special page with name and description

Benefits: - it gets Maximum exposure with logo, name and description which has
the advantage of high visibility and branding.

Shoshkele (animated banner) Homepage/ City Special Page

It is an intrusive flash banner which appears each time the page is opened and it
gets the maximum response.
Benefits: - Animated Pop-up is designed in such a way that it catches the
maximum Attention and ensures it reaches the targeted audience.

FEATURED BUILDERS City Special Page / Builders Search Page

Gets a special display in the left panel of all relevant city special pages.

Benefits: - One unique micro-site is set up to promote business

PREMIUM PROPERTY LISTING

Multiple responses with a special display format in property search result. Get
higher positions comparing free property listing it also adds Brand value.

Domestic Real Estate Scenario

The Real Estate Scenario in India is witnessing a huge growth as most of the
metropolitan cities are escalating the property map with more and more projects.
According to reports, an estimated size of the Indian real estate sector is $ 12
billion of countrys 600 billion economy. the real estate sector is witnessing a
stable and further sustainable boom and the market is expected to reach $45 billion
in next five years. This boom in the real estate market comprises of basically three
sectors , i.e residential , commercial and retail. This boom in real estate market can
be apparently observed in delhi, greater noida and other major cities of the
country .
As the demand is getting higher , more and more players are entering the industry
with a wide range of project to offer . The market trends in indian real estate sector
are very healthy and are indicating towards a positive trend for the long-term
investors. Other factors which are likely to contribute to long term demand for real
estate in india are rapid population growth , rising disposable incomes for
individuals and easy credit lending facilities .
To conclude Indian real estate sector promises to be a lucrative destination for
foreign investors into the country. The Indian realty sector, if channelized properly,
can be help the growth of several other sectors in India through its backward and
forward linkages.

OBJECTIVES OF THE STUDY

To find out the ways by which the small agents and builders promote their
business.

To get the knowledge about how the small agents operate.

To find out which mode of advertisement agents and builders prefer.

To find out which mode of advertisement used by them is effective.

To Find out how many builders and small agents promote their business with
the help of Internet through a questionnaire .

To compare the response gathered through different modes with Internet

Advertisement.

Modes of promotion used by agents and builders.

Different promotion techniques used by agents and builders are

mentioned below :

Banner/Hoarding: This type of Promotion is commonly seen by Small

agents where they but their banners in the streets and promote their business
to get response from the buyers . If we talk about builders generally they put
their hoardings in the place where more people can see their Advertisement
thus builders mostly dont put their hoardings everywhere but they are quite
choosy in doing that.

T.v : Small Real estate agents generally dont promote their business though
this medium but Builders prefer this medium, as it reaches the mass builders
like DLF, Godrej, merlin group do put their advertisement in T.V.

Pamphlets: Small agents promote their Business through Pamphlets they

give pamphlets which consists of their name , phone number , address etc .
so that the buyers who want to reside in a particular place can contact them .
sometimes it can also be in the form of a visiting card.

 Newspaper : Newspaper is the most common medium through which both

builders and Agents promote their business . this kind of promotion is
widely used and widely accepted as it is user friendly for those people who
dont use internet .therefore the response is also quite good through this
medium . Almost all newspapers publish a separate page in which the agents
and builders promote their business .for ex- Telegraph , Anandabazar patrika
, etc publish a page called : REAL ESTATE

Internet - This has been a recent trend of advertisement by Real estate

agents , there has been found that lot of people spend most of their time in
the internet , there are lot of online portals for real estate agents thus they
promote their business through them .the response is also quite good . online
portals like Magicbricks.com , 99acres.com, indiaproperty.com are very
popular in the real estate world as they promote the real estate agents and
builders .

Growth of Internet advertisement

Internet advertisement has grown immensely around the globe , as internet has got
a vast reach which can allow advertisers to reach significantly more people at a
very less time and in a cost effective way, nowadays people are using internet to do
everything which starts from social networking to doing online transactions , thus
internet has been playing a dominant role . thus the advertisers are choosing this
medium to promote their business in a cost effective way . Internet advertising is
becoming a platform and a choice for local as well as
for global advertisers it
has become one of the key tools that companies use to attract attention for their
product or services . the growth of this particular media attracts the attention of
advertisers as a very good source or we can say a productive technique to bring in
customers in a cost effective way .
Online advertisement also helps the users/consumers to get relevant information
about a particular product, this may not mean a sale of a product but it may drive
the consumer to get the product from the store of which he/she has got the
information .

The graph below shows the revenue growth by the internet. advertisement Bureau
that internet advertisement revenue reached $8.4 billion dollars in Q1 of 2012.
This Q1 record marks a 15% increase over the Q1 2011numbers at $7.3 billion.

This means that internet advertisement is continuing to become a media of choice

for consumers

Effects of internet Advertisement on Agents and builders :

Internet advertisement offers so many facilities to the to the users of it, Still agents
and builders prefer Newspaper Advertisement as their first preference of
advertisement and then Internet but online portals they offer many benefits as
compared to newspaper ads for example if the the agent want to edit his ad he can
do so but if we talk about newspaper ad the user cannot do so also thus editing
facility allows agents to add few more properties in their ad by simply clicking on
the the edit option also if they refresh their site the particular agent page is shown
at the top .
Many top builders such as DLF , Avani , Merlin group etc are mostly dependent on
internet advertisement and they spend huge amount of money in online ad , but
they get a good response as they own the special city page or premium page.
Many Agents find online advertisement as cost effective as they offer so many
facilities , but these facilities can only be beneficial if the user has knowledge of
computer .
Therefore it has been a mixed effect as few agents and most builders prefer online
ad as they have got a good response but in the years to come online ad for small
agents will become a good way to promote their business as the investment is quite
low and return is high

METHODOLOGY

Research design

Sources of data:
Primary source: Visiting Customers

Method:
Target audience: Small Agents and Builders
Sample size: 30
Procedure: taking sample from areas such as :
i)South Kolkata
ii)North Kolkata

Research Instrument
Questionnaire

Areas visited
South Kolkata :

North Kolkata

Limitations of the study

Since the study had to be completed in the time span of two months where the field
of study was vast , another limitation was area of operation though I am not a
resident of Kolkata it was tough for me to visit areas which I had never heard of, I
was assigned to locate builders , small agents and to make them understand how
internet advertisement can expand their business , it was difficult for me to make
small agents understand about internet advertisement who havent used computers
throughout their life . while locating agents use of internet was strictly banned thus
we had to physically look for agents in different localities by asking from people
residing in that area .
We had to bring the visiting card of Agents we had visited and most of the small
brokers owned tea shop , runned small business thus they never had any visiting
card , another difficulty was that it was difficult to introduce my association the
MAGICBRICKS without any Identity card .
For all this reason I had restrict the sample size to 30 respondents which have been
chosen randomly

ANALYSIS AND INTERPRETATION

People surveyed according to their time duration in real estate business?

30
25
20
C

15

10
5
0
Recently started

2-5 years

More than years

Interpretation :
From the above survey it can be clearly seen that there are new agents who are
entering the real estate business out of 30 respondent 9 are new players and have
recently started this business which shows how real estate market is booming at a
fast pace and the majority of the respondent are in this business for more than 5

years which also indicates that they have got the return from that business which
had made them stay longer.

People Surveyed according to their role in real estate business

ROLE

Agent - 50

Builder - 40

Others - 10

Interpretation
One of the reason as to why there are more agents is their brokers and subbrokers who are categorized under agents , also in places like jessore road ,
Dumdum road, lake town (north Kolkata), Lake gardens, jadavpur we find
more agents then builders .

 Around 50 % of the respondents were agents , 40 % were builders and 10%

were sub-brokers who are also called part time brokers.

People surveyed to know whether advertisement creates an urge for them to

buy a product ?

30

25

20

No of respondents

15

10

0
yes

no

can't say

Options

INTERPRETATION

This particular question was asked to find out their view as to see what is
their view regarding advertisement
Many respondent said yes because they use different modes of
advertisement to promote their business. Those agents who said no which
were around 8 respondent still believed in word of mouth and they didnt
promote their business as they got business through their initial reputation
which they had created in the market.

People surveyed to Find whether they need to advertising their property or

they do it through word of mouth

NEED

YES -22

INTERPRETATION

NO -8

Almost everyone believed that advertisement is necessary without which

their business cannot run as they see lot of competition in the market .
The other reason which make them advertise is number of agents and
builders in a particular area . so to get better contacts or a name in the
market advertisement is required , respondent who said no where those who
believed in word of mouth .

Agents and builders surveyed to know how often they take the help of
advertisement.

30
25
20

no of resondents

15
10
5
0
Very less

Always

Not required

options

INTERPRETATION
This was a very interesting question for them and the answer which I got
mostly was Yes the reason was there has been lot new construction which
enables Builders and agents to advertise .

Also to find a place in the market to maintain the goodwill they had to
advertise to keep themselves updated.

Agents and builders surveyed to know which mode of promotion got them
more response. (those who prefer advertisement)

INTERPRETATION
People still believe Newspaper as the most trusted and preferred mode of
advertisement if we talk about other modes internet is booming at a quite

fast pace though it is not able to catch the speed newspaper but the soon a
time will come when internet will become the most preferred mode
Other reason why internet mode is still lagging behind newspaper is that
many agents are not computer savy as they dont have much knowledge
about computers .

People surveyed to know their view regarding the current popularity of

Internet Advertisement (1 refers very poor , 5 refers very good )

5
4

POPULARITY RATING

3
2
1
0

10

12

NO OF RESPONDENT

INTERPRETATION

14

16

After conducting this survey it was thus found from agents and builders
point of view that currently Internet advertisement is quite popular in the
market generally agents who are using internet advertisement find it quite
user friendly and easy to use , whereas who hasnt used internet
advertisement still find it to be quite popular as they hear it from their
friends who are in this field.
There where agents who rated it as 1(very poor) as they had invested in
online advertisement but they didnt got any response.

Agents and builders surveyed to know their preferred mode of advertisement

Newspaper -45

INTERPRETATION

TV-5

Internet -35

Others-15

 I got mixed responses as still 45% of respondent still believed newspaper as

their preferred mode due to reliability and trust factor , which they thought
internet advertisement wont provide.
Respondents who do internet advertisement said they will not switch to
other mode of advertisement as they find online ad as cost effective , comes
in their budget , more visibility in terms of duration of advertisement.

Agents and builders surveyed to know which online portal provided them
with more response ( if they advertise online)

OTHERS

INDIA PROPERTY

ONLINE PORTALS
99ACRES

MAGICBRICKS
0%

5% 10% 15% 20% 25% 30% 35%

% OF RESPONSE

INTERPRETATION
This was asked to those agents who used internet advertisement as to find
out which online portal gave them more response their was good fight
between Magicbricks and 99acres .
Thus is states that 99 acres and magicbricks are very close competitors of
each other despite magicbricks have upper hand because it falls under the
times of india group

People surveyed to find out whether internet advertisement will become

popular in days to come

60%
50%
40%
30%

% OF RESPONSE

20%
10%
0%
YES

NO

OPTIONS

CAN'T SAY

INTERPRETATION
Most of the people believed that internet advertisement has emerged as a
new media for advertisement which provides a good impact
Most people who has used internet advertisement believed that it increases
the sale of any product and it had a good future ahead due to invent of so
many technology .
Many believed that it will still take time to be the best mode of
advertisement.

FINDINGS
Through survey it was found that are very few brokers who are computer
savvy.
Many agents where were also found as sub-brokers who run their business
through a tea shop.
By research it was found that there are more brokers then agents.
It has been found that mostly builders prefer Internet advertisement as their
main source of advertisement as compared to that of an agent
Agents still rely upon Newspaper, Hoardings, Banners as a mode of their
promotion to expand their business
Very few agents completely rely upon online advertisement

 Builder and agents in outskirt of Kolkata have a little knowledge about

internet advertisement .
Before buying any product people look in the internet about its features and
cost to make a decision whether to buy that product or not.
Magicbricks.com have a build a good reputation with those who have
experienced its service.

Recommendations

After doing the research it was found that 99acres is one of the main
competitors thus magicbricks should focus on providing more benefits to
their existing as well new client.

Magicbricks should focus on small agents as well ( mainly who are new and
financially not strong) .

 Magicbricks has got a good brand image as it comes under Times of India,
so the company must put more emphasis on promoting their portal in local
newspapers and print media.

Builders or promoters who are satisfied with the service of Magicbricks

should take some reference from them and convert them into their clients.

Magicbricks should also introduce package of low amount which will bring
in more advertisement from agents who have recently started their business.

The company should Campaign in the outskirts of Kolkata and provide

builders and agents about how they can be benefited through internet
advertisement.

Magicbricks is one of the top online portal , as internet advertisement is

growing rapidly it should maintain its goodwill by providing its clients with
offers and good after sale service which can help them bring in more clients.

Conclusion

There has been a significant change in the way small agents and builders operate.
Advertisement has been their main source to promote their business most agents
and builders are changing their mode and switching to Internet advertisement
which comprises of so many benefits by doing this agents and builders are getting
a good responses, as nowadays people are spending more time in the internet as it
provides everything in just a click.

Though there has been a significant rise in online advertisement still Newspaper
advertisement is still hugely demanded as we all know newspapers over a period
have built a strong level of trust and confidence in the people which is unmatched
by any other form of media.
Thus online media has its use as it is booming at a fast pace and is becoming the
choice for agents and builder to promote their business still it comes second after
newspaper in terms of popularity , trust ,response etc. therefore newspaper
advertisement for advertising is the still the best medium to promote business and
it may take more approximately 4-5 years to become the most preferred mode of
advertisement ,.

Questionnaire
NAME:
Age:
Sex:
Locality:

1) From how long you have been in real estate business?

a) Recently started

b) 2-5 years

c) more than 5 years

2) What is your role in Real estate Business?

a) Agent

b) Builder

c) Others

3) Does advertisement urge you to buy a product?

a) Yes

b) No

c) Cant say

4) Do you need to advertise your property for sale?

a) Yes

b ) No

5) How often do you put your advertisement for sale of a property?

a) Very less

b) Always

c) Not required

6) By which mode of advertisement you have got more response?(those who

prefer advertisement )
a) Internet

b) newspaper

c)Television

d)Others

7) Mark the popularity of internet advertisement on the scale of 5?(5- refers

very good, 1-very poor)

a) 1
e)5

b)2

c) 3

d)4

8) Which mode of advertisement do you prefer in terms of Real estate? ( if they

prefer doing advertisement)
a) Newspaper

b) Internet

c) T.V

d) others

9) Which online portal has gathered you more response if you advertise
online ?
a) Magicbricks

b)99 acres

c)India property

d) others

e) dont use online ad

10)
Do you think internet advertisement will become more popular in
days to come?
a) Yes

b) no

Reference
www.magicbricks.com
www.tbsl.com

c) Cant say

www.google.com