Marketing strategies in the Istanbul housing market

Abstract

Purpose – The purpose of this study is to demonstrate whether the leading argument of construction firms, which have been active in the mass production of housing for the past 10 years in Istanbul, that in addition to the features of the house itself, the position of the house in the city, in other words its location, the new lifestyles the house offers and the social reinforcements the house provides are of great significance is valid or not. This was done by analyzing the contents of the advertising copies of houses present in the printed media. Design/methodology/approach – In this study, the printed advertising copies of the projects realized by the mass housing construction firms which have carried out at least six projects in Istanbul housing market, have been analyzed and assessed by “content analysis”, one of the qualitative research methods of social sciences. As it can be observed from the results of the analysis, the house, while being regarded as a product and marketed via its features, also has become a product presented to the consumer as a result of its position in the city, in other words its location, the new lifestyles it offers and the social reinforcements it provides. Findings – As this study has demonstrated, marketing strategies based on attracting the attention of the customer by making use of means of communication are also valid for housing in Istanbul housing market. Housing is marketed not only according to its features as a product but also according to the urban area where it is situated, new lifestyles and social reinforcements it presents. In this marketing process, the features of the housing itself; its size, construction technology, quality of the fine materials, earthquake resistance, etc. as well as the urban area where the housing is situated, the location of it, opportunities of infrastructure and superstructure of the housing become the foregrounded arguments in the advertising copies. Originality/value – This study is that, as a requirement of modern-day marketing, the consumption relation of the consumer to the house is not simply based on the features of the house, that modern-day marketing tries to capture the attention of the consumer via the position of the house in the city (location), which is the equivalent of the other symbolic values associated with the house, the lifestyles it presents and the social reinforcements it provides.