The audience at Leading Real Estate Companies of the World (LeadingRE) conference last week got a taste of the global network’s new consumer segmentation research.
LeadingRE has engaged an integrated marketing firm to dig up the information, which will equip agents to better understand the needs of their client.
McKee Wallwork + Company’s approach with its “Ideal” research tool is to ask hundreds of questions to understand what motivates consumers in the real estate process — for instance, if they prefer their agent to have market knowledge or negotiation skills, or if they prefer a busy top producer or somebody who can take time with them as their agent.
The slide above, shared at the conference, gives a glimpse into the types of insights that can be derived — here, we see that consumers surveyed valued experience over digital savvy and youth, market experience over negotiation, and a local company over a national franchise, according to LeadingRE and McKee Wallwork + Company.
The way people respond to the questions depends on their risk profile, their personality type, their history in homeownership — good or bad — among other things, said Steve McKee, president of McKee Wallwork + Co.
The company’s approach leads to more natural market segment clusters rather than the much-used demographics such as millennials or baby boomers.
“We are looking for natural market segments, not segments by income, age or stage of life. You find all ages and incomes in every segment,” he said.
“Human beings are complex creatures, and even the most well-intentioned consumers can’t fully explain why they make the decisions they do. That’s what makes [Ideals] research so valuable; by getting at the ‘why’ behind the ‘what’ of consumer decision-making, we can identify how any given market really breaks down,” said McKee.
The company has worked with other industries on this advanced form of segmentation and the more refined information had been very useful for them to get closer to their customers.
Pam O’Connor, CEO and president of LeadingRE said: “We are so excited to have rich data on the interests, desires, emotions, attitudes and lifestyles that shape the decision-making of different consumer segments, broken out by market area.
“This is new to real estate despite being commonplace in other industries. The marketing and learning and innovation we can build around it will be a game-changer in terms of creating exceptional consumer experiences.”
LeadingRE is going to be rolling out the tool to member firms who will be using it to train their agents. The brokerage will license the data for their market area which their agents can access. It will give the agents a tool that no other agent has, said McKee.
McKee Wallwork + Co. can localize the data geographically for each market, correlating the research to Census data to project the segment penetration.
“It represents a fresh way of looking at the market, which will generate innovative and improved service and will increase value of the real estate agent, said McKee.
