Commercial Real Estate Situation Analysis
You begin to develop your commercial real estate marketing strategy the same way you usually begin a marketing strategy (Exhibit 30.2), with a Situation Analysis that covers:
1. Customers. Potential sellers and buyers
2. Competitors. Other organizations vying for the business
3. Organization. The capabilities of your organization—what you are good at and not so good at
4. Environment. The key players and key trends in your marketplace; what you think will happen next
All these areas have been covered several times in the book—see for example Chapters 4 through 8 and the section on the Situation Analysis in Chapter 28, Marketing Residential Real Estate—so we will discuss only a few aspects of the Situation Analysis that are specific to commercial real estate marketing.
Exhibit 30.2 Marketing Commercial Real Estate
Exhibit 30.2 Marketing Commercial Real Estate
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Source: "Arrow Guide—Formulating the Product/Market Strategy," The Arrow Group, Ltd., New York, NY, 2008. Used here with permission.
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Source: "Arrow Guide—Formulating the Product/Market Strategy," The Arrow Group, Ltd., New York, NY, 2008. Used here with permission.
TRUMP UNIVERSITY MARKETING 101 Customers
The customers you want to consider depend on the types of property in which you wish to specialize and the types of services you wish to provide. For example, if you plan to specialize in leasing office space in Class A (highest quality) multi-use buildings, the customers on which you focus will obviously differ from those on which you concentrate if instead you choose to specialize on selling small retail complexes such as neighborhood or community centers. In residential real estate marketing, you may begin by looking at most of the homes in a local residential market; in commercial real estate marketing, usually you will look at a portion—that related to your specialty—of the entire commercial market.
If you are or are planning to be a commercial real estate agent, be wary about the temptation to sell single-family homes. They may distract you and cause you to lose market focus. According to John Peckham, chairman of a commercial investment real estate brokerage firm, "Eventually [commercial practitioners] learn that, with their specialized knowledge and administrative support, they are much better off in terms of income and satisfaction when they stick to their specialty."9
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