Developer is mid-market’s own ‘specialist’

NARCISO

Every developer has an interesting tale to share.

But among a sea of narratives that claimed of novel beginnings, challenges and triumphs, most of such sagas have begun to sound quite alike, that now, only a rare few can pique the interest of an avid reader and listener.

Take the case of Robinsons Communities, a brand that was established by Robinsons Land Corp. back in 2009.

Often we hear of firms that have been spun mainly to carve a niche or tap potential markets to broaden their respective industry shares. In the case of Robinsons Communities, it was created to become more than just that—a “specialist” instead of the mid-market segment, akin to a doctor, for instance who would want to specialize in a certain field of medicine.

Different market segments

“We recognize that we are serving different market segments with our residential products and it would be beneficial to our buyers if we structure ourselves based on these segments and from these we developed our different residential brands,” said Christopher Narciso, vice president of Robinsons Communities.

In an interview with the Inquirer, Narciso related that RLC had started a segmentation of its markets as early as 2008, a year after which it was able to come up with four different brands. Robinsons Communities was then assigned to cater to the affordable segment starting in 2009.

Narciso explained that the segmentation had to be undertaken to ensure that there would be an assigned “specialist” for each market segment who is tasked and expected to have a deeper and better understanding of the specific needs and whims of each individual buyer.

“The different market segments, we realized, have different lifestyles, meaning they have different needs and wants. We wanted to understand those needs very well and for us to do that we had to specialize on a particular segment and eventually adapt a custom-designed way of servicing them,” he said.

EACH Robinsons Communities’ project can provide convenient community living.

And such a move seemed to have worked for RLC, as its four brands are now enjoying a strong and stable foothold in the local real estate market.

Birthing pains

Narciso recalled however that Robinsons Communities was not spared from the usual birthing pains, despite the fact that it was backed by RLC’s strong track record.

“Like all new brands, the initial challenge for us then was how to really define in detail what the brand characteristics are or what the defining features or propositions our brand have,” he explained.

“So right away we embarked on crafting our mission and vision statements and at the same time, we identified key value propositions that we felt would more or less embody what we want our brand to provide for this particular market segment,” Narciso said.
But after having established its identity and purpose, Robinsons Communities has managed to quickly rise from the ranks to bring master-planned residential communities within reach of every hardworking Filipino.

“I could say that we have already achieved our short-term goal of establishing our presence and delivering the product that we wanted,” Narciso claimed.

Top-of-the-mind choice

Over the long term, Robinsons Communities has pledged to continuously improve its products and deliver more quality residential developments in key locations, in a bid to become the top-of-mind choice of every homebuyer.

“We just ensure that we always provide friendly spaces so at the end of the day there will always be happy faces, and this goes for our unit owners, buyers, sellers, management, stakeholders and business partners,” Narciso added.

Currently, Robinsons Communities has 15 towers in four different projects that have been completed and four horizontal subdivisions located in Novaliches, Tagaytay, Davao and Mactan, Cebu. It has five ongoing projects and it intends to further strengthen its position in the market with the launch of new projects within the year.

“Our projects are very ideal for early nesters, young mobile achievers and families coming from B to BB segment who wish to live independently and comfortably close to places of work, study and recreation,” Narciso said.

More affordable proposition

Each of these projects can provide convenient community living that come with open spaces, functional amenities and complementing commercial spaces that are deemed perfect for nurturing relationships and families. But what is more notable now is that Robinsons Communities was able to make living in condominiums a more affordable proposition.

“Several years ago, when you talk about condo development the public would normally think of it as something for the wealthy,” he noted.

“But with the pricing that we are offering, the affordable payment terms that we also have, and the quality of amenities and generous open space, I think now the mid-market can already enjoy a lot of things that before was limited only to the rich without having to sacrifice their budget,” Narciso concluded.