Condominio el Canal Branding and Marketing Strategy

Condominio el Canal is a real estate development project located in Costa Rica that started preselling its first residential units in 2017. The first stage of houses and apartments finished construction in 2020, with 44 out of 48 units presold in advance. During the initial years of marketing and selling the project, many insights were gained about potential customers and their consumer behaviors. It was clear that the biggest challenge the project faced when being sold to local buyers was the distance from the city center. This was leveraged by the project’s value (least expensive by constructed square meter in the market) and the unique design of the project.

Even though the project’s location has the downside of being away from the city center, there are many benefits that accompany this reality. The property is surrounded with breathtaking views of the mountains and among the many amenities the project offers, there are several trails inside the project - even one that leads to a waterfall. Additionally, the extra space obtained from being further from the city has allowed the project to have designated areas where a large amount of native tree species are being replanted, making the project one of the most environmentally friendly developments in Costa Rica.

For the second stage of the project, it was clear that the natural surroundings along with the project’s sustainability had to be the marketing focus. The logo already portrayed the iconic Poro tree with the project’s unique canal flowing bellow- it was just missing an important element that made the project distinguished and unique - green. Green surrounded the project with its nature and biodiversity, it was the color consumers associated to wellness and sustainability.

Condominio el Canal is the most environmentally friendly project in the area, with the highest % of green area. Many other projects falsely claim to be eco-friendly, but Condominio el Canal is one of the few that is truly green. For this reason, all marketing materials developed throughout 2020 and 2021 have revolved around the claim that the project is the only development that is truly green (el único condominio verdaderamente verde). To communicate this concept, different shades of green with the shade of plants on top are used as background in most of the project’s visual communication material.

To further expand this concept, more “green” amenities were conceptualized and placed within the project's layout. Among these new amenities, a space for gardening, a botanical garden and a lake were planned, as well as two meditation sanctuaries and a zen garden near the space designated for yoga practice.

The projects amenities were also improved in terms of wellness. The Covid pandemic, which has been a challenge for both the economy and the real estate market in Costa Rica, has made many people become health-conscious. Many people have adopted healthier habits and started training new sports, one of the most popular being cycling. For this reason, among the new amenities planned for the project are a 5km mountain bike trail as well as an outdoor gym and an interactive online map of the region with trails for biking and hiking.

The sales of the first stage came from three different sources: social media advertisement, referrals and walk-ins. Other sales channels such as billboards and trade shows were also explored during this first phase, but did not prove to be as effective. For this second stage of the project, marketing and sales expenses would solely focused on what did work, concentrating budget and effort on strategies with better ROIs.

The social media strategy planned is a mix of both organic and paid advertisement. Most of the paid advertisement focuses on traffic campaigns that lead to the project’s website, where potential leads have the option to fill out a form or schedule an appointment right away. Information is collected in a voluntary way, which generates more genuine, higher quality leads, instead of a higher volume.

One important decision made for the new website created for the traffic campaigns is the fact that all information possible is going to be displayed there. Even price is displayed on the website, which was not an industry standard at the time the decision was made. This has created a better filtering of leads and more effective use of resources.

In addition to the new social media strategy, internal referral programs have been created, as well as an investment on the improvement of the property’s front and entrance - which included the removal of the street’s invasive light posts and a planned gardening of the main roads.

Since the new marketing strategy for the second stage of the project was implemented in August of 2020, sales have tripled. More than 50% of the new 29 units have been presold, allowing the project to move forward to the design and planning of the third stage.