The Prague Post Online: Real Estate: Working behind the scenes

October 11th, 2008

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Working behind the scenes

Rooney & Bennett helps market some of the city's biggest real estate firms

By Adam Daniel Mezei
For The Prague Post
April 18th, 2007 issue

VLADIMÍR WEISS/THE PRAGUE POST

Rooney & Bennett owner Arnost Hejduk says his firm handles the softer, non-nuts 'n' bolts side of the city's real estate market.

Contrary to popular belief, the real estate market isn’t all about developers, contractors and investors. In fact, there are some key players who prefer to work their magic behind the scenes.

Take, for instance, Rooney & Bennett, a Prague-based public relations firm that has been advising and marketing Czech real estate giants since 2004. Its impressive client roster includes the likes of Lexxus, Africa-Israel Investments, Incoma, ING and FINEP.

Rooney & Bennett

Panská 6
Prague 1
Tel.: 222 242 303
E-mail: office@r-b.cz
Web: www.rooney-bennett.cz

Billing his company as a “one-stop shop,” Rooney & Bennett’s owner, Arnošt Hejduk, boosts how he’s able to offer services and expertise that his competitors merely hint at. Looking at things from a more “psychological” perspective, the real estate marketing and promotions outfit helps assist developers flip out faster returns on their investments.

Simply put, Hejduk says his company has specialized in the softer, non–nuts ’n’ bolts side of Prague’s residential real estate market for nearly half a decade now. Showing no sign of slowing down, Hejduk recently sat down with The Prague Post to explain the secret of his success.

The Prague Post: Sure, real estate isn’t all about bricks and mortar, but what exactly does Rooney & Bennett do?

Arnošt Hejduk: Well, I began my career in marketing and advertising back in the mid-’90s, around 1994. As the millennium approached, I identified a need on the part of big developers and home builders for a different approach to selling their inventory. So, I started Rooney & Bennett in 2002, and I quickly managed to convince my clients of the need to start evaluating their target customers’ purchasing habits from more “psychological” perspectives to help them to flip out faster returns on their investment. I promised them that I could help boost their turnovers and get them in and out of a given project quickly using a combination of innovative marketing techniques that I’d mastered during my experience during the mid-’90s.

TPP: So how was this kind of marketing conducted on the residential real estate market before 2002?

AH: Basically, not very well. Until Rooney & Bennett started doing business in 2002, it was unheard of for developers to analyze the needs of their targets from behavioral or psychological perspectives. Sales agents were only concerned with boosting sales. Developers on the other side were only concerned with how cost-effectively their investors’ money could be spent. And that was it.

TPP: And who was taking care of the customer during this time?

AH: Hardly anyone was focusing on the needs of the customer himself, other than as a source of money. Because their needs weren’t being properly addressed, many developers were left stuck with plenty of unsold inventory.

TPP: How does a typical Rooney & Bennett campaign look?

AH: Say a developer was looking for the most cost-effective way to sell out his residential project in a place like Prague 6. Rather than using old-fashioned sales techniques, going head-on using lots of labor, we would work closely with the developers who would first consult with us before they began building. As part of our advice, we would deliver key data on their target market’s purchasing habits and their target’s overall consumer behavior. In Prague 6, again, we might advise them that their target would be much more likely to buy a home there if they knew someone in the quarter, or if they worked there, or maybe if they spent a significant amount of time in and around Prague 6 in the past. This way we could help them to market to their customers more effectively.

TPP: Perhaps the larger question is what exactly prevents developers or developers’ agents or the competition from doing this sort of delicate research themselves?

AH: Developers and agents generally don’t do the research Rooney & Bennett does because having the money people or salespeople focus on activities other than their key skill areas is not a feasible business option for them. Of course we have competition, but few of our competitors offer the variety of services we provide.

TPP: Specifically?

AH: We’re a one-stop shop, and our competitors offer these sorts of services in pieces. We have a full analysis department, and on the other side there’s production. No one else in the market does this.

TPP: Can you describe for our readers what you mean by “analysis” and “production?”

AH: By “analysis” I’m talking about consumer-based metrics and figures from our past experiences that our developers and agents can use to better control their chances of sales success. Rooney & Bennett helps to optimize line items for developers like cost per square meter or whether to include standard options in homes like ADSL connectivity or even the size of particular windows in the kitchen, according to customer preferences. “Production” includes things like media buying, promotion, media relations, public relations. We purchase space in targeted local newspapers and other publications, with emphasis on higher-end lifestyle and society magazines. I have a guy on staff who does nothing else but specialize in media buys. That’s a value-added service that the competitors, for example, just can’t beat.

TPP: How many clients does Rooney & Bennett presently serve?

AH: We work with between 15 and 20 clients, and in that number we get repeat business as well.

TPP: Does the company charge a fixed fee for its services?

AH: We typically earn 2.5 percent of a project’s total sales revenue.

TPP: Are Rooney & Bennett expansion plans being considered?

AH: We basically closely follow the developers, so wherever they choose to invest is where we generally go. As some of our partners are looking, of course, further east, that’s where we’ve been looking as well. Though we won’t go on our own. Now it’s Romania, Bulgaria, and the Baltic states as future opportunity areas, but only because our clients are already operating there.

TPP: Is there enough business in Prague, however, to keep the company growing?

AH: Prague as our main focus won’t be changing anytime soon.

The next time you notice that new home ad in your favorite local magazine, you might not be surprised to discover that it was Rooney & Bennett which was responsible for putting it there. Like [Hejduk chuckles], we’re paid to sometimes know more about our clients’ customers than our clients’ customers sometimes know about themselves.

Adam Daniel Mezei can be reached at realestate@praguepost.com

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