Case Study: Newmark Knight Frank

Company name: Newmark Knight Frank
Company type: Commercial Real Estate Advisory Firm
Company category: Real Estate

Problem / Solution
1. How to stand out from other commercial real estate development firms through the use of unique datasets like consumer interest and purchase intent.
2. How to help brokers close deals faster through on-demand data.

Overview:
Brokers and commercial real estate developers today are using the same traditinoal demographics report that has been used for the past few decades. Demographics can only give you what the local populace looks like, but it does not provide you where there is consumer interest or purchase intent for a product or service. Furthermore, gathering these reports may take several weeks, causing delays that can jeopardize closing a deal.

‘Next-level’ datasets
At the recent International Council of Shopping Centers (ICSC) conference in Las Vegas, Senior Managing Director for commercial real estate advisory firm Newmark Knight Frank, Jesse Weber, explained how he used IdealSpot’s data to stand out from the other thousand retail development firms by offering datasets that no one else provided.

“At the ICSC conference, IdealSpot was able to differentiate us from traditional real estate developers that only showed demographics like household incomes within a 1, 3, or 5-mile radius. We were able to show all of that plus this next-level data to support why a particular retailer would be most beneficial and successful at a certain location.”

By providing a heatmap that included purchase intent and consumer interest measured via search engines and social media data, Jesse and his team were able to show where there was a market gap for a client’s product or service.

Heatmaps like the one above easily point to where there is demand for over 600 retail categories and where there is a retailer void for those products/services.

We were able to grab the retailer’s attention and separate ourselves from the clutter of retail development data by providing reports that go well beyond basic demographics like household income and population, Jesse explains.

We could say to an automobile repair shop if there was demand or interest for auto repair in an area or tell another retailer that this is a great neighborhood for an organic supermarket because of consumer interest in dieting and purchase intent for healthy foods, Jesse says.

Through the use of unique datasets like consumer interest and purchase intent, Newmark Knight Frank was able to differentiate themselves by offering retailers insights into more than baseline demographics reports and help retailers make a confident decision on where to place their next location.

Closing deals faster
For brokers, a lot of time is spent in gathering reports, presenting them to the buyer, and even ‘schmoozing’ the client. It is obvious that the more deals you can close, the more opportunities you’ll have. Through IdealSpot’s better data, brokers can close deals with clients faster by gathering up-to-date and easy to understand reports themselves on traffic counts, demographics, psychographics, spending trends, data on consumer interest and purchase intent, among many others.

They are also able to quickly share and present that information to their clients through email or printable PDFs right away. By providing raw data that points to where demand exists, brokers have the confidence they need to present to their clients which neighborhood is right for their location.

For instance, if a buyer is looking for a location for their new steakhouse, IdealSpot can provide the broker with data on where people have ‘signaled’ a desire for steakhouses through search and social media data. We can calculate how many people have searched for related keywords like restaurants, steakhouses, American food, etc. for multiple locations.

Graphs like the one above can tell you quickly how many times people in an area have searched for one of over six-hundred products or service categories.

Demographics reports only include data like household income, population growth, or average household size. These reports tell you what the local populace looks like, but not who they are or where there is demand for a product or service. The problem with using demographics data alone is that there is no single demographics data that will accurately describe a potential customer, or measure if there is a market gap for a product or service.

By using reports that point to where people want a product or service, brokers and commercial real estate developers alike can confidently say where the ideal location is for potential buyers and retailers.

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