Discourses and Outcomes: Marketing of Housing Projects in Trabzon

ABSTRACT The housing projects are marketed with discourses such as “the long-awaited life”, “ideal home” and are constructed on the urban fringes. Producers try to ascribe certain meanings to the houses that they describe in their marketing discourses. The study aims to probe into the discourses that are used in the advertisements and marketing of the residential projects in the east fringe of Trabzon, and to find out about the extent the companies realize their discourses. In the study 41 residential projects are selected and marketing discourses of each project are studied. To this end, their web sites are visited, meetings are held in the sales offices, and on site surveys are made. The study revealed the meanings that were assigned to the houses in the advertising and marketing discourses of each housing project. In addition, the researcher reviewed the related literature and defined what the houses mean to people. The projects examined are similar in terms of physical space arrangements and marketing discourses. It does not coincide with the meanings ascribed in the literature. The construction methods and processes of the projects are similar.