Discover how we created a psychology-led marketing and messaging strategy to help JLL engage ultra-high-net-worth investors (U/HNWIs) - one of the most selective audiences in commercial real estate.
JLL is a global leader in commercial real estate with a diverse portfolio spanning construction, development and investment.
We worked with JLL’s investment arm to tackle one of their most complex challenges: how to engage U/HNWIs and family offices, and inspire them to invest in commercial real estate opportunities across Europe.
These audiences are notoriously private, cautious, and difficult to influence, requiring a strategy that blends commercial understanding with deep psychological insight.
Commercial Real Estate
UK
Create a psychology-led marketing and messaging strategy to engage U/HWNIs.
We began by reviewing JLL’s existing research and integrating it with our own expertise and literature reviews on wealth psychology, decision science, and behavioural economics. This allowed us to identify the core psychological traits of U/HNWIs. These included high conscientiousness, a strong internal locus of control, low trust, and a blend of risk aversion and status-driven motivation.
Building on this foundation, we paired our behavioural insights with a full evaluation of current market trends and strategic audience segmentation. This enabled us to create a scientifically robust yet commercially actionable picture of U/HNWI decision-making.
Using our psychological findings, we developed a messaging framework that speaks directly to the emotional and cognitive drivers of affluent investors. The framework was structured around three primary pillars: Wealth Creators, Wealth Protectors and Legacy Builders - each aligned to specific behavioural traits and investment mindsets.
The messaging aimed to balance emotional resonance with the full transparency required to overcome low trust. By aligning JLL’s value proposition with psychological needs (stability, control, status, scarcity, and reassurance), we provided a narrative that could guide creative, content, and communication across multiple channels.
To bring this new strategy to life, we developed channel and activation recommendations tailored to how U/HNWIs prefer to engage: discreetly, selectively, and through high-trust environments.
Suggested tactics included hyper-targeted paid media, gated content, data segmentation, private social groups, and personalised email journeys. These were all designed to maintain an ‘always-on’ presence without losing that all-important feel of exclusivity. We then proposed a series of creative concepts that visually and tonally expressed the core psychological themes. Beyond digital, we also identified opportunities in event partnerships and in spaces where U/HNWIs naturally congregate.
This combination of strategy, messaging and creative direction now forms a complete activation platform, and is being explored with JLL’s global team for wider rollout.
U/HNW investors do not make decisions based purely on financial logic; they make them emotionally, then justify them rationally. They are deeply motivated by loss aversion, legacy, status, and control, while being highly selective about the brands they trust.
Our research demonstrated that the key to engaging this audience is not overwhelming them with data, but framing investment opportunities in ways that reduce perceived risk and position JLL as a peer-level partner - not just a vendor. By grounding the entire strategy in behavioural science, we built a foundation that speaks to how the world’s wealthiest individuals truly think, decide, and invest.
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Birmingham: +44 121 368 7521
London: +44 20 4586 1470