Personal Branding for Real Estate Agents: Quality Cues- Part 1

Tuesday

Jul072009

Tuesday, July 7, 2009 at 4:00AM

For luxury real estate marketing professionals, small things can make a big difference in terms of standing out from your competition. As an example, one of our clients, who is from Switzerland, uses special flat, rounded gold clasps instead of paper clips. These wafer-thin fasteners fold over the upper corner of papers that need to be held together. It is very elegant and impressive. Best of all they only cost a few cents each. Now, these particular fasteners can only be found in Europe. This then becomes one of many, many ways in which she distinguishes herself, in a nanosecond!

In branding terms the fastener is a “Quality Cue”. Quality cues are indications of quality in packaging, displays, product features, collateral materials, website design, messaging, etc. The more quality cues you can offer in your luxury real estate practice the more your personal or company brand will become distinctive.

We thought of our client when we were shopping for coffee at Gelson’s, an upscale market chain in Southern California. Gelson’s recently came out with their store brand of coffee, called Gelson’s Finest. We trust the quality of Gelson’s as a market. So, we were willing to try it because we were certain that they would not put their name on sub-par coffee.

Usually, when a market puts their name on a product it is a way to increase their profit margins and the quality may be less than the known brands. The packaging is also less attractive than the name brand packages. Gelson’s added a couple of quality cues that encouraged us to at least try their new coffee. The packaging is first rate. And, they included an attractive gold clasp to help seal in the freshness instead of the usual bendable plastic strip that wraps around the folded top of the opened coffee bag. How convenient! And, the coffee is good!

As a luxury real estate marketing professional, what are your quality cues?

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