Part 7: Test Market
This is part seven of our blog series entitled: Real Estate Agent Personal Branding: Learning form American Idol. It is a fun and easy way to learn the principles of personal branding. You do not have to be an Idol fan to enjoy!
Jordin Sparks 2007 American IdolOne method of discovering the balance between commercial success and artistic integrity is test marketing. Determine what is needed and wanted by your audience. Then find a way to deliver just that, but in your own inimitable way. To be able to say, “I did it my way” is extremely satisfying. This is the sweet spot of commercial success in any field: Not compromising and still winning it all.
In the case of real estate personal branding your audience is your target market of buyers and sellers. Find out which niche has the most underserved demand. Then find a way to serve that niche better than anyone else in your marketplace. That is the ultimate purpose of test marketing.
On American Idol, choosing the right song within the right brand category or genre is of paramount importance. The right song needs to appeal to the widest audience in order to win the most votes. With instant audience feedback, test marketing can be very effective, but risky. Perhaps, this is the case of Adam Lambert.
What is your take on Adam Lambert, the Top 12 contestant? Adam definitely has talent and is therefore 
marketable. What we know about his background story, apart from living in Los Angeles, is that he toured in the Broadway play, Wicked. Can you name his brand category? Does he want to be pigeonholed as a musical comedy singer based on his background? Here are the songs and the brand categories he has chosen to test so far:
Bohemian Rhapsody by Queen, the British rock group
Some Kind of Wonderful, by the American R&B group, Soul Brothers Six
Believe, by Cher (pop)
Satisfaction, by The Rolling Stones (Rock)
Adam is obviously very popular. But, have we experienced his authentic brand signal, yet? It will be interesting to see if this becomes clearer throughout the show. He has changed genre several times. Is he showing us a wide range of possible brand categories to avoid the “pigeonhole trap”. Or, perhaps he is just “test marketing”.
Click Here to view the entire American Idol- real estate agent personal branding blog series
Check Out Personal Branding Case Studies
GET FLUENT. GET AFFLUENT!
JOIN OUR LANGUAGE OF LUXURY GROUP ON:
BrokerAgentSocial, Plaxo, Linked In, ActiveRain, RealTown
FOLLOW US ON TWITTER: LuxuryMarketing
COMMENTS? Please use form in left column.