Luxury Real Estate Marketing: When Should Your Name Become Your Personal Brand?

Coco Chanel on Left - A Chanel Chapeau (hat) on Right

There is a debate that still continues about using your name as your personal brand in luxury real estate marketing. Here is the best test to determine when it is advisable to do so: Ask yourself, “Are you ready to achieve celebrity status in your marketplace?” If you are prepared to have your name stand for a particular market niche that you can dominate, we say, “Go for it!”

Think of some of the most recognizable personal brands: Martha, Seal, Sting, Cher, Lance, [the] Donald, Kobe, and Coco. What category of celebrity comes to mind for each?

Channel is one of the most famous fashion design houses in the world. And, the company founder, Gabrielle Bonheur “Coco” Chanel, was one of the most highly recognized personal brands in her time. In fact, she was the only person to be named in the field of fashion on the Time [Magazine] Top 100: The Most Important People of the [20^th] Century. Coco was a modernist who stood for the pursuit of expensive simplicity which is the most enduring core value of the Chanel company brand

Coco’s design standards were exacting. And, she was a task-master who insisted that her clothes reflect her personal, exacting impeccable standards. We know this first hand as Alexandra’s grandmother was a master finishing seamstress for Chanel in Paris as young woman. The attention to detail was relentless.

Clearly, Coco enjoyed top-of-mind status in the field of high fashion as a personal brand, a status that extends to the company brand as well, to this day. Top-of-mind is the goal of any luxury real estate marketing professional who is aiming for market leadership and celebrity status.

Are you ready for celebrity status in your luxury real estate marketplace? If not, you might want to consider a different tact when approaching your personal branding, other than using your name as your brand.