Luxury Real Estate Personal and Company Branding: Is it Time to Refresh Your Brand? Part 2

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This is Part 2 of our series: Is It Time to Refresh Your Brand?

Here are five questions that will help you evaluate if it is time to refresh your brand as a luxury real estate marketing professional. If you answer yes to any of these questions the time to refresh your brand is now!

1. Is your Promise of Value Extraordinary? Do you blend in or stand out from your competition? Can those who know you well tell their friends, or even people they meet for the first time, how you are distinct from your competition in a few sentences, ideally, in one or two words? Here is how this plays out: AT&T or Verizon? Verizon has fewer dropped calls! Stated in two words: Verizon = “reliability & coverage”.

2. Does Your Visual Image Communicate Your Distinct Value Proposition? Can you conjure in your mind Verizon’s red image of the US map that shows its superior coverage to AT&T?

3. Is Your Branding Consistent Throughout All of Your Online and Print Marketing Materials? Think Tiffany: Blue box, blue shopping bag, and blue website. Check out their newly refreshed website.

4. Is Your Website Content Current, Relevant and Pithy? Pithy means clear concise and to the point.

5. Have You Reviewed Your Marketing Strategies Lately? If market leadership is your quest you must become a triple threat to your competition, offline, online and through superlative relationship management everywhere. Offline strategies apply to one aim: achieving “top-of-mind” status among potential home sellers and referral sources. Online strategies apply to attracting more buyers than your competition. Relationship management strategies can make; weak strategies or none at all can break you.

When brand refreshment is done right it gives those who already know you a compelling reason to talk about you. As a company it can revitalize your team’s spirit. Is now the time to refresh your brand?

Luxury Real Estate Personal & Company Branding: Is it Time to Refresh Your Brand? Part 1

February 9, 2011

When is it time to refresh your brand? You definitely should re-think and refresh your branding at least every seven years. This applies to luxury real estate marketing agents and brokerage companies as well. Brands need to evolve and keep up with changes within their target market and also learn to reach new audiences. A good example of a complete brand makeover is Abercrombie & Fitch.

In the late 19^th century Abercrombie & Fitch was a very high end sports outfitter to the rich and famous. If you were about to embark on an African safari and needed a pith helmet or an elephant gun A&F was the place to shop. Today, they sell mostly clothing to 18-22 year old consumers with over 300 locations in the US and abroad.

However, this was a brand that was literally resurrected from bankruptcy when, in 1977, Oshman’s Sporting Goods acquired the defunct firm’s name and mailing list Then, in 1987 The Limited, a clothing retailer, purchased the company because they spotted an underserved retail market niche that they could serve better than anyone else by refreshing the brand. That niche was “Preppies”.

Women's Wear Daily calls Abercrombie & Fitch clothing classically "neo-preppy", with an "edgy tone and imagery". A&F describes this market niche as an aspirational “Casual Luxury”.

In Part 2 of this series, we will discuss the 5 Ways to Refresh Your Luxury Real Estate Marketing Brand. Part 3 is about becoming the iconic brand in your marketplace.

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Luxury Real Estate Personal Branding: Does This Reflect Me?

February 1, 2011

Q: Here is a question we sometimes hear when we are crafting a personal brand identity for clients who market luxury real estate: What is more important: Whether I really like it or my friends and family like it?

A: Here is our answer: Your brand identity, meaning your logo and overall graphic brand package, must be a reflection of the essence of your personal priority values and it must resonate with the priority values of your target market. People who are more self-referred will attract others who share this priority value. The same applies to those who rely more on other’s opinions.

So you see, there is no right answer for everyone. As two predominantly self-referred individuals this was an important lesson to learn for us when advising our clients. It is something to keep in mind when you are advising your luxury real estate buyers and sellers.

Some people tend to defer more to the opinions of others around them, especially those who are close to them, rather than being more self-referred. This is fine, if keeping the peace creates a more tranquil environment that is actually empowering. One tendency is not better than the other if the net result is personal empowerment in the long run. When the “waters” are tranquil around you, your reflections are the clearest and so is your personal brand signal.

For some, asserting their own opinion is not worth the strife it can cause in their immediate environment. If there is discord around you because the opinions of others are causing interference with your brand signal you may be disempowered. Keeping the peace does not necessarily mean you are losing your personal identity. It means that standing firm is less important at a given point in time when taking everything into consideration.

Here is a better way of looking at this question: Is your brand identity, doing its job as a silent salesperson for you? What sells you the most is your own clear brand signal.

People like to do business with people like themselves. Discover your own priority values and you will be sure to attract an abundance of clients with like values.

Luxury Real Estate Personal Brand & Web Design Case Study: Courtney Ranson

January 31, 2011

Check Out: www.DenverWashPark.com

Luxury real estate personal branding is not just about creating an attractive new look for your website and print collateral. While it is important to stand out from your competition with superior visual imagery, a personal brand identity is much more than putting on an attractive new outfit. Your personal brand must stand for something that resonates with the needs and values of your target market.

If you strike the right chord you will spark a deep positive emotional response from potential clients and referral sources who feel an instant connection with you on their first encounter. Done right, emotional branding can accelerate the speed of trust and referrals.

This video above is the personal branding case study of Courtney Ranson in central Denver. It truly demonstrates the high impact of emotional branding.

Luxury Real Estate Marketing: How Important is a Logo in Personal or Company Branding?

January 30, 2011

Q: How important is a logo in personal/company branding?

A: A logo is important as an integral part of your personal/company brand. But, it can be a missed opportunity if it does not convey your extraordinary promise of value.

A great logo is a symbol that encapsulates and succinctly communicates the entire experience of your brand. It conveys what you want your brand to stand for in the minds of your target market and how you are distinct from your competition.

Think of the ubiquitous Nike “swoosh”. It has tremendous meaning all rolled into a very simple graphic line that looks like a check mark. If you were to ponder a bit on the swoosh symbol you might summon the Nike slogan to mind, “Just do it!”, and it would have even more meaning to you, especially if you are athletic or enjoy sports. In Greek mythology, Nike is the goddess of victory. Knowing this can conjure an even deeper emotional connection with your core values.

Putting a symbol like a key or an antique door to a home, or an Adirondack chair on a front porch, next to your name because you are a real estate agent can create a logo. But, it falls short of the potential to communicate who you are in particular and how you are different.

Sometimes a logo is just one part of the entire brand identity. The Tiffany logo is a very simple font spelling out the company name in Times New Roman, a font that comes standard with all computers. But, think of the Tiffany blue gift box. Can you see how much meaning the color and that box has? The entire brand identity, the logo, color and the images that are associated with the name become the brand identity.

Ralph Lauren’s Polo logo speaks volumes about an affluent lifestyle even for those aspiring to that lifestyle. Like Nike it can be instantly recognized and it communicates tremendous meaning.

Ask, yourself another question, “How important is being top-of-mind in your marketplace?” Then ask yourself, “How important is a logo in personal/company branding?”

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Luxury Real Estate Personal Branding: Getting All Your Mental Ducks in a Row

January 19, 2011

One of the most important principles of successful luxury real estate personal branding is internal alignment, also known as “getting all of your mental ducks in a row”. Everything must first line up internally, within your own mindset, before you can attract the success that you seek.

The first place to check to see if you are internally aligned is your level of passion about your work or the way you are approaching it. Ask yourself, “What am I most passionate about in life?” Another important question is this: “Does my luxury real estate marketing practice offer me the opportunity to pursue my passion?”

Aligning your personal passion with your business goals is tantamount to strapping on a booster rocket that not only propels you faster; it also sustains you during challenging times. Passion can give you the competitive edge because it gives you stamina. Passion is like a reserve tank of fuel that keeps you going when your competition is ready to quit or gets complacent.

If you find that you are not passionate about your work there is still hope! This usually means that you have not identified an under-served market niche that you can dominate. You must find an arena in which you can truly express your passion because you can serve it better than anyone else in your marketplace. These conditions will get you fired up like nothing else!

You and this niche must be a match made in heaven. That is the unobvious external alignment that far too many people overlook and therefore do not find passion in their work. When you have your mental ducks in a row and you have tapped into your passion your work life and your personal life is seamless.

Here is an example of the seamlessness of internal and external alignment: We love to take walks on the beach. On our way to the shore we traverse the local community-protected Carpinteria, California salt marshes where we are able to commune with many species of ducks. The variety of colors and patterns in nature often inspire us in our art direction when we develop personal and company brands for our clients. We look forward to the day when we use the iridescent aqua-emerald green colors found in mallard ducks in one of our luxury real estate branding projects.

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Luxury Real Estate Marketing: 7 Ways to Get a Bigger Piece of the Pie

January 17, 2011

Here is an email from one of our clients:

I have sold quite a few luxury homes in my market place. I have two competitors who get the lion’s share of the business, and I want to know how to compete with them. Competitor A is from a well known wealthy family rooted in this city. This person went to all the right schools, gets invited to the right events, and generally lists properties based on contacts alone. Competitor B also has numerous contacts as the spouse is a partner in a prestigious corporate law firm headquartered in town. The firm sends all their residential real estate referrals to this person. How do I get a bigger piece of the pie? How can I unseat with theses entrenched incumbents?

And, here was our response:

Dear Luxury Realtor:

It is important to understand that the luxury pie is much bigger than you think. There is more pie than meets the eye for you. You just need to be the one who sets the rules of how the pie gets sliced. Here is what you need to do:

Find the uncontested, underserved market niche within your marketplace. These incumbents cannot be all things to all people. Create your own rules for sectioning the pie, (why settle for crumbs of your competitors’ pie as they slice it?) Give your competitors’ clients a compelling reason to switch brands.
Determine what you can do better than anyone else in your marketplace, with passion
Define your ideal client. Study the psychographics (the mindset) of your previous luxury buyers and sellers. There is a wealth of information in reviewing this data, as it tells you the type of people who like working with you. These people are looking for you as much as you are looking for them.
Define your brand with laser sharp clarity; articulate what makes you distinct from A or B. Make it extremely easy for those who would prefer working with someone like you to recognize that you are the one for them. Make it obvious in an instant!
Distill your marketing message into a sound bite or two so that it is extremely easy for your fans to spread the word about you to their friends.
Step up your marketing and promote your inimitable brand of doing business. Give the marketplace an undeniable choice.
Enjoy your piece of the pie!

Through our extensive discovery process, our client was able to identify the underserved market niche that she could dominate and her competition could not: The world of “hip luxury”. This niche is comprised of younger high net worth entrepreneurs, the entertainment and high tech industries, plus, those interested in food and modern art which were areas of expertise of our client.

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Luxury Real Estate Branding: Striking the Right Balance for Your Marketplace

January 14, 2011

Here is a recent email we received from a prospective client who wants to create/refresh their brand,

"In my marketplace, we have about 800 homes in our two town MLS with only about 16 priced from the mid-fives to about 2.6 million. Affluent buyers want someone who is very well-versed in luxury homes, but with so few available, is it wrong to also be a great agent for lesser priced properties? I don't want to be all things to all people, but I don't want to lock myself solely into a niche that may not have sufficient inventory to maintain a viable business. Your feedback would be greatly appreciated.

Here is our answer,

We understand what you are reaching for. It's a matter of striking the right balance. The key is to develop an upscale personal brand that is sophisticated but not pretentious. A perfect illustration of this concept is to view the big department store retailers: Saks Fifth Avenue, Neiman Marcus, Bergdorf Goodman are the luxury brands stores, Macy's brand appeals to a wide range of customers. and Nordstrom’s is more upscale. However, Nordstrom's does not intimidate Macy's customers.

Another example of a balanced brand is Ralph Lauren. He is known as the quintessential American designer. He has many lines that he manufactures for every demographic. The clothing line is accessible to everyone who likes his designs.

That is the balance you are looking for.

Iconoclasts: Katharine Hepburn- Suitable to Any Occasion.

January 12, 2011

An iconoclast is a person who challenges conventional wisdom and traditional beliefs, and often shatters the very foundations upon which traditional, institutions rest. Katharine Hepburn was no stranger to iconoclastic thinking and is, to this day, an inspiration to women who seek market leadership in their luxury real estate marketing practice.

When a flower variety is associated with a celebrity, that celebrity is most likely an iconoclast. Katharine Hepburn “owns” an association with calla lilies due to her famous lines about these flowers in an Academy Award nominated movie, Stage Door.

“The calla lilies are in bloom again-- such a strange flower, suitable to any occasion. I carried them on my wedding day and now I place them here in memory of something that has died. “

Katharine Hepburn was, indeed, an iconoclast. She danced to the beat of her own drum, with her refusal to bow to the Hollywood or the social conventions of her time. She spoke her mind, wore pantsuits and usually wore no makeup.

When her popularity waned with the studios, she was undeterred. Phillip Barry wrote a play expressly for her, The Philadelphia Story. The play got rave reviews. Hepburn secured the rights to the movie and picked her own director. When Clark Gable and Spencer Tracy were unavailable she chose Cary Grant and Jimmy Stewart as her leading men. She won the Oscar for playing the role of Tracie, a spoiled socialite.

All in all Katharine Hepburn was nominated for the best actress award twelve times. She won the award four times including the Oscar for her role in The Lion in the Winter in 1968, the year she tied with another iconoclast Barbara Streisand in Funny Girl.

Katharine Hepburn always seemed “comfortable in her own skin”. Like a calla lilies, she was suitable to any occasion.

If you like brownies, checkout our post on Ms. Hepburn’s fabulous brownie recipe. There is a great luxury real estate marketing tip in this post, too!

Personal & Company Branding: It Is Written!

December 20, 2010

A major key to success is identifying and focusing upon a market category or sub-category in which you can become the dominate player. To fully succeed however, it must be a niche that you believe you can do better than anyone else in your marketplace, a niche about which you are passionate. When you are passionate about what you are doing your interest in your work will be sustained, you will continuously be innovative and you will persevere during the most challenging moments in your career.

When you are passionate about what do you also attract people and events, almost magically, that can help you achieve your dreams and confirm that you are on the right path. Here is a fun true story that we experienced about this kind of serendipity.

Several years ago, we were walking on the beach and discussing the fact that we are truly passionate about our strategic branding practice that is focused on the luxury real estate industry. We were wondering if personal and company branding would be the vehicle that could lead to working internationally which was our desire.

Suddenly, we came upon some letters that someone had written in the sand upside down. When we walked around to read it our jaws dropped. A young man had written his own name which happened to be B R A N D! Luckily, we had our camera and took the picture posted above. It was like a “sign” to stay on our path.

Since then, the opportunities that social media has offered in terms of expanding internationally and also meeting more and more fascinating people have enriched our lives and added significantly to our career in strategic branding. There is no question that being passionate about your work makes life much more fun!

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Luxury Real Estate Personal Branding: Real Estate of the Mind

October 11, 2010

As a luxury real estate marketing professional, you must understand the “inner game” of marketing as well as you know the process of selling a home. If you want to gain or sustain market leadership in your area or your niche you must “own” real estate in the minds of your target market. We refer to the real estate of the mind as top-of-mind status. The key question is: Who comes to mind first?

In your mind who owns the category of multipurpose household oil that lubricates, cleans and prevents rust? Did you come up with W-D 40 or 3-IN-ONE? Can you think of another brand? Most people cannot think of a 3^rd or 4^th brand in this product category. It so happens that both household oil brands are owned by the same company. More importantly, they own the category!

Welcome to the world of real estate of the mind! In our time-pressed, over-communicated world we just cannot hold more than a few brand names in our mind in any category of product or service. That is what makes the stakes so high in the bid for market leadership.

In the realm of listing and marketing luxury real estate, achieving top-of mind status is far more valuable than owning the top position on a Google search result pages. Sure, it is great to also come up first on the search engines so you can get more buyer leads, especially when properties are slow to move. But, over time he or she who has the best listings and has the best reputation in town, or in a given niche, the one who stands out from the crowd, wins the lion’s share of the business!

We know an agent who is one of the top producers in all of the United States who has never optimized his website for the search engines. He does not have a Facebook or any other social networking account. His phone rings off the hook. He barely keeps up with his email and the business he attracts. He enjoys top-of-mind status in his marketplace because he has focused solely on building trusting relationships that yield continuous referrals.

This seems to fly in the face of what is now considered conventional wisdom. But, this luxury real estate marketing professional has mastered the inner game of marketing. He owns the most valuable real estate where “location, location, location” rules the day now and forevermore: in the minds of his target market.

By, the way...did you know that W-D stands for "water displacement" which was what the inventor, Norm Larson, was aiming for with his formula to prevent rust. It took him 40 attempts to find the best way to prefvent corrosion by repelling water.

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Luxury Real Estate Marketing: The Truth Is in the Details

September 29, 2010

Photo by Raluca Tudor:Dreamstime.com

In luxury real estate marketing and branding, "the truth is in the details". Refinement, subtlety and simplicity are often the benchmark of sophistication and brilliant design. Studying the most highly recognized brands in the world often yields great insights. Take Giorgio Armani, for example.

Giorgio Armani is, perhaps, one of the world's most famous names and international luxury brands. Take a close look at the details in the logo. At first glance the logo appears to be very simple. It is a single font that is spaced close together. At first glance the logo appears to be almost ordinary.

Now look at how each of the letters in the name Armani itself connect at the bottom or at the top. Notice that that is not the case in his first name. These extremely clean lines that you also find in most of his clothes design are mirrored here in a very subtle manner.

Alexandra discovered Giorio Armani in small article in Vogue magazine well before his clothes were world renown. We decided to visit his boutique in Milan while we were on a reconnaissance mission. Our job was to discover possible tenants for a Beverly Hills retail property that we were handling as commercial real estate brokers. Alexandra asked the taxi driver to take us to Giorgio Armani’s (she speaks Italian) and we were driven to his appartment! She finally was able to explain that we wanted to visit his store. He obviously was not very famous at that point ourside of Milan.

While Alexandra was trying on several items of clothing at the store, a gentleman insisted that Ron try on an outfit that was comprised of a tweed sportcoat, a check shirt and a striped tie which seemed to fly in the face of every sensible American design principle. Much to Ron’s surprise it all worked together. That was the end of traditional design in his wardrobe; no more pinstripe suits and wingtip shoes, the uniform of commercial real estate brokers in Los Angeles, then.

The discovery of fine Italian clothing opened both sets of our eyes to the importance of quality design in branding. It was part of what set our brand apart, as a husband and wife real estate team, from our competition. As niche market leaders in high end retail and also in entertainment industry office leasing and sales, this was one of our first lessons in branding: The truth is in the details.

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Luxury Real Estate Marketing: The Key to Serving Multiple Price Points!

September 28, 2010

Recently, we were approached by a marketing director of a high profile boutique luxury real estate marketing firm that is the market leader in their area, with an important question that we hear quite often:

“Higher priced homes in our marketplace are not selling very fast. We see the opportunity to sell a high volume of lower priced homes in surrounding neighborhoods. Should we create a new brand for this market segment or keep the same brand?”

There is a risk of keeping the same brand name when you change the identity of your services. The owners of the lower priced homes may feel intimidated by your brand which is already associated with higher priced homes. The owners of the higher priced homes may feel like you have diluted the quality of “their” brand. There may be no intention of being pretentious on anyone’s part, but brand perception plays a very important role in the listing process and in the referral process as well.

The entire exercise of personal or company branding or product branding is to achieve top-of-mind status in a specific category of business or a product category. The brass ring of branding is to be totally identified with a category. The grand prize is being the “category killer” like Scotch Tape. The crowning glory is having your brand name become a verb that literally means that category like “to Xerox” (copy) or “to Fed-Ex” (ship overnight), or “to Google” (search on the internet).

Why would you want to blur a brand that is so sharply defined and associated with a specific category when you can easily create a new brand name for the new category? It just does not make good business sense. But, if you create a sub-brand be sure to stake your claim as the best brand in the new category so your sub-brand can become top-of mind in that category.

This week we were sent a few bottles of wine from a Napa Valley wine club to which we belong. Unbeknownst to us, this famous winery created a sub-brand with a new name. They basically rebranded the wines that they were already producing and we were enjoying from the adjacent area, Alexander Valley. Previously, these wines had the same brand name as their Napa & Sonoma Valley wines. We thought there was some mistake and were pre-disposed to tasting an inferior wine, just because of the brand name change.

There was a breach of trust that occurred because there was no bridge in the communication that endorsed the new brand. All that was necessary was a very simple statement, something like this:

“We felt that our wines from the Alexander Valley had a distinct set of characteristics due the special micro-climate there and these wines merited their own label”

The key to serving multiple price points is definitely to create a separate brand name or a sub-brand. But, that does not mean that your sub-brand should be perceived as sub-par.

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Luxury Real Estate Personal Branding: Getting the Most Thrills Per Minute

September 22, 2010

Courtesy of Rick Steves - ETBD

Do you recognize this man in the picture? Chances are you have seen him on TV or in the bookstores. The same principles of personal branding that have enabled Rick Steves to dominate the affordable travel advice industry can help you achieve market leadership in your luxury real estate marketing career.

Rick Steves is a one-man-brand with a staff of 70 people and a thriving travel and media company that grosses around $30M per year—Europe Through the Back Door. Rick is the author of 40 travel guidebooks. His guidebook to Italy is the bestselling guidebook to any foreign destination in the United States. His phrase books in foreign languages out-sell Berlitz. His TV show is the most popular travel series in America on public television. Rick is also featured on a weekly hour-long national public radio show and has a weekly newspaper column syndicated by the Chicago Tribune. Additionally, he runs a successful European tour program with more than 300 departures that annually attract around 10,000 people.

What do you think is attributable to Rick Steves’ success? Here are some of the factors:

AUTHENTICITIY: Rick “is” his personal brand
PASSION: This man loves traveling and is passionate about teaching others how to get, “maximum thrills per minute” (Rick’s own words)
FOCUS: Rick focuses on and owns “affordable European travel” as his niche in the overall travel industry.

If you are thinking that this level of personal branding is beyond your reach, think again. You do not need to achieve top-of-mind status in all of the United States. You just need to become the first luxury real estate marketing professional that comes to mind in the number of households that comprise your local target market.

You do not need your own TV show or radio show or syndicated newspaper column. You just need to stake your claim to an uncontested market niche that you can dominate with passion. And, you need to leverage the internet media marketing tools that can catapult you to the top.

If your competitors are your pet peeves, be like Rick Steves. Get branded! ( Yes, that rhymed on purpose).

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Luxury Real Estate Marketing: Winning the Battle of Brand Perception – Part 2

September 14, 2010

Photo courtesy of mbusa

How you are perceived by potential clients as a personal or company brand is a major factor in the decision making process of hiring you as a luxury real estate marketing professional. In Part 1 of this blog series, we showed the seven most important factors that car buyers consider when choosing a new car. We explained that Mercedes Benz has regained its dominance over other all other luxury cars in the battle of perception.

Here are some examples of how the same brand perception categories referred to in Part 2 might apply to the decision making process (the factor(s) that potential clients values most) when selecting an agent to represent them in buying or selling a luxury home. You can win your own battle of perception by positioning yourself or your company as the leader in at least one of these categories:

1. SAFETY: Although the concept of Safety applies to protection from physical harm when considering the purchase of a car, for some there is a perceived Safety in numbers when it comes to selecting a service provider. Some homeowners prefer to list their home with the biggest firm because the perception of more agents means more exposure to more potential buyers. Other home sellers feel more secure with the idea of listing their home with a big team within a company vs. a single agent.

2. QUALITY:
Home sellers with an entrepreneurial bent might be more likely to choose a single agent vs. a team or a boutique firm vs. a large brand. To them Quality is more important than quantity. Quality time and attention is more important than getting lost in the shuffle of a large firm or dealing with an underling vs. the team leader. There may be more risk involved in selecting an agent based on this factor, but entrepreneurial thinkers are usually less risk averse.

3. VALUE: Some people decide who to hire based solely on Value, meaning the lowest commission rate. These people consider most top agents to be equal to the task. They do not care as much about Safety or Quality in this context. If you have the bent for this approach, become the value leader and dominate this category!

4. PERFORMANCE: In luxury real estate, Performance might refer to your track record. We recently heard a story from a successful agent whose website was found first via a Google search by a foreign buyer ready, able and willing to spend over $3M on a home. This person had searched the MLS on the agent’s site on a Thursday night and identified five homes that he wanted to see when he came in town that Saturday. The agent was told by the buyer that he checked out the Gallery of Sold Homes on the agent’s site which included several $3M+ homes. That was enough to convince the buyer to pick up the phone and request the showing appointment. For some Performance is a key decision making factor. If you have a strong track record by all means, flaunt it!

5 & 6. ENVIRONMENTALLY FRIENDLY/GREEN & DESIGN/STYLE: Agents with a passion for all things Green or those who have a flair for Design can run circles around other agents once potential clients learn that you speak their language and share their values.

7. TECHNOLOGY/INNOVATOIN: If you have a penchant for Technology, by all means jump all over this category and dominate it in the minds of potential clients. If you use Technology or demonstrate Innovation better than anyone else in your marketplace you have a shot at “owning” this category. Those who consider these factors to be their priority value will hire you over others who are a lesser match to their values.

If you can demonstrate that you or your company stand for one of these brand perception categories you will have a clear shot at gaining significant market share. If you can accomplish this in more than one category like Mercedes Benz has done with Qualtiy, Design/Style and Technology/Innovation you too can win the battle of brand perception, a battle that takes place expressly in the minds of your target market.

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Luxury Real Estate Marketing: Winning the Battle of Brand Perception - Part 1

September 13, 2010

Photo courtesy of mbusa

In luxury real estate marketing, brand perception is an extremely important determining factor for consumers when selecting an agent to assist them in buying or selling a home. Have you taken the time to consider how you are perceived by potential clients? What do you stand for in the minds of your target market? If market leadership is your quest, you must tell people how you want them to perceive you and in which of their mental categories you want to be held. Otherwise, by default, they will pigeonhole you themselves-accurately or not (mostly inaccurately).

To get a better sense of how perception factors into the agent selection process let us first take a look at how Mercedes Benz is winning the battle of perception as a market leader. Then, in Part 2 we will apply the principles of brand perception to your luxury real estate marketing practice.

According to Consumer Reports’ 2010 Brand Perception Survey for cars, consumers consider the following categories to be the most important factors in buying a new car:

Safety
Quality
Value
Performance
Environmentally Friendly/Green
Design/Style
Technology/Innovation

Each of these factors becomes a brand perception category in the minds of car buying consumers; each category offers an opportunity for one brand to be a category leader, enjoying top-of-mind status in that category. A brand perception category is different from a product category, such as economy car, luxury car, sports car, truck, SUV/crossover, or van. A brand perception category is an aspect of the product category that has relative importance and meaning, i.e., value to the consumer when making a buying or hiring (in the case of a service) decision.

Deliberately communicating to your target market that you want your brand to be perceived predominantly in a particular brand perception category is a key component of brand positioning. This is where the real competition for market leadership takes place. Whichever brand commands the top-of-mind position in a brand perception category wins! Mindshare precedes market share.

Here is how it works. Which automobile brand comes to mind first when you think of the word Safety? According to Consumer Reports, Volvo absolutely dominates this brand perception category. Through years of engineering and marketing Volvo has come to “own” the category of Safety in the minds of 77% of consumers. Volvo has deliberately positioned itself as the top-of-mind leader in the perception category of Safety, and has a stranglehold in this category. In the physical realm of moving parts, many other car brands aim to achieve the same rigorous safety standards as Volvo. But, Volvo, the only luxury car in this category, consistently wins the battle that takes place in the consumer’s mind.

In the category of Quality, Mercedes Benz was the only luxury car in the top 5. But, Mercedes was a “no-show” in the top 5 for the Performance category; BMW and Porsche were the only luxury brands there. BMW’s slogan “the ultimate driving machine” has reinforced their leadership in the Performance category, a brand position they have dominated for years.

Mercedes Benz is also the category luxury leader of Technology/Innovation. Based on the Brand Perception Survey, Lexus is the only other luxury car competitor in this category.

It is important to pick your battles wisely. It is better to focus on a single category, like Volvo (Safety) or BMW (Performance) that you can dominate, rather than disperse your efforts by trying to be all things to all people. However, Mercedes Benz has the potential to regain its status as the overall most highly perceived luxury car brand in the world and once again become a triple threat by dominating not only Quality and Technology/Innovation, but also Design/Style.

This year Mercedes Benz made a bold move by going back to their roots and re-focusing on Design/Style. They changed their slogan to “the best or nothing” to strengthen their dominance of Quality. And, they reintroduced a retro version of the 1955 classic sports car, the 2011 Mercedes-Benz SLS AMG Gullwing that sells for upwards of $200,000.

While only a select segment of their target market can afford to purchase this awesome car, the value of producing it lies primarily in perception enhancement. In 2011, Mercedes Benz will most likely surpass Lexus and Cadillac with whom they are tied for the top spot in the Design/Style category in the 2010 survey.

Be sure to check out Part 2 of this blog post series where we will discuss what it takes to win the battle of brand perception in marketing luxury real estate.

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Luxury Real Estate Branding: How to Grow Your Brand Equity

September 7, 2010

If you think that creating your personal brand is not all that important, think again. Brand equity is a term that describes the financial value of a brand, the value that it contributes to the bottom line profit of a business. Brand equity in your luxury real estate marketing practice is the added value in revenue that your brand generates based on the degree to which you achieve top-of-mind status among potential referral sources. The best way to grow brand equity and achieve top-of-mind status is to “own” or dominate a specific category or niche within your luxury marketplace.

Is the taste of Coca Cola, the formula of ingredients added to sugar-sweetened sparkling water, really that much better and more valuable than Pepsi or other colas? The brand value of Coke is in the top-of-mind status that Coke enjoys among consumers. According to Business Week’s 2009 Top 100 Global Brands, Coca Cola is number one most highly valued brand in the world.

“Owning” an idea or category of goods or services, like the sub-category of ‘colas’ in the broader category of soft drinks, is the ultimate aim of branding. Toyota is #8 on the list with the greatest brand value of all global car manufacturers. When you think of Toyota what idea comes to mind? Toyota owns the word “reliable”. A Toyota is a reliable, moderately priced car.

Toyota is not a luxury car. But, did you know that Lexus, #96 on the list, is made by Toyota? They have done a masterful job of building separate sub-brands that are sharply focused on specific car categories and then dominating those niches. Other Toyota brands (not on the list) are the Prius which is the “proven leader in Hybrid technology”, and the Scion, a winner in the youth category.

What idea or category of car does #49 Ford own? In contrast to Toyota, the Ford brand is on so many models and categories of cars that it has diluted its brand equity. Ford does outsell all other truck manufactures in the US by a considerable margin and therefore, owns this category.

Pick a category within your luxury real estate marketplace that you would like to own. Build your brand around this niche. Then, watch your brand equity grow!

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Luxury Real Estate Company & Personal Branding: What Is Your Claim to Fame?

August 31, 2010

Ariana Rose holding up an Amaranth,
Team Member of B.D's Earththrine Farms, Ojai, California

One of the most common mistakes that luxury real estate marketing professionals make is trying to be all things to all people. Focus is mission critical in marketing luxury real estate and in company and personal branding as well. If you can focus on a specific niche, whether it is a neighborhood, or a demographic or a type of property and also be the best in your marketplace in that one niche, your chances of success will improve exponentially.

The idea is to become the first luxury real estate marketing professional to come to mind in that specific category of business. When you select the category that is best for you must:

Select something about which you can feel passionate.
Select a niche that is virtually uncontested, something that you can do better than anyone else in your marketplace.
Select an under served niche that you can dominate and demonstrate your expertise

Here is an example of niche marketing that ties all three of these points together. At our farmers market in Santa Barbara, California, there is one farm that stands out as the best in class for organic herbs. Although, BD’s Earthrine Farms, from nearby Ojai, also grows and sells fruits and vegetables, in our minds, and in the minds of many local restaurants, Eartrine stands for the best herbs in our area. We never miss a stop at their stand.

On our last trip there we noticed a rather remarkable “flower” that looked like it came out of a Dr. Seuss book, called amaranth. In talking with Ariana Rose from Earthrine, she explained that the amaranth is actually the oldest cultivated edible vegetable. We suspect that most people would buy these fascinating vegetables as ornamentals but people around the world also value amaranths as leaf vegetables and cereals.

Are amaranths a big seller? Probably, they are not. But, growing them and selling them at the farmers market speaks volumes about the breadth and depth of Earthrine’s knowledge and expertise in lesser known organic foods which is their claim to fame. Their passion for what they do is palpable. Everyone who works there smiles and they do their best to make you feel good, too.

What is your claim to fame?

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Luxury Real Estate Branding: Dare to Dance to the Beat of a Different Drum

August 25, 2010

Personal branding in luxury real estate marketing is all about setting your own tone, listening to your gut instincts, finding your own rhythm and dancing to the beat of a different drum—your unique brand signal. Conforming to the norm will not get you very far. Distinguishing yourself from your competition, stepping out, and making a statement will help you reach top-of-mind status in your marketplace.

Standing out from the crowd sometimes takes fortitude. Blending in is often times considered to be safer. But, it is important to understand that a weak brand signal will not attract very much business.

Switch places! Ask yourself these questions:

If you were ready to sell your $1M+ home, who would you select to market your home (other than you)?
Who are the first three agents that come to your mind?
Who do you trust?
Now prioritize them. Who comes to mind first, second and third?
Do any of them truly stand out as unique?
If so, does that person’s brand signal resonate with yours?
What characteristics do each these agents possess that is distinguishable from the other two?

The goal of personal branding is to make the implicit explicit, to amplify what is unique, what is different about you, obvious. That way people who can appreciate your unique qualities can quickly gravitate to you because they recognize that you are a match.

The common fear, when taking a unique stance is that there will be a scarcity of potential clients who will appreciate your uniqueness when you express your authentic self as a brand. The truth is there only appears to be scarcity of clients when you appear to be like everyone else.

We encourage you to follow your heart and listen to your inner voice. Tune into your unique brand signal. Dare to dance to the beat of a different drum.

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Personal Branding: Feather Your Clients' Nest with Bespoke (Personalized) Service

August 24, 2010

One of the most important words in the Language of Luxury to include in your vocabulary is “bespoke”. It means tailored, made to order, personalized or custom-made. As a luxury real estate marketing professional adopting a “bespoke mindset” and offering a customized service can go a long way to differentiate you from your competition. Feather your client's nest with bespoke service. This will add another feather in your cap and give your clients a compelling reason to refer you to others.

Nothing defines your personal brand better than your own brand of clothing or your own custom-made perfume. In one of the finest men’s haberdasheries in London, Turnbull & Asser, you can find an entire department of bespoke merchandise. While it is world renowned for its bespoke shirts, a tradition for over 120 years, Turnbull and Asser now sells bespoke belts, boxer shorts, gloves, knitwear, sleep wear, socks, ties, and umbrellas.

Bespoke perfumery is an art but it is also a science. The best perfumers are usually graduates of the prominent International Superior Institute of Perfume, Cosmetics and food Aromas (ISIPCA). Perfumers who are masters of their craft can identify hundreds of smells by nose. They often spend up to one year creating a single personalized bespoke fragrance.

Some bespoke perfume artisans take on just one or two clients per year. Depending on the rarity and availability of the chosen oils and ingredients, the cost can be up to $70,000. It may take up to three or four private consultations to concoct your own signature scent. There is an artisan perfumer in California who can create a bespoke perfume for you by mail for $900.

Bespoke goods benefit not only the customers, who can freely express their individuality, but also the artisan, as they are not constrained by the commercial limitations of mass production. Delivering a customized service in marketing luxury real estate can make you stand out and also offer you a way to express your own creativity.

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