Does Your Message Distill Your Value Proposition To Its Essence?

Do you keep repeating the same marketing strategies without satisfactory results? Perhaps it is time to create a better message that distills your value proposition to its essence.  The key is to condense your marketing message so that it is both instantly appealing and memorable.

When crafting a brand strategy for a luxury real estate marketing professional or company our job to distill our client’s extraordinary promise of value into a very brief message.  The discipline is very much like writing haiku, the Japanese poems of just seventeen syllables, in three lines of five, seven and five traditionally evoking images of the natural world.

Trust us when we say that trying to come up with this potent, concentrated message on your own is not easy. Crafting our own slogan for our blog, the Language of Luxury (LOL) and online professional network was like performing brain surgery on ourselves! 

But, when you nail it, it is like hearing a clear radio signal without any static. In just four words, “Get Fluent. Get Affluent!”™ we let our audience know that if you immerse yourself in all things luxury on LOL your chances of attracting more high net worth clients can increase significantly.

Distilling your brand message to its essence helps spark word-of-mouth advertising.  If the message truly resonates with your target market it can “go viral” and spread quickly like a quote from a famous person that you keep hearing even after the person is no longer alive. Albert Einstein said,

““The definition of insanity is doing something over and over again and expecting a different result”.”

— Albert Einstein

So, if you find yourself repeating the same marketing strategies and not getting the results you deserve, it may be time to change your message. Clarify your unique promise of value and then go into the operating room.  Or, give us a call. Happy to help.

Does Your Message Distill Your Value Proposition To Its Essence?

Written by Ron & Alexandra Seigel-

ABOUT:  Napa Consultants, International is the leader in brand strategy for the luxury real estate industry.  They work exclusively with professionals who are passionate about gaining or sustaining market leadership. With an expertise in personal branding, company branding, luxury real estate website design and social media marketing they help their clients become the breakaway brand in their marketplace.

Do You Have An Eagle's Eye For The Right Listings?

Focus is the name of the game when it comes to listing luxury real estate properties for sale.  That is, if you want to build a business that consistently generates predictable cash flow. 

Most luxury real estate marketing professionals fall into the trap of taking whatever listings come their way. As a result they live “hand-to-mouth”, from one commission check to the next, whenever the next one happens to come along. They do not have a focused game plan that builds a referral-worthy reputation.

You need to have laser sharp focus, an eagle's eye, to identify and take on only those listing that fall within your chosen niche.  Eagles know their prey and they exclude all else when they hunt. 

This is how you gain a reputation as the niche expert and create a momentum of referral business that is sustainable over time. Without this level of focus you reduce your chances of leveraging word-of-mouth adverting by a significant magnitude.

To live hand-to-mouth or by word-of-mouth, that is the question.  It all comes down to eagle’s eye sharp focus.

Written by Ron & Alexandra Seigel-

ABOUT:  Napa Consultants, International is the leader in brand strategy for the luxury real estate industry.  They work exclusively with professionals who are passionate about gaining or sustaining market leadership. With an expertise in personal branding, company branding, luxury real estate website design and social media marketing they help their clients become the breakaway brand in their marketplace.

Stand Out By Making The Implicit Explicit

As a luxury real estate marketing professional your brand must stand out in a crowded marketplace. In other words, you need to find a way to make what it implicit about YOU, explicit.

In the crowded wine industry we recently noticed that one of the wineries bottled their un-oaked Chardonnay in a gray ceramic bottle. Mer Soleil Silver decided to bottle their un-oaked Chardonnay this way to pay homage to the cement tanks/ instead of the oak barrels in which the classic Chardonnay ferments.  

This is a relatively new fermentation method that we had not previously heard of; the bottle, or shall we say their “packaging” definitely caught our attention. By making the implicit (to them) explicit for us, we became aware of an entirely new category of winemaking.

We were not compelled to buy it, even after learning about the new method.  But, the brand SILVER is “tattooed” in our brain.  That is good branding!

How can you make the implicit aspects of your brand explicit?

Written by Ron & Alexandra Seigel-

ABOUT:  Napa Consultants, International is the leader in brand strategy for the luxury real estate industry.  They work exclusively with professionals who are passionate about gaining or sustaining market leadership. With an expertise in personal branding, company branding, luxury real estate website design and social media marketing they help their clients become the breakaway brand in their marketplace.

Sushi Out: Bookstore In!

Some independent real estate companies have become virtual companies. We saw this happening when luxury real estate companies leased executive suites rather than a permanent brick and mortar store.  These executive suites have prestigious addresses in Class A high-rise buildings. The service includes conference rooms on as needed basis, and a receptionist to answer and route calls.

A recent report from a London based luxury online retailer of antique luxury watches found its digital business increased remarkably, when they opened a boutique in the Victoria Quarter in Leeds.  In surveying their customers, they found that the physical store increased their credibility factor as well as their bottom line.  As the founder and brand director, Lloyd Armsdon, of Watchfinder said, “It fits the brand, it differentiates me from every body else out there –the eBays and the like.”

Today, the Seattle Times headline stated; Amazon, Bookstore Slayer, Meet Amazon, Bookstore Owner.  Yes, Amazon is opening a bookstore today in Seattle at the former location of Blue C Sushi in the University District.  Amazon’s VP of Amazon books, Jennifer Cast told the paper, “Its data with heart.”  The store will display ratings on all the books stocked in its inventory. 

How important is your luxury real estate brick and mortar location?

Written by Ron & Alexandra Seigel-

ABOUT:  Napa Consultants, International is the leader in brand strategy for the luxury real estate industry.  They work exclusively with professionals who are passionate about gaining or sustaining market leadership. With an expertise in personal branding, company branding, luxury real estate website design and social media marketing they help their clients become the breakaway brand in their marketplace.

Feeling Puny? Self-Esteem is the Immune System of Your Soul

In marketing luxury real estate, you do not have to be as wealthy as your clients to be very successful.  You just need to be equal to them in self-esteem and not feel puny. Self-esteem a measure of your intrinsic value and it is the immune system of your soul.

Most high net worth consumers are very sure of themselves especially if they are “self-made”.  They are a pleasure to be around when you feel self-assured. But, if you feel insecure and transmit that uncertainty you might just loose the client.

There are those high net worth consumers who are insecure and sometimes try to treat you as inferior. If your self-esteem is high you will be immune to this. When you do not react to them they will usually cease this behavior at least with when they are around you.

When you are fixed in your point of view this is a clue that your self-esteem is low. If you feel like it is more important to be right you are more inclined to tune out other people’s perspective rather than allowing them their right to their difference in opinion.  This does not bode well for you if your goal is to build a healthy luxury real estate practice.  You certainly can kiss goodbye to potential referrals!

When you have high self-esteem you do not have to prove anything, nor do you need to be pretentious.  Other people’s opinions do not diminish your own.  You might say self-esteem helps you to be immune to a disease we lovingly call “the punies”, or feeling small.

Self-esteem is not something you attain and then it is yours forever more.  It is something you need to build and maintain your whole life, like your health.  But, having it sure makes it easier to deal with tough situations. Self-esteem is the immune system of your soul.  It is also like an insurance policy for a successful career as a luxury real estate marketing professional.

Written by Ron & Alexandra Seigel-

ABOUT:  Napa Consultants, International is the leader in brand strategy for the luxury real estate industry.  They work exclusively with professionals who are passionate about gaining or sustaining market leadership. With an expertise in personal branding, company branding, luxury real estate website design and social media marketing they help their clients become the breakaway brand in their marketplace.

Is Humor Part of Your Brand Marketing Strategy?

In order to stand out and be top of mind in your marketplace as a luxury real estate marketing professional, one of the avenues to be memorable is to use humor as part of your brand strategy.  Humor is humanizing, because it is a universal language.

Humor in marketing if done right can catch attention and become unforgettable. When we lived in Los Angeles, we banked at the family owned Santa Monica Bank.  The service was superb, and they occupied the ground floor of the building where we had our offices.

They launched a humorous campaign on 167 buses in a 50 square mile radius in their target market. The one- liners caught everyone’s attention which included the media: The name is “Bond. Savings Bond”,  “Make Money The Old Fashioned Way, Borrow It!” “Girls just want to have Funds!” 240 months later, the bank was sold, and the last message was, “After 20 years on the bus, we reached our stop”. 

Some of the wineries are also using humor to distinguish themselves from the traditional wine labels with quirky names and eye catching bright graphics.  Michael David is a wonderful example of this.  They still retain the traditional label of Michael David as part of their offerings.  They have added new labels such as Freak Show, Cabernet Sauvignon (90 rating), 7 Deadly Zins (Zinfandels), and Inkblot, Cabernet Franc.

Is Humor Part of Your Brand Marketing Strategy?

Written by Ron & Alexandra Seigel-

ABOUT:  Napa Consultants, International is the leader in brand strategy for the luxury real estate industry.  They work exclusively with professionals who are passionate about gaining or sustaining market leadership. With an expertise in personal branding, company branding, luxury real estate website design and social media marketing they help their clients become the breakaway brand in their marketplace.

Luxury Is In The Details: Are You Paying Attention To Details?

As a luxury real estate marketing professional, one of your mantras to repeat is “luxury is in the details.”  Details are the quality cues that make the difference in how people perceive you.  It is what makes you unforgettable, and easy to refer.  Here is an example:

When Kanaloa, our fishmonger, decided to move to downtown Santa Barbara, they planned to also open a café within the store with an outdoor seating area.  This was a natural for them, as one of their employees is a chef. 

Yesterday, we had lunch there.  We both ordered an assortment of fish tacos (the tortillas are hand made on site).  After the first bite we were both delighted by the freshness, spicing, delicate crispiness and taste of these tacos.

As we enjoyed our tacos, we noticed so many details that made the meal even more enjoyable.  Our tacos came on a biodegradable cardboard rack/holder (pictured above).

When we asked our hostess as to where they bought the taco racks, she told us, they had them made.  This makes eating tacos easier.  It does not fall apart and make a mess on your plate.  We have seen the plastic and metal versions.  However, in keeping with their sustainable and eco friendly mindset, these cardboard racks are recyclable.

This attention to detail is what keeps us coming back, and telling everyone about them.  As we were waiting for our yoga class to start yesterday afternoon, we told everyone gathered about our experience at Kanaloa. 

Are You Paying Attention to Details?

Written by Ron & Alexandra Seigel-

ABOUT:  Napa Consultants, International is the leader in brand strategy for the luxury real estate industry.  They work exclusively with professionals who are passionate about gaining or sustaining market leadership. With an expertise in personal branding, company branding, luxury real estate website design and social media marketing they help their clients become the breakaway brand in their marketplace.

Self Expression in Branding-–Or, You Too Can Have A James Bond Moment!

When marketing luxury real estate keep in mind your brand’s power of self-expression that can convince potential clients to hire you.  Consumers look for brands whose cultural meanings match who they are or want to become.  These brands sustain and communicate their social self and identity.

For example, when it comes to selling luxury real estate, many feel that hiring a Christie’s affiliate or a Sotheby’s agent enables them to feel that they are part of a prestigious European auction house. This powerful attraction for self-expression is so strong that it can at times override the decision of hiring the most competent agent for the job. 

In order to fully understand the power of self-expression in branding, consider the merchandising power of the James Bond franchise.  The newest film, Spectre, has an array of product placements to trigger purchases that can give fans their “Bond moment”. Months before its scheduled release the N. Peale cashmere sweater, worn by James Bond (Daniel Craig), sold out. 

Aston Martin has created a unique car for the film, called the DB10, and they are selling a limited edition of 150. Jaguar’s C-X75 also has a starring role as does the Range Rover. Spirit brands like Bollinger, Belvedere and Heineken are also among the many brands represented.  All of these brands are betting that fans will identify their products with Bond’s suave and debonair persona and find self-expression by purchasing them.

Does your personal or company brand provide an opportunity for self- expression?

Written by Ron & Alexandra Seigel-

ABOUT:  Napa Consultants, International is the leader in brand strategy for the luxury real estate industry.  They work exclusively with professionals who are passionate about gaining or sustaining market leadership. With an expertise in personal branding, company branding, luxury real estate website design and social media marketing they help their clients become the breakaway brand in their marketplace.

Take The Test: Are Your Clients Uplifting or Toxic?

Winning listings and closing transactions are definitely the sweet spots in luxury real estate marketing. However, working with extraordinary people who uplift your spirits keeps you coming back for more.

Working with “toxic” clients is a sure way to get depressed about the luxury real estate game.  Here is a good test to determine if you are working with uplifting or toxic clients.  It is a quote from a very wise man, a philosopher and former San Francisco longshoreman.

“A valid index by which to evaluate the influence other people have on us is by how much they increase or diminish our benevolence toward our fellow men.”

— Eric Hoffer

Benevolence is kindness, compassion, generosity, good will and magnanimity.  Do your clients inspire these feeling in you?

Written by Ron & Alexandra Seigel-

ABOUT:  Napa Consultants, International is the leader in brand strategy for the luxury real estate industry.  They work exclusively with professionals who are passionate about gaining or sustaining market leadership. With an expertise in personal branding, company branding, luxury real estate website design and social media marketing they help their clients become the breakaway brand in their marketplace.

Being In Alignment: The Difference Between Night And Day!

As autumn is upon us and 2016 is just around the corner, now is the best time to reaffirm or reassess your bearings in your luxury real estate practice.  This is the perfect time to check in and become acutely aware of where you stand in relationship to your surroundings, meaning your target market and your competition.

If you have lost your perspective or are not 100% confident that you are on track to reach your goals, take the time to regain your balance and re-align yourself.  Let Nature inspire you and set the tone of realignment.

The autumnal equinox will begin on September 23rd, at 1:21am PST.  This marks the moment when the axis of the earth and sun begin to align to their respective equatorial lines. This will occur on September 29th, when the sun will rise at 6:59 am and set at exactly 6:59 pm.  It is the moment when night and day share equal time.

To begin this process, ask yourself, whether or not your value proposition is crystal clear to your target market and sharply differentiates YOU from your competition.  The operative word here is YOUR VALUE.  If this is in question, make a list of all of your strongest attributes.  Don’t be modest.  Take the time to really appreciate yourself.  This will bring you into alignment.  If you are already there,  it will just strengthen your position.

You will see that being in alignment will change your perspective.  It is the difference between Night and Day!

Written by Ron & Alexandra Seigel-

ABOUT:  Napa Consultants, International is the leader in brand strategy for the luxury real estate industry.  They work exclusively with professionals who are passionate about gaining or sustaining market leadership. With an expertise in personal branding, company branding, luxury real estate website design and social media marketing they help their clients become the breakaway brand in their marketplace.

What Does Your Brand Stand For? Part 2

Your choice between brands becomes clearer in buying decisions when you know exactly what each brand stands for. In marketing luxury real estate “Quality”, “integrity” and “exceeding expectations” are not brand positions that sharply differentiate.  If your competition is competent they embrace those values as well. In the realm of market leadership however, the best brand position is one that completely POLARIZES you and your competition as OPPOSITES, polar opposites like fire and ice.

Our local Trader Joe's in Santa Barbara has a sign (depicted above) that lets you know exactly what their private label products means. They are saying, “this is what is important to us; this is what we value” (as opposed to their competition).  And, they are saying in just two words what all this should means for you, “NO WORRIES!” 

Therefore, Trader Joe’s brand position is “Certainty About Product Attributes”.  By, default, this forces the competition into just the opposite brand position, “Uncertainty About Product Attributes” (where you never know for sure what is inside of the can, jar, bag or box). The buying choice becomes crystal clear.

Strategically, Trader Joe's has declared Certainty vs. Uncertainty as the battleground for achieving top-of-mind status as purveyors of healthy, pro-environmental products. In doing so they have taken control not only of how they want consumers to perceive their company, but also how they want consumers to perceive ALL other competitors. 

It galvanizes the common bond of shared values between the company and its loyal customers. It also facilitates word-of-mouth advertising among like-minded consumers, (i.e., referrals in real estate-speak).

This is what market leaders must do to dominate and prevail. It is the purpose of strategic brand positioning. And that, in a nutshell, is our expertise as the leading brand strategists in the luxury real estate arena.

What does your brand stand for?

Written by Ron & Alexandra Seigel-

ABOUT:  Napa Consultants, International is the leader in brand strategy for the luxury real estate industry.  They work exclusively with professionals who are passionate about gaining or sustaining market leadership. With an expertise in personal branding, company branding, luxury real estate website design and social media marketing they help their clients become the breakaway brand in their marketplace.

What Does Your Brand Stand For?

Photo Courtesy of Apple

What does your personal or company brand stand for?  Where do you stand in the minds of their target market in relationship to your competition? This is your brand position. In the commoditized world of luxury real estate marketing, your ability to clearly define and effectively communicate your brand position is the most powerful way accelerate the pace at which you grow your business.

The perfect example of exceptional brand positioning is Apple’s partnership with Hermès, which is considered the most exclusive of the major luxury fashion houses.  Creating a Hermès Apple watch positions Apple at the pinnacle of the market and sharply differentiates it from the entire field of wearable electronic devices.

Apple consistently reinforces its position as a luxury brand compared to the entire field of consumer electronics.  Staking their claim on the luxury position forces their competitors to either find an alternative brand position that resonates with another market segment or become a commodity. Once rendered a commodity the only way to compete is on price.

Taking command of how your personal or company brand is perceived in the minds of your target market is essence of brand positioning. As a luxury real estate marketing professional, if you do this right you can become the game changer in your marketplace.

What does Your Brand Stand For?

Part 1

Written by Ron & Alexandra Seigel-

ABOUT:  Napa Consultants, International is the leader in brand strategy for the luxury real estate industry.  They work exclusively with professionals who are passionate about gaining or sustaining market leadership. With an expertise in personal branding, company branding, luxury real estate website design and social media marketing they help their clients become the breakaway brand in their marketplace.

Are You On Target With The Expression of Your Brand Personality?

If you are going to achieve top-of-mind in your marketplace, it is important that your brand stands out.  Brands like people have personalities.  For example, they can be traditional, edgy, humorous, or a combination of all of these.  Here is howTarget has expressed its personality of humor, and edginess.

The back cover of the September 2015, Fall Fashion Issue of Vogue Magazine illustrates this concept perfectly.  Target does a great job with this retro, edgy and humorous salute to its brand personality. The Vogue, May 1941 issue was the inspiration.

Target, which is not exactly considered a luxury brand, has done an excellent job in bridging this gap by creating a new luxury category:  “Luxury for Less”.  This worked well during the recession because it appealed to the budget conscious who still wanted to indulge their shopping cravings.

Are you on target with the expression of your brand personality?

Written by Ron & Alexandra Seigel-

ABOUT:  Napa Consultants, International is the leader in brand strategy for the luxury real estate industry.  They work exclusively with professionals who are passionate about gaining or sustaining market leadership. With an expertise in personal branding, company branding, luxury real estate website design and social media marketing they help their clients become the breakaway brand in their marketplace.

Does Your Brand Amount to A Hill of Chocolate Beans?

The purpose of branding is to accelerate the communication cycle between expressing your extraordinary promise of value and hearing your target market say, “I want it, I need it or I’ll try it!” Contrary to what most luxury real estate professionals think there is no salesmanship required here, whatsoever. To be really successful you just need to tell your clearly articulated brand story to enough of the RIGHT people, those who resonate with your unique value proposition.  

Luxury is a premium we are willing to pay for above and beyond a commodity.  Chocolate is a commodity.  You can buy a giant 6.8-ounce bar of Hershey’s Special Dark Chocolate at Walmart for $2 (29.4 cents per ounce).

Being lovers of fine chocolate in its purest forms, we recently discovered Ritual Chocolate, a very small company located in Park City, Utah. They make handcrafted chocolate in small batches, from fair trade markets such as Ecuador, Madagascar, and Belize. Ritual sells a 1.5-ounce bar of dark chocolate from Ecuador for $6.75 ($4.50 per ounce). We feel it is the best 85% Cacao chocolate bar we have tasted thus far that is made in the US.

If you are a true chocolate lover, you will fully resonate with Ritual’s brand story that is depicted in the video (See below). Their goal is to “revive the focus on quality”. In the spirit of “farm-to-table dining” their slogan is “Bean to Bar.” 

Notice the use of vintage imagery of Park City Utah to create the feeling of a heritage brand for this young company. It emphasizes the traditional values of the chocolate making ritual. Also note that the wrapper has the batch number and the year the beans were harvested.

Paraphrasing Humphrey Bogart in Casablanca, here is a question for you: “Does your brand amount to a hill of [chocolate] beans in this crazy world?” What is your brand story?

Written by Ron & Alexandra Seigel- 

ABOUT:  Napa Consultants, International is the leader in brand strategy for the luxury real estate industry.  They work exclusively with professionals who are passionate about gaining or sustaining market leadership. With an expertise in personal branding, company branding, luxury real estate website design and social media marketing they help their clients become the breakaway brand in their marketplace.

Is Your Brand Fresh or Getting Stale?

As a luxury real estate marketing profession it is essential that you continuously refresh your brand in order to maintain top-of-mind status.  Often, this means updating your logo, your website and print materials. It also means continuously adjusting your marketing message to appeal to your target market as new generations of buyers enter the luxury realm.

Shark Tank, the American version of the reality television series that originally aired in Japan as Dragon’s Den, understands the importance of refreshing its brand as it enters its 7th season.  In the show aspiring entrepreneur-contestants make business presentations to a panel of “shark” investors.  This season, to appeal to a wider audience, Ashton Kutcher, music manager/CEO Troy Carter and Silicon Valley venture investor Chris Sacca (investor in Twitter and Uber) will be Guest Sharks. 

Another way Shark Tank refreshed its brand was adding an additional series called Beyond the Tank. This follows up on companies who have received an investment from the Sharks detailing what happens afterwards.

Is your brand fresh or getting stale? What are you doing to refresh your brand?

Written by Ron & Alexandra Seigel- 

ABOUT:  Napa Consultants, International is the leader in brand strategy for the luxury real estate industry.  They work exclusively with professionals who are passionate about gaining or sustaining market leadership. With an expertise in personal branding, company branding, luxury real estate website design and social media marketing they help their clients become the breakaway brand in their marketplace.

Stay Tuned to Trends to Maintain Market Leadership!

Consistently practicing the fundamentals is mission critical to your success as a luxury real estate marketing professional. If you want to be a market leader you also need to keep abreast of trends.

As brand strategists we are constantly researching, not only what is currently trending but also what is about to go mainstream.  That way we are able to advise our clients to stay ahead of the curve.

Recently, we participated in a test of the mobile pay app for the Cheesecake Factory.  Their closest restaurant to Santa Barbara, in Thousand Oaks, (forty-minutes away) was the testing site for the app. You can download it in Google Play or the Apple Store. Participants were offered a complimentary slice of cheesecake.

We were wondering how restaurants were going to incorporate secure mobile pay options like Apple Pay or Android Pay because many guests like to split the check with their friends.  They thought of this, and also included a way to add a tip using a slide bar to increase or decrease the default 18% tip (no calculations needed). After a 3 second fingerprint scan on our phone (no signature required), a paperless receipt was emailed. Very cool!

Will every restaurant need an app to offer mobile payments, given the split check and tip component that is not part of purchasing other products or services? It is going to be interesting to see how this new trend unfolds. 

Tune into what is trending. Stay ahead of the wave if you want to be a market leader.

Written by Ron & Alexandra Seigel- 

ABOUT:  Napa Consultants, International is the leader in brand strategy for the luxury real estate industry.  They work exclusively with professionals who are passionate about gaining or sustaining market leadership. With an expertise in personal branding, company branding, luxury real estate website design and social media marketing they help their clients become the breakaway brand in their marketplace.

If You Think, No One Will Notice, Think Again!

Attention to details is what can easily set you apart from another luxury real estate marketing professional.  Studies have shown that our subconscious mind picks up on the details, and as a result we will most likely choose the item that exudes the aura of perfection because of the attention to detail and the craftsmanship involved.

What sets true luxury apart from everything else that is marketed as luxury?  It is in the details in the craftsmanship and design.  Knockoffs can definitely look the same, but when you look closely, you can see and feel the difference between a knockoff and the original.

When we work with a luxury real estate agent or company, we are extremely mindful of all the details, regardless of how minute they are. This past week we had identified two pantone colors for our client’s brand identity.  Pantone colors are the universal language of color, which are then translated into ink formulas for print formulas and web color formulas. 

One of the colors appeared darker in the print version than in the web version.  It was a miniscule difference, however it was not acceptable to us nor to our graphic designer. We kept at it all weekend eliminating the various possibilities of what could be causing this variation. 

Finally, we realized that the problem was with the Adobe suite of software (Photo Shop and Illustrator) our designer was using. For some reason the program was erroneous in the translation of the color formula for this Pantone color.  She was able to adjust it so that our client’s brand identity would be exactly the same regardless of what medium it was displayed on.

If You Think, No One Will Notice, Think Again!

Written by Ron & Alexandra Seigel- 

ABOUT:  Napa Consultants, International is the leader in brand strategy for the luxury real estate industry.  They work exclusively with professionals who are passionate about gaining or sustaining market leadership. With an expertise in personal branding, company branding, luxury real estate website design and social media marketing they help their clients become the breakaway brand in their marketplace.

Are You Doing What You Do Best? Or Do You Do Everything Yourself?

We always ask our clients:  “What can you do better than anyone else in your luxury real estate business?  Whatever, the answer is, this is where you should concentrate your time, and leave everything else to the professionals.

Many agents have become photographers, videographers, web developers, staging experts, marketing mavens, and SEO Jockeys.  If you have time to do all that, you are not doing what brings business in.  These are secondary tasks, which undermine your value as luxury real estate marketing professionals.  If you think you are saving money, think again!

The broker owners of one of the companies for whom we recently developed a strategy, brand identity and web site decided to hire a photographer at their expense for every agent’s listing.  The owners felt that each home regardless of the price should be professionally photographed. 

They also have a web development company on retainer for their agents’ web sites.  All the marketing materials are professionally designed for each agent: online newsletters, CMA’s, yard signs, print ads, and all print materials.

Their agents’ time is freed up to do what they are best at, selling and listing homes.  Since we have worked with them, the company has grown attracting quality agents and has gained recognition as a leader in their market place and true professionals.

Are You Doing What You Do Best?

Written by Ron & Alexandra Seigel- 

ABOUT:  Napa Consultants, International is the leader in brand strategy for the luxury real estate industry.  They work exclusively with professionals who are passionate about gaining or sustaining market leadership. With an expertise in personal branding, company branding, luxury real estate website design and social media marketing they help their clients become the breakaway brand in their marketplace.

Will The Real Estate Profession Become The Next Jurassic World?

Some real estate industry observers have been predicting that the Real Estate profession will soon become extinct.  Others feel that attorneys will be in charge of the transactions and licensed assistants can show properties.  All this will result in lower commission fees or a flat fee and greater efficiency.

All but the best travel agents and stock brokers have gone the way of the dinosaur because the essential information required by consumers to make decisions is now ubiquitous via the Internet; it is a commodity that is free.  Real estate information has also become ubiquitous and many agents are becoming commoditized.  Most are fighting over the crumbs while a few are seizing the gargantuan share of business in their marketplace.

The agents who will survive are those who truly know their value above and beyond the commodity of ubiquitous real estate information and can readily communicate their extraordinary promise of value to their target market. They are the ones who have the antidote to commoditization.

If you think any of the following words represents your unique promise of value, or describe how you stand out think again. These qualities are just the price of admission to a viable luxury real estate practice:

Integrity, “Expert” (unsubstantiated), competence, market knowledge, ethical, honest, hard-working, negotiating skills, quality service, kindness, “unique” (unsubstantiated), reliable, trustworthy, friendly, “extraordinary” (unsubstantiated).

You must dig deeper to discover your extraordinary promise of value or risk becoming the subject of a movie that will scare the living daylights out of audiences of the future.  Will you survive the next Jurassic World flick?  Or, will your fiercest competitor become the next Tyrannosaurus Rex?

Written by Ron & Alexandra Seigel- 

ABOUT:  Napa Consultants, International is the leader in brand strategy for the luxury real estate industry.  They work exclusively with professionals who are passionate about gaining or sustaining market leadership. With an expertise in personal branding, company branding, luxury real estate website design and social media marketing they help their clients become the breakaway brand in their marketplace.

Are You A Commodity or Do You Have An Extraordinary Promise of Value?

To stand out from the crowd of undistinguishable luxury real estate marketing professionals you must offer your target market an extraordinary value proposition. Otherwise, you become a commodity and your value diminishes significantly, not to mention your income potential.

What makes a value proposition extraordinary?  It is the ADDED VALUE above and beyond all commoditized services offered by your competitors. This can be a self-expressive value like the feeling of prestige that your clients may experience by being associated with your personal or company brand.  It can also be something that you do better than anyone else in the world (in your marketplace or a niche therein).

Roughly 1000 companies now make smartphones.  Apple sells only 20% of all smartphones.  Yet, Apple now earns 92% of the total operating income among smartphone makers.  Its competitors mostly use Google’s Android operating system, which makes it extremely difficult to distinguish their offerings. This has prompted the competition to duke it out for the middle and lower priced phones. Apple has positioned itself as a luxury brand, and dominates the premium smartphone market.

In the PC industry, prices have also plunged.  Apple’s Mac line only accounts for 6 out of 100 computers sold, according to Bernstein Research. Yet, Apple enjoyed over 50% of industry profits last year.

Superior quality, design and the best customer service on the planet justifies Apple’s premium price. This is Apple’s added value.

What is your extraordinary promise of value?  What added value to your bring to the luxury real estate listing table?

Written by Ron & Alexandra Seigel- 

ABOUT:  Napa Consultants, International is the leader in brand strategy for the luxury real estate industry.  They work exclusively with professionals who are passionate about gaining or sustaining market leadership. With an expertise in personal branding, company branding, luxury real estate website design and social media marketing they help their clients become the breakaway brand in their marketplace.