Tune in to the Psychographics of Your Market or Go Out of Business!

When crafting your personal or company brand  and your marketing it is of paramount importance that you take time to understand the demographics (age and income) as well as the psychographics (Interests, activities, opinions and lifestyles) of your target market.  The psychographics are more important than the demographics. 

Luxury brands have for a long time focused on demographics rather than psychographics.  In September of 2012, we reported the closing of Louis Vuitton and Ruth Chris in one of Santa Barbara’s wealthiest neighborhoods, because they did not study the psychographics of the area.   At the end of this month, Saks Fifth Avenue is closing in Santa Barbara. 

In the eight years we have lived here, we have watched constant changes in their merchandise to more and more expensive brands.  We kept scratching our heads trying to understand their strategy.  Their shoe department was selling Chanel logo sneakers for $1,350.   What were they thinking?  The mindset of those living here is casual and relaxed.     

Make sure that you are constantly on top of the psychographics or your marketplace because it may change.  Last week, we revisited some of the places we frequented in our Los Angeles neighborhood.  We were surprised how the psychographics had changed and brand name stores had replaced the local merchants. 

Tune in to the psychographics of your marketplace, or go out of business!

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.

Ultimate Travel Bucket List and Luxury Real Estate Markets

There is a strong correlation between the top luxury vacation destination and popular second home market places for high net worth homebuyer. Quite often, what is on someone's ultimate travel bucket list is also a second home luxury real estate market place.
While perusing the WSJ, we found "The Ultimate Bucket List Travel Guide".  Different destinations were discussed and the standout for us was Karen Maezen Miller's (A Zen Buddhist Priest and author of Paradise in Plain Sight: Lessons from a Zen Garden.

She wants to visit the temples and gardens of Kyoto (also on our Bucket List). Her destination is Ryonaji Temple, which has a water basin for ceremonial hand washing.  Inscribed ion the basin are these words: "I am content with what I lack".  She remarks,  "so if I never make it to Kyoto or Ryonaji, I can still be satisfied."   These photos were taken at the Ryonaji temple.

Our research revealed many luxury real  estate companies that specializing in Kyoto, both local and international.

What is on your Ultimate Travel Bucket List?

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.

Thursday’s Thoughts: Have You Had Your First Robotic Moment?

Have you noticed that many people are so tuned to technology that they start acting like the very technology they are using? This is known as the Robotic Moment, coined by MIT Professor/Researcher of social robotics Sherry Turkle.

Technology has encouraged many to avoid phone calls and face-to-face conversation that can make them feel vulnerable, and open to judgment.  In an email or text, you can edit your words and push send.  It is much easier to say, “I am sorry” in an email or text, than it is to do it in person.  This might be the first robotic moment, when you are unwilling to hear the other’s voice or see their facial reactions.

Another robotic moment occurs when couples at dinner checking their phones while eating. A friend of ours recently remarked that kids waiting for the school bus are checking their phones instead of making friends and talking to each other.

My big robotic moment came when I heard that kids who were given a robotic dog or cat preferred them to the live version of a pet stating that these dogs or cats don’t die, and you can turn them off instead of taking care of them. 

The other example that gave me pause to think was when I heard that a robot programmed with human responses in an elderly care facility appeared to listen to a woman telling her story about her son who had died in Viet Nam.  Who did she talk to?  Who empathized with her?

Have you had your first robotic moment?

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.

Smart Luxury: Get Fluent, Get Affluent!

Uché Pézard, Executive Director and Founder of Luxe Corp    

We recommend to all those involved in luxury real estate marketing that they stay current and fluent in all aspects of the luxury economy.  This includes luxury goods, hard luxury (jewelry) and luxury services.  The more you know about luxury, the easier it is for you to relate to high net worth clients.  Our motto is:  “Get Fluent.  Get Affluent!” ™

As media partners,  each summer we cover the Club eLuxe International Summit produced by Luxe Corp.  This year the title of the sold-out event was, Smart Luxury, Taking Luxury into the Smart Age.   It was attended by executives of some of the top luxury brands in the world.

In this one-day conference, discussions were centered around the latest methods of leveraging technology to market luxury goods and services.  Some of the topics that were discussed are 3D & 4D Technologies, Smart Objects, Optical Illusions, Augmented Reality and a breakthrough in Drone technology.

We are delighted to share this video with you featuring some of the highlights of Smart Luxury: Taking Luxury into the Smart Age.

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.

The Elephant In the Room: Your Attitude About High Net Worth Clients?

As a luxury real estate marketing professional be sure to get comfortable in the company of high net worth consumers. If they intimidate you, get over it or consider getting out of this end of the business.  Otherwise, your attitude becomes the elephant in the room that cannot be missed.

High net worth individuals often get a bad rap by those who are intimidated, jealous or think that it is unjust for them to be so rich. If you have any of these concerns and you still want to be in the luxury real estate business, here are some thoughts to help you get more comfortable.

Disregard the media biased myths about the lifestyles of the rich and famous, the very small minority that flaunt their wealth.  Instead, think about Steve Jobs, who started Apple in his parent’s garage. Like over 65% of billionaires in the US who are self-made, Steve certainly did not start out being ultra rich. In the 90’s Apple fired Steve then brought him back to the company that was on the brink of bankruptcy. Steve then lead Apple back not only to solvency but also to being the highest valued company in the world worth over $700 billion (potentially the first $1 trillion dollar company).

Think about the incredible value you have personally received from Apple, thanks to Steve, even if you own other brands of smartphones or tablets. Your money was not extorted from you to pay for these devices.  You voluntarily traded your dollars for this value, dollars you earned in exchange for value you offered to others.  There is no crime or evil at the root of these exchanges of value among consenting parties.

Apple pays more corporate taxes ($6 billion per year based on a 35% tax rate!) than any other US firm. That is over $14 million a day! They sell 70% of their products overseas, in over 100 countries, where they pay taxes (at a rate lower than 35%) on profits to the governments of those countries. But, they also pay US tax on interest income from overseas after-tax profits that are invested. Additionally, Apple has a sterling reputation in terms of its contribution to education and the environment.

Yet, Apple was recently under scrutiny by a US Senate sub-committee that was investigating an apparent unfair advantage (over other US companies who do not operate overseas as extensively as Apple). These companies pay higher taxes proportionately because they operate mostly in the US. But, no one has stopped these other companies from generating more revenue overseas.

Watch out for feelings of intimidation, jealousy or injustice about the rich. Your attitude could handicap you in your luxury real estate marketing practice. Get over it; get comfortable!

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.

An "Eternal" Moment

f you are going to select a name (other than your own) for your luxury real estate marketing business, be sure to select a name that embodies your reason for existing in the marketplace.  As we were sitting at the Coffee Bean on Beverly Drive in Beverly Hills. at 6:30 AM sipping our cappuccinos, we noticed the sign, “line forms to the left” next to Eternal Water.

The name and the concept of lining up to the left for Eternal Water got us laughing.  Will this water make us eternal, or better yet, eternally young? Do we need to get in line to buy and Eternal moment? I picked up a bottle and was informed by the label that the water comes from underground springs and is naturally alkaline, and nothing is added to it. 

The name is irrelevant.  It is an attractive concept.  Eternal water has three sources: Mount Shasta in California and Southwest Oregon, the Smoky Mountains in Tennessee, and the Allegany Mountains in New York.

By comparison, Evian water comes from the springs of Lake Geneva, in Evian-les-Bains.  Perrier is the name of the doctor, Louis Perrier, who discovered the springs in Vergèze, France.  These names make sense. Evian reflects origin, and Perrier is the name of the original owner. 

Think twice before using an attractive concept name for your company name like “eternal.”  It is confusing and does not explain your existence in the marketplace; you are better off using your own name.

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 Artificial Intelligence replace Real Estate Agents?

Recently there has been a lot of attention on the subject of Artificial Intelligence with all kinds of scary scenarios where artificial intelligence takes over and runs the human race.  In the near future will a real estate robot show homes, negotiate deals and close transactions?  Or will humans still reign over machines?

Social media sites are realizing that humans rather that algorithms may be the answer to curate users’ news feeds for accuracy and relevance. Content that is accurate brings in advertising dollars.

Facebook has had its share of mishaps, where their algorithms highlighted a sad event in a user’s life.  This has been dubbed Algorithmic cruelty.  Recently Twitter’s Discover made a blunder with its computer generated trending hash tag topics, which insulted feminism. 

Google’s experiments with a computer program of artificial intelligence created a database of movie scripts to teach computers to mimic how you a human brain works. This is known as cognitive computing. 

A recent conversation between human and machine at Google was reported in the Wall Street Journal, as “testy”, where finally the machine seemingly exasperated by the human’s insistence on defining morality/ethics/integrity lashes out the human, by refusing to talk further.

Will Real Estate Agent Robot get testy with the client or commit Algorithmic cruelty? What do you think will happen?

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.

How Do You Respond to Competition, Whine or Win?

What will be your response when competition shows up in your luxury real estate marketplace?  Do you take it as an opportunity to sharpen your focus and confirm your competitive edge, which would be a win for you? Or, do you complain and embark on a whining campaign.

If you follow business news, you probably heard about Uber (valued at $50 billion) threatening to dominate the taxi industry because of their great service and reliability.  Who would have thought that taxi customers were an under served market niche? 

In the hotel business, a similar scenario is happening with Airbnb, Inc (home-rental service). Their value, $25.5 million, is now on par with Hilton Hotels valued at $27.6 million.  Who would have dreamed that there was a need for travelers beyond the traditional hotel model?

The traditional taxi business has begun the whining cycle by looking to the government to help them out, instead of taking the opportunity to better or best the new entries in their market.  Likewise, Airbnb is facing opposition from local governments whose revenues are enriched with a hotel city tax.  Hotel chains are also looking to the government for regulations to stop this upstart.

We have long emphasized that by finding an underserved or uncontested market niche (like taxis and home-rental service) you can become a dominant player in a new market category.  This is exactly what Uber and Airbnb have done.

What will you do when new competition comes to town, whine or win?

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.

Long Nose Or Long Tail?

As a luxury real estate marketing professional, when writing your blog posts, it is important to understand the value of long tail keywords that can attract your psychographic niche. These keywords can bring potential buyers who are interested in your topic. From a traffic standpoint, they are valuable when writing descriptions of homes. However, don’t stretch the truth; use long tail keywords accurately.  If you don’t, your credibility will be undermined.

In selling real estate, the words “Tuscan, Tuscany” referring to the architecture style of a home is almost a guarantee to bring readers to a Tuscan Style home.  Most often, these so-called Tuscan homes do not have minimal resemblance to the Tuscan farmhouses, nor do they have a Tuscany setting.  Originally, Tuscan farmhouses were two or three stories tall. The family lived upstairs and the ground floor was used as the stable for the animals, and not as a grandiose space.  Savvy buyers or sellers instead of being interested will be turned off.

Yesterday, I was reading about a vineyard for sale in France on a luxury site that sells everything from cars to real estate.  It described the vineyard being located in the Tuscany of France.  Having been to both Tuscany and France several times, I feel that France has its own unique beauty and does not resemble Tuscany.

French wines are considered to be superior to Italian wines by wine experts.  Using the word “Tuscany” is solely for the purpose of attracting people to this estate, because all things Tuscan have keyword value.  In fact, this belittles both Tuscany and France.  They each have their place in the world of wine and do not need to be compared to each other.

Truth and accuracy will build your credibility and your readership; the truth does not need stretched into a long nose for a butterfly to perch on. 

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.

Would You Read Your Own Blog Posts or Newsletter?

Photo by Americanspirit

Writing a blog or a newsletter as a means of becoming well known and well thought of is a viable means of marketing yourself as luxury real estate professional.   However, if you are going to adopt this as a means of being visible on the Internet, you need to make sure that what you write about is of value to your audience, and they would be eager to read your posts on a regular basis.

The most important rule in marketing is to understand the psychographics of your audience.  Who are these people you want to reach?   What are they interested in? Are you focused on sellers?  Are you focused on buyers?  Are you focused on existing clients? What would make someone want to follow your blog?  Does it have to be real estate related, or does it have to be focused on localism posts?

Then ask yourself, what do you like to read about? What are you interested in?  What can you write about from your point of view and from your heart?  For instance, when writing a localism post do you just give the facts of an event, or do you add your perspective of it?  The most popular blogs are those with a point of view, which is what makes them interesting, readable and compelling.

If we were to write a post about the Hollywood Bowl schedule, we would include more than just a list of scheduled performances.  We would write about the foodies who create special meals to share with their friends in their box seats: the china, crystal, silver and candlesticks that are included in their picnic baskets.  We would write about the magical feeling of a live performance under the stars.  This is an example of perspective and a personal view.

Would You Read Your Own Blog Posts or Newsletter?

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 Makes You Tick? Power, Prestige Or Money?

If you opted to join a luxury real estate company rather than being a “solopreneur” you most likely were attracted to certain self-expression benefits that comprised that company’s value proposition. By analyzing your decision making process, why you chose one brand over another, you may learn something about “what makes you tick”.

What is the most significant value your company offers you, personally? For most luxury real estate marketing professionals, the answer comes down to POWER, PRESTIGE, or MONEY.

By power we mean that the brand may help you open more doors.  There is power in numbers. So, a brand with a network of thousands of agents may mean more internal referrals for you. Or, if a brand has a significant market share in your area it may help you get more listings, by association.

Prestige comes down to gaining respect just by associating with the brand because it has a favorable perception in the minds of your target market.  Being associated with a European auction house, for example, gives you the benefit of its “halo effect” by association.

Money means a higher commission split or net commission at the end of the day or profit sharing with the company. It may also mean that you are able to win more listings (can close more sales) because of the brand power or the prestige of the company.

Power, prestige and money are very important factors in selecting a company. Which of these factors is most important to 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.

A Well Thought Out Marketing Campaign: And The Listing Goes To...

We constantly hear and read the refrain from many luxury real estate marketing professionals that print is dead and not worth spending the money on.  Not all print is dead in our opinion.  It remains a great marketing tool in many markets, which still enjoy reading the daily paper, or a magazine.  Print can definitely enhance your brand and visibility, and if done well can make a product or individual top of mind in their marketplace.

Yesterday, in Beverly Hills, we noticed that our friend’s Los Angeles Times was delivered tucked in its own envelope.  This was unusual as it usually is delivered at this doorstep with a string around it, for easy tossing.  What was remarkable is that both sides of the envelope are promoting a television show nominated for an Emmy.  Concurrently, we noticed that all the buses on the Westside also had ads for the same shows.  This was a well-thought out campaign.  No doubt both entertainment trade papers, The Hollywood Reporter and Variety had the same ads.

How clever to come up with an envelope, since all award shows have an envelope in which the winner’s name is announced!    Will that name be yours for that coveted listing you were interviewed 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.

Is Your Niche Too Narrow or Popped to Perfection?

As a luxury real estate marketing professional, make sure that when you research and identify a niche that it has the potential for growth as well as meeting your income goals.  Watch out for niches that are too narrow.

On our working visit to Naples, Florida we spotted a niche business, a store called, The Popcorn Cellar. Its slogan is “Too Good To Let It Age,” (a tongue in cheek reference to wine).  Popcorn Cellar offers 15 flavors of pre-popped popcorn, both sweet and savory. 

We tried a sample of Cinnamon Bun. It reminded us of Christmas gifts from corporate clients that came in big tin cans, that we promptly gave away to the garage attendants in our office building.  Although, we enjoy freshly popped popcorn once in a while, none of the pre-popped flavors appealed to us.   We wondered whether this establishment would last, because the niche is too narrow.

Our research into the popcorn industry revealed that the US per capita consumption is 52 quarts per person on an annual basis.  70% of consumption is in the home which indicated that most of the popcorn eaten was freshly popped, thanks to the microwave oven. Sales for popcorn (un-popped) are annually rising at 2-3%.

Gourmet popcorn falls into the “snack food” category.  Would you stop at a popcorn store like this, or would you prefer an ice cream store if you craved a snack?   Or would you do what we did, check it out, and then move on.  This may be a niche that is too narrow.  What do you think?

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.

Cupid Marketing Or Stupid Marketing?

Niche marketing in the field of luxury real estate is very much like online matchmaking and dating.  The idea is to find your ideal clients. They are the ones who are looking for you, too, because of your extraordinary promise of value.  It is time to start marketing like Cupid and find more matches!

In real estate, the challenge is to identify the uncontested or under served market niche that is right for you, a niche that you can dominate.  The art of finding the best target market for you is your first step of could be called “Cupid Marketing”.  Wasting your time and marketing dollars without having the right target could be called “Stupid Marketing”.

For some matchmaking and dating websites and apps like e-Harmony 2015 will be a very good year for revenue.  But, the general category is getting extremely crowded.  Singles have become fickle about which sites or apps they use because they have so many choices.  Yet, if you were to interview them candidly, they would tell you they are frustrated about not finding their perfect match.

Does this sound a bit like the competitive landscape in your real estate marketplace? Without being presented with a sharply defined and clearly communicated value proposition that is the answer to your target market’s prayers they are clueless about which agent to choose.

Niche players have the best chance of making it.  There are now matchmaking sites for people of the same religion, sexual preference, age group and even racial preference.  This obviously narrows down the choices, but increases the likelihood of finding the right match.

We often hear real estate agents complain that, “there is not enough inventory out there”. This also mirrors the scarcity mentality that many singles have about finding Mr. or Ms. Right when they say, “all the good ones are taken”. Yet, if you were to see the overall stats in those “tight” markets you would still see that quite a few homes have sold.

You just need to gain a larger share of those homes that are selling to meet your personal financial goals.  You need to be the dominant player in your niche! Become Cupid Marketer!

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.

Who Are YOU? An Apple or an Orange?

Market leaders in luxury real estate, or any industry for that matter, do not have to brag about being better than the competition.  They simply need to clearly and consistently communicate their unique promise of value to their target market with an economy of words or actions.  The self-confidence of market leadership comes from instantly articulating the difference between your apples and their oranges.

Here, in two simple sentences, Apple differentiates itself from Google and Amazon (“the oranges”) without even referencing its competitors:

“You’re in control of your data. Searches are not associated with your Apple ID and not shared with third parties”.

Gender discrimination has been a hot topic in Silicon Valley as of late, given the high profile case against the venture capital firm of Kleiner Perkins. Today, at the Apple WWDC 15 developer’s conference in San Francisco, there was a balance of men and women presenting.  With market leaders, actions speak louder than words.

Even if you are the challenger and not the market leader, it is mission critical that you discover how you are different and better than your competition. You will find that there are many independent thinkers out there who will give you a chance to prove yourself if your value proposition is compelling enough. Underdogs have more power than they might realize.  ASSUME the self-confidence of the market leader and you will become one, too!

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.

Google's Anthem: Every Move You Make, I'll Be Watching You!

For those of you who are concerned about how much information Google has been collecting about you this should be good news. Prepare yourself for an eye-opening experience!  Go to https://myaccount.google.com, log in and see everything that Google knows about YOU and what you now can do about changing all that.

It appears that Google is being proactive by providing you with access to what heretofore was behind the scenes. In light of their potentially costly European lawsuits and mounting global concern about privacy, this was a very practical move on their part.

After viewing your account you will understand why there is so much concern. If you want to change your privacy protocols and delete past content be sure to be thorough as you go through your options.

Here is what was most alarming to us.  From your new dashboard, you can now easily download ALL of what Google knows about you including contacts, email, and calendars, browsing history, bookmarks, on and on. That means if someone were to obtain your Google password they could gain all of that info from anywhere in the world.

We were shocked to see that Google had kept track of every You Tube video we had ever searched for and searched for and watched while logged in. While we had nothing to hide we promptly deleted all 250 of watched videos and turned on the no-tracking feature for this. 

Google knew that we were in Boston in May and from which device we accessed our account. Add that to an exchange of email via Gmail, the web pages we visited during that time, what browser we used, and the people we interacted with the most over one “free” Google service or another (all of their detailed contact information could be viewed as well).  

We love Google search; it is an essential tool. We would gladly pay a subscription fee for its use if it were ad-free. But, as for all other Google services, we have decided to opt out and replace them with paid private services.

It is not just that they watch every move you make. It is what they can extrapolate by cross-referencing all that data to better serve you [and their advertisers, of course].

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.