Tuesday, January 26, 2010

Luxury Real Estate Branding: Discover What Makes You Special?

Dragon Fruit

Quite often, we get calls from luxury real estate marketing professionals asking us for an image makeover in the form of a logo, or a new website that will assure their success in the new age of social media marketing. They think that is the definition of branding.

The new opportunity on the World Wide Web is to express your unique voice as an expert in some uncontested market niche and to become the market leader in that niche. People are looking for answers to their most perplexing challenges. They seek a voice that is special, one that they can identify with, a voice that is compelling and follow-worthy.

This voice cannot be made up by some marketing image maker and cannot be modulated to please others; it has to be the voice that reflects the authentic you. Your voice is your "DNA"!

For example, there is only one dragon fruit (see photo above). It is unique among cactus fruits. In Taiwan diabetics use the fruit as a food substitute for rice. It is also credited with alleviating respiratory ailments. Other cactus fruits do not have this claim to fame.

Fabricated images are doomed, at some point, to fail and fade away. Hype and spin cannot disguise the lack of substance anymore. The internet has imposed transparency on all fronts.

Branding is not buying a new outfit or simply having a graphic designer design a new logo. It is discovering your voice and promoting the unique attributes of it. Once you have discovered it, you must stick to that which you are. Life becomes a binary world: what is on your path and what is not on your path—what is on your brand signal and what is off signal. The design and the logo are dictated by the brand not the other way around.

One of the best definitions of a brand was given by Lisa Price, founder of Carol’s Daughter beauty products. Because of her understanding of branding, she was able to take her business from her kitchen to the nation at large. She has attracted some of the world’s most famous “spokes beauties”, such as Halle Berry, Jada Pinkett Smith, and Mary J Blige, to sing her praises.

According to Ms. Price,

“When you are an entrepreneur and you are starting your business, it is so important to know what your voice is, and what it is that you bring to the table that is different. You won’t have a brand, you won’t have an identity if you don’t hold on to that, that makes what you do special.”

Discover what makes you special. Find your unique voice as an expert and you will thrive in this new decade where a personal brand can set you apart from your competition.

Personal Branding Case Studies and Company Branding Case Studies

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