The Language of Luxury: Luxury Real Estate Marketing: Create Your Own Niche

Tuesday, May 4, 2010

Luxury Real Estate Marketing: Create Your Own Niche

As a luxury real estate marketing expert, if you want to be best in class in your market place you must define your class or your niche. Here is an example of niche marketing. If the niche does not exist, you need to create it.

Originally, wine bars were counters that served wine by their generic names, Beaujolais, Sancerre, and other ordinary wines. They did not bother naming the producers or the vintage years, and they served modest appetizers with the wines. The next evolution was L’Ecluse which took the concept to a higher level. They served good Bordeaux with foie gras, carpaccio and other delicacies.

In 1988, an Englishman, Mark Williamson expanded on the idea. After an extensive education in wines, he decided to open his own version Willi’s Wine Bar. His plan was to serve Rhone wines at his wine bar. One of his friends remarked that you can’t serve Rhone wines without food. He opened Willi’s Wine Bar and served food. Mark Williamson remarks, “There was nothing like Willi’s when we opened, we took the idea of a traditional bistro and put a wine list into it. The old days when you got by with a few cold cuts are over; a wine bar is mostly a restaurant where you serve wine by the glass.” Willi’s success started a trend. Everyone started calling their new places wine bars. Someone asked Mark whether Willi’s is a really a restaurant. His answer to this was, “I started the place, I called it a wine bar, I defined the genre. Who is anybody else to say, it’s not?”