The Language of Luxury: Luxury Real Estate Personal Branding: Capture Mindshare

In luxury real estate marketing, market share is typically measured in two ways: total number of transactions and total dollar volume. In most marketplaces (or niches within marketplaces) there are two to three agents who dominate the market and account for the lion’s share of business. This pattern appears in most categories of products and services. What is important to note, however, is that market share is actually the manifestation of mind share. Capturing "top-of-mind" status as a personal or company brand is imperative if market leadership is your quest.

Here is an example of how this plays out in the beer industry in the United States.

Anheuser-Busch (brands include the world’s largest selling beers, Bud Light and Budweiser) and MillerCoors, control about 79% of the U.S. beer market, according to Beer Marketers Insights, Inc. Anheuser-Bush, the market leader, enjoys 49% and Miller-Coors commands a 30% market share. The next closest competitors are Crown Imports (Corona & St, Pauli Girl) with 5.3%, Heineken USA with 4.2% and Pabst with 2.7%. All others share the crumbs.

What is interesting about Pabst is that they operate a 100% virtual brewery. In addition to Pabst Blue Ribbon, they own brand names of products that include such time-worn labels as Schlitz, Old Style, Lone Star and Colt 45. But, all of their beers are brewed under contract with beer giant MillerCoors. The company was recently purchased for about $250 million by investor C. Dean Metropoulos, who made a fortune building well-known consumer brands including Bumble Bee Tuna and Vlasic Pickles.

Mr. Metropoulos did not purchase brewing plants he purchased brand names with substantial value. These names have been “branded” in the minds of a significant percentage of beer drinking consumers who consider Pabst, Schlitz,etc, their beer brand of choice.

Mind share translates to market share when your personal or company brand name comes to mind first. If you are predominantly a listing agent who wants to dominate your marketplace, your primary aim must be to capture top-of-mind status in "X" number of top-tier households (the number of households that comprise your marketplace). Luxury real estate marketing is more a mind game than anything else. That is why it is imperative to learn the rules of the game called brand strategy to attain market leadership.