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Wednesday, March 30, 2011

Luxury Real Estate Marketing: I am all Ears; Tell Me Your Story!

As a luxury real estate marketing professional or a company do you have a story to tell about your brand? Can you tell the story clearly? Can you consistently emphasize what makes you different? Is your story imbued with character? And, above all, will the listener want to repeat the story to their friends?

As children one of the primary ways we start understanding the world is through stories. Stories are the beginning; they give our lives meaning. We make sense of who we are by identifying with the stories we are told. The same goes for brand stories. They tell us if it makes sense to buy the brand or the service, what the difference is, and what the underlying truth (the character) is in the brand. The brand story is like the moral of a story. If the moral of the story is compelling it makes us want to buy one brand more so than any other.

As you craft your brand story imagine yourself as the listener. Ask yourself:

1. What are you trying to tell me?

2. Why should I be interested or care?

3. What are the morals, the truths, and the character of your personal or company brand?

These are the questions your prospective clients and referral sources will ask. Basically, they are asking, “Can you tell me your story so I can believe in you?" Make your brand story compelling, as a luxury real estate marketing professional, so that people will follow you and refer you.

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Monday, March 28, 2011

Luxury Real Estate Personal and Company Branding: I Yam What I Yam

If you could identify the most dominant/powerful aspect of your personality and amplify it in such a way that it could be expressed graphically, this would be one of the most important aspects of your personal brand.

Many luxury real estate marketing professionals fall into the trap of trying to be all things to all people. Like Popeye you have to be able to say, I Yam What I Yam and stand unwaveringly behind your brand personality statement. For example, are you?

Conservative or innovative?

Serious or humorous?

Daring or risk avert?

Creative or methodical?

Entertaining or informative?

Marketing is essentially matchmaking. You are marketing to people with similar or compatible personalities. The clearer you represent your dominant personality, the faster you will attract the best clients for you; and, the easier you will make it for others to promote you.

Trying to be all things to all people is a recipe for failure. Focusing just on your target market i.e., people like you is a sure way to success. Personality can transcend demographics. So, for those of you who are concerned about which price range to operate in you can focus on attracting compatible personality types.

It cannot be the personality you would like to have, it has to be authentic. You can only do you.

I'm Popeye the sailor man.
I'm Popeye the sailor man.
I yam what I yam
And that's all what I yam.
I'm Popeye the sailor man.

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Wednesday, March 23, 2011

Luxury Real Estate Marketing: Brand Japan-Beyond Bonsai and Sushi, Part 3

Photo by Terence Ong, Vivo City Mall Singapore

This is Part 3 of our series “Brand Japan”-Beyond Bonsai and Sushi, our tribute to the Japanese culture. In our ever-expanding quest to define the meaning of luxury as a context for luxury real estate marketing, we look to some of Japan’s most creative innovators. Here are their inspiring definitions of luxury.

Luxury is:

“To have a heart that is rich and full”—Makoto Azuma

Makoto Azuma crafts masterpieces using some of the world’s most beautiful flowers and botanical theme artworks. He is known as an avant garde florist.

“Space. The space in nature, where I find energy. The energy of the earth, waterfalls, the forest-all this gives the desire to create.” --Naomi Kaneko

Naomi Kaneko, is a Yuzen (floral and nature) painter of fine silk Kimonos. She uses only the finest pigments which last over 100 years.

“Comfort like taking a bath, relaxed and feeling a sense of satisfaction. It can be a very comfortable room as well. Whether it is a room like a modern art museum, or a vacation home, if you feel comfortable, it is luxury.” --Shu Uemura

Shu Uemura is a makeup artist and the founder of Shu Uemura Cosmetics, which is known for its fanciful eyelashes and skin care products that ncorporates water found at a depth of 1000 meters in the ocean (because it is rich in potassium, calcium and magnesium and has other trace elements).

“Freedom definitely, if you consider architecture it is always based on limitation, I want to make it free from this.” --Toyo Ito

Architect Toyo Ito is known for his organic forms and fluid designs, such as the Vivo shopping mall in Singapore pictured above.

We have enjoyed sharing our Japanese sojourn with you. We are all part of this vibrant human tapestry.

“When you immerse yourself in a culture with an open heart, even briefly, you cannot help but become part of it.”

Ron & Alexandra Seigel, authors of the Language of Luxury

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Luxury Real Estate Marketing: Beyond Sushi and Bonsai Part 2

This is Part 2 of our blog series, Brand Japan, a tribute to the Japanese culture.

Understanding the principles of Japanese garden design, which is rich in symbolism and meaning, offers many lessons for us when designing brand identities for luxury real estate marketing professionals. One design principle of Japanese gardens is the Art of Stone.

“The Art of Stone in a Japanese garden is that of placement. Its ideal does not deviate from Nature.” Isamu Noguchi, Japanese sculptor 1904-1988

The placement of a stone in a garden can communicate volumes of meaning to the observer. How a brand is positioned can do the same. Your personal brand position, as a luxury real estate marketing professional, is what you stand for in the minds of your target market. It is essential, however, that your brand position reflects your authentic , true nature .

Noguchi's placement of his sculpture, the Red Cube at the HSBC building in New York City Photo by Sean Pavlone

The gardens in Japan were closed to the public until the 20^th century. They were designed by the ruling elite and by monasteries as centers for meditation and worship. The purpose was to provide a peaceful venue far from the madness of everyday life. They represented the paradise of Buddha.

The basic elements of a garden are water, stones, and plants. Each stone, each plant had its place in order to express a mood of serenity. If a garden has water (chisen style), it occupies the largest portion of the garden. It is edged with groups of stones representing rocky seashore. Water elements have islands in them because islands represent a sacred remote place or immortal happiness.

In the dry gardens (karensansui style) the presence of water is not necessary. The patterns of the water/the sea are represented in the patterns raked in the sand or gravel, and the island is represented by the perfect stone(s).

The plants are an expression of Japanese spiritual life. Pines are beloved because they are evergreen and thus are symbols of long life and happiness. Other plant material includes dogwood, azalea, moss, bamboo, and junipers.

Simply put, the Japanese garden aesthetic guidelines rely on asymmetry, the imperfect and odd numbers. This mirrors the concepts of Zen Buddhism: naturalness, tranquility, simplicity and austerity.

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Tuesday, March 22, 2011

Luxury Real Estate Marketing: Beyond Sushi and Bonsai

This week’s blog series is dedicated to achieving a deeper appreciation of the “brand Japan”, and the creative spirit of its people who will be guiding their country's recovery.

Because branding is a shortcut to make it easy for people to remember you, your company or your product can, under certain circumstances, sell you short. In a time-pressed world, we need shortcuts to achieve trust in a relationship with a brand. But, it is easy to get lazy and not override the shortcuts (that can sometimes be the equivalent of prejudices), in order to experience a deeper appreciation. As luxury real estate marketing professionals, we encourage you to take the luxury of time to enrich your soul and discover, along with us, an expanded meaning of what is distinctly Japanese.

What does the “brand Japan” mean to you? What immediate thoughts come instantly to mind when you think of Japan beyond bonsai, sushi and cherry blossoms, etc? These kinds of iconic images, these mental shortcuts that have been branded into our minds are convenient symbols of Japan. But, there is so much richness that this distinct culture has in store when you delve deeper.

Haiku (俳句, is a form of Japanese poetry. It is an expression of a brief thought and has a reference to nature. One of the best known Haiku writers is Basho, here are three examples:

The clouds come and go,
providing a rest for all
the moon viewers

Spring air --
Woven moon
And plum scent.

In this warm spring rain,
tiny leaves are sprouting
from the eggplant seed

The best brand messaging is similar to Haiku: distilled, expressing the nature of itself and unforgettable.

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Friday, March 18, 2011

Luxury Real Estate Marketing: Is Your Brand Current, Fresh and Visible?

It is important for luxury real estate marketing professionals to keep their brands current, fresh and visible. Here is an example from Dom Perignon. This photo we shot at our local wine store is the Dom Perignon Andy Warhol edition. This edition of the 2002 vintage features Warhol-like colored labels. Andy Warhol is best known for his portraiture of pop icons/culture like Marilyn Monroe, Liza Minelli, the Eight Elvises as well as Campbell soup cans. He is also known for coining the phrase, "In the future, everyone will be world-famous for 15 minutes."

In one fell swoop, Dom Perignon has made itself visible, current and fresh! Certainly, Dom Perignon continues to have its moments of fame that have lasted many years and will continue for many years to come. What can you do to be current , fresh and Visible and insure that your moments of fame go beyond 15 minutes?

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Thursday, March 17, 2011

Luxury Real Estate Marketing Tip: The Closing Gift that Keeps Giving

Sterling Silver Roses

The most important aspect of gift giving as a luxury real estate marketing professional is understanding who your client is. l In conversing with anyone, it is easy to listen for the clues of things they like:hobbies they are involved in or ideas they are passionate about. These listening moments are a guarantee to finding the perfect gift that keeps giving.

When we were active in commercial real estate on the Westside of Los Angeles, many of our clients were avid gardeners. The majority of them loved roses growing in their gardens. Our gift to them was a selection of the newest species of roses from Jackson Perkins. This year, they have 6 new varieties including a wonderful purple rose called Cabernet Sauvignon, as well as its companion rose, Chardonnay. They usually ship them in bareroot form this time of the year. As the ground warms up you can have them shipped in pots.

On our monthly journey to Los Angeles, we ocasionally see these clients/friends and they will inevitably bring up the subject of the roses we have given them. They remark how they always think of us, when they cut them and bring them in to their home or place of business. They will comment on the exceptional quality and quantity of the blooms, etc.

We always made a point of discovering our clients personal preferences, so that we could send a gift that would say we understood who they are, and that alone reminded them of us. Our coffee experts were sent an annual subscription to some of the world's rarest coffees, and the same for the tea drinkers.

If you give someone what they really are interested in, you are a great gift giver. A great gift comes from listening to another person, and making a note under their name in your records. It is so much fun to see someone's smile, and say" Thanks, this is one the best gifts, I have ever received."

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Tuesday, March 15, 2011

Luxury Real Estate Personal Branding: There is Room at the Top

David Cook

Niche marketing is your sure route to market leadership as a luxury real estate marketing professional. When you are secure within your niche and stay focused there you will discover that other niche leaders are not really your competition. Therefore, there is plenty of room at the top.

Niche market leaders are not in competition with their counterparts. This is a very important concept to grasp. They only compete with others within their niche. See how this plays out in the American Idol competition.

While it is true that the American Idol contestant who survives with the most number of votes wins the big prize at the end of the show they may not be the big winners in the long run. Jennifer Hudson was voted off the show early on, but went on to win the Golden Globe and Academy Award for best supporting actress, plus multiple Grammy Awards. Doughtry and Adam Lambert have sold millions of records, achieving much more than the ones who won the contest in the same year.

In 2008 runner ups, David Archuleta and David Cook (who won the prize) went on to be very successful in their respective niches. Archuleta sold close to 1,000,000 copies of his first album to an adoring younger teenage fan base. The first post-Idol album of Cook, the rock singer/song writer, was certified Platinum. With completely different audiences were these two artists actually competitors outside of the Idol contest?

Historically, the contestants who were most clearly defined in their niches far exceeded their counterparts who were not. This year the niches are already sharply defined for many of the contestants. As a result, they have already won the game in terms of winning over their respective fans. If they stay within their niches and do not try to please everyone they should do very well.

We call this “staying on your brand signal”. For example, the deep voiced Scotty is the genuine country article. James is the unmistakable rocker and Jacob is rhythm & blues.

Sharply define your niche within the luxury real estate marketing arena and stay focused there. You will find that your counterparts in their respective niches are not your competition. They may even make great allies because there is plenty of room at the top.

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Thursday, March 10, 2011

Luxury Real Estate Marketing: The Buzz Sparked by the Unexpected

As a luxury real estate marketing professional you understand the importance of great packaging. One of the ways to upgrade that packaging is to add an unexpected element to your marketing materials. It may seem at first glance incongruous. However, it can trigger word-of-mouth advertising or buzz when you startle people with the unexpected element.

We were in our wine store today, The Carpinteria Wine Company, and we saw the bottle pictured above with a placard stating it had a 90+ rating. That message drew us in, and we took a closer look at the wine. From a distance, it looked like any other bottle of wine. Up close, we noticed that it had a piece of the vine it originated from tied in raffia on the front of the bottle.

Instantly, it became unforgettable. The wine happens to be great! But, the next time we go back to the wine store we can find it in a nano-second without even remembering the name of the wine. That is brilliant marketing and branding!

In a previous post, we mentioned that, given the enormous competition in the wine market, it is understandable why a wine label design can cost up to $80,000. This added unexpected element costs, next to nothing because the vines are trimmed and burned every year after the harvest.

This is one of the best examples of how you can out-think, not out-spend your competition and become the standout in your marketplace.

The name of the wine is Cantina Zaccagnini, Montepulciano d"Abruzzo 2007. That is certainly not an easy name to remember, but the packaging is. Happy Sipping!

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Wednesday, March 9, 2011

Luxury Real Estate Personal Branding: Your Authentic Brand

Many agents believe that developing a luxury real estate personal brand is like choosing a new outfit of clothing or redecorating their home. While getting a new polished look can do wonders for you compared to your frumpy competition this is not what personal branding is all about.

The primary aim of crafting your personal brand is to achieve or sustain top-of-mind status in the minds of your target market. For most luxury real estate marketing professionals it comes down to being the first agent that comes to mind when a home owner is ready to sell or when a trusted friend is asked to recommend an agent to list their home. Branding is all about strategizing to secure the ownership of mind share, because market share follows mindshare.

The first thing that we do when we work with a luxury real estate personal branding client is what we call a strategic brand analysis. This is a discover process where we gather a tremendous amount of information about our client, their marketplace and their competition.

The final distillation of this information must represent the essence of the person’s true identity, their authentic self expressed in way that immediately resonates with their ideal clients. Therefore, a brand must be judged solely on the effectiveness its communication with one’s target market and the speed of trust that it establishes.

You may not like a particular style of someone’s personal brand because you have more conservative taste. You might prefer a contemporary look rather than traditional. But, then you would be judging the brand based on your own preferences. Instead judge other's personal brand based on authenticity and on the brand's success at matching the agent with the clientele it is aiming to attract.

Click here to check out the personal brands of the agents or brokers displayed above. Each of these them are either incumbent market leaders or are well on their way to achieve top-of-mind status within their marketplace.

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Tuesday, March 8, 2011

Luxury Real Estate Website Design: A Brave New Interactive World

Photo by Naiyyer

Luxury real estate marketing professionals, it is time to embrace the brave new interactive world on your website. If do not, your competition will. If you get there first you can trigger buzz, and spark word-of-mouth advertising that will help you achieve top of mind status in your marketplace.

Web 2.0 has brought about an interactive world, where customers can engage and participate with a website like never before. The blog enabled the “conversation”. Now, there is even more opportunity for interactivity. As technology has progressed many companies have refreshed their brands by adding interactive features that capture the imagination, showcasing the creativity of many bright minds.

One brand that embodies cutting edge interactive technologies is Ralph Lauren who has redesigned his website to include new “experiences” on many levels. The latest is a beautifully illustrated video, narrated by Uma Thurman that tells a charming story that is perfect for children and adults alike. Furthermore, there is a link to Ralph Lauren’s Facebook page where you can enter your child’s photo for a chance to be cast in the next story. Of course, if you like the clothes in the story you can click on them and buy them on the spot.

For men and women, there is a style page that will keep you current with what is “in”. And, if you still have fashion questions, you can write a note to the style editors to get a personalized answer. For those who are athletic and love Lauren’s sporting line, he has developed an iPad application. The app features world-class athletes showing such things as how the fabric moves by blowing into the tablet’s microphone to simulate the fabric in motion. Or, you can move your finger across the screen to change colors and also move the athlete.

We will be covering many ways in which you can make luxury real estate marketing interactive on your website. Yes, it is one more thing that you must keep up with to stay competitive. And, you were thinking it was time for a tech-break!

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Friday, March 4, 2011

Luxury Real Estate Personal and Company Branding: Six Brand Idendity Principles

We are constantly asked by luxury real estate marketing professionals and others: " What is a Brand Identity?" Here are our 6 principles for a brand.

A Brand Defies Convention

A Brand Has Definition

A Brand does not Compromise

A Brand is Unexpected

A Brand is Unlike Any Other

A Brand Forges New Paths

These principles are the guidelines for all aspects of creating a brand. They are expressed in the design graphics, and the messaging, which reflect the authentic personality of the individual/company as well as the understanding of their marketplace How can you incorporate these principles in your brand?

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Thursday, March 3, 2011

Marketing Luxury Real Estate: The Key to Sustaining Market Leadership

Courtesy of Apple

Achieving market leadership is one thing. Sustaining it is another. Incumbent market leaders in the realm of luxury real estate marketing, this post is for you!

Last year Apple defined an entirely new category of computer- tablets supported by apps- and established itself as the category leader. No less than 100 new competing tablet brands are expected out this year. How will Apple sustain their leading edge? Observe and learn from the best in class and you will be able to stay ahead of the pack in your luxury real estate marketplace.

Taking a break from his medical leave, the master communicator of our lifetime, Steve Jobs, made a surprise appearance to introduce the iPad2. In his inimitable presentation style Jobs demonstrated, yet again, that simplicity in design and in communication is the ultimate sophistication.

In just a few words, Jobs explained why iPad2 will crush the competition. It is thinner, lighter, and faster without sacrificing its 10 hour batter life! And, the price remains the same. Analysts predict that in 2011 Apple will still have up to 80% market share in tablets.

New features include two cameras, Face Time (video phone calls) and multiple color covers. They will ship by March 11 and be in 26 Apple- hungry countries two weeks later. With touch screen versions of their popular iMovie and Garage Band programs they have transformed their own creation into a device that is exciting not just for consuming media but also for producing it.

Incumbent market leaders often get complacent, making it relatively easy for sharply focused challengers to unseat them. Do not let this be your story. Take a lesson from the incumbent, Apple: Stay focused and best your own track record! That is the key to sustaining market leadership.

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Wednesday, March 2, 2011

Luxury Real Estate Marketing: Quality Content is Buzz-Worthy

In our previous post we outlined the 10 Keys to Improve the Quality of Your Content on your web pages and in your blog, as a luxury real estate marketing professional. There is no mistaking quality. Check out this Sapporo beer commercial. If this was played during the Super Bowl it would have been the sure winner. On You Tube, it has been seen over 2.5 million times. This is what we mean when we say make your content comment-worthy, follow-worthy and buzz-worthy, triggering word-of-mouth advertising.

What does this commercial say to you about quality in marketing?With so many beers on the market worldwide to choose from how do you communicate that your brand has superior quality? In the case of Sapporo, they wanted to communicate that their brand represents LEGENDARY QUALITY.

How can you communicate, through quality content, that your brand of service as a luxury real estate marketing professional is worthy of buzz? How can you get people to go out of their way to promote YOU!

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Tuesday, March 1, 2011

Luxury Real Estate Marketing: 10 Keys to Improve the Quality of Your Content

Recently Google has been besieged by complaints that they are ranking sites with “canned” content higher than those with meaningful content. Google has responded by making changes in their algorithms that are aimed at sites with what it calls "low quality" content: just enough information to appear in search results. If your luxury real estate marketing web pages or blog posts fall into this category of low quality, beware! You natural search engine ranking could slip.

Who is really reading your blog: real people or Google robots? Hopefully, your answer is both. To be a successful blogger your content must be more than just a means to an end of increasing your page ranking. It must be an end unto itself and offer satisfaction to your readers. Ultimately, Google’s job is to match inquiring minds with quality content that meets their needs.

Here are 10 ways to improve the quality of your content.

1. Make your content useful

2. Make your content pertinent

3. Make your content informative

4. Make your content fresh

5. Make your content uplift

6. Make your content entertaining

7. Make your content newsworthy

8. Make your content comment-worthy

9. Make your content follow-worthy

10. Make your content worthy of being shared

Focus in on those items and see how you can improve the quality of your content. Remember this: Robots have no sense of humor; they leave no comments and do not share. They do not get uplifted. But, they do know when your content is fresh vs. canned!

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