The Language of Luxury

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.

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Thursday, January 30, 2014

Luxury Real Estate Branding Tips: Does Your Brand Work? #3

In luxury real estate branding or any other branch of real estate, when the right brand is found everyone knows it. It is and AHA moment! In order to achieve that, a brand identity and strategy is developed based on knowing the client or company's core values, personality and preferences.

The brand identity is further amplified by a keen understanding of the marketplace, the demographics and psychographics of the target market. We also analyze and study the competition to sharply differentiate our clients from anyone else. When everyone agrees on the brand identity and strategy, the translation into graphic design can begin.

Our style of branding involves visiting every client in their marketplace. For a day, we share their work lives by traveling to their target market. We put everyone through a barrage of questions, to accurately pinpoint their identity, goals and their target market psychographics.

We work closely with the graphic designer to ensure that the brand identity is perfectly duplicated, right down to the perfect color hue, font choices and photos and graphics. (As I am writing this post, Ron is looking at a brand we are working on and just noticed that the shadow is 2 pixels off in height, the details tell all!)

This morning we noticed a change on downtown State Street in Santa Barbara (see yesterday's post ). The incomprehensible banners from yesterday are gone. This time, I did not need to call the Chamber of Commerce, nor the Santa Barbara Downtown Association.

I knew exactly what they were for. The Santa Barbara Film Festival begins this evening, and the banners represent that beautifully, mimicking a film strip countdown to the opening scene.

Anyone who strolls on State Street will know what these banners mean. They are perfectly placed for the most views by people who may decide to pop into one of the theaters, where new films will be previewed.

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Wednesday, January 29, 2014

Luxury Real Estate Branding Tips: Does Your Brand Work? #2

In yesterday's post, we emphasized that a brand is not just design, or a logo. A brand is developed based on a fundamental strategy that if consistently applied, will bring top of mind status.

We wanted to illustrate this with an example that would clarify it even further. The photo above was taken today on State Street (the main downtown street) in Santa Barbara. Both sides of State Street have these banner flags.

What is this logo? It is an interesting design, and someone went through the trouble and expense of registering the trademark. We tried to figure out by wondering if this was a sign for the upcoming Santa Barbara Film Festival. No, it was not.

Can you guess what it is? We put on our investigative reporter's hat and called the Santa Barbara Chamber of Commerce. They did not have the answer, and suggested that I call the Santa Barbara Downtown Association. They had the answer: it is the Planned Parenthood logo! Why is it there, and what is the strategy? How many people would even go as far as we did to find out what the sign meant? Does this Brand work to reach their target market?

Contrast this with the FedEx Express logo. It is straightforward, and if you look closer at the Ex part of the logo, you can see the arrow formed in the white space between the x and the lower part of the capital E. The arrow communicates movement from one point to the other.

FedEx has top of mind status with major shippers all over the United States. Some people have never used FedEx, but they still know the brand. We certainly have known about the Planned Parenthood organization, and the fine work they do. Their brand in this context does not communicate who they are and what they do.

Make sure your brand works: what should be your primary goal is top of mind status.

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Tuesday, January 28, 2014

Luxury Real Estate Branding Tips: Does Your Brand Work ?

We are always amused when an individual or company peruses our portfolio of luxury real estate branding and website design asks us: "Which one of these designs are your favorites?" Invariably our answer is all of them, because our goal is to represent the individual or company, as well as their marketplace.

What is design? We like Steve Jobs' words on the subject: "Design is a funny word. Some people think design means how it looks. But of course, if you dig deeper, it's really how it works."

So how does a brand work? A brand has to resonate with the target market by standing out in the sea of sameness, and fit like a glove based on one's personal preferences. A brand is developed based on a fundamental strategy that, if consistently applied will bring top of mind status. So, the criteria is: Does the brand work to accelerate the pace at which you achieve this result?

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Monday, January 27, 2014

Luxury Real Estate F.A.Q's: How Do I Break Into Luxury Real Estate?#3

This post is Part 3 on the subject of FAQ's, how to break into Luxury Real Estate. The subject is MONEY. Be prepared to invest your marketing dollars wisely. Don't be cheap. It is OK to be wise, which is different than being cheap. To a luxury buyer or seller, cheap is a REPELLENT.

Many think that what they immediately need to invest in is a luxury car and a premier designer wardrobe. That in our opinion is thinking you can dance with the American Ballet Theatre, because you bought an expensive wardrobe of tutus and toe shoes.

Here is where you should be investing your dollars, which is different than buying or leasing a car, or buying a wardrobe, which will be out of date next season.

Your first approach should be to develop a strategy of HOW to get your target market to know you exist.

Secondly, you have to know your competition, and how you have something of value to offer that they are not offering. Don't get caught up in the trap of competing on features or qualities, such as integrity, experience, certifications...anyone can get certified and should have integrity to be in the business in the first place.

Finally, identify what is different and FRESH about you...That is your unique selling proposition. Identify what you stand for, who you are as a business person/or company based on your core values, and create a graphic representation based on that. Make sure you stand out from everyone out there! These three steps represent a long-term investment.

One of our clients decided fresh out of getting her license that she wanted to break into to the luxury real estate market. She had made several real estate investments that paid off for her. She also had business experience in launching a line of clothing, which she sold. Given her experience she was well versed in the language of luxury.

Her first investment was to develop her brand strategy and brand identity. Secondly, she had a friend who had two luxury cars, and was willing to let her use his spare car as long as she paid the insurance on it. Thirdly, she studied fashion, talked to personal shoppers at the best stores who were willing to let her know when something was on sale.

In six months of consistently applying her strategy, she earned enough commission income to be able to buy a home in her preferred community, and the car she always wanted. After an excellent run, she retired in splendor.

Part1 & Part 2

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Sunday, January 26, 2014

Luxury Real Estate F.A.Q's: How Do I Break Into Luxury Real Estate?#2

This is part 2 of the first post on the subject of FAQ's , how to break into Luxury Real Estate. The first rule of any venture, is KNOW YOUR MARKET.

Pick a luxury real estate market, in which you would like to become known as the go to person. Study the demographics, and the psycho-graphics. Demographics are the first order of business, which defines your target market and who the audience is. Once you are well versed in that, study the psycho-graphics. This defines the personality, values, attitudes and lifestyles of the community. Remember, the adage, "birds of a feather flock together."

If you don't think that these two studies are important, think again. In Santa Barbara, we have several different luxury real estate communities. The demographics are impressive in all of them, although the psycho-graphics are distinctly unique.

Two high-end businesses opened their doors in a particular community without understanding psycho-graphics. Two years later, the high-end national chain steak house restaurant closed in that community, as did the international high-end leather goods store. The communities within the area could well afford eating there, or shopping there. These businesses did not reflect their values.

These people preferred their local steak house, whose prices were not in their opinion as inflated, and when it came to the store they did not see the value to the merchandise. Both of these stores would have been a success on the other side of town in a community that would have loved their presence.

Once you understand the psycho-graphics, you are way ahead of the game. In our opinion this type of study is valuable regardless which area of residential real estate you are specializing in, if you want to be the go to person.

Stay tuned for Part 3...

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Friday, January 24, 2014

Luxury Real Estate F.A.Q's: How Do I Break Into Luxury Real Estate?#1

We get several inquiries a month asking us, how do I break into to the Luxury Real Estate Market?
Here is one of our answers:

If your only intention is to make more money, because of the higher prices on homes, forget it! You have to be passionate about this unique section of real estate, if you want to be a success and eventually dominate a niche in that area.

You have to become a student of luxury of every kind. You have to speak and understand the language of luxury. In a talk we gave at NAR in San Francisco for Prudential Fine Homes, we suggested that at the break agents should wander into the high end San Francisco stores such as Neiman Marcus, Saks Fifth Avenue, and Tiffany's.

After the break, some of the agents reported that their perspective had changed in being able to understand luxury more clearly. Educate yourself on high end building materials: stone, wood, wall finishes as well as luxury home furnishings Luxury car showrooms are another great place in understanding the nature of luxury possessions. The car in the photo is a Bugatti Veyron.

Stay tuned for more answers in Part 2!

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Wednesday, January 22, 2014

Luxury Real Estate Marketing Tips: How to Practice Safe Phone...

This is a follow up to our last post, Is Your Phone Sharing Secrets About YOU? How do you stop the madness of sensors that track your whereabouts as a shopper, or as a luxury real estate marketing professional, as you move around town? The answer is simple: just flip the switch!

Go to your settings and turn off Wi-Fi when you are not deliberately using it. This will stop them from tracking you, your current location and your movements.

We went one step further in our investigation of this important topic. We checked with the managers of Nordstrom’s in two locations that offer Wi-Fi as a convenience to shoppers. They both confirmed that they do not also use tracking sensors within the stores, or otherwise. We also spoke with the managers in two Apple Stores who do have in-store sensors, but theirs do not work with Wi-Fi.

Apple has developed a new in-store sensor tracking technology called iBeacon and they are testing it in 254 of their stores. These sensors are short-range low-energy Bluetooth transmitters that can detect a device's location more precisely than GPS to determine when to push a notification, offer or other communication to your phone. But, you have to have the Apple Store App for it to work. It differs from the Wi-Fi sensors because it is just short range.

IBeacon is strictly an Opt-In arrangement. But, keep in mind that Apple has your account information and your credit card on file if you purchase something through your app.

It is the correlation of your personal information with the general data collected that is most disconcerting here with these types of tracking systems. We trust Apple more than just about any brand and do not believe they will sell the data to third parties. But, this technology will be licensed to many other major companies and local merchants. Beware of the privacy policies of those who gather and correlate your personal information with the data collected by either Wi-Fi sensors or Blue Tooth.

Here is our recommendation: Practice Safe Phone! Ask yourself if the bargains or other communications are worth sacrificing your privacy. When in doubt, just flip the switch, on or off, Wi-Fi, Blue Tooth or both. The choice is yours.

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Monday, January 20, 2014

Luxury Real Estate Marketing Tips: Is Your Phone Sharing Secrets About YOU?

This is an important update to one of the our most popular article series of 2013 entitled, “Is Privacy the New Luxury Expenditure?” This article is about the challenge of keeping your smartphone privacy-safe, not just your computers.

Several new startups are popping up that can, through sensors, track your physical location down to the square meter when you have Wi-Fi enabled on your smartphone. One company has placed sensors in about 200 local businesses in a Canadian city within a one-mile radius that track the whereabouts of shoppers, unknowingly, as they move around town.

These companies know which gym you frequent, which coffee shops and restaurants you visit, which movies you see, on a certain day. They can sense if you are just window-shopping or if you actually come into the store immediately afterwards.

It is not just the raw information they glean that is most alarming. It is what the information means. Algorithms can determine if you are a jogger if they can track your movements across a park between certain times of the day. They can determine where you live based on where you are during the hours when you sleep. They can determine your age by the hours you spend at a certain school.

It is one thing for restaurant owners to know how many of their customers in general are from an upscale neighborhood. It is another if they can identify YOU in particular as living in that neighborhood.

When you log into “free” Wi-Fi using Facebook, at a coffee shop that subscribes to these marketing services, for example, they do collect your name, your age, your gender, and have access to your social media profile. By cross-referencing your whereabouts with your PERSONAL profile they can learn way too much without your consent, just by inference!

As a luxury real estate marketing professional, ask yourself this question: "What if that coffee shop owner is a potential client who is choosing between you and your competition?

Be deliberate about enabling Wi-Fi on your phones. Understand that when you login to Wi-Fi using Facebook that you might be giving personal information away. This information may be innocuous in and of itself. But, it can also be analyzed and aggregated by powerful computers that correlate this information with data about your whereabouts at certain times that accurately yields additional meanings.

And, remember that privacy is indeed a luxury.

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Monday, January 13, 2014

Courtesy of Wikipedia /Public Domain Limpet from Cyprus

As the luxury real estate market recovers in your area you will notice that more new agents are diving back into marketing luxury real estate. That means competition is heating up. Now is the time to prepare in order to out-think your competitors.

The median sales price for homes in San Francisco jumped 16% in 2013, according to the San Francisco Association of Realtors. This is primary due to a stronger demand among the “Technorati” who want to live in the city and are content to commute to nearby by Silicon Valley.

Whereas, your area may not be rebounding as fast as San Francisco, you must be prepared to protect your turf. To do so, think more like a limpet!

The limpet is a sea snail with a conical shell. The limpet attaches itself to hard surfaces in the ocean. They feed on the algae in the waters and what makes them unique and interesting is that they maintain a garden, which surrounds their home base. When another creature dares to graze in their garden, they push them off by ramming them with their shell, so that their garden can continue to thrive.

California Limpet

For luxury real estate marketing professionals, limpet thinking means keep your garden in order and watch out for interlopers. Here are three ways to prepare for a market upswing:

Refresh your personal or company brand

Create a new full featured luxury real estate website or update your current one

Stay in close communication with your sphere of influence on a regular basis

So, think like a limpet, and protect your garden in 2014!
Written by Ron & Alexandra Seigel-

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Luxury Real Estate Marketing Tips: 3 Ways to Prepare for a Market Upswing

Courtesy of Wikipedia /Public Domain Limpet from Cyprus

Whereas, your area may not be rebounding as fast as San Francisco, you must be prepared to protect your turf. To do so, think more like a limpet!

California Limpet

For luxury real estate marketing professionals, limpet thinking means keep your garden in order and watch out for interlopers. Here are three ways to prepare for a market upswing:

Refresh your personal or company brand

Create a new full featured luxury real estate website or update your current one

Stay in close communication with your sphere of influence on a regular basis

So, think like a limpet, and protect your garden in 2014!

Written by Ron & Alexandra Seigel-

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Friday, January 10, 2014

Luxury Real Estate Marketing in 2016: Science Fiction Becomes Reality

As technology continues to evolve, luxury real estate marketing tools will also evolve, beyond the video and digital camera. Here is an example of a new technology presented at the Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas this week that may be useful for luxury real estate marketing professionals.

Fans of Stark Trek will no doubt remember that in the 24th Century, replicators are programmed to create food items, clothing, and other sundry items. Now you can have your own replicator for toys, tools and gadets. MakerBot unveiled a 3-D Printer for consumers. It is aptly named MakerBot Replicator Mini.

This model will retail at $1375. The printers build physical objects by layering melted plastic, based on 3-D computer blueprints. The founder of MakerBot, Bre Pettis, also revealed that their plans include a digital store that will sell 3D blueprints that could replicate toys, etc. Another firm, XYZPrinting has developed a less expensive 3-D printer called Da Vinci priced at $499. Check out this video that shows how a wrench is duplicated via a 3-D replicator.

Will this have an application for real estate in 2016, when it is predicted that there will be more compelling applications than making toys or tools? Will we be replicating a model of a home for someone to see instead of jsut shooting photos or videos? Or will we be sending them the 3-D blueprints for them to replicate themselves at home? What do you think?

Happy Friday,

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Thursday, January 9, 2014

Marketing Luxury Real Estate: Three Tips for Success in 2014 - Part 3

Your Brand Has to Have Soul & Be Inspirational

As a luxury real estate marketing professional, it is essential to discover the SOUL of your personal or company brand and create an INSPIRATIONAL BRAND STORY. Doing so is a surefire path to market leadership.

Think of a company that has inspired you. Have you ever flown Southwest Airlines? This is one of the brands we love, mainly because of the ease and simplicity of making or changing reservations, their on-time record and also the remarkable friendliness of their employees. Here is a company with SOUL!

If Southwest Airlines has soul, Zappos, the online shoe store that put 2-way no-cost shipping on the map and sold to Amazon for over $1Billion, has both SOUL and an INSPIRATIONAL BRAND STORY. The title of the best seller, Delivering Happiness, written by Zappos’ CEO Tony Hsieh, says everything about his management style and the company purpose.

Like Trader Joe’s (covered in Part 2 of this series), the high employee morale in Southwest Airlines and Zappos is palpable. Employee morale contributes mightily to customer engagement via word-of-mouth marketing and also customer loyalty.

But, why should you strive to uncover and mine your own personal or company brand’s “inspirational DNA”? A survey conducted by Performance Inspiration shows what consumers do when a company inspires them:

86% of respondents say they would recommend the company to friends and family

82% percent would be loyal to that company

92% would share their experience with others

71% reported they would spend more on a company that inspires them

Old Spice came out with a commercial that embodies all three essential elements that we cover in this article series, LOVE, SOUL & INSPIRATION (inspirational because it went "viral" with over 3 million views when we saw it). The theme, "Smellcome to Manhood", brilliantly targets and communicates to boys who are coming of age, and also moms who might buy it for their sons (if they let their sons grow up). It is a must see and is far better than most Superbowl commercials. What a coup for a heritage brand looking to reach its next generation of consumers. Enjoy...

Spend some time uncovering and mining your own inspirational DNA. It needs to be demonstrated not just superficially, but through every interaction you have your associates, your current clients and also your entire sphere of influence.

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Tuesday, January 7, 2014

Marketing Luxury Real Estate: Three Tips for Success in 2014 - Part 2

What’s Love Got to Do with It?

As a seasoned luxury real estate marketing professional, you have certainly had the experience of a buyer who falls in love with a home at first sight. We personally had that experience with our own home. We knew within 5 minutes that we found the perfect home, wrote an offer and were in escrow within 48 hours. But, this is not typical, especially for buyers who are not all that familiar with your marketplace.

Most of the time you need to set the stage for the buyers by first romanticizing your marketplace, then pointing out how the homes you show them could be an ideal match to their needs or their dreams. With sellers, you need to romance them with your personal or company brand before they give you their listing. Then you need to present their listings in the best possible light with stunning photography and verbal descriptions that promise a lifestyle devoid of mediocrity.

Think about a brand you love! We love Trader Joes. We cannot say enough about the esprit-de-corps that their very knowledgeable Santa Barbara “Crew” consistently demonstrates, the product selection, their return policy, the food sampling station that always has excellent coffee and friendly conversation, the human scale of the store itself, on and on. The crew here wears shorts and “island-themed” shirts that set the tone for a casual relaxed buying experience.

How do you get clients to fall in love with YOU, with your brand? You need to prove that you truly care about people, according to Wolfgang Shaefer, Global Chief Strategy Officer of SelectNY, a speaker at Luxury Daily’s Luxury Outlook 2014. And, that is what is at the heart of the Trader Joes brand. The operation is so well run that you get the sense that they really take the time to care about you.

What can you do, as a luxury real estate marketing professional to further convince your past, current and potential clients that you truly do care? Spread the love in 2014!

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Monday, January 6, 2014

Marketing Luxury Real Estate: Three Tips for Success in 2014

At year-end we attended Luxury Outlook 2014, produced by Luxury Daily. Although, the presentation was geared primary to the luxury goods industry we gleaned some exciting insights for luxury real estate marketing professionals that we will share with you in this article series.

We were particularly moved by Wolfgang Shaefer, Global Chief Strategy Officer at SelectNY, who emphasized the importance of telling the story of your brand from three perspectives: Stories of SOUL, stories to INSPIRE and stories of LOVE. So, stay tuned as we apply these principles to the art of marketing YOU in the luxury real estate realm and leveraging your brand to create an outrageously successful 2014.

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