Real Estate Marketing: How to Dominate Your Niche - Part 2

This series is a PREVIEW of our Online Video Course: Which Niche Can Make You Rich!


PART 2:  THE MOST POWERFUL LAW OF NICHE MARKETING

Mindshare precedes market share. Focus on capturing MINDSHARE FIRST.  Market share will follow. It must follow according to this law. 

 

Which Niche Can Make You Rich?

CLICK HERE TO SIGN UP FOR THE LIVE ZILLOW WEBINAR

Written by Ron & Alexandra Seigel-
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.

-WATCH VIDEOS-

 Buzz-Worthy Luxury Real Estate Websites  

Personal Branding Case Studies   Company Branding Case Studies  

About Language of Luxury 

 GET FLUENT. GET AFFLUENT! - JOIN THE LOL COMMUNTIY 

 Linked In, Facebook, Active Rain & Twitter

Real Estate Marketing: How to Dominate Your Niche - Intro & Part 1

INTRODUCTION:  IT'S ALL ABOUT FOCUS!

Identifying and dominating the right niche for your business is a sure-fire route to gain and sustain market leadership.  In this series we will preview a new online video course that we developed as an AGENT TRAINING TOOL FOR BROKERS called Which Niche Can Make You Rich?  Each video is just 2 to 4 minutes.

We were inspired to create this video course after presenting the topic in a webinar for TRULIA/ActiveRain. When over 1000 people registering within 2 weeks and we were also invited to present the webinar for ZILLOW (May 5^th) we realized just how timely niche marketing is to building a thriving luxury real estate practice in our improving economy.  Yet, all of the principles presented in our course can and should be applied to any niche you wish to dominate. 

In this video format we are able to include additional, expanded material. And, we are certain that you will find it fun, entertaining and insightful. Enjoy!

INTRO

PART 1: THE #1 SECRET OF MARKET LEADERS 

 

You can literally go from zero to hero in the minds of your target market, overnight, with the right strategy.  Focusing on achieving top-of-mind status, on purpose, is the key.

CLICK HERE TO SIGN UP FOR THE ZILLOW WEBINAR

Written by Ron & Alexandra Seigel-

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.

-WATCH VIDEOS-

 Buzz-Worthy Luxury Real Estate Websites  

Personal Branding Case Studies   Company Branding Case Studies  

About Language of Luxury 

 GET FLUENT. GET AFFLUENT! - JOIN THE LOL COMMUNTIY 

 Linked In, Facebook, Active Rain & Twitter

True Confession: How & Why We Fell In Love with a Brand! Part 5

As consumers we love Nespresso. As luxury brand strategists we salute Nespresso for outsmarting the best American Coffee companies and beating them at their own game in the fastest growing segment of the coffee industry: portioned coffee.

In 1996, Nespresso patented the process of brewing espresso from capsules containing ground coffee. But, North Americans crave larger cups of coffee more so than espresso. 

Keurig was instrumental in turning portioned coffee into a $4.9 billion market by licensing their K-Cups to major US and Canadian coffee brands including Starbucks that accounts for over 25% of all K-cup sales. Almost one-half of an isle at CostCo is devoted to selling multiple brands of co-branded K-Cup coffee--IN BULK! 

But, here is the downside of K-Cups: They rob Starbuck’s (and other top coffeehouse brands packaged in K-Cups) of their primary differentiator as a luxury brand--freshly roasted coffee that you can get only at their coffee-houses. This created the opportunity for a new luxury brand niche: PREMIUM portioned coffee! 

Nespresso, launched the Viruoline system in 2014 expressly to target upper demographic coffee aficionados in the US and Canada.  What makes this machine distinct from Keurig and all others is its patented Centrofusion technology. It brews BOTH coffee and espresso with an enormous amount of crema that significantly enhances the flavor and texture of the coffee. 

Nespresso, buys only the top 1-2% of the finest coffee in the world--their Grand Cru selection. It is exquitely packaged; you will never find Nespresso's recyclable aluminum (not plastic) capsules sold in bulk. Their coffee must be ordered by phone or online as a Nespresso Club member. It is not available in stores other than Nespresso's own boutiques.  That is how they INSURE THE HIGHEST QUALITY, FRESHNESS AND CUSTOMER CARE!  

Swiss-made Nespresso trumped the top coffee brands in North America, creating a new luxury niche which they undoubtedly will dominate.  As a luxury real estate marketing professional, how can you trump your closest competitors? 

Part 1   l   Part 2   l   Part 3   l   Part 4   l   Part 5

Written by Ron & Alexandra Seigel-
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.

-WATCH VIDEOS-

 Buzz-Worthy Luxury Real Estate Websites  

Personal Branding Case Studies   Company Branding Case Studies  

About Language of Luxury 

 GET FLUENT. GET AFFLUENT! - JOIN THE LOL COMMUNTIY 

 Linked In, Facebook, Active Rain & Twitter

Luxury Real Estate Personal Branding: Class Personified!

When some people think of luxury they associate the word with a lifestyle of conspicuous consumption, and with being ostentatious, flashy, affected, showy, brazen, flamboyant, and pretentious. This has given luxury a bad name.  For us, luxury is about reaching for the best that life has to offer because it is there to be enjoyed by you, not to impress others, and also because it affirms that you can have whatever makes you happy.  

When in comes to others, luxury is about having class in the way you interact with everyone you encounter, simply because it feels good.

Class is both elegance in style, and excellence in whatever you create. Having class implies that you know how to find the “high road” and consistently choose to take it. Class is not the exclusive purview of the rich and famous. It is accessible to everyone.

As a luxury real estate marketing professional your personal brand is an opportunity to instantly demonstrate that you are someone who has class, and to continuously fortify that fact in the minds of your target market.  It is also a vehicle to attract others who have class by making it easy for them to spread the word about YOU to like-minded individuals.

Recently, a previous client of ours, Maurice Tegelaar, a top agent in Sonoma, California, needed a quick augmentation to his website to help secure a very prestigious listing.  We were able to re-arrange our schedule and mobilize our team to accommodate his very brief window of opportunity.

A couple days after completing the project we received a hand-written thank you note and a box of chocolate from a local wine country chocatier. Sure, he sent us an email thank you. But this extra touch showed class!  It also demonstrated the consistency in his personal branding. 

Notice that his brand strikes the perfect balance between formality and informality that exemplifies the best of the wine country. There is no pretentiousness here, just simple elegance.   It is a luxury to have Maurice as a friend and it is a pleasure to refer him, with complete confidence, to anyone looking for a great agent in his area of expertise.

Written by Ron & Alexandra Seigel-
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.

-WATCH VIDEOS-

 Buzz-Worthy Luxury Real Estate Websites  

Personal Branding Case Studies   Company Branding Case Studies  

About Language of Luxury 

 GET FLUENT. GET AFFLUENT! - JOIN THE LOL COMMUNTIY 

 Linked In, Facebook, Active Rain & Twitter

True Confession: How & Why We Fell In Love with a Brand! Part 4

A well-built brand consistently reflects what the brand stands for and the brand’s extraordinary promise of value. Nespresso has it all. And that is why we have identified Nespresso one of the 2014 LOL Brands of the year! 

Nespresso knows its target market well: coffee aficionados, devotees, enthusiasts, fans, admirers and buffs. It appreciates their need for instant gratification, small indulgences and a hassle-free luxury lifestyle. This is exemplified in features such as a pre-heating time of just 15-20 seconds and Automatic Blend Recognition technology (bar codes on each capsule tell the machine which settings to use without user guesswork). 

From superior product design, functionality, packaging and brand design, to a superior user experience, to simply superior coffee taste, Nespresso is a brand you want to join and rave about to your friends.

Shortly after we purchased our Virtuoline and experienced the difference first hand, we returned to the Nespresso store in Beverly Hills that finally opened. We were greeted at the front door by the equivalent of a Maitre D’ who asked if we wanted to be seated in the coffeehouse section of the store or were interested in exploring the product section.The entire staff was in uniforms reminiscent of an upscale European boutique. 

Visually the store’s architectural design is stunning and welcoming. It has a skylight above a wonderful cactus garden in the center and its storefront windows are totally open to the outdoor seating area.  The service is superb in both sections! We were offered free espressos and a dark chocolate raspberry square in the product area. The place was packed with existing and potential customers when we were there.

Nespresso is fluent in the language of luxury in every single facet of its brand. We applaud this company especially for being consistent from every perspective.  

As a luxury real estate marketing professional, let Nespresso be a touchstone that represents what it takes to have brand consistency. What are some ways in which you can express your own extraordinary promise of value consistently throughout the components of your personal brand?

Read Part 1,

Read Part 2

Read Part 3

Written by Ron & Alexandra Seigel-
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.

-WATCH VIDEOS-

 Buzz-Worthy Luxury Real Estate Websites  

Personal Branding Case Studies   Company Branding Case Studies  

About Language of Luxury 

 GET FLUENT. GET AFFLUENT! - JOIN THE LOL COMMUNTIY 

 Linked In, Facebook, Active Rain & Twitter

True Confession: How & Why We Fell In Love with a Brand! Part 3

Whenever you are making a choice to buy a product or a service, there are two types of reasons to buy (or engage a service): logical and emotional.  Emotional reasons sell you; Logical reasons justify your choice. Here are the reasons that led us to buy the Nespresso Virtuoline:

Every aspect of packaging is exquisitely designed

Nespresso, has rekindled our love for that single special cup of coffee (or latte, or cappuccino) in the morning with a freshly baked croissant, and the single espresso (with a tidbit of dark chocolate, of course) after dinner upon occasion, a lifestyle element that we so much enjoy when we travel in Europe.

Capsules contain the top 1% of coffee grown in the world.  Nespresso refers to them as Grand Cru (associating with the wine term meaning first crush)

The enormous amount of crema at the top of the coffee not just the espresso is visually appealing; the texture enhances the taste of the coffee.

Brilliant engineering: The capsule spins; it uses centrifugal force to make sure the hot water hits every ground. They call this their “centrifusionTM” technology.  That is the secret behind the abundance of crema.

The Virtuoline model is two machines in one (coffee and espresso). It takes up less counter space.

Easy to clean). Before Nespresso, we considered having two machines (a coffee maker and an espresso machine) a hassle. We stopped making espressos and cappuccinos at home because the cleanup involved was not worth it. 

Easy to use with easy to read well-illustrated directions.

No more coffee filters to buy, and no need to measure coffee

Customer Service:  We joined the Nespresso Club, which makes re-ordering capsules a breeze.  They handle technical service and repair directly

Environmental Consciousness: Used capsules are ejected in the special container part of the machine.  UPS prepaid envelopes are supplied to send all the used capsules back to the firm for recycling and reuse in manufacturing the machines and new capsules.

The Nespresso brand changed our coffee drinking routine completely.  We no longer drink American style coffee and we actually drink less coffee.  We now enjoy the ritual of making coffee itself and take more time to savor each cup.  It is a welcome lifestyle change. 

Stay tuned for the final article in this series as we cover the brilliant brand strategy behind this outstanding luxury lifestyle brand.

Read Part 1,

Read Part 2

Written by Ron & Alexandra Seigel-
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.

True Confession: How & Why We Fell In Love with a Brand!

Last October, we wrote about a new store in Beverly Hills that was under construction. We were impressed by the attention to detail in the graphics on the construction barricade, because it clearly articulated the brand story of Nespresso, the luxury espresso coffee machine company whose parent company, Nestles, pioneered the coffee capsule trend.  

The barricade captured our attention, which is the first step in capturing mind share. But, it was only a mild curiosity. We had no interest in purchasing the machine at the time.

Then, on a subsequent trip to Beverly Hills, and prior to the grand opening, we were able to get a glimpse of the inside of this magnificent store that seemed to be at least 4-5,000 square feet.  It was like an Apple Store for espresso coffee makers and coffeehouse combined.

Our curiosity was peaked.  Why did they build such a large store, especially with so many other coffeehouses like Starbucks within just a few blocks in the Beverly Hills “Golden Triangle”?  

Months later, we are unexpectedly the proud owners of the red machine pictured in the window. We feel that this could very well be the 2014 Language of Luxury brand of the year!

In this article series we will take you on our journey from being skeptics to self-appointed brand ambassadors. You will also understand why we are recommending the Nespresso Virtuoline as an excellent closing gift for your luxury real estate clients who are coffee aficionados and also for YOU!

Written by Ron & Alexandra Seigel-
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.

-WATCH VIDEOS-

 Buzz-Worthy Luxury Real Estate Websites  

Personal Branding Case Studies   Company Branding Case Studies  

About Language of Luxury 

 GET FLUENT. GET AFFLUENT! - JOIN THE LOL COMMUNTIY 

 Linked In, Facebook, Active Rain & Twitter

Is Your Content Marketing Original or Karaoke? Part 2

                   

Your number one challenge as a luxury real estate marketing professional, from a personal branding perspective, is discovering and expressing your own unique voice.  It is something that is vitally important to you if market leadership is your quest.  

Once you discover your voice or your unique point of view, you will find that it was actually obvious, even though it was occluded. Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, of Sherlock Holmes fame once said, “There is nothing more deceptive than an obvious fact”. 

The facts about market statistics in your area are just that; they are facts. Once the facts are reported, they are obvious. But, what is not always obvious is their meaning.  It is within the realm of the interpretation of facts that an original point of view is born. 

You could say that there is nothing new under the sun. So where does originality come into play?

In music there are only 12 musical notes in an octave including sharps and flats. But, there are infinite combinations of notes, tempos, rhythms and timbers especially when more than one octave and more than one instrument is incorporated into a composition.  It is the vision of the composer and the interpretation of the artist, not to mention the particular arrangement that makes music original.

Did you happen to see the recent TV tribute to the 50^th Anniversary of the Beatles appearing on the Ed Sullivan Show in 1964? Each artist’s interpretation of Beatle classics was nothing short of astonishing-totally original!   

Annie Lenox, Stevie Wonder, and Keith Urban were among many who actually improved upon the originals, while still honoring the genius of the Beatles. Even Paul McCartney and Ringo Star, who were in the audience, were both blown away! Had these artists repeated the same notes and the same arrangement it would have simply been karaoke, i.e., parroting the originals.  

To stand out you must be original. If you are committed to achieving market leadership karaoke is not an option.

Is Your Content Marketing Original or Karaoke? Part 1

Written by Ron & Alexandra Seigel-
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.

-WATCH VIDEOS-

 Buzz-Worthy Luxury Real Estate Websites  

Personal Branding Case Studies   Company Branding Case Studies  

About Language of Luxury 

 GET FLUENT. GET AFFLUENT! - JOIN THE LOL COMMUNTIY 

 Linked In, Facebook, Active Rain & Twitter

Is Your Content Marketing Original or Karaoke?

If you are going to proclaim yourself as an expert in a particular niche of your marketplace, make sure that you have your bona fides.  Bona fides means you have a strong track record of listing or selling properties in that community.  A mere market report is not a demonstration of expertise.  Just parroting statistics is like singing karaoke.  It is imitation.

Prior to opening our own commercial real estate firm, our then broker put up billboards, with this quote: “We know every square foot on the Westside! (Los Angeles).  It was true; every agent in that office that specialized in office leasing stayed up to date with that inventory. 

We know several realtors in Santa Barbara who know the history of every home in their chosen niche.  When these experts write a market report, it is with authority based on firsthand experience.  They have either sold the homes themselves or they have shown the properties to prospective clients.   It is anything but Karaoke!  Their content and commentary is original, because of their interpretation of the facts.

With an avalanche of content marketers claiming to be experts on any given subject, it is hard for consumers to distinguish the real experts from the karaoke reporters. If you are going to publish a marketing report as a content marketing strategy, be sure your material reflects your unique point of view.

Is your content marketing original or karaoke?

Written by Ron & Alexandra Seigel-
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.

-WATCH VIDEOS-

 Buzz-Worthy Luxury Real Estate Websites  

Personal Branding Case Studies   Company Branding Case Studies  

About Language of Luxury 

 GET FLUENT. GET AFFLUENT! - JOIN THE LOL COMMUNTIY 

 Linked In, Facebook, Active Rain & Twitter