Real Estate Brand Strategy: 3 Ways to Deal with Zillow/Trulia Merger!

Here are three ways to deal with what appears to be the inevitable merger of Zillow and Trulia.

Outspend Your Competition

Steve Murray, President of Real Trends mentioned in an article on CNN that some agent teams are spending up to $20,000 a month to appear on the Zillow/Trulia listing pages. With the merger both entities can charge more for their combined Internet exposure of a 130 million visitors a month.  By spending more you can outdistance your competition.

For example, Douglas Elliman recently paid Zillow an undisclosed amount to make sure that all leads generated by their listings go directly to the agent who has listed the property and no other competing agent’s profile is allowed on their pages.  They created an exclusive relationship which boosts the traffic to their website.  Their main offices are in the city of New York and New York does not have an MLS, which in turn benefits Zillow as it lacked a New York presence.  If your pockets are deep enough, this is a viable option.

Outthink Your Competition

Find a brand strategy that will help you secure top-of-mind status in your marketplace. Real estate is local and the more you stand out in your local community as a caring business person, the more likely you will be sought after for listing or buying a property. 

One of our local companies here in Santa Barbara County supports the teachers in the communities they have offices in.  They have a fund to help teachers’ special projects. This strategy can influence the teaching community and the parents to think of them first when it comes to real estate.

Don’t Worry, Be Happy!

Some of the best agents build a strong referral base and are not dependent on any third party lead generation.

What will you do, OUTSPEND, OUTTHINK, OR BE HAPPY AND NOT WORRY?

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.

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 Buzz-Worthy Luxury Real Estate Websites  

Personal Branding Case Studies   Company Branding Case Studies  

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Luxury Real Estate Branding: Communicating with Colors

There is an entire psychology of color that goes into crafting luxury brands.  This applies to personal and company brands. Certain colors and color combination evoke strong emotions and are also associated with certain things in the minds of your target market.  It is important to become aware of what you are communicating with your brand colors.

When you think of the color combination, Green and Red, what is the first thing that comes to mind?  If you are like most people Christmas immediately is associated with this color duo.  As a result, you rarely will see this combination used when crafting a brand.  But, there is much more to this brand story when you think outside of the holiday gift box.

By using variations of reds and greens tones you can create some spectacular themes.  If additional colors are added to the theme you can evoke excitement and vibrancy, festive emotions.  Setting the right tone and the right mood is an integral part of communicating your brand’s primary message.

The proportions of the two colors can change the brand message all together, making it more or less sophisticated.  For example, Alitalia uses red very sparingly, but still represents the colors of the Italian flag that has equal portions of green read and white.

The more you tune into colors and how they are used in branding the more you can learn about the art of communicating with colors.  What colors are you using in your personal brand?  Do they accurately represent you and your personal brand’s message?

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 COMMUNITY

Luxury Real Estate Marketing :Hope Marketing or Face-to-Face Marketing?

Luxury brands with significant budgets are constantly keeping track of their various marketing campaigns and assessing which ones bring the best ROI, (Return on Investment of time and money.) As a luxury real estate marketing professional, there are lessons to learn from these savvy brand managers. 

In the past few years, many of the top brands have engaged award winning videographers, writers and directors to produce videos about their latest offering, and also their heritage in order to engage their target market. Their goal is to increase brand recognition, brand loyalty and brand retention.   These videos were distributed on many social media with high hopes. These efforts and many more fall into the category of what we call “hope marketing”. 

What has become clear to the luxury industry is that face-to-face experience including live events is what drives the ROI in the right direction. For instance, artisans of high-end jewelry brands attended some of these events to demonstrate the intricacies of how to choose the right gem and how to set it. This type of experiences is educational and interesting.  It creates a connection with the brand and the people behind it.  It engenders loyalty and word of mouth referrals,

According to a survey by Wealth X, over 84% of the top 1000 luxury brands hosted events that focused on making a connection with their market.  62% of those who kept statistics found significant increase in the ROI.

How can you increase your face-to-face marketing and decrease your hope marketing?

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 COMMUNITY

Real Estate Branding: Premium Is The Added Value That Defines Luxury

Borderfree is another nomination for the LOL Luxury Brand of the Year because it helps us to define the essence of a luxury in a unique way.  Borderfree helps USA retailers potentially reach 2 billion foreign consumers by managing retail logistics including customs, shipping and returns hassle-free for retailers and consumers. According to Borderfree, “50% of consumers say they will pay more for a better customer experience”.  And, that PREMIUM (Added Value) is what makes it a luxury brand.

When a foreign consumer shops on the websites of participating retailers, the site is translated into 60 languages and currencies.  Duty, taxes and shipping costs are automatically calculated based on the shipping destination, and paid for upon checkout by the consumer. Some of Borderfree’s clients include Barney’s New York, Neiman Marcus, Saks Fifth Avenue, and Bloomingdales.   

They also offer foreign consumers a USA shipping address where Borderfree repackages USA goods purchased from any number of USA online stores, like Amazon, and then ships the combined merchandise efficiently to reduce shipping costs to the consumer.

Now, from a branding perspective, how do you distill and convey this extraordinary promise of value in a brand name and a logo and the messaging on their website?  These are the cornerstones of our job as brand strategists for the luxury real estate industry.

Take a close look at the logo. The “B” has no borders.  The four corners are triangles pointing in all directions.  The brand name says it all.  Once you here it once you will easily remember it because it names the entire value proposition in with just a few letters.  The very character spacing of B O R D E R F R E E communicates the freeing up of previously closed markets, an untapped reservoir of consumers for retailers and also the hassle-free user experience for which consumers are willing to pay a PREMIUM.

Check out Borderfree.com.  Notice the economy of words and images they use to explain their extraordinary promise of value. It is all distilled again in their three-word slogan: “Going Global. Simplified”.

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