Luxury Real Estate Marketing: So Five Minutes Ago?

It is said that the only people who like change are babies.  In the last two decades, the new technological advances have disrupted what once seemed to be the order of things.  In marketing luxury real estate or anything else, change is a constant. 

With the rapid means of communication via the Internet, we are aware that we constantly need to reformulate or refresh in order to adapt, (you snooze, you loose).  The experts tell you that yesterday’s marketing plan is so five minutes ago.   How do we stay sane and ready to adapt?

Focus on the fundamentals that represent a constant.  In luxury real estate marketing, the most important fundamental of success is impeccable communication. It is creating an ideal working relationship that gets the desired outcome.  It is only then, that you decide on the latest and greatest technological advance not because everyone says it works, but because it works for your marketplace.

For instance, many experts have insisted that print advertising in real estate is a waste of money.  However, there are many marketplaces where the target market has the paper delivered to them, read the real estate section, or pick up magazines to view the latest listings on the market.  So don’t tell those people that print advertising is so five minutes ago!

In life, we all have fundamental values that we enjoy living with, where we dismiss the technology.  Many enjoy reading books in print, rather than downloading them to their tablet reader, or shopping in stores to feel the fabric and see the colors of clothes they buy, rather than shopping on line.  This is what works for many, their fundamentals of life style.  It may be so five minutes ago for some, but not for others.

As a child living with my grandparents, I remember how every morning my grandfather would wind his pocket watch that sat on his desk.  Although he had a wristwatch, this pocket watch was his favorite timepiece, pictured above.  It was his grandfather’s given to him when he was child.  If he was alive today, I am sure he would wind it everyday, even if he had the latest timepiece.  For him, it would not be so five minutes ago.

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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Luxury Real Estate Branding: Why and How Stand Outs Thrive! # 1

If you are bound and determined to be the go to luxury real estate agent or company, you must find a way to stand out or suffer the consequence of blending into the great bland of business. 

We have a new restaurant, The Lark, in Santa Barbara’s Funk Zone. From the moment they opened 6 months ago, they were busy, and the buzz and raves continue.  What made them successful from the get go?

They identified an under served market niche: the sophisticated Foodie set of the Central Coast who want a healthy, enjoyable meal with a creative twist, sourced by local artisans and purveyors of organic produce.  This market’s psycho-graphics (lifestyle and mindset) has access to 6 Farmers Markets each week, are frequent travelers and have dined in big city restaurants nationally and internationally.

Stay tuned as we dissect step by step in this series why the newly opened The Lark Restaurant in Santa Barbara is an overnight success.

Can you identify your underserved market niche?

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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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.

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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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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Marketing Your Luxury Real Estate Practice: What is Your 2014 Vision?

Vision without action is a daydream.  Action without Vision is a nightmare.  (Japanese proverb)

Have you taken the time to daydream and create your vision for marketing your luxury real estate practice in 2014? Think of a vision like the picture on the box of a jigsaw puzzle.  Inside the box are all the pieces that will create that picture.  Once put together the pieces (representing the action) will duplicate the picture on the box. 

Be sure you love and are passionate about your daydream/vision, or else the actions needed are often abandoned like New Years’ resolutions.  Take the time to daydream and find your perfect picture.  The actions  will be inspired, fun and satisfying.

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Luxury Real Estate Marketing Tip: When Dishing, Focus on Heroes, Not Zeroes!

All professions have tabloid style of stories to tell, and dish about.   However, the stories that make the headlines in the tabloids or the legitimate press are not the only the stories that should be told.  We think the untold story that inquiring minds should hear about are the tales of the heroic gestures that agents often make on behalf of their clients, which go undisclosed.  Here is one of our favorites.

A luxury real estate marketing professional sold a magnificent estate.  The negotiated deal included the majority of the furnishings as well as a piece of art, a serigraph. The seller fell in love with it.  (A serigraph is a silk print of a painting, and has a limited run.  Each print is signed by the artist, and assigned a number such as 2/25, signifying that this is the second print of 25).

As the deal was a week away from closing, the seller requested a meeting with his listing agent.  He decided that he was going to keep the piece of art, and this was non-negotiable. The buyer was out of town, and unreachable.  The agent knew that this change would probably break the deal.  It was time to find the solution to the problem.

Being a lover of art, this individual had connections in the art world.  As luck would have it, there was one available.  This person bought it.  The only difference was the number of the serigraph was different. This professional asked a well respected  framer to duplicate the frame.  Luck reigned: the framer had framed the original one, had all the materials on hand, and so he was able to duplicate it exactly!

It took three days to have the painting back in place. Everyone was happy.  The only one who knew was the seller, who left town after signing all the papers.  The agent was invited for  celebratory glass of champagne in the room where the print hung.  The buyer told this person that one of the reasons, he bought the house was because of the print. 

In our opinion, inquiring minds should dish about heroes and not zeroes in our profession.

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Luxury Real Estate Marketing Tip: Balancing High Tech and High Touch

Luxury real estate marketing professionals are faced with the double-edged sword: the dilemma of finding the balance between high tech and high touch.  In the long run, it is high touch that will win out.  Here is how high tech is currently winning the luxury real estate game and what you can do about it.

Recently we have noticed when searching for a particular property by address, that companies such as Zillow and Trulia are outranking the agents who have the listing. 

We have also noticed right behind Zillow and Trulia are the company brands, then the agents who are promoted by Zillow and Trulia.  The probability is that the listing agent ranks # 4 or #5 in the natural search order.  When searching using keywords for an area, similar results are likely to be found.  Zillow, Trulia and the company brands have more pages indexed by Google than an individual agent or small firm could possibly accumulate. This accounts for their priority ranking.

How can a luxury real estate marketing professional compete in this high tech environment?  Shift your emphasis from high tech to high touch!

Have a great online presence. Make sure you web site is up to date and shows off your listings.  Write a blog with a follow worthy point of view.  Make it so interesting, that people want to subscribe to it, because they know you have the inside scoop, and shows off your expertise.  

Develop a high touch system.   This is something that high tech cannot do.  Although we are all digitally dazzled and connected, realize that the big fundamental secret of caring for your sellers/buyers cannot be transmitted digitally. 

One of our clients is a mortgage broker team.  They attribute their success as the #1 team in their marketplace to their high touches system.  Their referral numbers are through the roof. 

Maintain high visibility in your community.  Our clients have adopted the local elementary schools in honor of their wives who are teachers.  They are always willing to lend a hand by either funding a project or coaching the little league and soccer.  The possibilities for community involvement are endless.

In the bigger picture, high touch will always beat out high tech.  Apple is a high tech company who understood the importance of high touch by caring for their customers unlike any other tech company.  They have just displaced Coca Cola as the #1 highest valued brand in the world. 

Written by Ron & Alexandra Seigel-

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Luxury Real Estate Marketing: The Many Faces of Luxury

As a luxury real estate marketing professional, it is important to understand the many faces and accompanying personalities that define a luxury brand.  The above Beverly Hills camouflage is on Rodeo Drive which is "the" street for the big brands, and now for the soon  to open Tory Burch store. This particular store front camouflage billboard shows the color of the brand and the image of the brand.  We would refer to it as sophisticated luxury, as are the next door neighbors, Cartier and Roberto Cavalli.  In luxury real estate marketing materials, this type of look translates well to metropolitan and urban areas.

This next camouflage facade is located on Beverly Drive, which is one street beyond Rodeo Drive. Beverly Drive retail differs a different experience from Rodeo Drive.  We would refer to it as casual hip relaxed luxury.  It makes sense that Lucky Brand chose to locate there, right next to Nate N Al delicatessen, which has been a Beverly Hills icon for over 65 years.  The other side of the site is Z Gallerie, a  contemporary furniture and home accessories shop.  In marketing materials, this type of look would translate well to the mid luxury range which differs in each marketplace.

In future posts, we will point out more luxury faces and brand personalities.

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Luxury Real Estate Marketing: The Power of Top of Mind Status Part 2

As we stated in part 1, those  luxury real estate marketing professionals who are bent on gaining or sustaining market leadership, achieving top-of-mind status is the ultimate goal.  The first brand name that comes to mind commands the lion’s share of the business in a brand category within a given marketplace or niche therein.  But, dominating a brand category requires the consistent execution of brand strategy.

In our recent travels, we noticed how people are willing to wait in line for a particular brand or service.  The first shot was taken at the Louis Vuitton store in Paris on a Sunday afternoon.  This was the second time we had seen lines there.  No other luxury brand had a line. The Louis Vuitton brand is the #1 brand in the world.  Buying a Louis Vuitton product in Paris (the origin) means even more to the people standing line, than buying it in their hometown, even though Louis Vuitton had stores worldwide including one in Outer Mongolia.

This shot was taken on Rue des Rosiers at “The Ace of Falafels” whose slogan translate as ”always imitated, never equaled”.  We had read in several guidebooks about this restaurant and rave reviews abound.  Just to make sure of the accuracy of these reviews, we asked one of the local merchants, and she was equally enthusiastic about this place.  So, we got in line and had one of the best Middle Eastern lunches.  Waiting in line was worth it.  Right across the street was another falafel place, and no one was waiting there.

Lines create buzz.  It makes one want to find out what all the fuss is about.  When Krispy Kreme was at its peak, and went public, we reported that people were lined up outside at their stores, and prior to the opening of the store in Australia for 48 hours.  Those lines are gone now.  Was it a fad? Or, Was it a lack of consistently executing brand strategy?  What do you think?

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50 Top Luxury Real Estate Markets in the USA: Malibu, CA

From the outside looking in Malibu has a very high profile due, in part, to the paparazzi and the media shining a spotlight on its glamorous surface. Certainly, it is known as getaway for many Hollywood celebrities and titans of business. The sitcom, Two and a Half Men takes place here. Even some Malibu real estate agents became local celebrities when they were featured on the reality TV show, Million Dollar Listing. But, beneath the surface Malibu has the intrinsic values of a small, rural California coastal beach town with a Mediterranean climate and a close-knit community. This, plus its close proximity to the diverse amenities of Los Angeles and easy access to the entire globe, makes Malibu one of the top 50 luxury real estate markets in the world. To view the beautiful homes of Malibu, click below

Click to read more ...

Luxury Real Estate Marketing: Do You Know Your Core Value Proposition?

If you are a luxury real estate marketing professional who is intent on gaining or sustaining market leadership ask yourself this important question:  “What can I do better than anyone else in my marketplace?” Tap into your core value proposition and you will discover how to out-smart your competition.

Facebook’s stock recently jumped 30% because they are getting their mobile advertising act together. Ad revenue jumped 75% over the previous quarter.  Google has seized market dominance with their Android operating system with over 70% market share. This enables the company to put more ads on more screens, which is their core value proposition.

Smart phones enable advertisers to find you based on your present location. Geo-positioning makes smart phones the perfect vehicle to deliver local ads (and special offers for goods and services available locally). We think Jeff Bezos, CEO of Amazon, is concerned about that!  And, that is why he is willing to personally spend $250 million on the Washington Post.

Mr. Bezos must have asked himself the key question about the strengths of Amazon in relationship to Facebook and Google when it comes to local commerce via mobile devises because both of those companies have the potential to siphon off Amazon’s core business—ecommerce.  Billions of dollars are at stake here!

Traditionally, the bread-and-butter revenue of newspapers has been classified ads.  Intermediaries, like Craig’s List, demonstrated that they could get consumers to go directly to their brand of classified ads FIRST.  With a singular focus, Craig’s List became synonymous with classified ads and was catapulted to top-of-mind status in that advertising category.  

NAR conducted a study years ago that demonstrated that homebuyers are more likely to work the first agent they contact when they were ready to buy a home.  That is why Trulia and Zillow want to be the FIRST place home buyers go to search properties rather than on YOUR website. Agents pay these companies to get these leads before you do.

What if Mr. Bezos could convince local merchants to set up stores on Amazon’s affordable Webstore platform (Amazon’s no long-term obligation, robust, eCommerce technology and fulfillment services) and monetize the journalistic content of the Washington Post with transaction-based advertising? A profit sharing model between Amazon and the Post would drive revenues for the newspaper.

Already built into Webstore’s platform are available features for consumers to opt-in to special offer alerts, coupons, etc. Amazon’s peer rating system allows consumers to know which local merchants to trust and ranks merchants based on best current prices on a particular item.  Consumers who already have Amazon accounts could go shopping locally with one click or create a new Amazon account.

What if the newspaper's act of championing the "Shop Local" cause attracted all of the top local merchants? What if the Washington Post e-commerce/mobile commerce/local commerce model proved to be a fiscal winner in the long run? Wouldn’t other local newspapers around the world beat a path to Amazon’s door?

Contemplating your core value proposition and focusing on what you do best as a luxury real estate marketing professional can give you the competitive advantage. Your market leadership is at stake, here! Do you know your core value proposition?

Written by Ron & Alexandra Seigel-

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The Two Biggest Thieves of Time in Our Digital Age: Tech Support & Learning Curves

When marketing luxury real estate, understanding the priority values of your high net worth clients is one of the keys to your success. Fine craftsmanship, innovation, elegance of design, uncompromising quality of materials, and superlative customer service are standards of excellence that must be understood by purveyors of luxury goods and service professionals who cater to this demographic.

No one understood these benchmarks of luxury better than Steve Jobs, who infused these values into every aspect of Apple, the organization and its products. But, the one luxury priority value that Jobs knew that still baffles Apple’s competitors is the luxury of time saved. He understood that tech support and the learning curve are the two biggest thieves of time in the digital age and he set out to counter this by saving customers time.

How does Apple save you time and aggravation? Apple controls the customer experience of using computers and digital devices from end to end. Moreover, every product they produce is fully integrated with the others. An integrated product line saves you time in tech support because there is only one tech support number to call. It also saves your time on the learning curve because the various devices become more intuitive to learn having already understood the basics. According to Jobs,

“People pay us to integrate things for them, because they don’t have time to think about this stuff 24/7. If you have an extreme passion for producing great products, it pushes you to be integrated, to connect your hardware and your software and content management. You want to break new ground, so you have to do it yourself.”

Think about what your time is worth in dollars.Then, the value of saving time and aggravation will become crystal clear. Here are some questions to ponder:

1. How much time did you spend in tech support last year? How much did that cost you in time if one of your hours is worth $100-500.
2. How many different tech support providers did you need to go to for help because your computers and devices use separate operating systems or were manufactured by separate companies?
3. How much time did you spend on the learning curve to use your various computers and digital devises?

If you are lucky enough to live near one of Apple’s physical stores you can have unlimited one-on-one sessions with an Apple expert for $100 per year! If you have a specific project that you are working on and have questions you can also join a group session and get the personal help you need as needed.

Tech support via the phone is with support representatives who reside within your country and speak your language the way you do. This costs Apple 50% more than outsourcing tech support. But, the user experience is superlative.

As a luxury real estate marketing professional, how can you save time for your clients and for yourself? Perform a Time-saving Audit. See our next post to learn how.

Written by Ron & Alexandra Seigel-

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Luxury Real Estate Marketing: Maintaining Your Orbital Marketing Perspective

As a luxury real estate marketing professional it is easy to get bogged down with the day-to-day activities of“transaction engineering” and neglect the life-blood of your business: promotion and marketing. Sometimes you need to step back from your practice to regain your “orbital marketing prospective”. It is only when you view your practice from a broader perspective that out-of-the-box thinking is possible.

Opportunities to out-think and out-market your competition abound. This weekend we noticed that not a single real estate firm or agent sponsored one of the most well-attended community events of the year in our town of Santa Barbara, California. What an great opportunity for standing out this was!

"I Madonnari, or street painters transformed the Santa Barbara Mission Plaza using pastels on pavement to create 150 vibrant and colorful, large scale images. The festival benefits the Children's Creative Project, a nonprofit arts education program of the Santa Barbara County Education offices. "The project serves 50,000 children in more than 100 schools with visual and performing arts workshops and performances throughout", according to their website. This event is in partnership with Santa Barbara's sister city in Italy, Grazie di Curtatone.

The opportunity to promote your name or your company as a sponsor was affordable. It ranged from the smallest ($125 for 4' x 6' format vertical format) to the largest (12’ x 12’ for $650). In addition, your name is on the festival poster, it is inscribed on the pavement at the base of the Mission steps, it appears in full-page newspaper advertisements and also appears on the festival kiosk. The local news covers the event on TV which amplifies the effectiveness of your sponsorship.

You could either provide the painter, or the Children's Creative Project would provide the painter. Given what most luxury real estate marketing professionals spend to promote themselves, this was a no brainer.

As hard as it may seen at times, you simply must take the time to regain your orbital marketing perspective. Step back and identify opportunities to out-smart your competition. That is the surest route to soaring in your luxury real estate marketing practice.

Like the kids represented in this year's pavement pastel chalk painting, being backyard orbital explorers and looking out of their box/spaceship it is time to explore your own backyards for out-of-the box opportunities to promote yourself. That means to make yourself well known and well thought of!

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Luxury Real Estate Marketing: How to Stop Companies from Tracking You Online

Courtesy of Firefox

Privacy is a luxury, and it is of paramount importance to the people who buy and sell luxury real estate..  Here are some ways that you can insure it, at least for yourself.

According to a CNN article, we discovered that Internet “BIG” Data Mining & Brokering companies now represents “a $300 billion-a-year business that employs 3 million people in the United States alone” according to McKinsey Global Institute.  Focusing more on big data is most likely an important reason for merger talks between the 2^nd and 3^rd largest global advertising firms, so they can better compete with the likes of Google and Facebook—the biggest aggregators of personal information on earth. 

The largest company, Acxiom, provides “analytical services” on 144 million households.  They are aware of your name, your phone number, where you live, your buying habits and much more. You may wish to have Internet sites know your personal preferences, with your deliberate permission.  That way they can recommend products and services to you.  But, there are now hundreds if not thousands of sites that are potentially tracking or even stalking Internet users (and their kids), sites that they may not know about.

Do Not Track

To get a better idea of how this phenomenon has grown exponentially in recent years please watch this brief TED Talk video, by Firefox CEO Gary Kovacs. Prepare to be amazed! Fortunately, there is something you can do about this on Firefox (click here).

Delete Me / Mask Me

The CNN report also pointed us to Abine.com that has tools to delete your personal information on the Internet. According to Abine, “Nearly everything you do leaves a trace, and data brokers collect this information to create and sell public profiles about you”.  Their subscription based service, DeleteMe,  removes:

• Your public profile from leading data sites
• Contact, personal, and social information
• Photos of you, your family, and your home

You can also stop giving out your personal information online altogether, with their other service MaskMe. Says Abine, “No company can guarantee that they will keep your data private. If you give out your email, phone, or credit card number, you now have to assume it's recorded and potentially shared, lost, or stolen. Now you can simply stop giving it out with MaskMe”.

Beware of companies that pretend to offer a “do not track” service.  Some are actually tracking companies in disguise.  Privacy is definitely a luxury.  But, it is up to you, individually, to protect your own.

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Luxury Brand Strategy: Is Privacy the New Luxury Expenditure? Part 3

MEERKAT SURVEILLANCE TEAM

Personal privacy on the Internet is one of the most important topics in current events today.   Is privacy truly the new luxury expenditure?  Would you pay for a subscription to Google or the social media platforms if your privacy was guaranteed, and all ads were on an opt-in basis? Or would you hire a pair of meerkats?

The Snowden affair is an indication of the state of privacy on the Internet.  “Snowden was an employee and technical contractor for the United States National Security Agency, and a former employee of the Central Intelligence who leaked details of several top-secret United States and British government mass surveillance programs to the press.” (Wikipedia)  This surveillance included information obtained from Google, Verizon, Facebook, Yahoo, Amazon, and Microsoft.

His disclosures have fueled a variety of debates branding him a hero/whistleblower or a traitor.  His stand is “to inform the public as to that which is done in their name (the war on terror) and that which is done against them”(the 4^th amendment).

Here is the excerpt from the Bill of Rights, and is known as the 4^th amendment.

“The right of the people to be secure in their persons, houses, papers, and effects, against unreasonable searches and seizures, shall not be violated, and no Warrants shall issue, but upon probable cause, supported by Oath or affirmation, and particularly describing the place to be searched, and the persons or things to be seized.”

In an article in the Guardian, a British newspaper, John Naughton (a newspaper columnist) writes in an editorial piece, that the media is telling the wrong story: “the story here is where the proper balance between freedom and security lies”.   The most important outcome of this he feels is that the days of the Internet as a truly open global network are numbered if governments can demand wholesale information on its citizens activities.  And, how do you divide the Internet and which country is watching what and whom?

In conclusion, Mr. Naughton quotes Neelie Kroes, vice president of the European commission, "If businesses or governments think they might be spied on," she said, "they will have less reason to trust the cloud, and it will be cloud providers who ultimately miss out. Why would you pay someone else to hold your commercial or other secrets, if you suspect or know they are being shared against your wishes? Front or back door – it doesn't matter – any smart person doesn't want the information shared at all. Customers will act rationally and providers will miss out on a great opportunity."

What do you think?

Written by Ron & Alexandra Seigel-

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Luxury Brand Strategy: No More Naked Popcorn

“Small Indulgences” is an important product and service area of luxury brand strategy and marketing.  It does not mean that the item has to cost a lot. The cosmetic industry thrives on this principle of small indulgences. Starbucks built a global empire on it. 

Not long ago, a college student from Chicago made it big by identifying an uncontested small indulgence market niche. He dominates a product category that he himself defined and is passionate about. Meet Brian Taylor, CEO of Kernel Season’s the popcorn seasoning company.  

Brian has a mission:  To rid the world of naked popcorn.  He started out by getting a local movie theatre to test-market his products for free.  This grew into a multi million-dollar business based on Brian’s love for popcorn and his curiosity about seasoning it. Now you can find Kernel Season’s (cleverly similarity to Colonel Sanders of KFC chicken fame) in the popcorn isle of most supermarkets. 

The brand name itself tells you what the brand is. It even has an avatar like the Colonel.  The slogan, “No More Naked Popcorn”, tells you, in just four words, exactly what the brand stands for.  

There is no mistaking what this new product category is or in which larger category this niche belongs. It is also intuitive where you would find the products in your local market-right next to the popcorn. 

Type in the search term, “popcorn seasoning”, in Google and this brand will come up first. But, not because of brilliant SEO work. There just is not much competition in this field.  That is the beauty of identifying an underserved or uncontested market niche as a luxury brand strategy.

Written by Ron & Alexandra Seigel-

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Luxury Real Estate Marketing: Impeccability--Are You Up to the Challenge?

A touchstone is a benchmark or a mental yardstick that one uses to see if things or experiences measure up to this standard. Dining at Les Crayères, in the Champagne region of France is one of our touchstones for excellence in fine dining in a majestic setting with impeccable service. 

We first heard about Les Crayères just one year after it opened in the 80’s, and stayed in one of the 20 rooms at this fully restored classic French Château for a weekend we have never forgotten.  On our recent trip to Paris we returned to Les Crayères to celebrate Alexandra’s birthday, just for lunch. The trip took under one hour from Paris via the amazing TGV train traveling at about 250 miles per hour. 

When we arrived we were graciously greeted and escorted to the outdoor patio that overlooks a spectacular park with acres of lawn. We were served some delightful tidbits to amuse our taste buds and to accompany a wonderful glass of Bollinger Rose Champagne from the region.

Then we were called indoors to the dining room to indulge in a French gastronomic extravaganza that exceeded our extremely high expectations and our memory from of our first experience there.  

The meal was sublime and the service was, once again, impeccable.  What we appreciated the most was the level of consistency that has been maintained over time by this fine establishment.  It was as if time had not elapsed between visits. And, that was remarkable!

As a purveyor of luxury goods or a provider of luxury services impeccability is a standard worthy of striving for in your business or profession.   To embody this standard requires a commitment to excellence over time. Are you up to the challenge? 

Written by Ron & Alexandra Seigel-

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Luxury Marketing Tip: NO MONEY, NO HONEY! What if We Had Baidu?

Photo by flylosky

When we attended the Club eLuxe International Summit in Paris, we learned about the Baidu business model.  Baidu,Inc (pronounced By- doo in English) is the Chinese equivalent of Google whose user interface is very similar to Google. The name “Baidu”, according to the company, was inspired by a poem that was written during the Song Dynasty, 800 years ago.  The literal meaning of Baidu is “hundreds of times represents persistent search for the ideal.”

Baidu ranks as one of the top 10 sites in the world according to Alexa.com, with a 98% share of the Chinese market.  In December of 2007, it became the first Chinese company to be included in the NASDAQ-100 Index.  

Just today, Bloomberg said the company has struck a deal “for $1.9 billion to acquire the majority stake in China’s most popular third-party store for smartphone apps. This move mimics Google Inc. when they backed the Android operating system and started its own app store to gain share against Apple Inc.”

Their business model is very simple:  “No Money, No Honey!” There is no search engine optimization with Baidu, no convoluted algorithms, no “natural”, or “organic” search engine or social media contortions to gain a higher ranking. Baidu generates revenue from its pay for placement platform (P4P). The P4P platform is an online marketplace that introduces Internet search users to those businesses who bid the most money for top placement with defined keywords.

From our perspective a Baidu business model could be a colossal time saver.  Many would be writing blogs for enjoyment, instead of writing posts for search engine robots and artificial results. Social media as we know it today would be social and not another means of high ranking on Google.   

Perhaps, there are many people who do not realize that time is money. The belief is that it is “free” to write unoriginal, keyword-laden blog posts, and “free” to keep up with Google’s ever-changing algorithms, an exhausting pursuit. Also, one would not need to be present and accounted for on every social media platform.

How much is your time worth?  That is the real question. Would it be easier and ultimately less expensive to just pay to be #1 on Google, free up more quality time for yourself, your friends and your family where the real honey is?  What do you think?

Written by Ron & Alexandra Seigel-

Luxury Real Estate Marketing Tip: Luxury is a Soul Supplement

Part 1

Reaching international buyers is increasingly becoming a significantly component of your luxury real estate marketing practice.  For that reason it is important to understand what luxury means to those in foreign countries because it can vary dramatically.  But, what you will find is a common thread shared between luxury real estate buyers worldwide.  Thoroughly understanding this universal principle can help you accelerate the speed of trust with all new clients and also can give you a tremendous competitive edge. 

In our own strategic branding practice for luxury real estate agents and brokers worldwide we constantly look for new definitions of luxury.  We found this very profound definition in the primary title of a book written by Jean Philippe Warren, professor of sociology and anthropology at Concordia University in Canada:  Le Supplément d’ âme (“the supplement of the soul”).  We interpret this as “that which feeds or adds to the soul”. 

And, herein lies, the universal principle that can help you understand luxury buyers and better speak their language.  You need to determine, what feeds the soul of your client!  

In this article series we will provide you with the clues to watch for when you first meet your luxury buyer by phone, via email or in person. Identifying this vital value profile can propel you to make more sales and exponentially expand your referral base. Stay tuned for Part 2 of this series! 

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Luxury Real Estate Marketing Trends: The Tech Free Get Away

There is a trend emerging among luxury real estate buyers when it comes to their second or third homes.  As a luxury real estate marketing professional, have you heard any outcries from your clients about their need to get away from it all? Many buyers are now looking for beauty and solitude: no email, no cellphones and \social obligations.

In the US, the state of Maine has over 4,000 islands that offer the perfect getaway.  These islands are accessible by boat from the mainland.  Some of these islands have no plumbing, power lines or paved roads.   Many of these buyers build homes that are self sufficient with solar power, composting toilets, and gravity driven cisterns for drinking water.

According, to Privateislandsonline.com, “The majority of American private islands properties are located near the eastern seaboard, especially in Maine, New York and Florida. Islands for sale in the US range from tropical Florida Keys to rugged lodges in Alaska”.

Internationally, there are some interesting places for the total getaway, according to the Wall Street Journal.  Here are some of their choices for truly remote locations:

1. The Kimberley Region, in Northern Australia
2. Langkawi, Malaysia
3. The Northern Coast of Ecuador

It would be a good idea to get acquainted with luxury real estate marketing professionals who are specializing in island properties nationally and internationally, so that you can be in the know, when your world-weary client wants to get away!

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