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Personal & Company Branding: All You Need Is Love

“All You Need is Love”-- Lennon-McCartney

“All you need is love. But a little chocolate now and then doesn't hurt--Charles M. Schulz, Creator of “Peanuts”

As a luxury real estate marketing professional, emotional branding can sharply differentiate you from your competitors. First you need to romanticize your marketplace. Then, you need to create the perfect personal branding message so that potential clients experience “love at first sight” or on their first encounter with you.

People like to do business with people they trust. Excellent branding is all about accelerating the speed of trust. The faster you can attract and convert potential clients into and an ever-increasing base of raving fans the more money you will make through referrals.

Emotions compel people to act faster than logic. That is why emotional branding is so important. Luxury real estate marketing professionals who are passionate about their marketplace and their job have a greater chance of attracting more clients. Passionate people are like natural magnets. They draw like-minded people toward themselves. If you can capture that passion in your branding and on your website your website can become a silent salesperson for you.

Think of branding like packaging. People who do not know a product will more than likely buy the product based on its packaging. This is true of books, of wine labels and believe it or not, it is true when it comes to selecting a real estate agent. Prospects searching for homes on the web from outside of your geographic area do not know one agent from another. Agents’ websites are basically seen as a commodity. You usually can get the same basic information on any half-way decent agent website. In this scenario, you have a nano-second to make a first impression, to stand out and engage your prospect.

Today there is a glut of wine on the market. Competition is extremely stiff in this industry. As a consumer, if you are not a connoisseur how can you tell one from the other? Fine chocolate has also become commoditized. Chocolate growers have followed in the footsteps of wine growers creating appellations for differentiation purposes, based on the “terroir” or earth in which it is grown.

But, when it comes to the point of sale, how does a consumer who is not a connoisseur know one brand from the other? Trader Joe's markets has built a brand that commands a very high level of trust among its loyal customers. When they put their brand name on a product it usually is worth at least a try.

Trader Joe's understands the value of emotional branding. They did not just call their dark chocolate bar “Trader Joe’s Chocolate”. They named it, “The Dark Chocolate Lovers' Bar”. For the connoisseur they also added this to their packaging: “smooth & fruity from the Tumaco Region of Columbia." The chocolate connoisseur may appreciate these “chocolate notes” (like wine descriptions), recognize this appellation and make a buying decision based on logic. But, average consumers (we are talking about the masses now) who love dark chocolate will grab the package for the first time just based on the name and the festive South American graphic design.

When you are reaching for market leadership your branding must appeal both to logic and to emotions. But, you will find that emotions are the fastest way to the heart of the majority of new prospects when they are in the process of selecting a agent to represent them.

PS. One of our favorite brands is Valhona pictured above with the purple arrow made from the finest African chocolate. As unabashed chocolate lovers and self appointed experts of dark chocolate, we also tried TJ's Dark Chocolate Lover's Bar and enjoyed the "fruity taste." Now we have added another favorite to our list. We educated our palate in the process but that was secondary. -Ron & Alexandra Seigel

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Tuesday, November 29, 2011

Luxury Real Estate Marketing: Brand In Alignment with Beauty

Here is a quick personal branding quiz:

What is most important when crafting your persional brand?

Self expression
Designing to meet the aethetic expectatons of your target market
Capturing attention with the WOW factor!
Standing out from your competition
All of the above

If you answered (5), all of the above, you are correct. Creating a personal brand is truly a balancing act!

Capturing attention and standing out from your competition are both very important when crafting your personal brand as a luxury real estate marketing professional. However, the two most treacherous traps that luxury real estate marketing professionals fall into when attempting to brand themselves are these:

Factoring out the aesthetic expectations of their target market thinking that self expression is all that is needed
Factoring out their personality, values and personal aesthetic preferences to please their target market.

Either one of these extremes is a recipe for failure in personal branding.

Certainly, you have heard the expression “beauty is in the eyes of the beholder”. There is no question that aesthetics is a subjective value judgment. To some contemporary art design and architecture is the ultimate expression of the human spirit, while traditionalists see no value in it at all. But, when it comes to branding, the entire exercise is to make the subjective, objective. Brand comes first and then in alignment with beauty.

If you work in a conservative marketplace this objective fact must be respected if market leadership is your quest. Too much shock value may keep you out of the winners circle. The objective measurement is whether or not you are attracting the number of clients that you need to reach your goal. There are ways to express yourself to a conservative audience without offending them and still feel that you have not compromised your sense of self expression. Find a way to express yourself in your personal life if outrageousness is your “thing”, like the owners of these luxury cars (Mercedes and Jaguar) depicted in this article.

But, trying to please everyone is impossible. Trying to be all things to all people is likewise futile. Leaving YOU out of the branding equation eliminates perhaps the most important key to branding success: authenticity.

When we conduct a strategic brand analysis in our consulting practice, we dial into all of these factors in the quiz above to establish our client’s “brand signal”. It is like finding the right combination when all of the tumblers click into place and the brand “unlocks”.

Once you amplify your authentic brand signal and reach your target market through focused communication, those who resonate with that signal with naturally gravitate to it. Therefore, it is essential to place brand before beauty. You must sharply differentiate yourself from your competitor and you must do so with a wow factor. But, with aesthetics, you must also strike the perfect balance between your personal tastes and the values of your target market.

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Monday, November 28, 2011

Marketing Luxury Real Estate: What Are You Trying to Say?

As a luxury real estate marketing professional, it is important that you get your marketing message laser sharp. You must speak to your target market in a language that they understand using words that resonate precisely with their mindset. The faster you can communicate your extraordinary promise of value in a way that addresses their most pressing needs the quicker they will want to do business with you.

Apart from referrals, open houses and yard signs, your website is the place where most consumers discover you for the first time. Does your website instantly communicate who you are, how you are different and how you stand out from your competition? Think of your website as a retail store. Does your site compel people to walk in to discover more?

We walked by the window of the Louis Vuitton store in Santa Barbara, California on Thanksgiving weekend, one of the most important weekends of the year for retailers. After “scratching our heads”, wondering what this was all about we just had to take a photo and write this post about messaging.

You can see what we saw in the window depicted above. An elephant doing an “hand stand” on a plank that is balanced on a ball with a designer purse on the opposite end of the plank lifting the elephant. What message does convey to you? Does it make you want to enter the store to shop? Does it make you want to buy that particular item? To whom are they attempting to communicate?

Unless this store is a destination for you because you already know the brand and you intend to shop there for the Holidays, this is a huge missed opportunity to draw in new customers. Window design is an art form in luxury retail stores throughout Europe. With so much competition for attention you only have seconds to capture the the attention of prospective customers. How can you expect to increase sales if you cannot draw customers in the store in the first place.

The same applies to marketing luxury real estate and to marketing YOU. Get your messaging spot on and you will dramatically see an increase fin the number of prospects that convert to clients and sales.

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Monday, November 21, 2011

50 Top Luxury Real Estate Markets in the USA: Channel Island Region, CA

We began this article series on 50 Top Luxury Real Estate Markets in the USA in Santa Barbara, California and its adjacent wine country, the Santa Ynez Valley. But, the Santa Barbara Region is only one of the four regions that comprise California’s Central Coast which begins just north of Los Angeles and Malibu (and just south of Santa Barbara) in an area called the Channel Island Region. The other two Central Coast Regions (north of Santa Barbara) are San Luis Obispo (known for the Hearst Castle) and Monterey (famous for Carmel, Big Sur and Pebble Beach). By far, the least known hidden gem of California’s Central Coast is the Channel Island Region, home to the coastal cities of Ventura and Oxnard.

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Thursday, November 17, 2011

Luxury Real Estate Marketing: Practical Luxury

We often hear that time is money. Having time to enjoy the good things in life is a luxury. Yet, sometimes we are lured by lower prices or special offers, thinking we are saving money, when doing so can actually waste time. Sometimes, paying more seems impractical. But, think again! Think about the concept of practical luxury. As a luxury real estate marketing professional, how much is your hour worth?

Have you ever been offered a dollar to complete a survey that takes 10 minutes of your time? That means that your time is worth only $6 per hour. At a new upscale shopping center we were offered $10 to complete a survey that only took 3 minutes. That equated to $200 per hour--a much better return on our time spent, especially for effortless work. But, the key here is to stay focused on what your time is worth.

With gas prices skyrocketing, many are lured by gas stations wars. Depicted here are two gas stations catty corner from each other. Union 76 always has lower prices than its competitor, Chevron, across the street. The majority of time, the owner of Union 76 is directing traffic around the narrow pump aisles, making sure that everyone is on the correct side of the pump. At peak times, people are lined up to fill up while their engines are still running.

At the Chevron station there is no wait whatsoever. There are more pumps and wider aisles for easy access. What is your time worth while you are waiting to save a couple of bucks? If your car uses premium gasoline you are spending $2.00 more per fill up of 20 gallons. However, you are quickly in and out of the gas station. You can get to where you are going quicker and in a better mood. Now that is practical luxury! Are you worth it?

The best luxury real estate marketing professionals thoroughly understand the mindset of their clients and target market. This nuance of practical luxury can give you an insight as to why some affluent people do not bother to comparison shop. While, there are those who became affluent because of a very frugal mindset. Neither is better. Some just value their time in different ways.

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Tuesday, November 15, 2011

Luxury Real Estate Marketing: No-Tech Marketing

No-Tech marketing can pack a bigger wallop than internet marketing. As a luxury real estate marketing professional it is important to have a balance of high-tech and no-tech marketing, as part of your strategy to achieve top-of-mind status in your marketplace. Here are two examples.

Gelson's Market Santa Barbara

Gelson’s Markets like many other markets or food specialty stores in the USA prepares a takeout Thanksgiving dinner. You can order in accordance to the number of people you are hosting. The dinner is complete with hors d’oeuvres, side dishes and dessert. Additionally, they will suggest the perfect wines for the occasion. This season, they added no-tech marketing to their promotion. Last Saturday you could come to the store between the hours of 11AM to 2PM, to sample an entire Thanksgiving meal, without wine.

Williams Sonoma-Santa Barbara

Williams Sonoma had a special sale on all the cookware, accessories, and foods one may need to prepare a gourmet Thanksgiving dinner. This included their special cranberry relish, gravy, spices and more. You can even sign up for free cooking classes this week on how to make Thanksgiving easier. During the classes, their chefs will be demonstrating time saving techniques.

The net result in both cases is increased good will and customer loyalty which, in the long term will pay off handsomely for both stores. How can you implement no-tech marketing in your luxury real estate marketing strategy?

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