My understanding of brand comes from a textbook understanding acquired in school and later honed on Madison Ave.
Put simply, a brand is a face you present to the world backed by a set of principles and promises unique to you. Those principles and promises should be woven through your company’s employees, products and services and understood clearly by anyone who comes into contact with them.
Disney built a brand around a promise to deliver wholesome family entertainment. That promise lives in every one of their brand touch points (programming, retail operations, theme parks, etc.). As a result, the Disney brand has become synonymous with family entertainment the world over.
The benefits this creates for Disney and other successful brands are indisputable. A well-executed brand owns a sizable piece of real estate inside a consumer’s mind.
What makes a brand
Pictured here is the Zappos “Culture Book,” a copy of which arrived at my house a couple weeks. Inside are excerpts from hundreds of statements written by employees
that describe what Zappos means to them.
A common theme ensues from these excerpts. This occurs because at the very root of Zappos lie a set of unwavering principles and promises. Every decision, every action, must answer to them.
The result is breathtaking. The Zappos pledge is delivered through every pore in the company’s body. They have ensured that the brand means exactly the same thing to everyone touched by it.
The Zappos brand would hardly enjoy the success it has today (millions of customers, rocketing sales, expansion into new categories) if every one of those employees had a different sense of what Zappos means.
This kind of success, unfortunately, is all too rare in real estate, where the lines many brands cast out into the marketplace contain no bait.
Assign this line of thinking to any real estate company. What makes Bob’s Realty different from Dave’s Realty? Personally, I couldn’t even begin to tell you. My guess is most people inside these companies can’t either.
In these times, that could mean disaster.
A simple brand test
Last week, while delivering a presentation on branding, I asked each attendee what their personal brand stood for. Most said it was customer service.
So I gave them a simple brand test:
I asked if they could recite the greeting that currently resides on their voice mail. After all, if customer service defines their brand, they should be aware of what their message says — especially given the fact that they were in the middle of a daylong meeting.
Most could not recall.
Some had a hunch.
One person knew.
I paused, questioning whether they had even built a brand at all.
Are you a brand or just a recognized name known for being around a while?
It’s important to ask yourself this question and get clear on the answer because the time and money you are investing in “building your brand” today may in fact be misdirected.
Who are you? What makes you different? What are the principles and promises that define you? What do you do to enforce them?
Nike employees 350 people to oversee their brand. How many have you employed?
If you determine you’ve gotten off track, you can get back on.
Target did it.
Cadillac did it (pre-meltdown).
You can too.
There are lots of ways to do it today:
The brand Obama does it on Facebook.
Scion does it through its website
JetBlue does it through Twitter
Victoria’s Secret reveals it on YouTube
Kodak snaps it through their blog
So instead of placing more forms on your website pages, or throwing gobs of cash at SEO, or creating web pages full of platitude graffiti, think about promises, principles and creating a culture that reverences them.
Try the Zappos shoe on for size.
- Davison
Twitter: 1000wattmarc
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I think that most agents and brokers miss the mark because they are trying to be too many things to too many people.
We see this whenever we go through a brand positioning exercise.
For (Target Audience), (Brand Name) is the only (business category) that (Unique Offering).
Or in the case of Disney, For Families with Children, (Disney) is the only (Entertainment company) that (delivers wholesome entertainment through every media channel).
Try it for a real estate agent – it is hard.
For Buyers, Sellers, Investors, Realtor Name is the only Realtor that what?
The target audience is often too large. To get around this, agents need to pick a specialty and stop trying to be all things to all people.
Once an agent picks a side like seller agent. Then it gets a little easier as the Realtor can focus on marketing sauce as a unique offering. Choosing a specialty does not preclude the agent from handling a variety of transactions, but it allows them to gain recognition for a unique identifier.
All doctors can treat most illness, but they market their unique specialties to build a successful practice. Same is true of other professionals like lawyers, accountants and insurance brokers. Perhaps we only need to look at those brands in our marketplace to find good branding examples (and smile at the poor ones).
This interview of Tony by Loic Leeeemeeuuuuur is worth a watch:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WZpU8oIT8tM
Great post Marc. So simple, but true. I think the root of this is that people have trouble defining their brand, and often simply get caught in the aesthetics. A great friend/mentor of mine suggests taking the concept of a "7 word bio" and applying it to your Real Estate brand. What makes you you? What makes you special/different? All in 7 words or less. If you can craft a suitable "7 word bio", it will be no problem build this into the foundation of your brand, and/or refocus & get your brand back on track.
Dave,
Yes. It starts with a simple answer to a simple question: What do you stand for? Write that answer down, paste it inside your brain and make sure everything you do supports it.
Something should be said for Zappos completely different approach to Customer Service too.
They've literally reinvented the wheel.
I'm not sure if their Harvard Business School case studies are publicly available but if you can get your hands on one do so immediately.
The one on why they pay people to not take a job is fascinating and can directly apply to any job field (even Real Estate). The key point is that once a prospective customer service representative reaches the end of the interview process they can either have a job or $1200 (the exact amount is not coming to my mind at the moment, but it's irrelevant to the point). The workers who take the money are not allowed to re-apply for the job and are clearly not invested in the company and not happy to work there: thus not able to provide customer service that would live up to Zappos standards.
$2000 is the amount. Read the culture book. It's literally like an I-Ching for anyone trying to build a brand. Just open to any page, read what written and you will be enlightened.
$2000 is the amount. Read the culture book. It's literally like an I-Ching for anyone trying to build a brand. Just open to any page, read what written and you will be enlightened.
Great post, Marc.
One thing I've run across in writing my Counterinsurgency series is just how seriously the military takes its "brand" and "culture".
Honor. Duty. Country.
Semper Fidelis.
Those aren't just silly words or a stupid slogan to them. They really take it seriously.
Examples in the training literature and surrounding literature about training a young man to become a U.S. Marine is filled with an overwhelming emphasis on "character".
This really is no different from what Zappos does — it is indoctrination in the core principles of the organization.
As a result, I somewhat disagree with Victor's formulation of brand:
For (Target Audience), (Brand Name) is the only (business category) that (Unique Offering).
I think in the Networked world, where things change so fast, brand positioning is less important than defining and indoctrinating the principles.
Trouble with real estate brands is that they do not have this "core principle"; small groups/teams have it by virtue of the powerful personality of the leader. But big brands don't take the time to really think this through and formulate the principle.
-rsh
Thanks Rob. Great observation here.
In ways, many large real estate names have formulated and thought through their principles. We can all read about them in the ABOUT US sections of their website. The problem lies in the distribution of those principles should be pumped out through every capillary of the organization.
Jotting down some core principles on a static web page is easy. Anyone can do that. Answering to those principles and living it daily — only brands can do that.
Dave,
Yes. It starts with a simple answer to a simple question: What do you stand for? Write that answer down, paste it inside your brain and make sure everything you do supports it.