This website makes a bold claim.
They set daunting expectations.
Makes you wonder why they would bother trying.
Seems to me that today, brands need not do that to make a big splash.
Emo
I come from a different school. And hold a different set of beliefs. I’m not right. I’m not wrong.
But this is what I believe:
Smart brands don’t force their value proposition on us or create expectations that are impossible to reach. Or believe. They don’t rob us of the joy that comes from arriving at conclusions on our own – and the opportunity to spread the word of discovery ourselves.
Smart brands are becoming more sensitive to the marketplace. They recognize that today, people won’t take the brand’s word for anything. A Yelp review left by a social media stranger holds more currency than the boastful phlegm of silly tag line.
People shop with their hearts not their heads. Brands with a strong emotional pull often beat the brands that claim to be the biggest, best and most.
Human beings seek brands that get this.
MasterCard’s “Priceless” campaign played to this style of emotional branding. In one ad that featured a little boy and a puppy, the copy read: “Donation to animal shelter: $50. Collar, bowl, and food: $12. Shots at the vet: $85. Your first dog: Priceless.”
MasterCard succeeded where real estate continually fails – they aren’t selling a product, they are selling an emotion. An experience. A dream.
Visa took a similar approach in this new commercial. Like MasterCard, they wrap us up inside a warm burrito filled with emotional ingredients that warm our hearts. We forget we’re being sold anything. We never feel like ideas are forced into our skulls. Or feelings forcefully plunged into our hearts.
Instead, we’re invited to partake in something special.
This is known as emotional branding. We got our first taste of it years ago when a little kid asked Mr. Green if he needed a little help. I still get goose bumps.
If that kid grew up and became a real estate broker, he wouldn’t need to make outlandish claims on his website.
Contrast that, for example, with the claim made by William Raveis Real Estate - that their Website is “The best Website in real estate.” Even if it were true – and it is manifestly not in my opinion – the claim is forced. Immediately unbelievable. It’s the opinion. Not mine.
And if my experience isn’t the best on it, it becomes magnificently worse than it would of been.
Splash
For the past month I have been going out of my way on Friday nights to pick up dessert for the family to share while we enjoy movies in our home theatre. I discovered this little café named Splash. They don’t have a slogan or a tagline. They don’t need one.
At Splash, everyone smiles.
I noticed this the first time I ventured in. Then the second. Then the third. My last trip there, they were cleaning up and getting ready to close. I noticed that as I opened the front door. The counter girl looked up and gave me the warmest smile and proceeded to retrieve the pastries from the back that had already been put away.
Service people here where I live don’t typically do that.
Splash doesn’t serve the best food in world. They don’t offer the best prices in the world. If I told you they did my guess is you’d be skeptical. Look for reviews online. After all, we all have our own interpretation of great, best, most.
But what I can tell you is when you enter this place, no matter how busy they are, they are never too harried to welcome you in. And they take care of you in a manner that makes you feel special. They do it sincerely. Honestly. And with a smile.
Which yields what you see in the image below. Something I know every agent, broker, vendor in real estate wants.
Splash Cafe in Pismo Beach
Image courtesy of Nick Anis.
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[...] Splash: the key to better real estate branding – Great advice on branding as always from Marc. Don’t tell them you are the best, show [...]
I’ve had this nagging thought recently that our website used too much puffery, to borrow from a Domino’s commercial about Papa John’s. This post nailed my feeling perfectly. I’ve already started updating our site to reflect honest statements about our services rather than all of the “sales-y” language it did have.
Bob,
A simple statement that captures who you are, what you do, and the one special thing you do that matters to the user is all you need. So many great examples of this across the web. Not only will it remove the puffery but it might also help the user understand you better.
I believe that if I follow my heart & try to do what’s best, I’ll succeed. I strive to give my clients an unsurpassed level of service helping them buy/sell abellahomes along with my logo signifying strength. I can only wish for that one day I’d have people lining up outside my door. Thx Marc, I enjoy reading your blog:)
Marc,
Great post as always. I remember going to the Splash Cafe as a Cal Poly student in the early 90s. That place looks exactly the same!
I feel that first impressions are important in anything in life. And the second, third, fourth encounters that follow only reinforce our first impressions or detract from it. In this real estate business (as in most), it is crucial to keep our clients’ impressions of us and our companies ever positive.
Your advice to Bob above is poignant: “A simple statement that captures who you are, what you do, and the one special thing you do that matters to the user is all you need.” I’m just not sure that my website portrays this outside of my “About” page.
Thanks again, and we’ll chat soon.
That’s funny you mention them because I remember emailing them in the past asking them where they got that “quote” from… never got a response.
@Wonton – they got it from the same place everyone gets it in real estate – from the grab bag of cliches and self promotional material.
With all due respect to them, given sites like John L Scott, Redfin, Trulia, Houlihan Lawrence, and so many other sites in real estate who are pushing the limits of their budgets, their vendors, technology teams and creative muscle – this is really a tough claim to swallow. But your point raises an interesting question – a claim such as “the best in” if it were used, could work if it were qualified. For instance, if you are the #1 brand in the marketplace, with more market share or more sales than all your competition, citing that on your site is something I would absolutely approve of.
But I see no case made for subjecting a brand to scrutiny by making subjective claims that cannot be backed by anything let alone a return email. Which brings this back home to what I think is way more important which is what is a better way to brand a company – make unsubstantiated boastful claims about yourself or return email question with respectful answers in a timely fashion?
Thanks for you contribution to the discussion
Marc,
Irrelevant tag lines and unsubstantiated claims are common place in real estate. We battle this in Connecticut every day. It’s old school marketing to push bold statements on buyers and sellers. Unfortunately, in many cases, if the claim is repeated over and over again, agents and consumers begin believing it. Many companies and agents haphazardly choose a tag line and logo, thinking it represents their brand. In most cases, the tag line is simply not consistent with reality (of the service they provide their clients.)
The vision of our company, Pru CT Realty, is “to be the best service provider in CT”. Every standard of practice and core value supports that goal. Everyone in our company (Staff, Managers and Agents) are held accountable to the client satisfaction rating. In-depth surveys are sent out twice during the real estate process with our clients. If the client gives any negative feedback, the survey goes down the chain to the agents (for a response) and back up to the owner of our company. Peter Helie picks up the phone to discuss the feedback with the client to try to solve the problem. We still strongly believe that they determine our brand. Even being the “quiet company” in Connecticut, we consistently close more volume and units than any of our competitors. And, we run between 97%-99% on service satisfaction ratings from “good to excellent”.
Thanks for the post. It is excellent and hits to the core of the problem. Would love to see more from you on this.
I come from a food service back ground. I used to tell everyone who would help me serve our customers we are not here to say NO. We are here to make an enjoyable event/meeting/what ever.
When I get a new customer I do not want them to think of another Broker. I got a call from a friend I sold a house to last year. She was having a party and need some coolers for the food. I didn’t have any but I got her two with ice. I brought gumbo back to whom I borrowed the cooler from. There is always a win-win-win.
It not a tagline if it’s true
As the ghost busters said, who you going to call?
@ Melissa,
Great points. “Good to the last drop” did, for a time, become synonymous with Maxwell House and led sales for the company years. But the day Starbucks entered the market and delivered a completely different level of coffee that was connected to a really cool experience, two things happened:
1. The public eventually abandoned the product because a tag line is a very weak thread when trying to sew loyalty and
2. As a result of a deep experience with the company (the Italian cafe experience) the public began to believe their product was better.
This is the mistake real estate firms make in CT and all over. They don’t think long term. Even if every one in CT believes your colleagues have the best site on the internet, that belief will last right up until a new site launches that really is great and doesn’t need a tag line to prove it.
@Jim – Sometimes, if it’s true, it’s best to remain understated.
Marc,
Spot on! It’s those things you see without your eyes and feel without your fingers that give folks a sense of who you really are. In the old days we learned to do it face to face. Now we must learn to do it on another medium and through another interface. It’s just about staying real, and learning to communicate properly with new tools. You are the your brand after all.
Keep up the great posts.
I understand. Everything comes and goes. Look at the rage Boston Market was in the early 90′s. Who then if I’m a small guy do I differentiate myself against the big name guys with out calling them out like Mohammad Ali Did.
When most buyers or sellers can’t tell the difference between some Realtor that will just stick a sign in the yard and hope lightning strikes and it sells, or the guy that takes 50 or so pictures, makes a web page for the house uses all the web as a billboard. Does a market analysis to price correctly knows what the absorption rate is for not just that town up that price and neighborhood. How Do I pimp my self as the next guy who can float like a butterfly and sting like a bee.
I have seen video clip I’m not a lead. Well I’m not a realtor I’m a real estate marketer. People do not want a realtor the ether want to buy a home or sell a home but realize the need help. The problem is that most do not know how to choose a competent Realtor. The should ask show me market analysis, a marketing plan, and what benefit do you bring to the transaction?
Marc – You nailed “Emotional Branding”.Fantastic article, I couldn’t agree more!
You must check out this site – http://www.sovereigntitle-escrow.com/
CLASSIC!!
Jim,
I’ll tell you what…if Sovereign Title was in California, I would give them a chance at my business. Those girls carry an heir of confidence, humor, and charm without bordering on cocky.
“We are the owners of Sovereign Title & Escrow. We are also the staff and the cleaning crew. Because Sovereign Title is our business, we care more about making sure even the smallest details are right.”
I think this is pure genius! And this is exactly what this industry is dying for…
[...] Splash: the key to better real estate branding by Marc Davison at 1000Watt Consulting [...]
Funny post and comments.
That Soveirn logo is for another company, oh yeah, it’s a movie production company, I don’t remember the name.
That web site is a joke, but Splash has it all going on.