According to Rismedia, and as reported in REALTOR® Magazine Online, buyers and sellers are demanding more service from the real estate professionals they choose to work with.

As your clients get busier, they want assistance in each stage of the real estate transaction, including finding the right mortgage, title insurance, appraisers, and so forth.  You, like many real estate professionals, may be providing this type of support already.  The question is:  Are you making the most of that fact in your marketing?

If you’ve established a brand, is your one-stop shop approach part of your real estate brand definition?  If not, this would be a great time to update your value proposition!

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Real Estate Brands

If I develop a brand and logo for my real estate consulting business, how will that brand coexist with my broker’s brand?

That’s a question I hear quite often.  The answer is that broker and agent brands work very effectively together.

First, you need to keep reminding yourself that you are an independent business owner.  You are not an employee of your broker’s firm.  If that seems difficult to establish as a mind-set, remind yourself about the last time you received a paycheck or W-2 from your broker.

And, marketing-savvy brokers appreciate the fact that any marketing strategies you use to increase your revenue are also in their best interest.  Of course, not all brokers are marketing-savvy.

Here are several ways to think about how your brand and your broker’s work together:

• Your broker is Chevrolet – you are the Corvette
• Your broker is Johnson & Johnson – you are Tylenol
• Your broker is Canon – you are the Multi-Pass Printer
• And, well, you get the idea

You wouldn’t walk into a Chevrolet dealership and say, “I’m interested in the little sports car”, and you don’t want people calling your broker saying, “I want to talk to the tall guy”.

Broker brands/logos and agent brands/logos are good for everyone.

Do you need a catchy name to represent your brand?  Should you use your name?  Should you use something that sounds like a real estate company?  These are all common questions about creating a real estate brand.  The answer?  It depends.

The most important thing to keep in mind is where you need to start when you’re developing a brand.  You need to start by defining your competitive advantages, market position, and USP (Unique Selling Proposition).  The most critical thing that should result from establishing your brand name is a concise definition of what that brand stands for.  Then, you can worry about what the brand name should be.

If you pass by a KMart, I’ll wager you get an immediate image in your mind of the type of products and service you’d receive if you stopped to shop.  If you pass by a Neiman Marcus store, or a Saks Fifth Avenue, I’ll wager the same thing would happen.  You’d already know those aren’t the places to go if you want a cheap set of kitchen towels.

And, it really wouldn’t matter if KMart was called RMart or Joe’s.  You’d know what to expect because you’ve been trained to recognize that brand and what it stands for.

The same thing holds true for your real estate brand.  You have to train your marketplace on what to expect from you as a real estate consultant.  And, that’s a bit difficult to do unless you have a clear definition of it yourself!

Try this exercise:  Get a piece of paper and a pen.  Write down one or two sentences that answer this question:  why should someone work with you as opposed to any other agent?

Now, look at those sentences and, being honest with yourself, decide if you think you’ve presented a compelling case.  If you haven’t, how do you expect to convince other people?  I’ve always found this one simple principle to have truly wide-ranging impact:

• You can’t sell something if you can’t describe it.

That’s not as silly as it sounds.  I’ve worked with lots of clients – in large companies and small – that can’t concisely describe what they’re selling.  When you’re very close to the product or service, you can get very caught up in all the features, functions and benefits of the product, and never really learn how to describe it in very simple terms.

So, my advice?  Before you worry about naming your business, figure out how to describe it first!

There are various schools of thought on the topic of how personal your brand should be.  Some experts in the field think strictly personal branding is passe.  Others think home buyers and sellers select their agents mostly because of the agent’s personality.

My view is that you should create a brand that can outlast you in the marketplace.  If you structure your brand all around yourself, you’re locking yourself into being around to represent the brand forever. 

Most agents I know plan to retire at some point.  And, many of them want the option of gaining something back from the real estate business they’ve built with a lot of hard work over a number of years.  It’s a bit difficult to turn a personally-branded real estate practice over to someone else when you’re ready to hit the links full-time.

The other factor to consider is that prospects are looking for WIIFM – the old “what’s in it for me”.  Just because you’re a swell person, that doesn’t mean that you’re a good REALTOR®.

So, my advice is to structure your brand to highlight the competitive advantages that you bring to the marketplace.  And, to make a very direct connection between the services you offer and the benefit those services bring to your prospects.

If you can combine part of your personality with your brand, that’s a good idea, as long as you aren’t the focal point.  Here’s an example.  One of my clients has identified a niche in the EMS/Firefighter/Law Enforcement/Health Care Provider population.  He himself is a Paramedic/Firefighter.

The brand we developed for him is: First Response Real Estate Services.  Take a look at the description of his First Response Real Estate Services brand, and you’ll discover how the connection is made between who he is and how that benefits his target market prospects.