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A mist of differenceWriting on real estate, branding, Heidi Fliess and Ritualism

©2009 1000watt www.1000wattconsulting.com

Branding

I first began to understand the lure of branding while playing stickball one Sunday in the concrete park on the corner of

Avenue P and East 4th street in Brooklyn.

Jimmy Klapsis leaned back and threw his best fastball. It never hit the wall behind me. I smacked it back over his head

and out of the park into Ocean Parkway.

That was the last I ever saw of that little pink Spaulding ball.

Over at the store that sold stickballs, the owner tried to sell me a Pensy Pinky. Claimed it was exactly like the Spaulding.

It didn’t feel the same. Or look the same. And while it appeared to bounce as high and as many times before resting

on the floor, it was still different. No matter what the store owner said, I could not image playing stickball with anything

else but a Spaulding.

It didn't register to me then but I was a brand loyalist. As I hit my teens and switched off sports and switched on music,

brands like Vox, Gretsch, and Capitol influenced what amps I bought, guitars I'd play and labels I'd wish I could one day

get signed too. These were not just names of products to me. In ways I can't even describe, they defined who I was.

The art and science of branding fascinates me. I studied its tenets in college and fell in love with the works of some of

the greatest ad writers and brand makers in modern times. Landor, Bernbach, Ogilvy and others. What drew me to

their flame then and now is what happens when a great brand is crafted. All of its inherent complexities, components,

ingredients and people are narrowed down to something so incredibly simple that a mere word is all it takes to conjure

all sorts of powerful effects.

I believe you can create this for anyone and anything.

It's not easy.

Nothing great is.

The following articles are some of the many that Brian and I have written over the last two years about this thing we do

inside a business filled with names that so want to be brands. This stuff's for you. Enjoy.

Davison

1www.1000wattconsulting.com

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Let us proclaim the mystery of brand by Brian Boero

The Monsignor’s head would turn towards me almost imperceptibly.

Up from my kneeler, I would unhook the censer from its stand

and place a purple cone of incense among the embers in its well.

Plumes carrying age-old mysteries curled upward.

My walk to the altar was slow. Reverential. And gravely serious.

hundreds of eyes belonging to elders, parents and schoolmates

fixed on me.

At the altar the Monsignor took the censer and waved it above

chalices over which he had performed a whispered consecration.

Agnus Dei, qui tollis peccata mundi, miserere nobis.

Agnus Dei, qui tollis peccata mundi, miserere nobis.

Agnus Dei, qui tollis peccata mundi, dona nobis pacem.

I was an alter boy. Twelve years old. I took it very seriously. The

dress, the song, the ritual and the symbolic richness of the Catholic

Church filled my young mind with meaning.

In graduate school, I spent a lot of time studying the Supreme

Court. It was silliness mostly – using regression analysis to pinpoint,

say, the effects amicus briefs had on Justice Burger’s opinions on

busing. Social “science” pedantry at its worst.

Much more interesting were the qualitative works exploring the

nature of the Court’s authority. How, exactly, nine unelected judges

could shape the arc of American political development without

provoking revolt.

This authority was sustained in many ways that had nothing to do

with constitutional prerogative. It was in the robes. The conscious

remove from the political fray. The use of Latin to confer gravity and

deflect deconstruction (Stare Decisis just sounds like something


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you need to accept, doesn’t it?)

Odd for a modern republic, perhaps – maybe even dangerous. But

it worked.

The mysteries of brand

To the point: Meaning and authority – brand bedrock – are enhanced

by the art of creating mystery, symbolism and ritual.

Here’s an example:

Apple. Great consumer electronics. Wonderful design. But there’s

also a certain stardust that makes Apple more – something we

can’t quite put our finger on but nonetheless registers as meaning

in our minds. Something Lenovo, Toshiba or Acer can’t touch.

For many, this meaning is deeply satisfying. The act of buying

a laptop becomes a transfer of that meaning unto ones’s self.

In Apple’s case, it may translate as “Coolness,” “Intelligence,”

“Prosperity,” “Creativity” or other values in the range of superiority.

This sort of thing can be created in part by good advertising (The

Mac vs. PC campaign is all about superiority), but I would argue

that the real magic comes from other places.

It comes from the black turtleneck. The priesthood of fanboys

summoned for Cupertino conclaves. The attention to sensory

pleasure that makes opening an iPhone box a consumerist climax.

The casino-like obfuscation of commerce that defines the Apple

Store.

Yeah, it’s weird when you think about it. But we don’t think about

it. We feel it. And that’s the point: Effective brands actively cultivate

meaning through the artistry of symbolism, ritual and mystery.

Don’t give it all away

The debate about “branding” in real estate rages on. Whether you

think brokers are dead appendages or believe the future lies in

scale, I would argue that those who can, as Guy Kawasaki says,

“Make meaning” will last.


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How that meaning is made can’t be worked out on a spreadsheet.

And good base elements are a must (this MacBook Pro I am typing

on is still a damn good computer even stripped of its brand juju).

It requires a sort of alchemy that can turn the name on a yard sign

into something somehow more that that.

Does this exist in real estate? It sure does. But it is – as it should

be – a rare thing. We know brokers who can do it. They have their

own rituals, their own symbols, their own mysteries. And they are

doing well.

Many others miss the mark entirely. They engage in social

media promiscuously, mistaking it for brand love. They embrace

“transparency” when they would be better served by calculated

reserve.

Marketing follows the magic, not the other way around.

B.S.?

This is nebulous stuff and many (including, in less reflective moments,

myself) dismiss discussions of brand development as bullshit. But

I think there is something here that merits continued exploration.

Think about what it would mean if you ran a real estate company

and could answer – instantly and credibly – questions like these:

What does it mean to be a [your company name here] agent?

What do you do to make being part of your organization something

more than contract terms?

Can you explain how every point at which human beings encounter

your brand supports that which you could claim as that something

more?

What benefits do you deliver that cannot be enumerated in bullet

points?

If you could do it, marketing would be a lot easier. So would

recruiting, managing and pretty much everything else. It’s not easy

in real estate context, where shortcuts are the rule. But it can be

done. We have seen it.


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So don your own black turtleneck. Summon your acolytes. And find

some stardust of your own.

Try the Zappos shoe on for sizeBy Marc Davison

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

The Zappos “Culture Book” 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.


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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.


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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.

Brokers, it’s time to get out of the cockpitBy Brian Boero

“Good morning, folks, my name is Brian Marsh and I’m your first

officer on today’s flight out to Aruba [pauses amid chuckles].

How many people on this plane have never flown jetBlue before?

Great, how about you stand up and tell us a little bit about

yourselves?


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Seriously, I’m grateful you’re on board with us this morning. We’ve

got some tailwinds, so our flight time out to D.C. will be a quick four

hours and thirty minutes. And all reports indicate a smooth ride.

Sit back and enjoy the jetBlue experience – and thanks again”

I was headed out to Washington from Oakland on a jetBlue flight

last week.

The screen in front of me had already told me I “look good in leather”

– the material covering my seat – and commended me for being a

“good screen reader”. Now the first officer had come out of the

cockpit to greet us, joke around a bit, and tell us what to expect.

The week before I had flown from Houston to Oakland on Continental.

My seat smelled of body odor. The flight attendants were surly. My

tray table restricted my breathing. I arrived home with a sore back

and headed straight for the shower.

The guy flying the plane could have made me feel a little better

about this, but he chose not too. He remained, as most pilots

remain, a leaden voice coming through the squawk box, distant

and unconcerned.

I hate Continental. I love JetBlue.

Brokers, it’s time for you to get out of the cockpit too. Times are

tough. People are hurting. They’re angry, and unsure.

It’s been a long flight and the peanuts aren’t helping.

How often do you, your office mangers or your VPs, personally greet

clients in your office? How often do you call buyers to congratulate

them upon closing? Or send them a handwritten note?

Do you speak candidly and sympathetically to your customers

about the challenges facing home buyers and sellers? Or do you

remain ensconced in the soundproof cockpit of the executive suite

and let your marketing department do the talking?

Have you lent humor to your interactions with sellers? Or are you

still hoping to still the anxious minds in your market with postcards?

All this buzz about blogs? It’s not about technology: it’s about you,


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your voice, and a conversation you need to be having with your

customers.

I know. There are reasons to stay put. You don’t want to edge in

on agent relationships. You don’t want exposure to criticism. Let

me tell you something: When you speak to your customers with a

human voice you are forgiven for your mistakes. JetBlue botched

hundreds of flights and stranded a hundred and fifty passengers

on the tarmac at JFK for nine hours last winter in an operational

meltdown. People gave them the flack they deserved and went on

loving the company.

Get out there. Hold a town hall meeting. Spend 20k to hire a top

shelf economist or personal finance expert to help your customers

navigate a challenging economy. Give them the data they need,

however ugly it may be.

Speak frankly. Be open. Push yourself to communicate in new ways.

Take a look at this. I know — it’s far from perfect. And the opening

video is filled with cant. But he’s trying. He’s left the cockpit. He’s

telling us what to expect and injecting his brand with a dose of

humanity.

I know a lot of smart brokers. People who’ve been through rough

times before and have a genuine passion for helping people. Trouble

is, they don’t have – or don’t think they have – the moves in them to

pull something like this off. I think they underestimate themselves.

The tools are there. It’s what Web 2.0 is all about.

Get out of the cockpit and face the crowd. It’ll make everyone feel

better.


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The changing face of real estate advertisingBy Marc Davison

Meet Captain Jones.

There was a time when Captain Jones mattered to the consumer.

The individual pilot was a bankable brand marker.

That was then.

This is now:

Delta hired SS+K Advertising to handle the new “Change is” ad

campaign.

Delta moved from the past to the present.

They realized pilots don’t sell seats.

Delta went through some tough times before emerging from

bankruptcy in April, 2007. Business was bad. The airline industry

endured its own bubble burst.

Like real estate is now.

They invested. Rebuilt. Re-branded. Recommitted. Connected.

Who is investing in change in real estate?

Who is updating their image?

Who is listening to the consumer?

Who is investing, re-branding, recommitting, reconnecting? Who is

changing?

I see someone is.

Or are they?

This ad is part of a campaign now running in my local paper. Each

week the “changing face” changes and features a different Captain

Jones Realtor face.


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I ask myself each week …

Does the consumer care anymore?

Do we believe each and every one of the agents WILL do what the

ad says?

If these are the changing of faces of real estate … why is it they look

exactly like the every other face in real estate?

HOW will you sell my house?

HOW will you seek the perfect buyer?

HOW will you guide me?

What is your service guarantee?

Without these things, this ad is just advertising flatulence.

I see a big opportunity for real estate companies that start speaking

with a more authentic voice. I’ve got plenty of ideas. How about

you?

Creating a mist of difference that is identifiably youBy Marc Davison

Who are “they”?

Why don’t “they” get it?

What’s not to get?

I’m wondering, why “they” have access to your brake pedal?

They

If “they” have not gotten it by now, “they” are not going to get it

tomorrow. If your future is, in any way, tied to their past, let go. Each

day, “they” don’t get it, your life spark dims.

Move on.

Find people who get it.

They’re looking for you


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If you run the place and “they” are employed by you, replace them

with those who get it. Or better yet, those who’ve done it.

Them

Jack Trout spoke at the Gathering of Eagles earlier this month.

He offered his unbiased perception of real estate to brokers that

included a very unclear sense of the differences between brands.

Jack does not get the fact that for eons, the customer was the

agent. The differentiators Jack does not see were folded neatly into

brochures, postcards and offered prior to a handshake.

What Jack does not get is how these differentiators were

individualized based on the agent. Agent A might get a better deal

than agent B which was different than agent W. When you have

1000 agents, each with different deals, there’s no way a brand can

publicly disseminate their differentiator.

Jack gets that.

You

Differentiate or Die.

It’s so simple.

And yet some still don’t get it.

What’s not to get? Technology? Change? Protocol? Cohesive

branding initiatives? Creating a mist of difference that is identifiably

you?

Papa John’s Pizza. They entered the pizza industry wading in serious

competition. They could have chosen to compete on pricing and

mired themselves in the muck of Little Caesar’s. They could have

branded around fast delivery and ended up being perceived as a

Dominos clone. They could have gone after variety and ran out of

gas chasing after Pizza Hut’s customers.

Instead they built their brand around ingredients.

And the quality of what “you” place inside your body.

“You” care about that.


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You birthed that brand.

We

“They” who sit in your boardroom, need to differentiate because

“we”, don’t know who “you” really are, what “you” stand for or why

“we” should align ourselves with “you”.

“We” gravitate toward things that look different. Things that sound

different. That smell different. Things with personality. Things that

stand for something. An ideal. A vibe.

A hotel chain recently built their brand around a mattress? W

Hotels now grace the landscape. You might think the W stands for

Wonderland. I say it stands for “We”. The customer. Those who

now go out of their way to have that W sleep experience.

“We” have not really witnessed what could happen if a new real

estate brand emerged with something truly different. Sure we’ve

seen models that offer lower commissions or assisted services but

these are not the differentiators “we” care about. Differentiators

need to be important. Transcendental. And fill a resounding void in

the marketplace.

“They” tend to argue with these concepts.

“They” think they know better.

“They” sit not far from your office.

As a result, “you” are busy explaining why “your” hands are tied.

Why this year won’t be better than the last. Why “you” can’t exercise

change. Why today all “your” troubles seem like they’re here to stay.

“They” believe yesterday. And “you” are careening toward tomorrow.


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Brushing the sands off a brandBy Marc Davison

I’ve always wanted to be an archaeologist. Ever since I was a

kid. My first discoveries were found beneath the cushions of my

grandparent’s sofa. Candy wrappers, hardened tissues, playing

cards. The occasional utensil was a treat. For a 6 year-old these

things were a real find.

At an early age I learned that a superficial examination of anything

reveals little of real value.

Nothing is at it seems. A landscape might hold natural beauty, but

it’s underneath, sometimes mere inches below the surface, where

the real treasure is found.

Today, I like to excavate great companies. I’m fascinated by extremes.

I want to know why some companies leave their customers feeling

pained, sickened, stressed or empty (AT&T comes to mind) while

other companies elicit a feeling something like euphoria (say Katz’s

Deli in NYC).

Today, I’m standing at the site of Starbucks. My latest dig. I’m

trying to figure out why I and millions of others remain loyal despite

the abundance of competing cafe’s. The coffee is not the best.

Their retail shops are starting to look like department stores. Yet

something draws us back each day, sometimes more than once.

This morning my pickax hit paydirt. I leaned in and brushed away

the sand. Here’s what I discovered: The Starbucks Job Application.

Allow me to draw your attention to some of the questions on this

application:

Have you ever visited a Starbucks Coffee Location? Describe your

experience.

What do you like about coffee?

Why would you like to work for the Starbucks Company?

Describe a specific situation where you have provided excellent

customer service in your current position.


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Brokers: When you recruit an agent, do you ever ask these questions?

Do you ever ask a recruit if they have used your company, and, if

they have, to describe that experience? Do you ever ask what they

truly love about real estate? Do you ever require them to scroll back

into their past to reveal something special they did that could help

you determine if they are suited to extend your brand experience?

Or are you just recruiting for the sake of growing? Are you just

recruiting for the sake of saturating a marketplace? Are you just

recruiting for the chance to get one deal from anyone with a pulse?

Or are you trying to landscape the marketplace with an experience

that is bankable?

Agents: Have you ever really sat down and wrote out why you’re

attracted to the broker or the brand you’re looking to call home? Or

are you joining a firm just for the split? Or because you get a corner

office? Or so you can have the freedom to do whatever you please?

Or is there a deeper desire based on something intangible but ripe

with meaning?

As my archeologist fingers sift through the chalky soil of wayward

brands, I have found that their cultures are built on chaos. They

have been bled of meaning in an entropic mercenary swirl.

Starbucks employees start out at less than $10.00 an hour. The work

is hard. The hours are hard. Yet they are drawn there and picked

based on certain virtues. This is what built their brand — passion.

Passion to serve. Passion to push the Starbucks experience. It’s a

passion that begins at the top and extends to the newest recruit.

Everyone in Starbucks knows why they are there. Interview them as

I have. Dig deep and gain an understanding that the foundation of

any great company is a solid culture, experience and brand.

Those in real estate who have neglected to create such a foundation

should take notice. Stick to what you’re doing now, allow yourself

to be run by fear and complacency, and in years to come, I and

others like me might uncover your artifacts and find little by which

to identify you. You will have been lost. Unknown.

Don’t let that happen.


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Nurturing a real estate brand in a post-print worldBy Brian Boero

This line, in the middle of a very long and very good post by author

and online media executive John Battelle, leaped out of my feed

reader this morning:

“… more than 80 percent of the advertising inventory on the Web

today is sold for less than a $1 CPM. Compare that to the average

sold CPM in the magazine business or on television - reports vary,

but it’s anywhere from 6 to 40 times higher. That delta, to my mind,

has everything to do with engagement.”

His larger point was that big brand advertisers continue to pay

exorbitant amounts for print and television brand advertising because

these media allow them to affect a consumer in a meaningful way,

to build the brand by connecting with people. Online ads, on the

other hand, even the splashiest display units on big media sites

like Yahoo! or AOL, while dramatically cheaper and seductively

measurable, fail to get inside the consumer’s head. The medium is

not fertile breeding ground for brand love — at least not yet.

So brands like Louis Vuitton and BMW continue to play both sides

of the fence, taking out the big spreads and prime-time spots

while spending dollars online and making a few social plays. They

connect to the heart, the head, and the conversation.

But what’s a real estate brand to do? The efficacy of print ads

were always dubious; Recently they have been largely tactical — a

means to placate sellers or prop up a weak value proposition; now,

with brokerage financials upside down, they are darn near out of

the question. Well executed TV ads have always been beyond the

reach of all but the biggest players in our industry.

There are exceptions. I expect that I will continue to see RE/MAX

TV spots until the day I die, but they are more in the direct response

vein, aimed at pulling leads into remax.com. Local or niche players

like Corcoran will continue to execute brand ads effectively, drawing


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upon the unique drama of their markets.

But for most part, print is over. TV is irrelevant. Whatever brand

equity has accrued through these media is going to have to be built

upon elsewhere.

But, to go back to Battelle’s point, online media — where brokers

and franchisors are flocking in droves right now — offers little to

brand builders. That thumbnail logo next to your listing on Trulia is

your brand mark, but it’s not a means of brand building.

Where does that leave the real estate brand marketer?

Hmm … how about social media! That crazy, risky, gimmicky

vulnerable place you never took seriously? Think about it: Fidelity

to branding religion has always been tough in real estate. Keeping

promises is not easy in a franchised, W-9-ed world. When’s the

last time you were moved by one of those “Extraordinary homes,

extraordinary results” type ads?

So for real estate, the imperative to throw the brand into the tumble

of the conversation that is at the heart of the cluetrain ethos is quite

strong. The real estate brands that will dominate their markets

five years from now will be those that take down the forcefield

of postcards, press releases and pablum standing between their

brand and their marketplace and start connecting meaningfully,

humanely.

Social media is not just a conference curiosity. It is not just the

esoteric practice of a few hundred “bloggers”.

Chances are it’s the lifeblood of your brand.


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Releasing Real Estate’s pheromonesBy Marc Davison

Sexy sells.

Physical sexy.

Intellectual sexy.

These days, stimulating the mind and the heart from the

advertisement all the way through to the experience is hot, hot,

hot. It’s what attracts people to products. Loyalty to brands. And

it’s building across the luxury spectrum. Hermes, Prada, Ferarri,

Burberry are booming while other less sexy brands sit unwanted,

like wallflowers at the school dance.

Real estate has pheromones. It seems it just doesn’t know how to

release them.

Understanding sexy

In my junior year of college, my advertising class was tasked with

fabricating a company and delivering the creative necessary to

launch it on TV, radio and print (this was pre-Internet). The idea

was to come up with something challenging. Not a Wall Street

investment firm or uptown haberdashery. Our professor wanted us

to stretch our imaginations.

I invented an airline, Flynite Air. It had no seats and flew only redeye,

New York to Florida. Passengers flew like they rode subways.

Holding on to straphangers. For the ad campaign, I took the phallic

imagery of an airplane and explored it internally. Bodies against

bodies to maintain balance. Brandishing cocktails and gyrating

against other hot bodies under the disco inferno as they “stood” for

what they believed in. That was the TV campaign. And “standing”

up for what they believe in (cheap fares) as great men and women

throughout history stood for what they believed in for the print ads.

The project earned me more than a good grade and a job referral to

a Madison Avenue ad agency. My professor told me I understood


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sexy.

Sexy stirs the viewer beyond the impulse buy. It beckons them to

evaluate the premise. To evaluate their choices. To think. My project

created a connection for my professor between imagery and reality.

I used people he admired and combined their actions with my

premise. In his words, “If Moses could stand on the mountain for

40 days to receive 2 tablets, what’s 2 hours standing to save a few

hundred dollars?

Getting jiggy with advertising

Last week Diageo revealed their sexy by inking a deal with

international brand builder P. Diddy to develop Ciroc, their premium

Vodka. Until last week Ciroc was one of many premium brands (Ketel

One, Armadale, Grey Goose, Türi, Belvedere, Zyr, Jewel of Russia

Classic, etc.) that distinguish themselves by region, ingredients and

process. Interesting elements indeed, but not very sexy.

Ciroc is a lesser-known brand than its counterparts, but Diddy

believes that can change. He lives in trendy bars and has witnessed

how sexy a cocktail can be when held in an ice-cold glass that

sweats in the hard grip of slender, polished fingers. Diddy sees the

allure of a glass — its shape and contour as it nears pouty lips that

open gently and take in the frosted rim. Slowly. Lovingly. The throat,

bronzed, velvet like, pulsating as it savors every droplet.

Ciroc. To life!

Sexy is a niche not one vodka has filled. P. Diddy will fill it. His

jet-setting, hip-hop mogul lifestyle can be lived, vicariously, by the

millions who will sip Chiroc neat, over, up. That’s hot. As is the

millions in profits Puffy will take if he succeeds.

How does this relate to real estate? Well for starters, like most

vodkas, real estate brands are borderline frigid. But they don’t have

to be. Stripped down, real estate is actually quite hot. Couples

sitting next to each other at night sipping wine searching homes

is sexy. Spying on other homes and their values is sexy. Buying

property is way hot. Come on, where else in life does anyone spend


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a million bucks?

What about technology? Isn’t that sexy? With the advent of Web

2.0 and all the super-cool devices now available, from iPhones to

tablet computers, I’m wondering why there’s not a brand out there

willing to turn on a little Will Smith, unravel their hair, and get jiggy

wit their advertising.

In love

The difference between sex and sexy is sex ads require no thought.

No pondering. Sexy on the other hand affects the mind. The heart.

It compels. It touches. It grips you so hard that 30 years later you’re

still in love with the brand. Coca-Cola. 1979. When that little kid

offered Mean Joe Greene his Coke, I lost it. And the fact that I

remember that 30 years later is exactly what sexy is all about.

Sexy is me getting an email about Apple’s new Leopard operating

system, buying it, and having the experience match the promise of

the ad. That consummation of promise and experience is love for

the brand.

Sexy is my wife and I watching HGTV. The programming bridges

our interests. Awakens our imagination. During that time, real estate

seems real. We see possibilities and discuss investing. And making

home improvements. We watch rooms transform and people

dreaming of home ownership at the top of the hour owning a fully

decorated one 30 minutes later.

When you’re married for 25 years, that’s very sexy.

Turn offs

But then we wake up. And the morning breath of the other real

estate wafts over us. The one filled with this. And I wonder how

it’s possible that despite the dozens of incredibly sexy things

this business could market around, despite the overwhelming

opportunity to truly connect, and consummate, we are still getting

nothing but cold showers.


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I’m too sexy for my shirt.

Right Said Fred’s hit song I’m Too Sexy was about self-empowerment

on the catwalk of life. About drawing on your own animal magnetism

to endow yourself with sexiness. It’s about ripping off your shirt and

revealing the parts of you that serve to attract others.

This is what great advertising is about. It’s what branding is about.

And it’s how you create sexy.

You have the goods. Start with the truth. Tell it. And be original and

different. Lure the viewer in using the very things you know they are

already attracted to.

Ditch the things you know don’t work. Clichés. Empty promises.

Animals. Vanity.

Just think, “What would Diddy do?”

Heidi Fleiss and the future of real estateBy Marc Davison

The escort business has brokers (madams) who oversee a stable

of independent agents (escorts) who deal in very expensive and

intimate transactions. All kinds of escort services coexist; luxury

brands charging $10,000 a session to independent brands with

rates that can be negotiated based on street market conditions.

Like real estate, there is also a FSBO market of sorts where clients

handle the transaction themselves without the assistance of a

professional.

Heidi Fleiss is an interesting case study for real estate. During a boom

in her industry where competition was fierce, she decided to build

a luxury model and charge the highest prices in the marketplace.

But the reverse occurred during the real estate boom. New entrants

built discount models despite the fact that America was consumed

by a luxury brand mentality.


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Hour for hour, Heidi’s services were vastly more expensive than what

consumers pay for real estate brokerage. Yet no one ever accused

her of “stealing” from the consumer. In the midst of a profession

rife with discounters, Heidi never worried about a deathblow from

a street pimp.

So why is “traditional” real estate worried about Redfin, et al?

Seppuku

If a deathblow befalls the traditional real estate pricing model, it will

undoubtedly come at its own hands, the culmination of a decades-

long muddling of the public’s perception of what full service real

estate really means.

Despite the hundreds of millions of dollars Realtors collectively

spend in self-branding each year, can anyone tell one from the

other? Confusion creates a global stereotype with a dense fog

around commissions and value. It is here, inside this muck of

Realtor independence, that the deathblow marinates.

Samurai were uniform. Systematic. They excelled on that account.

Today business is adorned by Samurai beliefs. Starbucks. Quiznos.

Starwood Hotels. UPS stores. Warrior models with a ladder of

benefits that slay the millions of new decisions we’re faced with

daily.

This ideology eludes real estate. Everyone is independent. Two

million individual brands inside tens of thousands of broker brands

inside dozens of corporate brands resulting in millions of individual

credos and promises.

Aside from a few stellar exceptions, real estate companies have not

aligned themselves to the consumer. We’re left struggling to make

sense of it all. We hate doing that and that’s why we end up doing

stupid things like buying homes without representation and paying

unqualified agents to sell our most cherished asset. Consumers

want leaders. And they’ve proven over and over that they’ll pay for

it.


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The paths toward Princeton

Traditional pricing will eventually crumble in the absence of perceived

value. Today, consumers can’t spend money fast enough buying

high-end services & products. Enough bestsellers have made

this clear. It’s the elusive value of real estate services that drives

consumers away. The

The way I see things, no model puts another out of business.

The only reason a model goes out is because it failed to make

adjustments to meet the times.

Even the strongest brands must continue to uplift public perception

so value is clearly understood. Your current pricing model is safe

as long as you continue to deliver a ladder of valuable benefits that

differentiate you from cheaper models. If a madam can do it, you

can.

A good place to start is here:

• Build a W2 model that works so you can mandate

consistency and service propositions across the board.

• Embrace the ethos of Web 2.0, which is fundamentally

about talking with rather than talking at friends, family,

prospects and clients. There’s never been more opportunity

to demonstrate value.

• Enhance customer service to Zappos-like heights.

• Forbid newly licensed agents from representing anyone on

their own. Apprenticeships must be enforced.

• Mandate agents upgrade everything – tech tools, websites,

education, etc. — so they are perceived to be a better

value than their competition.

• Mandate and control branding. Forbid agents to use any

unapproved material across the board. More damage

to consumer perception is done by this one action that

anything else.

• Rework all advertising so that your ads aren’t

interchangeable with your competitors’.


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• Insist all agents stop spending $10,000 to create useless

tri-fold brochures that depict them “as human” — playing

tennis, hugging their dog and walking on the beach with

their spouses. Not one consumer cares about that. Instead

enforce investment into continued education.

• If you cannot enforce agents to comply, show them

the door and send them and their bad habits to your

competitors.

• Accept the fact that the consumer believes you charge too

much money and respond by creating more value.

If you don’t want to suffer the deathblow you have to prove value.

Wal-Mart will never put Neiman Marcus out business and Help-U-

Sell will never put Coldwell Banker out of business … as long as the

differences between them all are crystal clear.

A House DividedBy Marc Davison

Curtain call and lights grow dim

Tragedy, love all lie within

Each player takes his chance to play

And lives to fight another day

–The Damned, 1977

Our industry had its heyday. Business boomed. Organization

memberships ascended. Buyers flocked. Sellers scored. The

economy rocked. Good times rolled.

But that’s over. And the haze of 10 years of real estate’s sex, drugs

and rock and roll has lifted.

The hotel room is trashed.

Many of you are burnt out.

Some will never be the same.

And what’s left is …


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A house divided

Let’s not beat around the bush. There are deep issues festering in

real estate. I’ve addressed some of them: The disconnect between

the industry and the consumer. The barricades thrown up against

discounters and alternative models. The 100-year war for control.

But brewing deep in the pit, at the bottom of it all, is a “War of the

Roses” between real estate agents and brokers. A house divided.

Michael Douglas on one side. Kathleen Turner on the other.

I’ve been inside the house. I’ve worked closely with brokers. I have

at times worked even closer with the agents. The indignation is

pervasive.

The Cause

l think you should hear the story, though. lt might matter to you.

– Gavin D’Amato, “War of the Roses”

Here’s how it all looks to me, a guest in the living room:

Brokers:

• The day you agreed to cave on splits you might have made

your agents happy financially, but you lost their respect.

Your concessions spoke volumes about your inability

to provide equal value. From that day on they began to

question your existence.

• As technology emerged, you failed to pounce. You

outsourced it to vendors. They stepped in. Rubbed your

agents’ feet and gave them their happy endings.

• Those hunting licenses you awarded through your affiliate

programs were often not awarded to the best or the

brightest. But your agents didn’t know that. And after all

that money they spent on things that didn’t work, well …

they feel you sold them out.

• You’ve recruited anyone with a pulse. Hence you became

big rather than great. You damaged your brand. And

shortchanged your best agents. You forced them to build


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their own brand. Or leave yours to start their own.

• You lost location where it now matters most: online.

Others — the ones you now buy leads from — are the local

destination of choice.

There are more issues. Feel free to continue the list.

Agents:

• Your independence is a termite. It eats away at your

broker’s legacy. And destroys whatever meaning they

attempt to place on their brand — your brand.

• You’re addicted to things that no longer make sense. Office

space. Paper. Newspaper spreads with vanity ads. These

cost your broker a fortune — money they no longer have.

• You lag educationally. This is not about intellect. This is

about knowing your industry and buying into the notion

that real estate today is as much about technology,

branding, marketing and service as it is about sales. And

using it.

Brokers, you have voiced more concerns. Feel free to add them to

the list.

The Cure

Brokerages are not going away. They will consolidate. Agents are not

going away either. Especially the really good ones. So in everyone’s

best interest here are some ideas for a truer collaboration:

Brokers:

• Redo your corporate Web site. From scratch. Ditch the

stock photos and confusing user interface. Get mapping.

Get data. Rethink search. Focus on find. Make your site

the destination for your marketplace. Build something that

adds value to your agents. Something that’s an advantage

to them, not an embarrassment.

• Get out of the cockpit and into your company’s cabin.

Start partnering with your agents. Form advisory councils

amongst those with category savvy and allow them to


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participate in critical decisions that affect them such as

vendor selection, listing partners, etc.

• Rethink how you charge your agents. They feel ultra-

squeezed having to support archaic processes such as

cubicle workspace and 10,000-square-foot facilities that sit

empty on Main Street.

• Do something bold. Buy out a competitor. Strike while the

iron is cold. Build an internal social network that connect

agents with each other where they can communicate

about listings, share information and tap into the collective.

Agents:

• Co-brand with your broker. Especially if you’re part of a

still-strong brand. It simply makes no sense to be part of a

company and not combine your brand with theirs unless

the firm you’re with is trash. Which then begs the question:

Why are you with them?

• Stop demanding useless things from your broker — like

that office space we talk about above. And buy your own

pencils. Free your broker’s profit and loss for new line items

that matter. Wean yourself off things that no longer work —

that your broker pays for to appease you.

• Attendance. Your broker needs you to show up at office

meetings. Conventions. Award ceremonies. Even vendor

presentations. From their top producers down to the

newbie agents. This is your opportunity to show some

solidarity. Lend your voice. Share your thoughts and help

craft a culture — the rebar of a brand.

A house aligned

Many of these things above are intertwined, and change will not

occur unless these issues are exposed and placed on the discussion

table.

Ask yourself how young firms like @properties with a born-on date

of 2000 rose to become the number four brokerage in Chicago with

five-year, quadruple-digit revenue growth. The company is but one


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of several incredible examples of what happens when an operation

runs with a house aligned.

It can be done. It must be done.

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