Built To Last

When I entered the real estate business in 1980 I had never encountered the concept of a “brand.” There were, of course, famous brands. In my house we called tissues Kleenex, chocolate cookies with vanilla filling Oreos, and all lip balms Chapstick.  But the notion that I, or a real estate company for which I worked, would be a brand, or need to create a brand, was completely unfamiliar to me. Thirty years later we live in the age of the brand, both personal and professional.  Today people are famous for being famous (look at the Kardashians) because they have assiduously cultivated their brands. Real estate agents enjoy the same benefit; they are now TV stars with endorsement contracts and celebrity-recognition issues. We live in a brave new world.

In this world identity and promotion resonate with consumers in a whole new way. In the real estate business, simply promoting your listings no longer satisfies the public’s need for association with a luxury brand. And so my competitors and I are engaged in a new world of competition, that of recognizable and distinct brand identity.

For the past year, we at Warburg have engaged in an intensive brand definition process. It has been a revelation in many respects. In the past I thought of branding primarily in terms of design: what a particular font, color, and set of images convey about your company to the public. Maybe there was also a memorable tagline, maybe not. Don’t get me wrong; these things really matter.  Once you begin to pay attention to the subliminal messages, then you realize how much impact typeface, color, and layout actually have. But there is so much more.

In our business each placement needs to convey multiple messages. From an overall perspective, we want to remind the public of our longevity and stability, while at the same time reassuring the consumer that we are technologically and analytically advanced organization. We want to support personal brand creation on the part of our agents while at the same time remembering that it is the client’s needs, not the agent’s, which are paramount. So whether our agent likes tennis or makes jam probably matters less than her ability to advise and counsel buyers and sellers with expertise and confidence.

Beyond these baseline needs, the brand also needs to convey a unique personality.  The real challenge begins here. My agents, management team, and I have spent countless hours interacting with our brand consultants (the peerless Mucca) to help them understand what makes Warburg different in a way which both attracts and benefits consumers. How much of the firm’s personality draws from me? How can the best of those traits be institutionalized so that they reside within the brand DNA and NOT just within me? How can the brand identity be telegraphed so that it conveys in each interaction we have with the public, be it a brochure, an Internet ad, a page in The New York Times, or one of our storefront windows?

Our new store windows went up this weekend, and our new website, brand mark, logo, color, and formatting are all now launched as well. I hope they telegraph to you who we are – I think they are great but I am close to the process. So let us know what you think!

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