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Dear Friend,

Over the past several months, I’ve been doing a lot of reading and studying the “branding” process. The way companies design, package and introduce new products and services to the market, creating a distinct position in the mind of consumers.

When you think of your services as individual brands in themselves, each filling a different need in the market, you can apply the same strategies huge branding companies do to build your real estate or mortgage business. Each segment of the market you want to work with can be approached with a separate “product” specifically designed to solve their problem.

Here are five “branding” lessons you can apply to your
business now

Design Your “Product” For The Customer First

At first it just sounds like common sense. If you’re going to create something, you want to design it for the customer first. But I think there’s more to it than that. The best brand building companies spend millions of dollars in research and development before they ever release a new product to the public. If they don’t feel their product can be the best choice in the category, they don’t do it. Even if they’ve spent millions of dollars, they’d rather cut their losses than release a product that’s going to be an also ran.

The simplest way for you to do this is to find out what your customers really want – and give it to them.

It’s all about truly “selecting” your target market. Empathizing with them and really getting inside their world, so you can provide a service that matches exactly what they want. Never hold back anything that will make the product better or more valuable to the user.

What do your customers really want? What do first time buyers really want? What do move up buyers really want? What about people who are refinancing? Asking questions like those, and answering them as your customer will help you design your product so it has the most appeal and compels your prospects to ask for it by name.

Plan To Dominate

That’s a pretty powerful word. Dominate. What does it mean? When I first heard that phrase, I really sat and thought about it. It made a profound impact on me. I thought about how it applies to our business, and how we can use it. Would you say that for any category of the real estate or mortgage business you
enter you’re planning to dominate? Planning to dominate is a different kind of thinking, and it makes a lot of sense.

Why go into a market segment just to have an entry into that market? How would you approach your business decisions differently if you knew you were going to pick a single category and dominate it?

Most realtors and lenders build their business by doing a little in a lot of different market segments, when the easiest thing to do is become an uncontested heavy weight champion of a single category. Category leaders have it easy. The momentum of being a leader is hard to stop. It’s worth the investment.

Manage Each “Brand” As An Individual Business

Each of your “Brands” should operate as an individual business, with individual performance requirements as a business unit. Operating as an individual business unit allows the whole operation to flow seamlessly – concentrating on the one thing it does best. If you have buyer specialists that work with you, or you have loan officers that work under you, try assigning them to a specific “brand” team.

What would it be like if you had buyer specialists who truly were specialists in a specific segment of the market? First time buyers, luxury home buyers, golf course home buyers. When you manage each of your “brands” as a separate unit, you really make it simple for your team to create the laser focus they
need to come up with exciting solutions and innovations that will keep your brand on top.

There’s a simplicity that comes with having a very clear mission.

Choose A Simple And Distinct Name And Look For Each “Brand”

Your “Automated Homefinder Service” says something. It has a name and along with it a life of it’s own. If you have a name for your service it gives it much more credibility.

It doesn’t exist until you give it a name. When prospects are searching for a solution to a very specific need, the more your “product” appears to be exactly what they are looking for, the more powerfully they’ll be attracted to it.

I say product because that’s the way you should be thinking about your service. It really helps to imagine your service as a product on the grocery store shelves, competing against all your competitors service packages. If you were a first time buyer, you’d look for a product that’s designed specifically for your needs. How can you package your product to stand out against the competition?

Be Your Own Best Competition

Knock yourself off. Offer a distinct benefit for the same market, under a different brand name. Think of the many attributes in the market. No one service can be all things to all people. Individual consumers are motivated by many different things. That’s why companies like Proctor & Gamble can have competing products in the same category that specifically appeal to a different segment. Tide is for people who want the most powerful detergent available. Cheer is for people who want to be able to wash in all temperatures, and Gain serves a different segment of the same market, all competing against each other, and all leading their category.

How can you apply that strategy to your real estate or mortgage business? It may make sense to have a fee for service brand that helps people sell their homes on their own, and a separate brand that offers a completely turn-key moving experience including packing, moving and getting settled in to their new
home hassle free. That would be a higher level of service than is now being offered, and with the premium placed on time by some people they may be ecstatic to pay more to have the complete move handled for them.

I’m sure you can see how two services like that could compete in the same market, and not hurt each other. They are serving the needs of two segments of the sellers market. Make a list of the categories that make the most sense for your business, and then turn them on their side, backwards and inside out to see how you can look at them differently and use these “branding” strategies to dominate every category you enter.