Lots of big news yesterday

It's been an eventful 36 hours in the world of technology and real estate. In case you missed it:

Google launched Latitude, a service that lets users identify their location, and that of their friends, on a mobile phone. We've seen location-aware apps before (from Loopt, Brightkite, Yahoo! and others), but this is of a different order of magnitude. Work in this area has lots of implications for real estate, but just think about the advertising possibilities alone -- targeting may be taken to an entirely new level.

The New York Times released and API that unlocks all the paper's stories going back to 1981. It's hard not to see the parallels to MLS. Marshall Kirkpatrick, writing on Read/WriteWeb, nails it (just switch "newspapers" for "MLSs"):

"It's a transformation moment towards interconnectedness and away from isolation. A quality API could throw the doors wide open to a future where "newspapers" are important again."

Trulia set up an MLS Advisory Board. They've been knocking on MLS doors for a while, but now they're putting the pedal to the metal. It makes me think there is something to this MLS thing.

In a move that should have big brokers everywhere speed-dialing their IT directors, Box.net, the online file storage/management company, announced enhancements to their platform aimed at the enterprise. I ask again, "whither transaction management?"

A big day. Onward!

-- Brian Boero

Google bails on newpapers

Yesterday, Google announced it is killing off its print ad program with newspapers.

To quote:

While we hoped that Print Ads would create a new revenue stream for newspapers and produce more relevant advertising for consumers, the product has not created the impact that we — or our partners — wanted

Seems not even Google can sell a newspaper ad these days.

Newspaper ad revenue has been in a death spiral for years, but the numbers -- and everything I am seeing and hearing from brokers -- indicate we are pretty close to impact.

Get out of the way!

h/t ClickZ

-- Brian Boero

Crumbs from real estate's table

Humanitarian and U2 front man Bono can now add "columnist" to his list of accomplishments. He published his first op-ed piece in the New York Times this past weekend.

Considering his access to the world from places unattainable to most of us, I've been wondering why he would choose a newspaper over the stage, his band's website, One.org or the myriad social networks that span the web.

Bono chose the Times.

Granted it's a well respected newspaper. But it's still a newspaper. And for those of us here in real estate, it's a medium many in our industry have all but forsaken. 

What does Bono know that we don't?

I know real estate's experience with newspapers has not been all that congenial or rewarding over the last decade. But perhaps your lack of success runs on a two-way street. Consider how, over the last decade, despite massive shifts in consumer interests and branding and communications practices, real estate continued to use the newspaper as it always had.

With double trucks framed by agent faces, generic copy, empty messages and pointless Realtor of the Month ads, what did real estate advertisers honestly expect from the paper? After all, what exactly was it your ads were trying to say? And toward whom were they geared?

Certainly not consumers.

Perhaps what Bono understands is the simple fact that people still read the paper. Lots of people. And while they may not always respond well to the array of ads within it, they might respond well to a thought provoking editorial. 

Crumbs

Real estate leaders. You know so much. Some of you have lived lifetimes in the housing business. You understand the cycles, the ebbs, the flows. You have a vast understanding of how markets trend up and down.

Is it too far-fetched to believe that newspapers might be the perfect medium to carry your occasional op-ed piece? Think of them as a platform to share your feelings, analyses, sentiments and, perhaps, even a vision.

All these years you have tried to build a brand based on modes of communication that offered only crumbs from your table of real estate knowledge. Perhaps going forward, you might want to take a page out of Bono's book and consider another look at the newspaper and the impact you could have on your marketplace if you leveraged it properly.

Sure you can write a blog or publish a letter from the desk of the CEO on your Website. That's probably not a bad idea. But until your blog is delivered to the door step of homes throughout your marketplace, this may very well be an option worth considering.

-- Davison

Twitter: 1000wattmarc

The mark of a successful campaign

I often harp on how oblivious real estate ads are to the needs of consumers.   

I often comment on how silly real estate ad copy tends to be - often written like a note to oneself rather than an articulation of unique and deliverable benefits.

I'm often outspoken about the grandiose statements made by real estate folks without any proof to back those statements. 

I rarely ever acknowledge a great ad.

Well not today.

This past Sunday, upon waking up, I nudged my wife and said "Honey, I was thinking...in order to get our Nipomo home listed and sold, we need to find an agent with ears. Two in fact, so he can hear what our home means to us. In stereo."

Without hesitation, Lori whispered back "I know. And he should have two eyes, so he can seek out the perfect buyer."

And then, as if we read each others minds, we said in unison, "An agent who is the changing face of real estate."

The hum of an angelic choir breezed through our room.

I rose, fetched the Sunday paper, and found this ad inside. What are the odds, that one agent, replete with ears and eyes, would appear who somehow perceived the needs of Lori and I.

That's the mark of a successful campaign. 

Boy was I lucky I read the paper this morning. I only hope he also has the hands to pick up the phone when I place my call.

- Davison

Brand management is Job One

Take a look at this postcard I got in the mail today:

Better Internet than I already have. Plus cable. For less money. What a rock-solid offer! Great call to action!

But I'd never take them up on it. Ever. Because it's Comcast, a brand freighted with all kinds of negative associations in my mind. I know I'm not alone. The offer is killer. The brand ... well, not so much.

Now take a look at this image I snapped in my neighborhood:

There are brand problems here too. First of all, someone is trying to sell me on handling the biggest financial transaction of my life, one charged with emotion, from a bus bench. Second, there are actually a number of competing brands here. On top of all this, the offer itself -- while seemingly as compelling as Comcast's -- is as sketchy as a three dollar bill. The fine print on this ad reads, "Seller and Dave and Carla must agree on a price and completion dates." which of course qualifies the offer into utter meaninglessness.

The takeaways:

Many real estate brokers consider brand management an afterthought, a frivolous exercise compared to the real business of recruiting. That makes no sense. A trusted, healthy brand is a pre-condition for everything else you do. If you manage every touch point with vigilance, if you define your brand promise and uphold it unerringly, everything -- marketing, sales, recruiting, retaining -- becomes easier. If you fail on the promise more often than not, or fail to maintain fidelity to the brand in every context, everything -- even pitching a no-brainer like Comcast is -- becomes a challenge.

Even more fundamentally, make sure any offer you put into the marketplace stands up to the scrutiny of today's consumer, who is more skeptical, more informed, and less susceptible to marketing gambits than ever before. I am sure the bus bench ad above generates some business. But it's certainly not a way to build long-term trust, value and brand equity.

Your brand is everything. Obsess on it.

-- Brian Boero

Scent of a broker

When was the last time you flattened a glob of Silly Putty across a Beetle Bailey comic?

Or ran a wad of Play-Doh through the plastic spaghetti maker?

Or ripped open a brand new pack of Topps baseball cards?

You know what I'm talking about, right? You can almost smell it.

From Shangri-La Hotels & Resorts to Abercrombie & Fitch, more and more companies are spritzing our senses -- specifically, our sense of smell -- in an effort to build a deeper brand connection. Social scientists have long known that scents trigger memories, emotions and associations. But scent is gaining wider acceptance as a key dimension of branding recently.

Case in point: The aroma of A&F's Fierce cologne envelops every person strolling in front of one of the chain's stores. It lures their targeted customers toward the showcase window, where, hanging on the wall, just beyond the array of Daisy Dukes, is a larger-than-life poster of some JFK wannabee, topless and windblown.

Le Meridien hotels created a unique scent that captures the essence of its recent brand revival. It's piped through every floor of every one of their properties.

Other brands capitalize on scent to create ancillary products or to extend an experience. Consider the array of oils and candles made available to spa guests who want to recreate their 90-minute massage back at home. A bottle Johnson's Baby Oil could get the job done, but it's the $20.00 scented spa lotion that delivers the experience.

Does a real estate have a scent? Not yet. But it could. And considering the high level of emotion that courses through its transactional veins, I would argue that it should. There is no reason why a real estate brand cannot not take a cue from the companies I list above.

But what could some leading real estate brands smell like?

• RE/MAX. High above the clouds, our RE/MAX agent soars through the stress of the real estate transaction inside their hot air balloon. What does that altitude smell like? For me it might be the The Rio Grande Valley. Piñon. Crisp air. This scent could be piped through every RE/MAX office or handed out through a RE/MAX line of hot air balloon air fresheners for the home. Each time it spritzes, you think RE/MAX.
  

• Coldwell Banker. With its roots in Old San Francisco, this brand conjures up the scent of a well appointed sitting room in a Nob Hill mansion. The scent is a mix of mahogany, fine leather and oak embers -- a blend that elicits a sense of tradition, stability and discretion. CB could even fire up the scent in an exclusive line of specialty cigars.
  

• Sotheby's. A picturesque English countryside filled with Agrimony, Wild Marjoram and Heather serves as the perfect compliment for enjoying a simmering cup of Earl Grey. These scents conjure the finer things in life. Every Sotheby's office should smell like this, provoke those connections. They could be taken home through a Sotheby's gift line of wildflower seeds and teas.      

• GMAC. Why hide this brand's muscular flex towards real Americana? Power. Brushed steel. Detroit. I don't know a single person who doesn't love the smell of new car. In fact, that scent is known as the New Car Smell. How can that translate to the smell of buying a new home?
  

• Windermere. This brand speaks of pine trees, rain and the aura of its ozone aftermath. Much could be done with a light application of these scents through every office and on every piece of collateral -- an evocation of place no website or sign rider can deliver.
  

• First Team. This SoCal independent smells of sunshine. Boat drinks. The sea breeze. Their offices -- and a private-labled line of sunscreens -- should as well.
  

Perhaps you think this is far-fetched. It is most definitely not if you are committed to making certain that every one of your brand's touch points  -- whether seen, heard, touched or smelled -- communicates its essence.

Brokers who embrace this basic tenet of brand care will come out of the down market smelling like a rose.

- Davison

For brokers, a fork in the road

Trulia announced the launch of an ad network today, a collection of sites on which real estate brokers and others interested in reaching home buyers can place targeted advertising. It's a first, and an overdue one at that.

Last week, John L. Scott announced that they have purchased a small technology company to accelerate its in-house technology development. The company has also steadfastly withheld its listings from syndication across the Web.

Kudos to both companies for aggressively seizing on two key trends -- in Trulia's case, the flight from print real estate advertising and, for JLS, a movement among brokers to gain greater control of their future, which is increasingly tied to the online opportunity.

Brokers have been feeling around in the dark when it comes to the web for some time now. But these two developments cast some light on the strategic options:

a.) Ride the SEO savvy, traffic, user experience and reach of an online partner like Trulia to extend your brand and engage consumers online at very low cost.

or

b.) Do what it takes to create these aptitudes internally, leveraging IDX, Web 2.0 apps, and the IT and development efficiencies now available to build your own site into a leading consumer destination in your market or markets.

The best choice? I can't say. What makes sense for your competitor may not make sense for you. But I can list some of the questions you may consider in getting to a conclusion. I'm missing some for sure: My point is to help you reach a decision that needs to be made.

In consideration of a syndication/online ad network strategy:

1. Does a potential syndication partner bring me an audience I am not already reaching?
2. Is my brand well served by the content, user experience and brand equity of the syndication partner?
3. Exactly what stands between me and the consumer on the syndication partner's site?
4. Is sending my listings or ad dollars to a Website supporting the growth of a potential competitor, or riding the coattails of an established media property?
5. Am I -- is my brand -- diminished by putting my inventory on other people's shelves?

In consideration of a destination strategy:

1. Do I, and the people that work for me, have the knowledge and skill required to support an effort to make our Website a top destination for home buyers and sellers in our market?
2. Am I committed to re-org my communications and marketing departments to move from executing or managing vendors who perform old tasks (e.g., Issuing press releases, supporting agents with print collateral) to new ones (e.g., blogging, video production, SEO).
3. Do I have, or can I find, technology staff and trusted vendors who can create an online experience that is competitive with the top online players?
4. Can I sell the vision internally to managers, agents, and staff?

Most brokers remain in a dangerous stasis, floating in suspension amid kinetic innovation. It's time to move. Look outward or inward, but do press forward.

-- Brian Boero

"Trading Places" with Coldwell and Banker

Joel over at FOREM issued his take this. I read it. I agreed. I wanted to disagree. Because Coldwell Banker has stood out among big real estate brands lately for its excellent website and willingness to break away from convention.

So I toggled between the video and the website. Several times. Didn't make a difference. Here's why:

Web 2.0 is not about suspending belief. It's about truth. It's about real. And if you want to bend the frame a bit, make sure it's funny -- or human. This campaign doesn't do it for me on either score.

This campaign forces me to suspend my belief and buy into the Mortimer and Randolph Duke like caricatures riffing about the Web on YouTube - two dead brokers from another era "getting" the whole Web thing while so many of their live agents still don't. That struck me immediately. 

When Banker sidetracks about a staring contest, it's just not funny to me. It seems uncharacteristic and as insensitive to current real estate realities as the Duke brothers were when they bet a dollar on Billy Ray Valentine's life. I got the creeps actually especially because I know people in the Coldwell Banker organization and they are neither insensitive, pompous or creepy. This is just not the right image for Coldwell Banker.

I don't want to be another voice jumping on the pot shot bandwagon and taking pennies out of the idea bucket without throwing some change back in. As someone who has written scripts for ads, here's a few ideas I would storyboard that could work.

#1 Coldwell and Banker. Their spirit truly lives on as humble guardians of the business they founded. Compassionate, self-effacing angels who choose to remain earthbound and keep an eye on the operation. They tidy the place up after dark. Check the marketing material. Keep the pencils sharp. Peek in on board meetings.

Banker likes hanging in the server room. He's got HTML for Dummies open. Coldwell hangs in a guest cubicle. At a computer. He's reading a blog. They might be 100 years old, but the spirit of innovation that founded that company lives on. Both go online together to search. ColdwellBanker.com of course. They love playing with the home value estimator. They not only approve, the results blow their minds. "If only we had things like this back when we were selling real estate, Coldwell says. Banker agrees. "And these too" he says as he flicks CB refrigerator magnets across the room and onto the PC tower in the adjacent cubicle.

#2

A conference room. A transaction is taking place. Coldwell leans in over the buyer as they inspect the contract. The buyer looks up for a second, as if something is there. Banker also leans in. Over the agent. She is young. Dilligent as one could be. But she's cool. Steady. Confident. The deal closes. Buyers leave. Followed by the agent. she turns and shuts the light. Just before she closes the door to the conference room, she turns back and looks into the room. To where the ghosts are. She can't see the boys. But she knows they here. And she mouths "thank you". She knows they're keeping a benevolent eye on her. And the company. And the customer.

Kudos to the CB team for taking a flyer. I think they missed the mark. But the campaign just started. There's always tomorrow and a new idea.

- Davison

Capturing and communicating the essense of your company

What makes a successful ad?

It's one where every element of its composition engages, arouses, excites, defines and moves the viewer into action.

The task for any advertiser is to marry all five elements together to create something that captures the subject and distinguishes it from its competition. This is precisely what separates a merely creative ad from a successful one.

Take this ad below for Knob Creek Bourbon.

I think it's really creative. But I don't think it's successful. A week from now you will remember the dude sitting alone at the bar staring into his glass but you won't remember what he was drinking. The ad failed to define the product in a manner that distinguishes it from other spirits. Go ahead, replace Knob Creek with Jack Daniel's. Or Canadian Club. The ad still works.   

Building an ad campaign around something as difficult and foreboding as hard liquor isn't easy. But some have. They clearly define their brand, they define their customer and align the two together. Ciroc is well on their way to accomplishing that. Their customer doesn't sit in empty bars drinking alone. Not by a long-shot.

How well do you advertise your company brand? Are you interchangeable with your competition? Does your brand statement have meaning or is it platitudinous vapor like  "First Class Service, First Class Results", "Making your real estate dreams come true", or "We hold the key to your new home" -- in other words, language used by hundreds of other companies that contain little in the way of true meaning?

Flip through your local paper. Scroll through your company website. Check what you have against others. Are you interchangeable? Could your brand just as easily be confused with others?

Now take a look at the ad below. It blew me away. It triggered all my emotions in a way few, if any, real estate ads ever do. 

Not only does this simple, elegant ad engage, arouse, excite, define and move to the viewer to action, it clearly makes a statement that cannot easily be replaced by any other brand in its marketplace.

The success of this ad lies in offering the viewer a glimpse into what lies beyond engagement with the brand. That's why I found the Knob Creek ad so disturbing. The end result of that experience conjured up images of irresponsibility, desperation and a DWI.

There are a million agents in the industry with a million Knob Creek ads that fail to fire on all cylinders. They fail to grab to viewer by the neck and arouse them.  And yet, it seems to me, given the subject matter at hand (houses) and given the service at hand (helping people move on to the next phase of their life), a million great ad ideas are within reach.

Want to grab your viewer and arouse them?  Try this. Throw what your company has been doing out the window. Forget it ever existed. Imagine you are the client. Ask yourself these questions:

What would arouse your interest? 
What would engage your desire?
What would conjure up a sense of excitement about the process?
What would serve to define and differentiate your company's brand?
What would activate you to go to the next step and make contact?

Sometimes, one perfect picture, one perfect statement, is all it takes.

- Davison

Pocket full of Kryptonite

Faster than a speeding bullet
More powerful than a locomotive.
Look up in the sky, it's a bird, it's a plane, no … it's just a simple twist on an old idea.

The Golden Age of Superman

During the Golden Age, the supermen and superwomen of real estate performed feats of marvel. Super strength protected consumers from bad deals. Leaping ability allowed them to comb through piles of paperwork in a single bound. Super speed enabled them to handle issues the second they arose. Super vision allowed them to funnel through thousands of listings to locate the perfect home. Super stamina enabled them to work into the wee hours while we, the customer, slept soundly, protected from the devilish details.

And all the while, durability prevented slings and arrows from piercing their value.

Kryptonite

Ten years ago, it found its way into real estate's pocket. It took the form of an online listing. Soon, it shape-shifted into hundreds of new online applications and features -- a protean force that made Superman weak in the knees.

Kryptonite IDX stole his listings mojo. Kryptonite Web portals with data mashups drained her superhuman feats of market knowledge of value. E-mail updates sapped super vision of its power. A phalanx of Kryptonite templates overran his brand magic.

Many tools and systems sold to real estate people over the past decade bound them to cumbersome work-flow processes. And they produced no more business, despite the earnest promises of the Kryptonite peddlers who spoke of the moon but delivered craters.

Kryptonite ultimately is a product of the limitations we place on ourselves: age-old habits, tired traditions that worked in the past, and a belief that they will therefore work forever.

It's time to inoculate Superman.

Smallville

It's what real state used to be. Many still live here despite the massive consumer migration to Metropolis driven by a sense of empowerment in the flattened, global, information-ready, instantaneous world.

In Metropolis, consumers are in charge. They want to be involved in the process. They see their homes sitting on the market for months and want to know why. They are frustrated. They are no longer interested in being blissfully unaware. They think they know how to price, how to market.

They look to their agents to be their Superman and all they see is Clark Kent fumbling about in his everyman's disguise, doing the same things he's always done, the same things every other Clark Kent does.

Superman needs new powers.
Ones that build on the old.
And creates anew.

How Superman gets his groove back

Here's one idea:

It used to be that home buyers and sellers were kept apart during the transaction. The emotional currents flowing through a deal were often thought of as deadly. Does that thinking apply today?

Suppose buyers and sellers were brought together on a blog allowing them to interact in the new social environment that offers a fine balance of intimacy and distance. Imagine merging your website with your blog. 1 product. A site that contains your IDX but void of all the boiler plate, carbon copied, real estate 101 refuse that litters the road.

Using any one of several powerful blog tools, and there are more and more coming out all the time, an agent can upload pictures galore, video and post endless content about the things they know - their listings, the neighborhood, the market, local amenities... just about anything you think about and talk about everyday.

Sure, you can do this to some extend with a Web site, but what a listing blog offers is the possiblity that your readers might leave comments, ask questions and create a dialogue that will further extract your super powers.

When you can invite the client into the experience -- the experience of your technology, communication and process, answering questions, dialoguing with buyers, checking traffic stats, reading feedback -- you will slay many of the villains that plague upon your Lois Lane consumers. The antipathy. The frustration. The sense that you are not doing your job.

This is your chance to land on her roof, pick her up in your arms and fly her through your world.

Supermen and Superwoman do the unexpected.
They leap tall buildings in a single bound.
A blog is not a tall building, but just one simple story
Take that leap.

And … long live Superman.