Cleaning out the drawers last night I rummaged through a stack of real estate business cards. One in particular grabbed me. It featured, in big letters, the following statement:
“I deliver dreams”
I called the number on the card. It had a 404 area code and I got voice mail. Nevertheless, I ordered two dreams. One with onions and mushrooms. The other half pepperoni, half plain. Then I went to bed.
I woke up as expected.
Hungry.
My real estate prayer
It’s often said that God answers every prayer. When you don’t get what you pray for, you still receive God’s answer – it just happens to be “no.”
I’ll accept that from God. But not from the real estate industry, whose marketing pen continues to dip into a saccharine, vapid well from which it refuses rescue. My real estate prayer – that we begin treating this profession with a seriousness commensurate to its importance - must be answered in the affirmative.
The history of bad marketing we must escape to make this happen is long.
Dreams of yesteryear
An association with the feathered pillow-laden world of American homeownership dreams was created during the 40′s and 50′s when visionaries like William Levitt conjured a world of placid domesticity.
Dreams only last a few minutes. But it seems real estate marketing is eternal.
By the late 1970′s, for many, home ownership became a mocking fantasy. Mortgage rates went through the roof. But the dreamy fumes from real estate’s exhaust pipe lingered like late-night “Honeymooners” reruns.
They say if you hang on to something long enough it will cycle back into fashion. And sure enough, by the late 90′s, after long seasons of wakeful struggle, people began licking the brown tabs of the real estate marketing blotter. In pursuit of dreams we bought mansions worth 20x our yearly salaries, accepted mortgages with no principal payments, and bought stupid things with stupid money.
The dream of homeownership was alive and kickin’.
But all dreams end. And we’ve been in therapy for four years now trying to recover. Yet despite everything that’s happened, those driving real estate’s marketing bus are still at the wheel, cranking out dreamy copy for Ozzie and Harriet. It comes across in the form platitudinous ads, Websites that do injury to both owner and user and drawers full of business cards bearing silliness.
Too many in real estate continue to make empty promises fashioned from dreams that have lost their power to transport us.
Maybe you think that’s the best you can do.
You’re wrong.
I know you can do better.
Here’s how.
The truth
Across the brandosphere, marketers have been busy re-examining their brand promises and humanizing their written words. Some turn up the volume on their claims. Buick did this with their “The new class of world class” campaign. Some soften it as BMW has in moving from “The Ultimate Driving Machine” to a newer “Joy” campaign.
For Buick, the higher volume claim worked because it was matched by the aggression Buick placed into building a better product. A jaded public beset by generations of bad American engineering would be inclined to view Buick’s claims as unbelievable. Yet this move resonated because it drove attention to myriad improvements that made the claims real. Sales have increased – the result of a company investing in something people really cared about and wanted: a world class American car.
BMW toned their message down after considering that “The Ultimate Driving Machine,” while compelling when every day was a Studio 54 bash, might be off key for the times. “Ultimate” made BMW owners seem frivolous. Insensitive. Narcissistic. Boorish. Today required different aspirations. A different dream.
In comparison, real estate’s persistent attachment to selling “dreams” fails for two reasons: First, there’s usually no investment made to make the delivery of these dreams exhilarating. By what conveyance will the woman whose business card I mentioned above deliver dreams? Her father’s Oldsmobile of a prehistoric website powered by a feeble IDX feed? A “marketing plan” not worth the color ink used to print it?
Secondly, unlike the desire Americans have to own an excellent American automobile, I would argue that few of us desire Realtors who deliver dreams. Most of us are hungry for skill, integrity and brains.
Turn on
The most savvy real estate marketers have long since unhooked themselves from the helium tank of real estate rhetoric. They speak in a saner voice, more direct, less hyperbolic. Take MRealty. No marketing hype there. Just great technology and decision support content. Visit Pedal to Properties. Their slogan, “A new way to buy and sell properties” sounds fluffy at first blush but is directly linked to the very new way they are in fact doing things – a truth that has been meet with considerable local fascination.
And of course: Redfin. Here’s the marketing copy from their website:
Experienced Agents
If you like our site, you’re going to love our agents. Search online. Set up tours online. When you’re ready, our local, experienced agents will get you into homes and guide you every step of the way.
If I had my own brokerage, I’d pen something like “Davison Realty: Helping you make a better real estate decisions.” Granted, it’s not very sexy. But it’s something I’d know I could deliver upon and it’s something I believe people want and need.
Simple, truthful expressions of what you really do, what you really provide and what you can nail consistently are a wiser path toward building your brand.
Home ownership is still a wonderful thing. But let’s wake up from the marketing dream.
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Marc,
We don’t always agree on everything but you cracked the nail with a straight on shot with this one. Having been in the real estate marketing game for more that 11 years now, I’ve experienced the good, the bad and the extremely ugly. I hope that companies and individuals start to understand that transparency in messaging can be a good thing and they don’t have to hide behind a tired old approach just because it worked in the past.
Derek
Marc, I love how you guys get right to the point with what’s wrong with the industry. With few exceptions, the industry doesn’t get it. Instead of talking with people in their language and helping them solve the problems they face when trying to buy or sell a home, they think that you can just plop down a home on a bunch of e websites with lousy picts and descriptions, put up a lawn sign and then “they will come”. The reason most sites don’t say much is because the brokerages don’t have much to say…and that’s why all the companies sound and look about the same. They’re still working the same way they did in the 50′s and 60′s. The reason they don’t say anything of value on their sites is because they still don’t know what to say.
As a kid I got to meet Bill Levitt and hang out on some of his job sites and see how he worked. He had a vision of the present and of the future and knew that his business had to evolve or die. Even back then he and other builders used to complain about the how mediocre the brokerage business was. Not much has changed.
As Derek pointed out…brokerage is a tired old approach that doesn’t work anymore
church
@Derek, I know you secretly agree with everything
@Randy, Good points and thanks for contributing. I do think many brokerages have more to say. They just don’t know how to say it. They’re not tired. Their marketing perspective is. And as long as they continue to subscribe to the folks that preach that they will continue to portray themselves as you see them: Old, tired and pointless.
The crazy, sad, wonderful thing is the real estate brokerage provides one of the three most important functions in society – helping people acquire life’s basic necessities – shelter. It is and should be viewed as a more noble profession. I truly believe that. But it never will as long as it allows things like this to represent itself. http://bit.ly/LO31r
The bottom line here every brokerage should take an accounting of their identity, their value, their meaning, their special sauce. If there is none, time will of course whittle them to dust. But the ones that have something special, its time to communicate it properly.
That’s my dream anyway.
Favorite line:
“I would argue that few of us desire Realtors who deliver dreams. Most of us are hungry for skill, integrity and brains.”
Ain’t that the truth. Even beyond real estate. Today, I was talking to my new car insurance agent (I switched from State Farm, which had already above average service).
The new agent was gently reminding me to not forget the first payment because i could accrue $35 in fees if I don’t pay today.
Last week, I called her because I couldn’t understand why my plan went up 35% (I was not a happy chap), she answered; she was at YOSEMITE with her family (to my shame, I guess there was a signal there). That screamed INTEGRITY and skill (providing a remarkable experience).
It was tangible gift she gave me. She didn’t give some half- hearted Dream speech. I could feel the difference. She earned my business and more.
I don’t even care about the 35% increase.
Thanks for this wonderful post Marc. Superb.
-Ian http://RenoHomeBlog.com
@Marc “Take MRealty. No marketing hype there. Just great technology and decision support content.”
I just clicked over to the MRealty site, nicely put together so it’s a great pity they decided to only let consumers look at a couple of listings (quite literally) before demanding contact info with this message:
Oops!…please create an account to keep browsing.
Sorry but I couldn’t make any sort of decision
Well done Marc. As always you have drilled right into the heart of it, called it out and offered a solution.
In this case on one of the most damaging aspects of real estate marketing, the insistance on unsubstantiated or down right juvenile tag lines that Realtors are insistent or afraid to not use.
I would hazard to guess few consumers respond well to such ‘claims’ and in fact I am sure the majority are turned off by them.
On the other hand sharing your exact value in plain language with supporting evidence once the consumer explores your service offering is the best first step to building the potential relationship.
I believe you nailed it. There are a tremendous amount of Realtors that have yet to realize their approach to this business is antiquated and pre-historic. We as Realtors must understand the we are dealing with the most educated real estate consumer in the history of this country. In fact, I believe that 1/2 of the real estate consumers out there are better educated than 1/2 of the Realtors that hold a license and that also goes for the brokers, both tradtional and non traditional. It’s unfortunate for the profession because the Realtors that do get it and are up to date with where the industry is and where it is going are really great Realtors. I do believe that we’ll see an additional 20% to 30% of the Realtors nation wide leave this business over the next 2 years. This natural attrition will be good for the industry.
Dang Marc. In laymen’s terms, tell me how you really feel.
@Ian, great example. The old saying “Do unto others” should always reign supreme in every endeavor. Granted, I falter too at times but I also course correct whenever I ask that question of myself. This applies to marketing copy. Would you respond to you’re message if it was a part of another sales persons campaign. Answer honestly.
@Peter – Apples and oranges. Besides, I personally have no problem with a companies desire to provide information through sign in. Facebook requires it. No one seems to have a problem with that. What I honed in on with M was the absence of foolishness in the marketing.
@ Richard – You raise issues that have become a big part of the real estate “raise the bar” conversation lately which I also addressed here in this post – http://www.1000wattconsulting.com/blog/2010/02/a-pulse-a-passing-grade-and-a-business-card-raising-the-bar-on-real-estate-agent-qualifications.html
I’m not sure exactly how much of the consumer population is more educated than than the agent population but here’s what I do think – almost every agent is most likely more educated about real estate and the real estate market than most consumers.
As a result, it would behoove every agent to promote that. If you’re smarter than the public, show it. And if you aren’t… refrain from presenting that reality. It’s common sense.
I can’t blame agents though. They are being taught to do this by someone. Find those folks, deal with them and we’ll start seeing an improvement throughout the masses.
Thank you for this post. It’s incredibly refreshing. I couldn’t agree more. The trend is even worse in Hawaii. “Making Dreams Come True”, “Delivering Paradise”, etc. etc. There are innumerable “Must Sees”, “Shangri-las” and “Dream Homes”. There is very little focus on the actual service and the value that Realtors bring to the consumers. I’m sharing this post with everyone I can. Big Mahalos.
I think most industries are discovering the need to get back to basics and one thing that is pushing them along is social media, which is def being recognised as huge opportunity in real estate. When you consider that 70% of the top 10 traffic sites for today are social media sites I think it says it all. I got tweeted this property listing syndication tool today if anyone is interested http://ht.ly/23rN6…thats the thing about social media, it also increases the connection with others in the industry, no matter where you are
You’ve made a great point. Slogans like “we’ll make your dreams come true” aren’t realistic, they aren’t honest, they aren’t sane. They aren’t even decent, especially these days when many people’s dreams have fallen down like houses of cards.
However, I believe that people are more cautious now, at least some of them. They have learned from mistakes of the others, if they were lucky, or from their own, if they weren’t. They know that the talk is cheap, they’re looking for professionals and high quality service and they can tell the difference between false promises and realistic offers.
I don’t want to judge other agents. Everyone has the right to do business his/her own way. But from my experience, being honest always pays out in the long run.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=q-RLqLx1iYI
Marc, this video says it all.
Jim
Great post. I agree that the fluffy whispy marketing is a thing of the past. Saying you “deliver dreams” is so ridiculous in the age of internet marketing. Customers are smarter and more tech savy. They don’t want a dreamer as a Realtor. They want a Realtor who can deliver the best information in the shortest amount of time, with an awesome website.