Know-How Exchange : Taglines/Names

Dear Bethstacy.al,

Phil beat me to it. But I'll say it anyway. You're not going to create a brand out of thin air. As nice as you and your partner are, you can sell houses until the cows come home, but you won't have created a brand.

You know about selling houses. I know about marketing.

Read. Learn.

If this sounds brusque, think of me as the marketing equivalent
of Simon Cowell.

What you're talking about here dear heart, is pretty much creating a corporate identity. I know you haven't said as much out loud, but that's the way it reads, to me at least.

A brand is an entirely different thing. Something seared or burned into memory. An indelible stamp. Something powerful. Meaningful. Potent.

If you've ever seen a round up in a cowboy movie, you've probably seen classic branding going on. Basic. Raw. Elemental branding.

These days—and in the context of marketing—branding has VERY LITTLE to do with logos and letterheads. A lot of people think it does. They're wrong. "Hey!", people gleefully shout "let's get a new logo and brand ourselves!"

Wrong, wrong, wrongeddy-wrong!

At its heart, to "brand" something (and branding in general) implies and projects a combination of experiences and feelings of (and about) a service or product.

But for branding to work, for it to connect with people and pull its weight in gold of those combined experiences and feelings, the brand must connect in people's minds with an established trigger, a trigger that's tripped by emotion.

No connection. No tripping. No brand. It's as simple as that.

Here's a little hint for you: The quality goes in first. Then the wrapper goes on.

For your real estate service to thrive, you must project movies
into people's imaginations, movies that remove ALL feelings of doubt, fear, skepticism, and resistance to the changes connected with moving house in their minds.

The daunting nature of moving house for your mature clients must be banished forever by the quality and meaning of every point of contact between them and you and your messages.

Everything: the tone of your voice, your sales copy, your website videos, your staff, everything: even the way you answer the telephone.

To brand yourself as the "go to" people in real estate is a worthy goal, and one you can reach with work. But it will mean treating your clients the way you'd treat an elderly relative, perhaps your Mum or Dad (I'm British, I can get away with saying things like this, and with spelling colour with a "u"), or the way you'd treat the parents of your best friend.
Don't talk down to them. Treat them well.

With respect. Dignity. Honour. Kindness. Compassion. Why? Because these people have earned it. Be these things (and that's "be" them, not just act them) in your service, give people damned good, lasting, passionate reasons to truly believe that's the way you treat people when they do business with you, and you won't have to create a brand.

Why? Because you'll have bloody well earned it, dearie. It will be YOURS. And rightfully so. Note this well because it's powerful juju
and you'd be stunned at the number of businesses that muck it up!

Your brand is your personal—cross your heart and hope to die—promise to your customer—not just your "guarantee or your money back"—your promise—that you'll not just deliver, but that you'll hold true and stand fast, NO MATTER WHAT.

Your brand must be your solid gold promise, and backed by the Federal Reserve, Fort Knox, and the entire U.S. Marine Corps. promise—that you'll MORE than deliver to your clients, that you'll MORE than serve,
and WILLINGLY over deliver to client after client, never once wavering.

Same priceless service every time. Brilliant. Steadfast. Consistent.

Nail this and your Rolodex will never be empty and your phone will
never stop ringing.

I hope this helps. Good luck to you.

Gary Bloomer
Wilmington, DE, USA

Hey guys, many thanks for the thoughtful insights. Still don't have a clue as to a tag line I can use when I'm communicating with other service providers. If anybody feels led to something I can use, I appreciate that too

Thanks to everyone who responded