The past couple weeks have been interesting, huh? Yeesh. I hope you’re doing OK.  I’m feeling a little reflective today. So, what follows is a bit of a ramble. Just some thoughts and impressions about it all. Take it for what it is.  … At an internal 1000WATT meeting a few days ago, I likened the past four years to flying through an asteroid belt.  At this time in 2020, the real estate market had flatlined. County recorder offices were closed in many places. Stocks were in freefall. We pondered physical and business mortality.  Then it all snapped back. Thousands of people ..read more

I believe in homeownership. It’s as American as it gets.  And I love the residential real estate profession. It’s an engine of social mobility with few equals in our society, and — despite Mr. Ketchmark’s frequent and unchallenged assertions — hardly the dominion of “corporations.” In a time when economic power is concentrating and consumer choices are narrowing, real estate remains, in comparison, a small business Garden of Eden.  And this “cartel” stuff? Come on. If you’ve ever been to a real estate office meeting, or an association committee discussion, you know this: Being on the ..read more

Somewhere a place exists where Madge, The Jolly Green Giant, Rosie the Riveter, Mr. Whipple, Catalina the Mermaid, and all the endearing characters created to sell products reside.   In this fantasyland, one character rides taller than the rest. How he was created and why he succeeded provides valuable insight into the mechanics of brand messaging and how brands apply that to solve their most difficult challenges. Addressing the hard problems In shrinking markets, or during hard times, brands cannot create new customers. Instead, they must take customers from other brands. Direct, ta ..read more

We were outraged. And maybe, if we were honest, not exactly surprised.  Newsday had laid it all bare out on Long Island — the steering, the winking and nodding, the nasty reheated racism of people with no business practicing real estate.  The Newsday investigative report on discrimination by real estate agents hit in 2019. It prompted outcry, hearings in Albany, and not nearly enough agent license revocations. Some companies deepened their how not to be a racist a-hole fair housing training.  But here’s the thing: As bad as all of this was, it would have been much worse without ..read more

Marketers wield “messaging” like a magician’s wand, attempting to conjure awareness, interest and action for their offerings. Yet success teeters on the precarious edge of the recipient’s immediate interest. If not poised to embrace an offering at a precise moment in time, the marketing will self-destruct in a Mission Impossible-style.  Enter the brand-minded copywriter. The Hook Conventional marketing often fixates on the realm of rational facts—details about a product or service, its temporal existence, features, pricing, and acquisition points. While relevant, obviously, these rational ..read more

The Voice for Real Estate. The world’s largest trade association. Political paymaster. Champion of homeownership. Protector of property rights. The National Association of REALTORS® is big, powerful, and… beat up. This is an institution that is being challenged to face its demons.  Getting a clear read on this, and looking the demons directly in the eye, seems like a good idea even if you’re on the outside, like us. Because whatever you think about NAR, it matters.  So we fielded a survey of 1,100 agents nationwide in partnership with our friends at BAM. We asked simple, direct quest ..read more

Redfin has existed for 20 years. It has yet to be a profitable enterprise.  Even during 2021, that most extraordinary of boom years, the company lost $109.6 million.  There are a few reasons for this (a poorly-timed acquisition in rentals, an extraordinary investment in technology over the years), but the heart of the matter is simple: Redfin has always paid its agents salaries.  Making payroll every two weeks for over 2,000 agents is a sobering reality. And while Redfin has referred out business to “partner agents” for years, and recently announced a goal to send 50% of its lea ..read more

This is a story about some work we’re proud of, and a client we love.  But we’re going to lead with the ending. Because that’s the payoff, the point at which an investment finds its return, and people feel things – good things – that they haven’t felt before.   We’ll let our client, Turpin Realtors President John Turpin, explain it: “The most gratifying part of the whole experience was seeing how our agents lit up at the new brand identity. Within hours they were sharing posts about the launch, touting the new branding, and affirming our decision to rebrand in ways we couldn’t h ..read more

I viewed a 60-second IG reel this past week featuring a prominent agent podcaster and speaker riffing on the topic of branding. All her points led back to one main premise – your face is your brand.  Given her prominence and likelihood that this unorthodox approach to branding may find its way into your strategy, let’s unpack this claim, using some fundamental laws of branding.   Facing facts Brand lives in the venn diagram overlap between what a company represents and what people truly desire for themselves.  Apple is an obvious example. What the brand represents overlaps ..read more

A ..read more