The purpose of branding is to accelerate the communication cycle between expressing your extraordinary promise of value and hearing your target market say, “I want it, I need it or I’ll try it!” Contrary to what most luxury real estate professionals think there is no salesmanship required here, whatsoever. To be really successful you just need to tell your clearly articulated brand story to enough of the RIGHT people, those who resonate with your unique value proposition.  

Luxury is a premium we are willing to pay for above and beyond a commodity.  Chocolate is a commodity.  You can buy a giant 6.8-ounce bar of Hershey’s Special Dark Chocolate at Walmart for $2 (29.4 cents per ounce).

Being lovers of fine chocolate in its purest forms, we recently discovered Ritual Chocolate, a very small company located in Park City, Utah. They make handcrafted chocolate in small batches, from fair trade markets such as Ecuador, Madagascar, and Belize. Ritual sells a 1.5-ounce bar of dark chocolate from Ecuador for $6.75 ($4.50 per ounce). We feel it is the best 85% Cacao chocolate bar we have tasted thus far that is made in the US.

If you are a true chocolate lover, you will fully resonate with Ritual’s brand story that is depicted in the video (See below). Their goal is to “revive the focus on quality”. In the spirit of “farm-to-table dining” their slogan is “Bean to Bar.” 

Notice the use of vintage imagery of Park City Utah to create the feeling of a heritage brand for this young company. It emphasizes the traditional values of the chocolate making ritual. Also note that the wrapper has the batch number and the year the beans were harvested.

Paraphrasing Humphrey Bogart in Casablanca, here is a question for you: “Does your brand amount to a hill of [chocolate] beans in this crazy world?” What is your brand story?

Written by Ron & Alexandra Seigel- 

ABOUT:  Napa Consultants, International is the leader in brand strategy for the luxury real estate industry.  They work exclusively with professionals who are passionate about gaining or sustaining market leadership. With an expertise in personal branding, company branding, luxury real estate website design and social media marketing they help their clients become the breakaway brand in their marketplace.