Branding Moment: 8 Basic Ways to Analyze the Power of a Brand Name

April 11, 2019

As confirmed chocoholics, we noticed this chocolate selection in the chocolate aisle of our market. And because we love the branding process, the brand name also caught our attention. Here are some basic ways we analyze a brand:

1. The name is a play on the phrase "alter ego" defined as a person's secondary or alternative personality. Is it distinctive enough or memorable?

2. Does the name address the market it intends to reach? It does focus on attracting thosewho are ecologically minded and prefer organic products, and they are proud of it. The slogan under the name, "enlightened indulgence" is intended to have the buyer feel good for buying it..

3. Can the name be used on other products if the company were to start another related business? In designing real estate brands we often think in terms of "exit strategy", when the company or agent decides to sell the business or start another business.

4. Does the brand name have any negative connotations? Based on the definition of alter ego: (the bad side of a person that may come to life at anytime, switching your personality—this is fantasy, though some people may believe they have an alter-ego), it may be construed as such.

5. Is the name original? It is important to do a trademark search.

6. Is it a name the marketplace will remember?

7. Will it have word of mouth power, or social media power that will last?

8. And most important is the product delicious to those who are tempted to buy it?

When I (A) pointed it out the brand to Ron, he reminded me that dear friends who are also chocoholics had sent us a bar to try. I had forgotten, the name and the experience. Ron remembered the name. Neither one of us thought that the taste was memorable enough for us to buy again.

Keep in mind that tastes differ. Perhaps some of you who may have tried this brand will disagree with us. Again, this a basic guideline to analyze a brand name!

Luxury Real Estate Personal Branding: Real Estate of the Mind

October 11, 2010

As a luxury real estate marketing professional, you must understand the “inner game” of marketing as well as you know the process of selling a home. If you want to gain or sustain market leadership in your area or your niche you must “own” real estate in the minds of your target market. We refer to the real estate of the mind as top-of-mind status. The key question is: Who comes to mind first?

In your mind who owns the category of multipurpose household oil that lubricates, cleans and prevents rust? Did you come up with W-D 40 or 3-IN-ONE? Can you think of another brand? Most people cannot think of a 3^rd or 4^th brand in this product category. It so happens that both household oil brands are owned by the same company. More importantly, they own the category!

Welcome to the world of real estate of the mind! In our time-pressed, over-communicated world we just cannot hold more than a few brand names in our mind in any category of product or service. That is what makes the stakes so high in the bid for market leadership.

In the realm of listing and marketing luxury real estate, achieving top-of mind status is far more valuable than owning the top position on a Google search result pages. Sure, it is great to also come up first on the search engines so you can get more buyer leads, especially when properties are slow to move. But, over time he or she who has the best listings and has the best reputation in town, or in a given niche, the one who stands out from the crowd, wins the lion’s share of the business!

We know an agent who is one of the top producers in all of the United States who has never optimized his website for the search engines. He does not have a Facebook or any other social networking account. His phone rings off the hook. He barely keeps up with his email and the business he attracts. He enjoys top-of-mind status in his marketplace because he has focused solely on building trusting relationships that yield continuous referrals.

This seems to fly in the face of what is now considered conventional wisdom. But, this luxury real estate marketing professional has mastered the inner game of marketing. He owns the most valuable real estate where “location, location, location” rules the day now and forevermore: in the minds of his target market.

By, the way...did you know that W-D stands for "water displacement" which was what the inventor, Norm Larson, was aiming for with his formula to prevent rust. It took him 40 attempts to find the best way to prefvent corrosion by repelling water.

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Luxury Real Estate Marketing: Focus is the Name of the Game

June 8, 2010

Ursula Burns, Chairman and CEO --Courtesy of Xerox

The imperative to re-invent yourself as a luxury real estate marketing professional has never been greater. The competition for attention on the internet now requires that you declare a highly focused , sharply defined “brand position”. To stand out from the crowd, you must stake a claim to an uncontested market niche and offer an extraordinary promise of value. Your claim to market leadership must be based on something that you can do better than anyone else in your marketplace. Now more than ever, focus is the name of the game in luxury real estate marketing.

For decades Xerox was focused on one thing: plain-paper photocopying. Xerox was one of the first brand names to become a verb, just as the verb “to FedEx” has come to mean ship overnight. Although Xerox still “owns” the top-of-mind status in the prduct category of plain-paper copiers, the status has become less and less relevant in light of the transition of documents between the paper and digital worlds. This fundamental shift necessitated that Xerox completely reinvent itself and reposition the brand in the minds of its target market and substantial customer base.

In the late 1980s and early 1990s, Xerox worked to transform its product offering into a service. Xerox began providing a complete "document service" to companies including supply, maintenance, configuration, and user support. Customers became clients. To reinforce this image, the company introduced a corporate signature, "The Document Company" above its primary logo. However, at this time documents still meant ink on paper.

In 2008, Xerox changed its logo again to a red sphere and a white X with three grey stripes. The change is meant to shift the emphasis of the company’s focus from plain-paper document photocopying to digital document management and solutions.

On July 1, 2009, another change occurred in Xerox. Ursula Burns became the first African American woman to head a company the size of Xerox. Under Ms. Burn’s leadership, in February 2010, Xerox acquired Affiliated Computer Services, Inc. transforming Xerox into the world’s leader in business process and digital document management.

With this acquisition, Xerox now processes over one million credit card applications and twelve million student loans each year. They also provide HR (human resources) services for more than 4.4 million employees and retirees annually. Xerox’s extraordinary new promise of value is to “help our customers reach new levels of efficiency and effectiveness, giving them the freedom to focus on what matters most: their real business”.

From product oriented to service oriented, from paper documents to digital document management and out-sourced business processes Xerox has undergone an astonishing metamorphisis, a total shift in focus.

What will be your new focus, your new claim, your new extraordinary promise of value? Focus is the name of the luxury real estate marketing game.