Avoiding Real Estate Brand Dilution

Making sure that your real estate brand remains consistent is key in ensuring that your market perceives your brand in line with your marketing strategy. It is of vital importance to work with a branding / creative agency that understands real estate marketing and is capable of executing your branding strategy across all media.

What is brand dilution?

When referring to brand dilution we talk about the risk of losing credibility within your market with regards to how buyers, sellers, landlords and tenants perceive your real estate brand. If you are not consistently exposing your market to the same visual marketing and brand messaging you are risking confusing your market which might result in a loss of brand trust and likability.

Get it right from the get go

Get your brand message and visual look right from the start. Take your time and ensure that prior to execution you are confident that your brand strategy and corporate identity will have a positive impact in the market.

Listen to the right people

Listening to the right people who have the knowledge and experience in brand creation and execution is important. Choose carefully and then trust them to execute your brand strategy. Taking advice from friends, family or franchisees for example is not always the best idea! Their personal opinion, although important to you, does not necessarily equate in good brand building advice.

Consistency is key

Once you have put a visual brand strategy in place, do not deviate from it. Ensure that all your sales offices, business cards, adverts and for sale boards remain consistent. The end result will be a brand that commands trust and respect in the market. Do not allow your agents to add their own ‘touches’ to their stationery and marketing material - your efforts to create a professional upmarket brand, for example, can be easily undermined by an agent who has added clipart of cute kittens to their email stationery.

Stay the course

Creating a brand that is both liked and respected in the market takes time, resources and commitment. Do not be tempted to dilute it by allowing deviations from your brand guidelines. Resist the urge to give in to opinions of people within your organisation, in many cases these people do not see or understand the bigger picture. Remember your brand’s primary function is to have a positive impact on your market, so stay true to your vision. Another pitfall is to cut costs, especially if you are outsourcing to a branding / creative agency. Many real estate brands lose their way by deciding to do it themselves after the initial ground work has been done. A vital element in successful brand building is maintaining the standard of design you started out with - People respond to visually pleasing design, so if you cut corners with how you present your brand to the market you run the risk of losing momentum.