5 Myths about Brands

The terms “brand” and “branding” are some of the most overhyped and misused words in all of marketing. Here are some common myths about brands and branding.

Myth 1: Your brand is your name, logo, tagline, or USP.
Actually, your brand only exists in the mind of your prospects and customers. It’s that initial image or description that pops into their head when they hear your name, think about you, or see your marketing materials. It’s how they were treated the last time they spoke with you on the phone, or how pleased they were with your product or service, or how relevant to them that postcard they got in the mail yesterday was.

Myth 2: You need a logo to have a brand.
Logos aren’t mandatory for successful brands. They’re nice to have, but no one is going to choose your product or service because you have a nice logo. In fact, unless you have several millions of dollars to spend promoting you logo, changes are, people won’t remember it anyway. The reason why we remember the Nike swoosh or the Coca Cola logo is because those companies spend millions of dollars each year to make sure that we see their logos around us every day.

Myth 3: You need to advertise to have a brand.
It’s true that before the internet, large companies primarily built their brands through advertising. Advertising worked back in the 1950s and 60s because it was easy to reach most of America by running commercials on the 5 or so main tv channels or in the handful of magazines published. Today, we’re bombarded by so many choices vying for our attention that advertising has lost much of its effectiveness. People are exposed to upwards of 3000 marketing messages a day, so in order to cope, they filter out stuff that isn’t relevant to them.

If you need proof, try to remember what commercials you saw last night when you watched tv? Or which advertisements jumped out at you the last time you read the newspaper or a magazine? If you’re like most people, you probably don’t remember any - or if you do remember one, it’s because it was relevant to you in some way.

For instance, the day you buy a new car is the day you start noticing how many people have cars like yours. The day you book a trip to Hawaii is the day you start noticing how many magazines and news shows talk about vacationing there. Why? Because you’re now looking for that car or information about Hawaii rather than filtering it out with the rest of the advertising clutter.

Smart real estate agents must realize that advertising online is rarely effective to build their brand. Instead, they must embrace that their brand includes more than just want they want clients to think about them. It includes what clients actually do think about them and what they tell others.

Myth 4: Once you establish your brand, you’re done.
Unfortunately, this is rarely the case. Because your prospects and clients have a say in what your brand is, it is constantly changing in their minds. It is said that every happy customer that does business with you tells about 4 people. Every unhappy customer tells between 7 and 11. That means that you have a lot of work ahead of you to ensure that every customer that does business with you is happy.

Remember, your brand is every interaction you have with prospects and clients from your marketing materials to the look of your office to how quickly you return their calls to how you resolve conflicts to how satisfied they were with your service. If something goes wrong at any point and is not adequately addresses, you’ve done damage to your brand in this customer’s eyes. And there’s a good chance that customer will tell others about the bad experience he had with your company.

Myth 5: Once you establish your brand, customers will flock to you.
This also usually isn’t the case. Your brand may help your company raise your hand and be recognized in your prospects’ eyes, but it won’t close the sale on its own merits.

As a real estate agent, your brand is intangible. Hopefully, it is the positive image that pops into your prospect’s mind when she thinks about you. Getting people to remember the benefits of your brand is much more difficult and an ongoing, educational process.