What drives success for a business, the brand, or the people?

What drives success for a business, the brand, or the people? We asked this most profound of questions in We Are Acuity's recent Talking Local podcast.

According to experienced Estate Agent Jonathan Handford, you need a combination to guarantee success.

“The brand & the people have a symbiotic relationship where they have to work together to create the overall result. The individual has got to be professional. The brand will help. It will help secure an instruction or a sale because it will demonstrate that you are part of a big professional network & there’s social proof you are a good business.

But beyond that a brand will also have infrastructure. Tools and processes in place that you can work alongside. You know, I could start my own business as John Handford Estate Agents tomorrow. But in reality, I choose to work with an organisation like Fine & Country, because they've got a Marketing Team, a Social Media Team, a PR Team, an Administration Team, Pre-Sales, Post-Sales.

They have resources that I can’t have working on my own that make me a stronger & more formidable force & allow me to focus on what I do best, which is selling houses.”

So, there you have it. Brand is essential. But not just brand as in the name & the logo. It's brand infrastructure that makes the very best national & global brands really successful. It empowers local partners, educates & informs them, gives them access to the very best tools enabling them to perform at the very highest level. It also allows them to activate the value of that brand locally, amongst local customers & communities. Both vitally important for Estate Agents.

But according to Simon Leadbetter it’s only the top sector of the market that currently have that brand infrastructure piece really sewn up. “The likes of Fine & Country, Knight Frank, Savills, Hamptons, a bunch of prime estate agents where people absolutely buy into the brand. At that level the customers are not so worried about price. We’ve then got 50,000 other estate agents in the market where everyone's squabbling over each other’s backs. These guys get the instruction but at the lowest possible fee.”

Successful prime brands have doubled down on building brand equity by providing that infrastructure & that helps protect their margin. This feels like a huge opportunity for mainstream estate agent groups who aren’t already doing so to provide better infrastructure, leveraging their brands locally & empowering their local partners.

It’s a tough and complicated business selling houses and in recent years agents have had more and more on their plates. You can't be an expert in everything. They should be allowed to focus on what they do best. Sell.

If you are a national or regional estate agent brand & would like to know more about implementing & activating your brand locally tune in to hear the full conversation on Apple Music, Spotify and Google podcasts!

Spotify
Click Here.

Apple Music
Click Here.

Your local partners, whether branches, retailers, dealers, franchisees, or affiliates they need your support and you need theirs, get in touch with We Are Acuity today for a FREE marketing audit by clicking HERE.

Or if you'd like to read more about Local Marketing have a look at our blog page "Local Thinking': https://www.weareacuity.com/local-thinking-our-blog

#marketing #branding #realestate