The Language of Luxury

Jumping Off the Internet and Jumping On Your High Horse

Grace Sabeh, Executive Homes Realty, in jump competition

The mantra these days for luxury real estate marketing and real estate marketing in general is: focus your marketing on the internet. However, luxury real estate marketing professional should think about other venues of marketing. Your target market is not on the internet 24/7, and they do participate in all kinds of activities besides surfing the net. How about sponsoring a luxury event, in your marketplace? Here are two examples of event marketing. One is famous luxury brand that is thinking strategically in a time when retailers and luxury brands are cutting back their budgets. The other is a market leading luxury real estate professional who followed a hunch with event marketing that paid off very well, indeed.

The Luxury Brand

Hermes is one of the finest luxury brands known for their uncompromising craftsmanship. They started as a saddle shop in Paris in 1837. Because of their exquisite work and their royal clientele, they became known as the “saddle makers of kings.” Since then they have expanded into fashion, lifestyle and home products.

Recently they announced their return to their equestrian beginnings by sponsoring an equestrian event and competition. This is a revival of the first jumping event that was originally held in the Grand Palais in 1901. The event drew the fashionable crowds of Paris and its environs. By 1957, interest waned and the event was discontinued. Now, by sponsoring Saut Hermès (saut means jump) they are strategically placing themselves in plain view of their target market. No doubt, they will issue a limited scarf edition that will honor the event. This will help to reacquaint existing customers with Hermes’ equestrian roots and reaffirm their loyalty to the Hermès brand. Additionally, Hermès has become involved with a horse race held every summer in Deauville, as well as with an international dressage competition Equita’Lyon, held in Lyon, France.

The Luxury Real Estate Agent

One of our clients listed a home owned by a car collector. Based on the design of the home, the ideal buyer would also a collector. As a strategic move, she rented a billboard that showcased the home at the prestigious Concours D’Elegance car event in Pebble Beach, California, where her target market would be a captive audience. She not only sold the home to an attendee of the event but she also attracted several leads for other sales.

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Luxury Real Estate Marketing: Is It Worth It?

Photo by Jorge Barros

In staying up to date with the new theories of luxury marketing in the global economic downturn, it seems to us that there is a denial, among the purveyors of luxury goods and services, about how consumers are now viewing luxury. The same holds true, in many cases, with sellers of luxury real estate. As we read the various reports and the advice from industry pundits, we are struck by the level of delusion that continues to characterize the industry. Many home sellers are refusing to price their homes in line with current consumer demand.

In retail, some advisors say, “Do not lower prices of luxury goods and services”. The fear is that this may tarnish the brand’s reputation. In the perfume industry, one solution is to sell perfume in smaller bottles, giving consumers the illusion of lowering prices. Have you noticed that store bought coffee usually comes in 12 once bags these days instead of 1 pound bags?

The hospitality industry is also attempting to maintain their prices while adding incentives such as food and spa credits which effectively lower the rate of the rooms. Consumers are not jumping at either offer.

The high end consumer is rejoicing at all the sales. Finding bargains has become a badge of honor. Waiting for items to go on sale has become a new national pastime. Most importantly, consumers are beginning to ask these important questions: Is this item worth it? Do I really need it? Do I have to have it at this price?

As soon as more homebuyers wake up to the new perception of value in the luxury realm, more luxury real estate marketing professionals will start to see significant momentum in their sales.

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Luxury Real Estate Luxury Marketing: Redefining the World of Luxury

Denali mountain aka Mt.McKinley national park service photo

As a luxury real estate marketing professional it is very important to tune into the new psycho graphic trends and changes that luxury consumers are exhibiting during current market conditions. Understanding the mindset of all-cash buyers, in particular is now an imperative. They are the ones who determine the purchase prices in today’s market. Aligning the thinking of your sellers with these viable prospects can significantly increase your volume of business.

Have you noticed that the price of name brand shoes from Italy have increased in price faster than changes in the exchange rate between the dollar and the Euro and also faster than increases in the cost of living itself? Assuming for the sake of this discussion that the cost of labor, materials, marketing and other cost are held constant over the past several years, where is the extra value coming from?

These and many similar questions are now being asked by affluent consumers who are re-examining their own personal values when it comes to purchasing luxury goods and services.

We recently attended the NAR conference in San Diego, California and came away with an interesting insight inspired by an agent from Fairbanks, Alaska. She mentioned that the highest priced luxury homes in her town are selling in the low $400Ks. Her personal residence, a six wooded acre estate with a spectacular view of the Denali mountain range is valued at $200K. And, the market is active, contrary to other markets in the US.

In Alaska you cannot get away with sub par construction given the rigors of the climate. Construction costs are certainly not less than in California, for example, and labor costs are higher because the labor pool is limited.

Clearly, luxury is value added to basic costs of manufacturing (and land n the case of real estate) which makes it completely subjective. Like all-cash buyers consumers therefore, are beginning to realize that they dictate the terms of the value added rather than sellers now that there is an abundance of choices. In our previous market we had a false condition of scarcity that was fueled by the competition of easy money and the ensuing escalation of unrealistically inflated prices. The inflated false value was non-sustentative. And, this is what consumers are now re-evaluating.

A top agent in downtown San Diego sold a high-rise condo unit, with sensational views that are permanently unobstructed, listed at $1.2M two years ago, for half price. This all cash buyer determined the value despite the developer’s insistence that there should be a premium of $50K per story, arguing that the higher the floor, the more value it can command. Was there actually value added between that floor and the one above? Consumers now make that value call as they redefine luxury on their own terms.

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Luxury Real Estate Branding: Empower Your Silent Salesperson

photo by Shawn Lipowski

Venus de Milo in the Louvre,aka Aphrodite de Milo

Considered One of the Finest Examples of Classic Greek Sculpture

How important is aesthetics in presenting your luxury real estate marketing services? The answer is: very important. In fact, aesthetics represents an entire branch of philosophy dealing with the nature of beauty, art, and taste. The aesthetics of visual presentation can be your “silent salesperson” and play a much bigger part than you may realize in the success of your luxury real estate practice.

There is a whole psychology of color alone; certain colors evoke very predictable emotional responses and personal values judgments of sentiment and taste. That means you can connect with your target market on a deep emotional level by incorporating the right aesthetics in your personal or company brand. What are the right aesthetics? The right graphic images are those images that represent your authentic brand.

If you neglect this essential component of brand strategy you are missing an extraordinary opportunity and you are vulnerable to potential competition. We live in a new online world where you have a nano-second to make a strong first impression and engage your website visitors through the emotional connection of aesthetics.

Think of walking down Madison Avenue in New York or any major retail street in cosmopolitan cities that feature luxury stores. Window displays must grab the attention of potential customers or they just walk on by. Now, think of the speed at which a website visitor, with a single click of their mouse, can move on to your competitor’s site.

So much attention has been paid to driving traffic to your website. You may be spending considerable time and money to get potential buyers and seller there. But, are you engaging them with the power of aesthetics when they arrive?

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Luxury Real Estate Branding: Leaving the Plastic Flamingo Flock Behind!

Imagination and creativity is one of the cornerstones of a successful luxury real estate marketing practice. Imitation and luxury really do not belong together. Too often we see luxury real estate professionals copying the branding or marketing strategies of their closest competitors and forgoing the competitive advantage of being original and authentic. It becomes a case of the hot pink plastic flamingo!

One of the most beautiful birds on our planet is the flamingo. This brightly colored bird caught the imagination of Don Featherstone who designed a plastic hot pink flamingo as a lawn ornament, sold in pairs (one upright the other feeding.) This plastic creation was awarded the “Ig-Nobel Prize for Art (a parody of the Nobel Prize). Plastic pink flamingos have become part of the American pop culture. Original Featherstone’s are marked as such on the bird’s underside.

American Flamingo, Photo by Fritz Geller Grimm

However, copy cats swarmed in and reproduced the flamingos in mass. This caught the imagination of students at the University of Wisconsin who “flamingoed” (the verb) a hill near their campus with over 1000 plastic flamingos on the first day of classes one year. Their prank sparked similar episodes around the country.

Plastic flamingos are now considered in the art world as kitsch. " Kitsch is a German word denoting art that is considered an inferior, tasteless copy of an extant style of art or a worthless imitation of art of recognized value."

Authenticity in personal branding will strike the right chord with your ideal clients. Phoniness will repel them like plastic pink flamingos. It is not that there isn’t a market for these hollow birds. It is just a question of knowing who you are and who you want to attract.

Is your personal brand original or is it kitsch?

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Authenticity vs. Masquerade in Luxury Real Estate Personal Branding

Authenticity is perhaps the most important concept in personal branding for luxury real estate marketing professionals. Without authenticity, you live in a masquerade. What is at stake if you forego authenticity? Quite simply, it is your own happiness.

Recently, Andre Agassi published an autobiography in which he admitted to be caught up in a masquerade. He was forced by his father, who recognized his extraordinary talent, to become a champion in a game that Agassi would come to hate. In his recent TV interview it was obvious that he suffered a life of quiet desperation during the time when his brand was perceived as being the “rock star of tennis”. Canon, the camera company, capitalized on his brand image of being a rebel (which was the brand name of one of their models).

Reactions have been mixed from his contemporaries and fans. Resentments have been expressed by some. At the root of these resentments is the feeling of having been duped by Agassi’s charade.

Many people might say that this is a sign of the times. But, there is a deeper lesson to be learned, which is what Agassi, the staunch supporter of education, is now trying to tell the world. That is, there may be much to gain by living a fake existence, but in the long run it is your own happiness itself that is at stake.

As brand strategists, it is our job to assist our clients to drill down to their core identity, identify what is truly important to them, what they stand for, what their genuine values are, not the values of others. Only then can you make explicit, in the form of a graphic representation and a genuine marketing message, the authentic personal brand.

We ask our clients what they can do better than anyone else in their marketplace. But, they also must be truly passionate about doing it. An authentic pursuit cannot be one based on seeking the admiration of one’s father or the crowd at large.

It was only when Agassi admitted to himself that he was caught up in a masquerade that he shaved his head and discontinued wearing a wig (his mask). He chose tennis on his own terms and became passionate about the game. No one can minimize his extraordinary accomplishments. But, the best accomplishment of all was choosing an authentic life.

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