Luxury Real Estate Marketing: How Important is a Logo in Personal or Company Branding? - 01/31/11 01:03 AM
 

Q: How important is a logo in Personal or Company Branding?
A:  A logo is important as an integral part of your personal/company brand. But, it can be a missed opportunity if it does not convey your extraordinary promise of value.
A great logo is a symbol that encapsulates and succinctly communicates the entire experience of your brand. It conveys what you want your brand to stand for in the minds of your target market and how you are distinct from your competition. 
Think of the ubiquitous Nike “swoosh”.  It has tremendous meaning all rolled into a very simple … (10 comments)

Luxury Real Estate Marketing: The Luxury of Lavender/Speechless Sunday - 01/30/11 11:28 AM

Lavender is a those plant that does well in our Central/Southern California gardens, as it blooms year round.  It is also grown commercially and has a wide variety of uses: spa and beauty products, anxiety relieving capsules and sleep aids,(Germany) soaps and oils, a  moth repellent i and culinary uses.  It is also known to have antiseptic qualities, and during World War II, it was used to disinfect hospital walls and floors.  The Provence region of France is famous for it lavender fields, and there lavender is considered to the the cure all among some of the populace.  In our … (16 comments)

Luxury Real Estate Marketing: The Luxury of Spring in January - 01/29/11 01:52 PM

Today at the Farmers' Market, tulips made an appearance.  When we lived in Los Angeles, I ordered 250 bulbs and spent two days plenting them in various areas of the garden.  I did not realize at the time that our soil was not cold enough to get them started and I should have kept the bulbs in the refrigerator for a few weeks to give them some cold time prior to planting them.  The result was 5 tulips came up.  Year after year one or two tulips would show up.  It is so much easier having someone else plant them … (12 comments)

Luxury Real Estate Marketing: How to Create Buzz, If the Shoe Fits… - 01/28/11 11:21 AM
 

Competing for the attention of your target market is today’s biggest advertising challenge when marketing luxury real estate. Sparking word-of-mouth advertising or buzz marketing is the ultimate answer. Here is one of the world’s greatest examples of how to create marketing buzz. 
The Italian company of Tod’s luxury leather goods and shoes recently announced that they will pay $34 million dollars to restore the Coliseum in Rome.  As Diego Della Valle (aka Italy’s shoe king) said, “A monument that represents Italy in the world must be restored, and a company that represents “made in Italy” stepped forward to say, … (11 comments)

The #1 Secret for Selling Luxury Real Estate: Know Your Buyer’s World View About Luxury - 01/27/11 12:42 AM
 

We are going to let the cat out of the bag with this post.  If you want to stay on the leading edge as a luxury real estate marketing professional do not let your competition read this article!   It turns out that the Language of Luxury has two “dialects” depending on the world view of the luxury buyer.  If you can speak both dialects fluently and use the right one with the right buyer, you will have a tremendous competitive advantage and close more sales.
What if you could instantly assess which of two types of luxury buyers you … (22 comments)

Marketing Luxury Real Estate: Building a Brand Community - Part 1 - 01/26/11 10:25 AM
 

Harley-Davidson Museum © Wisconsinart
What does your brand stand for? This is a very important branding question if you are going to build a “brand community” around your luxury real estate marketing practice. Developing a brand community is a way of harnessing the power of word-of-mouth advertising among your most enthusiastic and loyal fans.
Harley-Davidson revived a once dying brand by building a strong brand community. They created activities, meet-ups and the Harley-Davidson Museum as a way to get their customers to “join” their brand. This galvanized a fiercely loyal core group of raving fans who rally around the … (11 comments)

Luxury Real Estate Marketing Tip: Find Opportunities Right Under Your Nose - 01/25/11 12:29 AM


In marketing luxury real estate there are many ways to find a niche in your marketplace that you can dominate. One way is to discover an uncontested segment or aspect of the market where there simply is no competition.  These segments usually are not obvious so it may take a keen eye to identify them.   But, sometimes the best opportunities for niche marketing are right under your nose.
Does it bother you when you see someone who is just mediocre dominating a particular market niche that you are certain could be better served by you?  If so, has it … (15 comments)

Luxury Real Estate Marketing: The Cost of Being Naive - 01/24/11 04:07 PM

Too much personal information on Facebook can lead to lawsuits.  Several lawsuits have been files by employees discmissed because of criticism of a boss, posted vacation photos, and an employer accessing employee blogs by illegaly accessing the password to the employees, page.
Of all the cases that are before the National Labor Relations Board, the most interesting one is of the high school teacher enjoying a glass of wine on her vacation in Europe, which the schcol board felt not represent the school.
"For people who are ignoring this and don't think it's a prevalent issue in the workplace, they … (11 comments)

Marketing Luxury Real Estate: The Luxury of Life/Speechless Sunday - 01/23/11 01:48 PM

This Saturday we took a dear friend to the Carpinteria Bluffs, a large park overlooking the ocean.  We packed a picnic lunch and enjoyed our sandwiches and oranges.  Then we walked over to the Carpinteria Harbor Seal sanctuary watch point.  This mile beach is closed to humans, and reserved for the seals who return to have their pups between the months of December and May.  No pups have been born, and we are eagerly waiting to see one, and I have a feeling we will be going to lunch in the bluffs often.  They are white when they are born, … (19 comments)

Luxury Real Estate Marketing: The Luxury of Food in Season - 01/22/11 10:05 AM

It is the season of brussel sprouts.  Our Farmers' Market sell the whole stalk.  I find them beautiful, and we thought we would share this photo with you.  Whether or not you like the taste, they still are beautiful.  Happy Saturday, R & A
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Luxury Real Estate Marketing: The Luxury of a Great Conversation - 01/21/11 02:30 PM

This morning in the wee hours (5AM), I drove to Los Angeles for an early morning appointment (7am).  Traffic was "Friday -lite" .The 79 miles flew by. I got there early enough to stop and stock up on bagels at our favorite place in Beverly Hills, St Urbain, where they bake the bagel in special brick ovens instead of boiling them.  As a result they are light and fluffy tasting. 
One of the people I met is a non-fiction author whose books I have always enjoyed because of his uncanny sense of humor, and his unorthodox view of the world … (9 comments)

Luxury Real Estate Personal Branding: Getting All Your Mental Ducks in a Row - 01/20/11 12:45 AM
 

One of the most important principles of successful luxury real estate personal branding is internal alignment, also known as “getting all of your mental ducks in a row”.  Everything must first line up internally, within your own mindset, before you can attract the success that you seek.
The first place to check to see if you are internally aligned is your level of passion about your work or the way you are approaching it. Ask yourself, “What am I most passionate about in life?”  Another important question is this: “Does my luxury real estate marketing practice offer me the … (14 comments)

Luxury Real Estate Marketing: Put the Drip in Deep Freeze! - 01/19/11 10:58 AM
 
 
We now live an in over-communicated world.  Have you noticed that the amount of email in your inbox is burgeoning?  With this in mind, what is your take on real estate email “drip” campaigns that kick in automatically when you capture a lead on your website?  Does this make good sense anymore for marketing luxury real estate?  Have drip campaigns become archaic with the advent of social media? We say, "Put the Drip in Deep Freeze!"
These questions and more came up recently when speaking with a vendor who was touting the virtues of email drip campaigns not only … (14 comments)

Luxury Real Estate Marketing: 7 Ways to Get a Bigger Piece of the Pie - 01/18/11 12:07 AM
 

Here is an email from one of our clients:
I have sold quite a few luxury homes in my market place.  I have two competitors who get the lion’s share of the business, and I want to know how to compete with them.  Competitor A is from a well known wealthy family rooted in this city.  This person went to all the right schools, gets invited to the right events, and generally lists properties based on contacts alone.  Competitor B also has numerous contacts as the spouse is a partner in a prestigious corporate law firm headquartered in town.  … (18 comments)

Iconoclasts: Dr. Martin Luther King - 01/17/11 01:01 PM
 
 

Today is a great day to reflect on iconoclastic thinking for your luxury real estate marketing practice. Certainly, Dr. Martin Luther King exemplified a person who challenged conventional wisdom and traditional beliefs, and shattered the very foundation upon which traditional institutions rest.
One of Martin Luther King’s goals in his famous speech, I Have a Dream, is a color blind society, people accepting each other without prejudice.  His message reminds us of the song in the musical, South Pacific, “You’ve Got to be Carefully Taught”
Here are the lyrics of Rodgers and Hammerstein as written in 1949, 
Racism … (8 comments)

Luxury Real Estate Marketing: The Luxury of Sunrise/Speechless Sunday - 01/16/11 11:14 AM

This is the scene outside our window early this morning heralding a glorious day of warmer weather.
The joy of living in Southern/Central California is that occasionally we get warm days in the winter.  Yesterday, it was in the mid 70's, and today we may be in the high 70's.  Los Angeles is supposed to be even warmer in the mid 80's.  We love those respites, and Ron calls anything about 70, "shorts weather".  We make a point to enjoy the great outdoors with another long walk on the beach at low tide.
Happy Sunday!  Ron & Alexandra
 
… (29 comments)

Luxury Real Estate Marketing: The Luxury of Going out to Lunch - 01/15/11 03:30 PM

Since we work from our home, one of our special treats is going out to lunch.  We have several favorite places, and The Nugget in Summerland is one of them.  Summerland is a small town along the coast with a wondeful main street ( LIllie Avenue) specializing in all types of antiques, folk art, etc. There is a day spa, a wonderful vet facility where our cats reluctantly visit , a post office, several restaurants, a wine tasting room from the Summerland winery.  According to the last census, there were 2000 residents of Summerland.

The atmosphere is rustic and … (16 comments)

Luxury Real Estate Branding: Striking the Right Balance for Your Marketplace - 01/14/11 01:41 PM

 
Here is a recent email we received from a prospective client who wants to create/refresh their brand,
"In my marketplace, we have about 800 homes in our two town MLS with only about 16 priced from the mid-fives to about 2.6 million. Affluent buyers want someone who is very well-versed in luxury homes, but with so few available, is it wrong to also be a great agent for lesser priced properties? I don't want to be all things to all people, but I don't want to lock myself solely into a niche that may not have sufficient inventory to … (14 comments)

Iconoclasts: Katharine Hepburn- Suitable to Any Occasion. - 01/13/11 12:12 AM
 

An iconoclast is a person who challenges conventional wisdom and traditional beliefs, and often shatters the very foundations upon which traditional, institutions rest. Katharine Hepburn was no stranger to iconoclastic thinking and is, to this day, an inspiration to women who seek market leadership in their luxury real estate marketing practice.
When a flower variety is associated with a celebrity, that celebrity is most likely an iconoclast.  Katharine Hepburn “owns” an association with calla lilies due to her famous lines about these flowers in an Academy Award nominated movie, Stage Door.
 “The calla lilies are in bloom again-- … (20 comments)

Marketing Luxury Real Estate: Discovering the Non-Obvious Market Niche - 01/12/11 10:12 AM
 

NAVEL ORANGES IN SEASON

ORGANIC ORANGE TOMATOES IN JANUARY?
The advantages of niche marketing are numerous.   Concentrating your attention and passionately focusing your unique talents on an uncontested or underserved market niche can yield outstanding results when marketing luxury real estate.  Here is an example of local niche marketing that exemplifies this extremely important marketing principle.
Perhaps there is no other marketplace in the United States, with a higher concentration of  fans that buy locally grown organic produce, than the stretch of towns between Los Angeles and Santa Barbara, California.  Where else can you find an organic farmers … (13 comments)

Marketing Luxury Real Estate: Be Consistent-Just Say "Cheesecake"! - 01/11/11 12:24 AM
 

If you choose just one New Year’s resolution in 2011 for your luxury real estate marketing practice, the one that would have the biggest impact on improving your bottom line, what would that be? We would recommend making one single adjustment: Let 2011 be the year of consistency!  Consistency does not require more work.  It requires more focus. 
Anyone who has mastered a skill knows that the secret of mastery is in practicing the fundamentals, the winning formula, repeatedly and consistently. For inspiration  in mastering your own luxury real estate marketing skills, look for evidence of consistency in the … (15 comments)

Luxury Real Estate Marketing: Innovative Marketing Using Crowd Clout - 01/10/11 01:54 PM

Photo by Tupengato
Here is an innovative idea illustrating crowd clout on the internet.  The latest success is called Fly 2 Miami for the Ultra Music Festival on March 21st.  A group of music lovers, DJ’s and label promoters from Holland made a bet with Dutch Airline, KLM.  If they could fill a direct flight to Miami from Amsterdam via Twitter by December 6th, 351 seats, KLM would add an additional direct flight to Miami. 
 The flight was fully booked in five hours, "We can rightly call it a first — the first time KLM will deploy an aircraft following … (10 comments)

Luxury Real Estate Marketing: Speechless Sunday, Rhapsody in Yellow - 01/09/11 11:39 AM
 

When we lived in Napa one of the most beautiful sights in the winter months was the mustard that flowered in the majority of the vineyards.  Mustard is planted as a mulch and green manure and is beneficial to the vineyards.  The effect is beautiful.   On cloudy days, it still felt bright.
This picture was taken by Ron on a Sunday across the street from one of our favorite brunch places in Napa. The Boon Fly Cafe.  If you happen to be there on a Sunday, be sure to check out the eggs Benedict, the homemade yogurt and granola, … (24 comments)

Luxury Real Estate Marketing: The Joy of Strawberries/A Perfect Saturday - 01/08/11 04:33 PM

On our way down South to have lunch at one of our favorites eateries, we noticed that the strawberry fields in Ventura and Oxnard have already been planted are in some instances were flowering.  It is a lovely sight to behold with the ocean as its backdrop.  We are reminded of the Beatles Song, "Strawberry Fields Forever."
Let me take you down, 'cos I'm going to Strawberry Fields.Nothing is real and nothing to get hung about.Strawberry Fields forever.
Living is easy with eyes closed, misunderstanding all you see.It's getting hard to be someone but it all works out, it doesn't … (11 comments)

Marketing Luxury Real Estate: Good News in the Job Market - 01/07/11 12:24 PM

We end this first week of 2011 on hopeful news that the unemployment rate fell to its lowest point in 19 months as of the end of December 2010.  As we have read blog posts we have also noticed that new jobs have been created in several markets such as Louisiana and Colorado.  We hope this trend continues. 
Wishing you all a wonderful weekend.  Cheers, Ron & Alexandra
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Marketing Luxury Real Estate: The New Economy of “Free”- Part 3 - 01/06/11 11:23 AM
 
 

Shakespeare in Central Park, New York Photo by AHodges7
This is Part 3 of our blog series about the New Economy of “Free.  Here is a link to Part 1, and a link to Part 2
The Buzz Caper
This is Part 3 of the series, entitled, The New Economy of “Free“which is causing a major economic shift that will not go away even after we recover from the financial crisis. Buzz marketing involving a win-win scenario between enterprises and local governments is becoming an important trend in today’s marketing.  Here is one of the latest buzz … (14 comments)

Marketing Luxury Real Estate: The New Economy of “Free”- Part 2 - 01/05/11 12:27 AM
 

This is Part 2 of our blog series about the New Economy of “Free.  Here is a link to Part 1
The new economy of “Free” is causing a major economic shift that will not go away even after we recover from the financial crisis. Here is an example of two high-end (expensive) Steak House chains and how they are adopting (or not adopting) to the new economy of “free”.
Steak House #1 created a new “happy hour” menu in which they offer upscale wines by the glass for $6 per glass and fabulous $6 appetizers that are the … (18 comments)

Marketing Luxury Real Estate: How to Profit from the New Economy of “Free”- Part 1 - 01/04/11 10:38 AM
 

A WEALTH OF FREE APPS!         Courtesy of Apple
Pundits are still sorting out the underlying causes of the Great Recession triggered by the 2007 housing bubble burst that led to a high rate of defaults on subprime mortgages.  But, there is a less obvious economic megatrend that has been brewing for years now that can significantly impact your luxury real estate marketing practice.  The new economy of “Free” is causing a major economic shift that will not go away even after we recover from the financial crisis.  Riding this wave of change, rather than resisting it, can empower you … (8 comments)

Luxury Real Estate Marketing: Staying "Wellthy" as the New Status Symbol - 01/03/11 01:44 PM

The most popular resolution for this New Year iis health in many forms, dieting, exercising, getting enough sleep, and eating the right foods.  Health is becoming an important issue to many of us regardless of age.  Trendwatchers such as trendwatching.com has called this wave/trend "WELLTHY". Staying well is emerging as a status symbol, and we all want to lead healthier lives and look to prevention rather than treatment of diseases.
Here are some interesting statistics on the subject of health, as reported by trendwatch.com:
73% of US consumers consider being physically fit important to being ‘well’, with 74% including ‘feeling … (7 comments)

Luxetera, Etc: Oyster Mushrooms/Speechless Sunday - 01/02/11 02:00 PM

These oysters are the white and pearl variety
Yesterday our Farmers Market was open for business.  One of the delectables offerings were these oyster mushrooms which are grown on logs  There are thousand of varietties, and here are a few species.  They are wonderful sauteed in butter or olive oil with a bit of garlic, salt and pepper.

This picture shows the darker and smaller variety known as blue oyster mushrooms
Happy Sunday ! Enjoy Nature's Luxuries
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Happy New Year 2011: No Rain on Our Parade - 01/01/11 01:00 PM

The weather report for today was iffy for the Parade of the Roses.  The weather folks had predicted a strong chance of rain, however, they were wrong, and the parade is continuing as we post this blog.  Hopefully, the rain will stay away until after the game, or even go away all together!  Have a wonderful day, Ron & Alexandra
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 Broker Agent Social, Proxio, Real Town, … (13 comments)

 
Ronalexandra_seigel1500 Rainmaker_large

Ron & Alexandra Seigel (Luxury Real Estate Marketing)

Carpinteria, CA

More about me…

ra@napaconsultants.com

Office Phone: (805) 684-8180

Email Me

GET FLUENT. GET AFFLUENT! (TM) Luxury real estate marketing is a high stakes game. We invite you to join our forum where we will discuss leading-edge luxury real estate marketing strategies that can give you a competitive edge and help you gain access to the wealth of the world.


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