Hi ActiveRain,
For this week's sponsored post, I thought I would take it in a slightly different direction, and hopefully start a conversation that I think is highly relevant for you as agents as it is for me representing a company. I'm reading a very interesting book given to me by a friend called "Eating the Big Fish..How Challenger Brands can compete against Brand Leaders". He told me that much of what I am doing in social media marketing and brand building for Kodak is spot on to the theme of this book. In every way, this book speaks to me about Thought Leadership, and how important that is. So I wanted to share some of this with you, and hope you are able to take some of the principles we operate on and apply it to your own "brand" locally.
How do you compete against the Big Fish? In a way, many of you are Challenger Brands to some of the bigger companies in your area. How do you build a brand that competes with and eats the Big Fish in your market?
Because we've been marketing multiple products to real estate, I've had a rare opportunity to sit on both sides of the fence. In some areas like digital camera, scanning and video, we are a Brand Leader, taking the number 1 spot in many markets. In other areas we are in the top 2-5 players in the market (such as inkjet printers) and would be considered a Challenger Brand. We are gaining marketshare within real estate and the market at large by innovating on value and features in a way that others are not; but in doing so we face a climb to gain your mindshare from larger players. This is a difficult and rewarding task, with its fair share of misteps and successes.
Capturing your share of the market and the strategies you employ are very different when you're a Challenger versus a Market Leader. Many companies fail in their bid to become a Market Leader because they try to copy the techniques of the Market Leader. As the saying goes, if you hunt in the same ways as a big fish, you might get eaten by one!
So if you're the independent or small brokerage in your area, how do you successfully compete against your "Big Fish"? I'll outline some of the general principles I've learned in this journey of doing exactly that in real estate marketing, and share a recommendation or two, but as with many other Posts of mine, I hope you all will jump in with your real world success stories!
- Become the Thought Leader - Thought Leadership involves taking control of the conversation in the industry. You become known as the "innovator", the most talked about brand and even though you might not be the largest, you're known as the "coolest". At Kodak, we're delivering new ways to add value to what agents have traditionally been doing. We partner with the industry's best names and bring you differentiation. While others talk about how great their products are, we talk about what our products can do for you. Agents like Shannon King are Thought Leaders to me. They are innovating and using video in really different ways that generate conversation. (Read about that here) Sure, you may know the name of a big brand company if you are a real estate consumer, but if you're a working mom with kids and connected to your neighbors to talk about local schools, Shannon's company School House Realty is what you talk about with your friends and PTA members, because she's innovated her business model around that niche. You know from your friends that a percentage of your real estate transaction commission you pay her goes back into your kid's school. That's an example of Thought Leadership!
- Challenger Brands create a not just a desire for their service, but an intensity of desire - There is a nasty advantage to being a Brand Leader called the "Law of Increasing Returns". Smaller brands need to spend proportionately more than Brand Leaders just to maintain equilibrium - just to be number 2 or 3 and maintain it. The inflection point at which this starts to change in the general market is when you get to 20% market share. After that, it takes less spending to maintain your position or grow your "Share of Voice". I see a lot more Jack In The Box commercials where I live than McDonalds. McDonalds just has more share of market, and more share of voice where I live. Jack In The Box is definitely innovating though, and their commercials are an example of that. They create a memory from their commercials, and not only desire but a curiosity and intensity to check out the product that is laudable and helping them become a brand leader. It's worked so well that other companies are trying to match what they do.
- Challenger Brands create utility - Google is one of the ultimate examples of the Challenger brand that became a leader. The interesting thing is, they really didn't spend much on marketing. Instead, they created a service so useful, that consumers flocked to it and did it for them. Even to this day, Google doesn't directly market to you. They just have an algorithm so powerful, that despite competitors spending lots of $$ to get me to switch, it just doesn't compare to the experience I get on Google. So the Challenger Brand has to create a level of "usefulness" that is easier, faster, better, or more effective. Also, the Challenger doesn't sit still. Google still innovates, spreading into new ways to leverage their search, whether it's shopping, enterprise, or images and video!
- Challenger Brands innovate their approaches, and do it more quickly! But even when you become a Brand Leader like Google, a Challenger can come along and innovate more quickly than you can. The best recent example of this to me is Facebook. I heard a quote recently that it took 5 years for Google to take Yahoo's place as the most visited website. But it took only 2 years for Facebook to take that position from Google! Facebook itself is a Challenger Brand that has become a dominant market leader, but even so, it's being challenged in mobile by Twitter, and Twitter appears to be winning that battle. Why? Because Twitter is "micro-innovating". Sure, you can share your status updates on Facebook via mobile, but it's only to your friends. Twitter gave us a way to do that to "followers", and quickly has turned into one of the great new business tools. Facebook is fighting back with Fan Pages, and it will be interesting to see how these two giants battle it out in the innovation department over the next few years.
I could go on...but let me close with some thoughts on how you can be an "innovator" in your market using Kodak products, and I would love to see some real estate success stories on how you jumped into your market and became the "Thought Leader".
- Use Video to differentiate yourself. We've talked a lot about creating a video strategy where you become the "neighborhood expert". Proper use of video can help you differentiate your web strategy, and bring you eyeballs and interest not just because you are on YouTube and Facebook, but because your content is interesting and showcases your neighborhood!
- Utilize different techniques on your listing flyers! Print marketing is far from dead. In fact, what if you were the only agent who consistently makes sure that your boxes have flyers? (Sad, but it's true) Recently, an agent wrote us that implemented solid flyer box marketing for two weeks on their listing and recieved a huge increase in inbound calls. This is hardly innovative, but I have to say, 8 out of 10 times I drive by listings, they are out of flyers or the flyers are not legible.
Do those flyers contain information that drives your clients online to check out more, or use a QR Code or MS Tag to give them access to an interior home tour from their smartphone via YouTube? Try this one below and see for yourself!
What else can you do to be a Challenger Brand? If you are the dominant Brand Leader, what can you do that is innovative and different to keep others from challenging you? Maybe you use the Law of Increasing Returns to your advantage and you create the next generation of real estate services so unique and different that you become the "talk of the town", rather than just the "brand everyone knows".
Whatever it is, I hope you enjoyed this discussion. Maybe some of you already have done these things and didn't know how to put it into words. I hope we'll get a chance to talk more, and that Kodak products will assist you in Eating The Big Fish!
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