Real estate is no stranger to brands. After all, a brand is your identity in the real estate world; it’s how you present yourself, and ultimately, it’s how people recognize you and your real estate business.
But there’s a lot more to a brand than picking a name and a logo. It’s as much about the story you tell as it is about the visual identity you choose.
When you’re building a powerful brand (or maybe even going through a rebrand), here’s what to consider—and what it should reflect.
Your history
Your history is a key part of your story. Consider your milestones; what iconic moments can you definitively say helped you reach where you are?
For example, when we rebranded recently, one thing that stood out is the strength of our identity as Lone Wolf. It’s not the most techy name out there, but it has a proud history—our founder, Lorne Wallace, spent the first years as a metaphorical lone wolf, driving himself to brokerages across the country and using their input to build what is now the leading back office solution in North America.
Your values as a company
In real estate, everyone is a company. Even agents act as companies, operating as independent contractors. As that company, there will be things that matter to you.
Maybe you want clients to trust that you’ll do everything in your power to help them, so they’ll refer others. Maybe you want them to see you as the most knowledgeable real estate professional for miles around. Maybe you want them to see how relatable and community-minded you are.
No matter what your values are, they’re a core part of your brand, and have a place in the messages you send, the copy and imagery you post, and even the actions you take.
For example, one of the things we value most here at Lone Wolf is our belief that technology should be accessible for all. Though that may not be explicitly clear from our name, it’s clear in our actions—from working with thousands of MLSs and associations across the continent to ensure agents have access to essential tools, to collaborating with other leading tech vendors to create a first-of-its-kind digital library for real estate tools, many of which are completely free to use.
Your future goals
Your values outline what’s important about what you’re doing right now—and with the right approach, they set the stage for your goals in the future, too.
For this, consider important milestones you want to reach, goals you have, and how you want your actions to reflect your values. These are the perfect components of your mission statement, and will help guide decisions you make.
Keep in mind this doesn’t have to be a grand statement—sometimes, little details are the real MVPs. For example, in our recent rebrand of the solutions that over a million agents have access to, and over 10,000 offices use every day, the biggest indicator of our goals is the new product names.
This was the first time since the ’90s we’ve renamed a core solution, and admittedly, it wasn’t easy to let go of our distinctive boreal naming structure (looking at you, brokerWOLF!). But with a new set of names, these solutions are clearer and more straightforward for those who use our technology—and they set the stage for bigger things.
Bigger things like the Broker Cloud, a complete collective of top solutions for transactions, back office and accounting, and business insights, for better brokerage efficiency and profitability. Or the Agent Cloud, a collection of best-in-class digital tools and services for a complete—and completely connected—transaction and client experience. It goes beyond a single solution to bring the same digital experience we expect these days from the likes of Adobe and Google to brokerages—and respond to a growing need for digital agility, even in a belly-to-belly business like real estate.
Learn all about it here.
