Photo: Suwit Ritjaroon at FreeDigitalPhotos.net
Merry Christmas! Or to my friends in Quebec, Merry Christmas! And to my politically correct friends, Merry Christmas! There, that should just about cover everyone.
While I was in Europe in October, I noticed a number of real estate offices scattered around the several Mediterranean ports we toured. Not surprisingly, my brand, Re/Max, caught my eye because of its distinctive logo and red, white and blue sign pattern. The foreign alphabets of Italy, Greece and Turkey did not overshadow the recognition factor, but rather added to my interest.
It made me think about brand and the importance of it in today’s marketplace. Annual competitions to be in the Top 500 brands, trade shows, franchise fairs, catalogues, books of lists – all are a part of the skirmish to rise to the top and be recognized. Real estate boards used to honour achievement by membership in the Medallion Club or some other such designation until the pendulum swung away from recognizing the best to recognizing just about everyone. What was it about studying the successful that irritated the average?
An early lesson for me came from an expert in counterfeit money. He was asked how many counterfeit bills he studied as a part of his routine. “None,” was the surprising answer. “The best way to catch a counterfeit bill is to study the real thing.”
Brand helps us look our best. Tennis great Arthur Ashe said, “Regardless of how you feel inside, always try to look like a winner. Even if you are behind, a sustained look of control and confidence can give you a mental edge that results in victory.” Lee Trevino regularly attributed his success to “acting like he had the money in his pocket.” An old football saying from Joe Queenan: “When you get to the end zone, talk like you’ve been there before.”
Grey Goose vodka is a top-shelf brand, commanding a premium price nearly $20 a bottle more than Russian Standard. Mix you a martini from either and you’d be hard pressed to sort them out but – given a choice to display in your liquor cabinet or receive as a gift, you likely prefer “a brand that lives up to its reputation and far beyond as rated by top consumers themselves” – a comment on Grey Goose in a 2006 consumer survey.
We are all torn by two powerful images as I was told by a retail friend of mine: “One to buy cheap, the other to have the very best.” Those consumers who are devoted to the cheapest will always try to beat down the price of the very best. But their loyalty “fades as fast as Zellers aprons” in the words of Peter Newman as he at once recognized and damned a brand with faint praise.
Jimmy Dean, the singer, also made sausages under his name. They were not cheap by comparison to other brands. He said, “I’d rather explain the price than apologize for the quality.” There’s nothing wrong with the cheaper brand. Timex made a watch that kept on ticking, but you weren’t expecting a Rolex. And if cheap is the only thing a brand has to offer, then as one of my old bosses used to say, “You’re on a fast track to nowhere.”
But brand is not enough. In 2001, the New York Yankees defeated the Seattle Mariners in five games in the American League NCS. Lou Piniella, asked about his team’s defeat at the hands of the pin-striped Yankees said, “Yeah you’ve got the monuments and lots of things to lean on but you’ve still got to play baseball when the umpire says ‘Play Ball!’ It’s not the uniform. You could put purple and green on that bunch over there and they are going to play well.”
Actors, athletes and Realtors get paid for the preparation that leads to the results. Before every game Michael Jordan took a hundred practice shots. Actors don’t get Academy Awards for making up their lines as they go along, neither do Realtors get listings. Robert Parker wrote: “Performance is the real thing. The other stuff is getting ready.” At a live event in 2008, Brian Tracy said, “Anything worth doing is worth doing poorly,” then quickly added, “At first. But you learn from your mistakes.”
You are known by the company you keep. Companies are known by the people they keep. “You only play music as well as those around you, you learn by ear, by osmosis,” said Carla Cross at an NAR conference in 1997. It behoves all of us to strive to be the best, to soar with eagles rather than be herded with turkeys, regardless of the brand under which we gather. Knowing why we are on the payroll is a key ingredient in the search for our success, our niche. Bringing value to the equation is a noble goal for which you will be well rewarded.
Enjoy the season.
Contact Marty Douglas by email at [email protected]. Follow or connect with Marty on Twitter, LinkedIn and Facebook. He is a managing broker for Re/Max Ocean Pacific Realty in Comox and Courtenay, B.C. He is a past chair of the Real Estate Errors and Omissions Insurance Corporation of B.C., the Real Estate Council of B.C., the B.C. Real Estate Association and the Vancouver Island Real Estate Board.
