Imagine you owned a Starbucks. 

Your shop, the Park Street location, is one of several in your city. Starbucks has given you the right to use its brand, offer its products and represent the company. 

You want your store to be as successful as possible, stand out, and be the shop everyone recommends to their friends. How would you achieve this? 

If it were me, I would:

• • Find ways to promote my particular Starbucks location. I would create social media content, run targeted ads, sponsor events and drive traffic to the “Starbucks on Park”
  • Provide the best client experience possible, making visits to my location memorable and remarkable. I would have the friendliest staff, the quickest service, the best patio, the cleanest washrooms and more
  • Offer location-specific products, specials and merchandise you can’t get at other locations
  • Host special neighbourhood events, helping to make my location a vital part of my community

I would never (even if Starbucks let me):

• • Rebrand my location under a different name
  • Design a new logo and brand featuring colours other than Starbucks’ trademark green
  • Launch a social media campaign with no reference to Starbucks
  • Hide that we are a Starbucks, besides the minimum required fine-print reference to them on our website and marketing

Sometimes, the more we promote ourselves in unique and creative ways, the further we pull away from where we started. That can often give the impression that you are your own entity and not an extension of your company

Now, there’s nothing wrong with being an independent, boutique coffee shop. They tend to be my go-to. But if you haven’t figured it out by now, this is less about local vs franchise and just me trying to build a metaphor for how agents and teams tend to distance themselves from their brokerage branding (this is Real Estate Magazine, after all).

Why agents and teams shouldn’t distance themselves from their brokerage branding

Rewind 15 years ago; I was a new agent in a large brokerage trying to grow my business. I created a team name, designed a new logo and rolled out a new website, business cards and more. 

My signs were black, while my brokerage’s signs were white. We were growing our business and finding some success. 

The problem? It was taking a ton of money, time and effort to build that brand, and despite identifying our brokerage in our marketing (as required by our local regulator), we spent precious time at every client meeting trying to gain trust and explaining how our team actually belonged to a brand they recognized.

Over the years, other teams and agents followed suit. Soon, it felt like we all had our own logos, using different colours and unique names. 

“Some have done a great job being an extension of their brokerage, matching colour schemes and clearly identifying that they are a team at that brokerage. But more often than not, they don’t.”

Instead of having hundreds of similar signs building recognition throughout the city, we each had a handful of unique signs of our own. We were making it harder for each of us, all while watering down our brokerage’s brand. 

Flip through social media these days, and you’ll find plenty of agents and teams with their own brands. Some have done a great job being an extension of their brokerage, matching colour schemes and clearly identifying that they are a team at that brokerage. But more often than not, they don’t. 

Often these teams give the appearance of being their own brokerage. This is where the public’s best interest comes into play and where our provincial regulators concern themselves the most.

In 2016, RECA (Real Estate Council of Alberta) rolled out their advertising guidelines. It set recommendations on how agents and teams can brand themselves in conjunction with their brokerage “to avoid any behaviour, including their choice of team name and advertising, which could lead consumers to believe they are a licensed brokerage.” 

This would include, but not be limited to, the use of “Realty” and other brokerage-type names in your branding.

While I’m sure other jurisdictions have similar policies, many have yet to follow suit to this extent. Maybe it’s time for all our provincial regulators to update these concepts further. 

“How will our clients know who they are really working with, who is protecting their deposits and who they can contact when they have an issue?”

In my opinion, the next step is to encourage team brands to be either neutral or in colours associated with their brokerage. It’s the most common (and causes the most confusion) of all the different branding efforts I notice.

Brokerages play an important role in organized real estate, providing training, mentorship, compliance, conveyancing and protecting the public. 

As agents rely less on their brokerage brands, brokerages will have less need to advertise and support the community and will simply become service providers to agents and teams. This may eventually change the organized real estate model as we know it.

If every agent and team can give the impression of being their own brokerages (without actually being one), we are only confusing the public more. 

How will our clients know who they are really working with, who is protecting their deposits and who they can contact when they have an issue? 

While most of them only care if the coffee is good, they should at least know if they are walking into a local coffee shop or a Starbucks.

Brin Werrett

Brin Werrett is the broker/owner at Coldwell Banker Local Realty in Regina, SK. He’s been a REALTOR® since 2008 and has volunteered time on various committees with the SRA (Saskatchewan REALTORS® Association) and local community organizations including the Regina Thunder Football Club of the Canadian Junior Football League. He opened Coldwell Banker Local Realty in October 2021.