Delia

P.S. Happy New Year!

Delia

P.S. spooky picture, BTW

Having been a RE/MAX broker/owner for many years, I can say with authority that this above comment is pure baloney–inccurate and untrue. The fact is that after the RE/MAX agent (by the way RE/MAX was the original discount brokererage IMHO) is finished paying all their persoanl marketing, adminstrative and operating expenses (not to mention a substantial desk fee) most of them (on average) end up being at a 60/40 split, or less. The idea that any RE/MAX agent gets to keep 95% of their commission dollar just a marketing gimmick. The real question to ask is what is the average RE/MAX agent net earnings. Based on my personal experience, they are often lower than they would be if the agent were operating under a more traditional model.

Again, based on experience, the Broker/Owner is not much more than a glorified administrator for RE/MAX Coporate.

As some of you know, I just opened my first Remax Beach Properties office, here in the Hamptons, a strong resort and second home market, 90 miles from Manhattan on the East End of Long Island, where our market’s average sales price is around $1.4million.

National real estate brand proliferation here is fairly new, starting with Prudential about 10 years ago. Sothebys acquired a local brokerage in 1998 and things stayed that way until recently when NRT bought up three local brokerages in 3 years, including the market leader, Allan Schneider, and put them all under the name of Corcoran, a Manhattan brokerage.

Brand regarding the agent comes down to one thing: Are YOU responsible for generating most of your business through referrals or do you depend on the BRAND (your company) to generate business for you? If it is YOU, and you’be built your business to that level, then you should be at Remax, where you retain 95% of your commissions - you’ve earned it!
Why would you want to give 35-50% of your commissions to a broker who just holds your license?

Brand regarding customers and clients comes down to previous experience. I see time and time again that people follow their agents IF their agent has done a good job developing a personal relationship with them. If not, they will go with the brand that they most identify with. Fact is, that the agency that has the best agents does the most business, regardless of their name.

Brand is a multi-facated razor sharp sword that different people respond to in different ways and that in different times mean different things - think Wonder Bread.

Good post! On my side, slowly but surely. It’s hard to build that loyalty but I’m not one to sacrifice my brand.

Wait. I did not pose the argument that brand is dead. In fact, I said brand is forever.

The post argues that brand is not in decline, as Wired once wrote. Consumers are still loyal to brand, despite better alternatives—AOL & IE are two cases in point. I think Bonnie is right.

Brands and friends—the strongest brands garner fierce loyalty (brand love). I don’t know if it’s friendship but fierce loyalty is a good thing for business. I know people who will only drink Budweiser and if I was on fire, I wouldn’t want it poured on me.

As for Craig: Having spent some time in the craigslist forums, I can assure you that most users do know Craig. Maybe they don’t know his last name or couldn’t pick him out of a lineup, but does that really matter? They do know he exists &, more than that, they know his philosophy (which is his brand). Craig is active on the site and his title of customer service rep is accurate. Users appreciate his presence and sense he cares about the users.

We both agree that Brand is not a logo (but logos do help in recognition, like gang colors), it’s more a philosophy of doing business, a relationship built between product/service and consumer. It’s a reliability, a constancy, a sense of quality or value, from the point of view of the customer. It’s a perception reinforced by experience. Brand makes the customer feel good in some way.

Beating Craig at his game is not how I would put it. There are many sites that do it better in any number of ways. But craigslist remains vibrant. Once again I think Bonnie is right.

Spending money on brand is wasteful only if you have a crappy product or service. You won’t fool people for long with your shiny logo or zippy ads. But if you offer a quality product, even if it is only equal to other’s, you best build your brand to set yourself apart. Also, Brand lives & breathes outside the internet too, maybe more so. In fact, if you believe the recent studies, the Internet is NOT an influencer for buyers of every product or service.
http://tinyurl.com/y5tsy4

I do agree with your statement that real estate is built on personal relationship but I don’t know the answer as to where the customer goes if the agent leaves. That’s a good question. I want to think it’s with the agent. But when my stock broker left the big name firm for a firm I never heard of, I stayed with the brand (i thought the support system was better with the name brand).

But here’s a question that may be better—Does the consumer come to the broker or agent via the brand in the first place? I think so.

Thanks for your thought-provoking comment Matt.
BTW, did you pick up your present in the Santa post? You deserved it for what you’ve done at Inman.