Congratulations to the 2009 Production Winners -
Brand U has created the brand for Sam McCall Re/Max Masters Realty.
Sam is #3 out of the Top 5 Individuals with Re/Max Western Canada.
Way to go, Sam!!!
You are a true inspiration and example to thousands of realtors for your focus and hard work in the industry.
We also want to congratulate another one of our clients
Bill Goold of Re/Max Real Estate Services for placing No1 in Western Canada for Top Commercial sales in Western Canada
We are so proud of you both.
Mon 8 Mar 2010
Re/Max 2009 Production WInners
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Thu 14 Jan 2010
The Power of Print
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Alberta Rose- Realtor in Action
I was speaking to one of our clients – her name is Alberta Rose with Remax Central in Burnaby- she recently ramped up the saturation of mailouts to her farm area and she says this-
“A few months ago, I decided to increase the quantity of my mailouts to a larger area of homes and arranged for Brand U to send out postcards and notepads for me via unaddressed admail. The response was better than expected and I have received many calls, resulting in several new listings. I am finally convinced that sending out more printing to a larger area of households will help me reach my sales goals for 2010.”
If you would like help planning a frequent mailout program, I look forward to hearing from you
Lory
lory@brandu.ca
Thu 7 Jan 2010
2010 Time to revisit Realtor Marketing Strategy
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Printing and mailing still best approach to reach potential homeowners who want to sell their home.
Don’t waste time – we are in the spring market in a few weeks.
Don’t be confused…with social media.
Some realtors out there really do not know what to do with the new social media and realize that in order to keep up some business momentum, they need to continue with some basics from the past. Tweeting, and blogging seem to be a lot of fun and the social attention can be flattering- but does it bring in business?
Are you going to contact a realtor just because you can follow his tweet? I hardly think so.
Blogging is very useful if you maintain it on a regular basis with new entries and most realtors will not have the time to do this. It does raise your position in the search engines- which is a good thing.
2010 is starting out with renewed focus and energy.
Realtors have been contacting us fresh out of the gate – just back from the holidays and after some reflection are telling us that they need to saturate the market place with their brand and that the best bang for their buck is still- sending out printed materials, whether it is a postcard or notepad or a professionally developed newsletter product.
Why? The majority of realtors just won’t spend the money- the ones that do are in the top 5% of all realtors.
Our realtors that implemented consistently last year throughout the ups and downs of the economy have tracked their results and the vote has come in- Sending out high quality printed materials with their brand was still more effective than all the blogging, and tweeting – after all the whole idea is to Increase your business leads and nothing is more powerful than handing out your impressive brand on a printed business card or having a client say they just received your brochure and it intrigued them to call. Now that is a solid lead. These leads will ask to meet with you in person. They will not hide behind an e-mail.
Do not forget the power of personal appointments- a firm handshake- human contact.
Branding tells a story- and changes perception and then opens doors. Implementation of your brand brings in the business leads.
You can be a new realtor just starting out and by sending out a well thought out program of custom marketing materials –they won’t be able to delete your tweet or ignore your email- they will have received a personal message from you in hard copy- whether it be addressed and signed personally or unaddressed- do not underestimate the power of printing
Instead of thinking “viral”
Think ” Print…Viral”
It isn’t brain surgery ,but it works!
If you would like more information , please contact me.
Lory Wiens
Brand U Identities
lory@brandu.ca
(604)418-2250
Wed 5 Aug 2009
Brand U Identities Featured in the North Shore News
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Thu 2 Jul 2009
WE HAVE COMPLETED ENVISIONING WITH MALCOLM!
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We are excited to report that we have completed our envisioning session with the Brand U Free Brand contest winner Malcolm Bellinger!
Envisioning is the first step in our branding process and it is a wonderful opportunity for us to really sit down with our clients and learn what it is about them that makes them unique. This week we had the pleasure of envisioning with Malcolm and were able to learn a lot about his unique personality, goals, and what exact market he is targeting. All of these things are essential for us to understand about our clients so that we can custom design them the best brand possible.
During a typical envisioning session we like to ask our clients certain things so that we can really get to know who they are, some examples of the questions we asked Malcolm when we met with him this week were:
- What is your professional background? How did you get into real estate?
- What drives you? What is your motivation for selling real estate? For example, is it the negotiating for your clients that you love? Finding the perfect home?
- What moment is it in real estate that you think to yourself “I love doing this”? What is it about your career that keeps you passionate?
- What is your business style? Are you laid back and approachable? Or are you more of a serious professional type?
- What drives the client – what is their motivation for selling real estate (negotiating, finding homes for clients, etc)
All of these things are extremely important for us to understand when envisioning with our clients.
During Malcolm’s envisioning session we have a wonderful opportunity to learn about the kind of professional he is and what it is about real estate that keeps him dedicated and passionate about his career. Malcolm is definitely dedicated to his work and it is clear that he brings an extremely high level of excellence and integrity to all that he does. His warm and friendly demeanor is absolutely what will give his brand a highly professional, yet approachable feel.
We are very excited to have completed Malcolm’s envisioning process and look forward to developing his custom brand!
Next step: the photo shoot! Malcolm will have his photo shoot July 9th, be sure and check back to see the fabulous results!
Thu 18 Jun 2009
THE BRANDING PROCESS HAS BEGUN!
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The branding process is beginning for our Brand U Win A Free Brand contest winner Malcolm Bellinger and we couldn’t be more excited! While Malcolm’s envisioning and photo shoot are not taking place until next week we thought we would summarize all of the steps that Brand U will be taking Malcolm through during his branding process.
FIRST STEP: ENVISIONING
We use our envisioning session as a time to ask a lot of questions and really get to understand the unique personality and goals of each of our clients. No client is the same and neither are their brands, we use this time to ensure that we have a firm idea of who our client is and what direction they want to see their brand go.
SECOND STEP: PHOTO SHOOT
While clients are of course free to use their own photographer, we work with several professional photographers on a consistent basis who truly understand how to capture the right image for branding. Our photographers are professional, experienced and experts in photography for personal branding.
Brand U photographer photographing a Brand U client
THRID STEP: PHOTO SELECTION AND DESIGN
Once our clients have had their photo shoot we spend time selecting the best photographs from over 100 options and then begin to build their brand. Based on their photo and their brand vision we begin to create designs including custom logos, color schemes, and an authentic and original representation of our client. We continue to work through revisions with our clients until they are completely happy with their new branded image.
FOURTH STEP: INTEGRATION AND IMPLEMENTATION
Once the client’s brand is developed we help them integrate their new image into all of their marketing materials, this includes updating their website, creating new email signature art, banner ads for printed materials, bus backs, stationary, and any other piece of printed or custom marketing materials they may need. Following the brand integration we work to help our clients also implement their new brand to ensure that the clients new brand is consistent with their marketing and advertising. This includes having our clients choose their farm area and then Brand U managing the printing and delivery of flyers and brochures or managing un-addressed ad-mail to that selected area.
FIFTH STEP: ONGOING BRAND SUPPORT
Once Brand U has worked with a client we make ourselves available to that client on an ongoing basis for printing needs, new advertisements or any other kind of brand update. We understand that our clients spend a great deal of time and care re-branding themselves and we are committed to ensuring that our clients have the ongoing support that is needed for them to maintain that brand.
We are really looking forward to starting Malcolm’s branding process!
Malcolm will be taking his first steps towards a new brand next week and we look forward to sharing his progress and experience on the Brand U blog. Please check back to track Malcolm’s progress!
Thu 4 Jun 2009
CONGRATULATIONS TO MALCOLM BELLINGER ON WINNING THE BRAND-U FREE BRAND CONTEST!
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Brand-U is pleased to announce the winner of our Free Brand Contest!
Brandu U's Lory Wiens congratulates Malcolm on the win
We received hundreds of entries for our Free Brand Contest but no other entrant stuck out quite as much to us as Coldwell Banker Kelowna REALTOR® Malcolm Bellinger. Perhaps it was the fact that he sent us over 500 flyers already declaring himself the winner of the Brand-U free signature brand contest, or maybe it was his genuine and enthusiastic letter where he let us know that he:
…Needs Brand-U to take me, Malcolm Bellinger, Kelowna House Hunter and Okanagan House Hunter – all that I am as a person, as a realtor, as a Brand, and put it into print and visuals. When someone sees my mug with the words MALCOLM BELLINGER is Your Kelowna House Hunter on the airport baggage belt they know they want that guy working for them, and they will remember me. I know I need your assistance and this contest win will take my career to that important next level
Malcolms original marketing image
Well put, Malcolm! We are absolutely delighted to be working with such an outstanding new client and we are excited to develop your brand. Brand-U will be following Malcolm’s entire branding process from envisioning to final product. Be sure and check back on the Brand-U blog or subscribe to the RSS feed to stay informed and watch us ramp up Malcolm’s image! Thank you to all those who took the time to enter our free signature brand contest, we sincerely appreciate all entrants and invite everyone to watch our behind the scenes blog of the branding process. If you did enter the contest, be sure to email us for a special promotional offer!
Wed 8 Apr 2009
Bringing Branding Into The Digital Age
Posted by Grace under Uncategorized, tips and advice
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Personal branding is now taking a major shift into the social networking world. Now social media tools such as personal blogs, facebook pages and Twitter accounts are becoming mainstream components to a successful personal brand. The problem is that while most people are beginning to see this shift and are wanting to digitally integrate themselves into this vast social networking world many professionals are not sure how to do it.
If you are using facebook, linkedIn, Twitter or a blog for professional reasons it is imperative that you maintain your branding. This means your blog should not just be a traditional free word press blog but rather a professionally designed one that is consistent with your marketing materials. As well, a facebook page should reflect photos, logos and any other branding materials you may have. Where it tends to get a bit harder is with the Twitter posts or “tweets”. This is because Twitter is an open network that is not branded (except your background and profile picture) and is just a 140-character status update. Think of it like a massive text message that is viewable to anyone on Twitter and will be fed directly to those that are “following you” on Twitter. This means that it is crucial to utilize the social network carefully while still maintaining your professionalism. Remember — the entire world can see your tweets and it is imperative that your use of Twitter be either strictly in a professional capacity or a personal one. There is not much of a grey area with this particular social network.
The next problem we most often hear is “What am I supposed to tweet about?” Good question. Twitter can be easily utilized for your business. Here are some of our agency’s best tips and tricks for using Twitter. We give our clients these same sets of guidelines and suggestions on how to extend their brand into social media and explain how tweeting can really leverage their brand.
Tips on how professionals can use Twitter to expand and reinforce their business or brand.
- Use Twitter as a form of customer service, it is a great tool to engage with those that respond to your tweets — its an opportunity to serve people
- Twitter is an excellent platform to ask questions that are relevant to your business or field, it’s a great way to discuss what is of interest or relevant to your business at the moment — It shows that you are aware of the current climate and up-to-speed on what is pertinent
- Twitter is viral, it will often be a very important way to spread news about your business, it may very well be the only way that people learn new things about your business
- It is a good way to direct people’s attention to positive things about your business and community
- Offer and advertise exclusive opportunities through your tweets — Ellen DeGeneres does this fabulously for The Ellen Show. For example lately she has been hiding tickets to her show in public places and then tweets and lets her followers know where they are, the first one to find them gets to come to the show
- Perhaps one of the best uses of Twitter is to post links to interesting articles or websites or to post photos and comment on them
Why Twitter is useful
- Twitter raises you accessibility to your clients, they are better able to connect with you in a casual setting
- It makes you digitally relevant, it allows you to be digitally present without updating a blog everyday
- It will raise your search engine optimization (SEO)
- Your clients can view you on Twitter without becoming a member of the site — they are able to read your tweets anonymously if they wish
We offer all of this information to our clients that we successfully brand and who then want to extend their brand digitally. We help our clients along by editing blog content, tweets and setting up and updating facebook pages. Integrating ones self into social media is now coming along with a lot of unspoken rules for success. We understand that our clients need to be informed before they make themselves digitally present and we make it a priority to help them achieve this.
