This is a question from me to me, one I’ve spent quite a bit of time on over the years:
What should I call my real estate brokerage?
I really hate personality marketing in real estate, so I’m much stronger on the subject of what not to do.
But here is the strategy we deployed in naming our brokerage.
First, we wanted an iconic idea — an idea that conveys a host of other ideas without explication. Odysseus the dog was an accident in our lives, but choosing the word Bloodhound was no accident. The word and the image of the dog, both in photographs and in our logo, sell a vast array of ideas about our business without our having to sell anything.
Second, we named our business “.com” to enhance our findability. We are not a realty.bot, and we will never be one, but using our web address as our business name means that our web address appears every time our business is mentioned.
An example: Every listing of ours produced by any IDX system, no matter whose, will list our web address.
Technorati Tags: arizona, arizona real estate, phoenix, phoenix real estate, sellsius 101, real estate, real estate marketing
rudolph d. bachraty III says:
greg,
great story re: the origins of naming bloodhound realty. now i don’t have to wonder anymore 🙂
just visited ardell and you’re leading 2 to 1.
both of you have provided all of us with some fantastic reading thus far and look forward to more gems.
how are holding up? tired yet? i suggested that ardell take a break or a catnap to get refreshed but she’ll probably just keep on chuggin’.
just let me know when i should contact guinness. or should i ask ardell that question?
rudy.sellsius°
September 26, 2006 — 5:57 am
Cathleen Collins says:
Thanks on behalf of Greg for the feedback, Rudy. Actually, as you might imagine, Greg isn’t reading comments right now. He’s over in his cube with fingers a-flying. He’ll hear me laughing (usually at Jon’s coverage) every now and then and ask me what’s so funny; but other than that he’s just churning them out. This is a lot harder than he thought it would be.
At about 9:00 Greg coincidently posted #50. Jon thought he had planned it out to take a break then. It really was serendipity: I feed the dogs at 9:00 and their howling is so distracting he stopped just long enough to make himself another four-shot Latte.
Jon, you probably aren’t reading comments today, either. But I wanted to tell you that you are as fine a color man as I’ve ever seen! I’d tell you on your own weblog, but who has time to register? Keep up the great work… you’re a stud!
September 26, 2006 — 9:32 am
jf.sellsius says:
It’s a great story. Bloodhounds have so many positive qualities that translate to brokerage, like sniffing out the best deals and doggedly keeping on the trail. Plus, a dog is man’s best friend. What’s not to love?
September 26, 2006 — 10:44 am
Greg Swann says:
Following up on this, just so we don’t get yelled at later: We’re in the process of trademarking everything. It takes forever and costs a fortune.
September 30, 2006 — 1:56 pm