{"id":3767,"date":"2008-08-05T11:55:28","date_gmt":"2008-08-05T18:55:28","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.bloodhoundrealty.com\/BloodhoundBlog\/?p=3767"},"modified":"2008-08-05T11:58:22","modified_gmt":"2008-08-05T18:58:22","slug":"truth-damn-truth-and-consumer-reports","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.bloodhoundrealty.com\/BloodhoundBlog\/3767\/truth-damn-truth-and-consumer-reports\/","title":{"rendered":"Truth, Damn Truth, and Consumer Reports"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Consumer Reports has released a survey that shows that the national RE companies have successfully wrung every drop of meaning out of their so-called brands.<\/p>\n<p>I haven&#8217;t had a chance to read the report, but there is enough on Inman today to get the gist:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>Even though Indie agents were said to offer fewer services, &#8220;&#8230;sellers who used them were just as satisfied&#8221; as the sellers who used name-brand agents.<\/li>\n<li>Customer satisfaction scores for Real Estate companies ranged from 79 to 81. A 3 point spread. Homogenization complete.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>Translation: Sellers don&#8217;t mind when an indie agent fails to show up with a folder full of Home Warranties, and they don&#8217;t care which logo adorns the business cards of the brand-name agents who do.<\/p>\n<p>I am looking out my window at a Hostess delivery truck with a picture of a split-open chocolate cup cake next to the Hostess logo. I want one. I want to peel the frosting off, set it aside, eat the decapitated cupcake and chase it with the frosting just like I did when I was 10. I have an emotional attachment to Hostess Cupcakes that started the day my Mom brought home a box from the supermarket, and its been reinforced every time I have had two (you have to have two) ever since.<\/p>\n<p>Every time I open that cupcake wrapper, I know what I am going to get: The plastic peels off of the frosting even (usually) if the package is warm and they taste *exactly* the same every time, even if they have been sitting on a shelf for six years. Mom brought home cheap, store brand chocolate cupcakes once&#8230;.Once.<\/p>\n<p>That&#8217;s how branding is supposed to work. The ad man Jerry Bulmore said that &#8220;Consumers build an image [of a brand] as birds build nests. From the scraps and straws they chance upon.&#8221; Bulmore&#8217;s sticks and straws are interactions, and what he left out is that the strongest nests are built when the building materials are consistent.<\/p>\n<p>Branding a service is inherently difficult. Unlike cupcakes, its a lot harder to control the quality of the end product, and something as fragile as the emotional <a href=\"https:\/\/www.bloodhoundrealty.com\/BloodhoundBlog\/3767\/truth-damn-truth-and-consumer-reports\/#more-3767\" class=\"more-link\">Read more<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Consumer Reports has released a survey that shows that the national RE companies have successfully wrung every drop of meaning out of their so-called brands. I haven&#8217;t had a chance to read the report, but there is enough on Inman today to get the gist: Even though Indie agents were said to offer fewer services, [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":46,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_crdt_document":"","jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[15,174],"tags":[186,213],"class_list":{"0":"post-3767","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"hentry","6":"category-carnival-of-real-estate","7":"category-inmanically-incorrect","8":"tag-real-estate-brands","9":"tag-realogy","11":"no-featured-image"},"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":9567,"url":"https:\/\/www.bloodhoundrealty.com\/BloodhoundBlog\/9567\/real-estate-branding-post-google\/","url_meta":{"origin":3767,"position":0},"title":"Real Estate Branding, Post-Google","author":"John Rowles","date":"August 20, 2009","format":false,"excerpt":"Do real estate brands mean anything to homebuyers post-Google? When the MLS was printed in a binder that brokers hid under their desks and consumers had to shop for an agent first, brand mattered to buyers. Now, buyers come armed with a list of properties that are relevant to them\u2026","rel":"","context":"In &quot;Marketing&quot;","block_context":{"text":"Marketing","link":"https:\/\/www.bloodhoundrealty.com\/BloodhoundBlog\/category\/marketing\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":11760,"url":"https:\/\/www.bloodhoundrealty.com\/BloodhoundBlog\/11760\/performance-bonds-for-real-estate-escrows\/","url_meta":{"origin":3767,"position":1},"title":"Performance Bonds For Real Estate Escrows","author":"Brian Brady","date":"April 23, 2010","format":false,"excerpt":"The world of distressed real estate (only about 90 of my past 100 transactions) is a funny one; all the rules are different. The REO sellers are pretty simple.\u00a0 They have a take it or leave it policy when it comes to negotiations, escrow terms, etc..\u00a0 Some short sellers however,\u2026","rel":"","context":"In &quot;Lending&quot;","block_context":{"text":"Lending","link":"https:\/\/www.bloodhoundrealty.com\/BloodhoundBlog\/category\/lending\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":541,"url":"https:\/\/www.bloodhoundrealty.com\/BloodhoundBlog\/541\/why-the-traditional-real-estate-commission-model-is-broken-and-needs-to-be-replaced\/","url_meta":{"origin":3767,"position":2},"title":"Why the traditional real estate commission model is broken and needs to be replaced . . .","author":"Greg Swann","date":"October 15, 2006","format":false,"excerpt":"These are the concluding paragraphs of Mark Nadel's white paper on real estate commissions. The executive summary has been quoted all over, but I think this text is more compelling. For what it's worth, I think Nadel has hit a home run. There are things he doesn't know about, which\u2026","rel":"","context":"In &quot;Disintermediation&quot;","block_context":{"text":"Disintermediation","link":"https:\/\/www.bloodhoundrealty.com\/BloodhoundBlog\/category\/disintermediation\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":2179,"url":"https:\/\/www.bloodhoundrealty.com\/BloodhoundBlog\/2179\/a-consumers-guide-to-the-divorced-real-estate-commission-why-buyers-and-sellers-each-paying-for-their-own-representation-is-the-most-significant-reform-that-can-be-made-today-in-residential-real-estat\/","url_meta":{"origin":3767,"position":3},"title":"A consumer&#8217;s guide to the divorced real estate commission: Why buyers and sellers each paying for their own representation is the most significant reform that can be made today in residential real estate","author":"Greg Swann","date":"November 7, 2007","format":false,"excerpt":"Part I: How we got into this mess in the first place Can we be straight with each other? I'm not a soft and subtle kind of guy, and my working assumption is that you are sick to death of being hustled -- handled -- lied to. We yammer all\u2026","rel":"","context":"In &quot;Marketing&quot;","block_context":{"text":"Marketing","link":"https:\/\/www.bloodhoundrealty.com\/BloodhoundBlog\/category\/marketing\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":6630,"url":"https:\/\/www.bloodhoundrealty.com\/BloodhoundBlog\/6630\/a-tale-of-two-paradigms\/","url_meta":{"origin":3767,"position":4},"title":"A Tale of Two Paradigms","author":"Thomas Hall","date":"January 18, 2009","format":false,"excerpt":"Glenn Kelman's recent Call to Arms brought to light for me the two\u00a0 paradigms that exist within the realm of transacting real estate - the traditional broker\/agent-centric view and the evolving consumer-centric view.\u00a0 Ultimately both paradigms attempt to better serve the consumer, however, the perspectives are very different. Glenn's post\u2026","rel":"","context":"In &quot;Disintermediation&quot;","block_context":{"text":"Disintermediation","link":"https:\/\/www.bloodhoundrealty.com\/BloodhoundBlog\/category\/disintermediation\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":1489,"url":"https:\/\/www.bloodhoundrealty.com\/BloodhoundBlog\/1489\/tennessee-commission-rebate-ban-signed-into-law\/","url_meta":{"origin":3767,"position":5},"title":"Tennessee commission rebate ban signed into law","author":"Greg Swann","date":"May 31, 2007","format":false,"excerpt":"From the the Nashville Tennessean:Gov. Phil Bredesen has signed a bill reinstating a ban on cash rebates for home sales and other real estate transactions, despite opposition from consumer advocates and federal antitrust officials. The bill signed late Wednesday reverses a decision made earlier this month by state regulators to\u2026","rel":"","context":"In &quot;Disintermediation&quot;","block_context":{"text":"Disintermediation","link":"https:\/\/www.bloodhoundrealty.com\/BloodhoundBlog\/category\/disintermediation\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]}],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bloodhoundrealty.com\/BloodhoundBlog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3767","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bloodhoundrealty.com\/BloodhoundBlog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bloodhoundrealty.com\/BloodhoundBlog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bloodhoundrealty.com\/BloodhoundBlog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/46"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bloodhoundrealty.com\/BloodhoundBlog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=3767"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/www.bloodhoundrealty.com\/BloodhoundBlog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3767\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":3770,"href":"https:\/\/www.bloodhoundrealty.com\/BloodhoundBlog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3767\/revisions\/3770"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bloodhoundrealty.com\/BloodhoundBlog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3767"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bloodhoundrealty.com\/BloodhoundBlog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=3767"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bloodhoundrealty.com\/BloodhoundBlog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=3767"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}