Let’s face it…many of the most well-respected companies in real estate have not spent a lot of time on their logo in a LONG TIME! The industry is besieged with new players with huge marketing budgets and very contemporary branding. While a logo is not everything, it can certainly set the tone and tell others you’re evolving and that your brand is still relevant today.
Let’s look at a few great examples of brand/logo overhauls….
Smart MLS was formed after the two MLSs in the state of Connecticut merged. They created an inspirational company name that encourages every action within the company to be responsive and intelligent to help make their members more informed and leverage MLS data more effectively. It is geography agnostic which is great for any organization looking to collaborate in new and exciting ways.
Ebby Halliday, a highly respected brand that is more than 60 years old had a tougher challenge because they already had an established brand to work with. Their marketing team led an effort to simplify the logo, but to maintain the well-known Ebby typography. Many brands with such a well-accomplished history like Ebby Halliday REALTORSR® can benefit from an evolution that maintains the equity that has been established and still bring the logo into the present day.
Heritage Texas Properties was looking to update their logo to reflect their market strength in the luxury market. They moved away from a red, white and blue logo which focused on Texas branding and moved to something much more sophisticated, clean and easy on the eyes. This single, but powerful change helped them strengthen their position throughout Houston and anchored them as a leader in the luxury market.
As I look around the industry I believe that many companies can benefit from a freshening, evolution or complete overhaul.
WAV Group itself is going through a regular evolution of logos…we have evolved our logo 3 times since we started the company almost 20 years ago.
Many of you may think of me as a real estate consultant, but my history is rich in branding, marketing, and product development. I was formerly SVP Marketing at Fisher-Price, one of the top ten most trusted brands in the world. I LOVE to work on customer-facing projects like branding and marketing programs. I am joined by an amazing team of public relations and communications, graphic design, copyrighting, and marketing experts that helped many of our clients take their brand and their business to the next level.
WAV Group works with many of its clients to refine and update their brand messaging as well as their logo. Importantly, we don’t look at as simply a logo change. The company must embrace the meaning behind the visuals – what does our brand stand for and how it is relevant to our employees, agents, and customers?
How Do You Get Started?
Some of our clients have avoided updating their logo even though they know it’s long overdue. The best way to start a brand overhaul is, to begin with a creative brief that includes the following:
- Customer Satisfaction/Brand equity research – staff, leadership, agents/members, consumers
- Brand Unique Value Proposition
- Key Competitors
- Key Target Audience(s)
- What messages you want to deliver to your staff, agents, leadership, and customers
- Examples of logos you like
- Timeline
If you are thinking that it’s time for you to overhaul your brand image to keep up with all of the new players that are entering real estate, we would love to help you! If you have a design, copywriting, marketing or PR challenge, we can help you to take your brand into its next wave of success!
We’d like to see the old images