Dude, your brand name sucks.

by Jay Thompson on October 16, 2009 · Comments

in Random Musings

At this moment in time, I’m sitting in the Hilton in Las Vegas, nursing sore feet and an aching head (what happens in Vegas stays in Vegas). I’m here attending and speaking at Real Estate Blog World and Blog World & New Media Expo 2009.

There are a bunch of really smart people here. And really good people.

Yesterday there was discussion in many sessions about branding. What it is, what it’s not, building your brand, all that sort of jazz. Some very good and thought-provoking stuff.

Like any conference though, some of the best things happen in the hallways. I had one such conversation yesterday. I was walking around wearing that annoying Phoenix Real Estate Guy t-shirt when someone I’d never met approached me. (For the life of me, sadly I can’t remember the guy’s name. I really need to work on name recall.)

We chatted about real estate and blogging when he asked me the name of my company.

“Thompson’s Realty,” I said.

“Dude, your brand name sucks,” he replied.

Naturally, I asked him why he felt that way.

“It’s not catchy. And you’re limiting your ability to sell your company someday to people named ‘Thompson’. Why did you pick that name?”.

Well, because it’s my name. I figure that if I’m willing to attach my own name to my business then I won’t be able to hind behind some catchy name if/when something goes wrong. I want people to remember their experience with Thompson’s Realty by the kick-ass service they received, not because of some catchy name.

I don’t really care what the name of the company is.

I don’t really care that a non-Thompson might have to change the name if they were to buy my brokerage (which incidentally isn’t for sale unless you’ve got a ridiculous amount of extra money lying around).

As someone said yesterday (it was quite possibly the ubiquitous Jeff Turner from Real Estate Shows) a brand isn’t about your name, or your colors, or your logo. It’s about who you are, what you deliver and what you believe in.

We try to deliver the best real estate buying or selling experience on the planet. Do we succeed every time? Not even close. But we’re working on that. We know that going through the often daunting and tedious process of buying and selling real estate can be excruciating. We believe in making that as painless as possible. Are we successful at that every time? Nope. Trust me, it tears me up inside when we can’t sell someone’s house. I dwell on what we did wrong, what we could have done better. I feel like I let my clients down and I absolutely hate feeling that way.  I don’t give a rat’s ass that the market stinks and there are things out of my control that may lead to an unsold home or a buyer not getting the offer accepted on a home they love. I failed to help them and that’s a lousy feeling.

That desire, that need to help people is our brand.

The name on the yard sign doesn’t mean squat.

I can think of a lot of successful companies named after the original founder (or founders in the case of Thompson’s Realty). Ever been to Disneyland? Ever driven a Mercedes-Benz or ridden a Harley-Davidson? Eaten a Hershey bar?

Those are all some pretty good (and tasty) brand names. They all evoke a certain feeling, a certain experience.

THAT is what a brand is. That is what we want our clients to experience. That is what we work on every single day.

What’s in a name?

Nothing.

It’s who is behind that name, and what they do, that matters.

 

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  • It certainly didn't work for the Sotheby's or the Talbot's either. Advice from a stranger in the hallway is probably worth what you paid for it.

    Now, if it was Seth Goden you may want to consider it...
  • I'd say brand name means jack in most service-oriented industries. I bet you didn't waste thousands of dollars and hours on focus groups, branding sessions and a logo, either.
  • garysattelberger
    You are absolutely right. Brand isn't the name of a company, it is the experience customers receive. As far as the comments from the guy in the hall, I suppose that if you were to sell your company someday the new owner could hide behind the name Thompson's Realty rather than change it.

    On the other hand, I would feel uncomfortable using my name for a company, Sattelberger Realty. Most people spell it wrong when they hear it and it doesn't roll off the tongue easily.
  • As some dude named Shakespeare once said, "What's in a name? That which we call a rose
    By any other name would smell as sweet." I think the Thompson rose is smelling pretty sweet right now, thank you very much Mr. Hallway Advice. Wonder what his brand name is...
  • austinsmith
    I agree with you Jay. This guy totally missed the memo on what a brand is meant to be. It amuses me that he had the cajones to tell you to your face that your last name sucks...I just tell other people behind your back :)
  • I absolutely dare someone to go up to Ebby Halliday and give her that line. B.S.

    And I love my name and my branding. Take it or leave it.
  • Max
    Great write up, Jay!

    It's been proven numerous times that anything could be branded - some nonsense words being added to our daily vocabulary as verbs, as we speak, which only a few years ago they didn't mean squat. If being asked, I always tell people that there should be a sense, a point, an idea and goal behind your brand. What are you trying to achieve, and what will it mean to you and to your clients. What expectations will people have from this brand. There is a lot of questions to ask, and depending on their answers you will see what your brand should resonate with, what kind of message it should deliver - whether it will resonate with you, your team, company's spirit or idea etc. Some people's qualities/character/personality may just fit the brand - they are the brand. Others, may be going after an idea or special quality and they want the brand to reflect that.

    The problem that I see the most with brands named after their owners is that people don't give their brand a thought. They do it mechanically like putting a stamp on an envelope. If qualities of services do not make your name a "brand", and the brand name by itself doesn't carry a meaning - there is nothing else to contribute to it. That's why, I think, there is a perception in marketing circles of brand names like this as a weak strategy.
  • Jay, In my mind Brand & real estate brokerages are at a crossroad.

    While many of the big box agencies are struggling to define their Brand both to the consumer and the customer (agents) social media is changing the game. Years of building up the Brand via traditional push marketing can be destroyed overnight by a few using social media streams to bring to light the true behavior of the Brand. Agents are questioning what value the Brand is offering them?

    I think the little brokerage has a much better chance at building a consistent Brand, but as the brokerage grows full of "independent contractors" with conflicting ideals of brand, the message is fractured and lost. Most experienced agents don't spend much time talking Company Brand.

    Brand matters, but the point is what is behind the Brand should match the message. Hiding behind a false message is very dangerous when someone or something shines the light of day on it. As you said rightly said, it is who is behind the Brand that really matters.
  • I agree it is who is behind the brand and what it represents, not the name. Amazon is an interesting example. Zappos, etc.
  • davidlorti
    I think the brand discussion and the comment that 'your brand sucks' is naive. For as many brands that were built using clever strategic marketing, there are just as many that were built up from the ground up and became something big and recognizable.

    Dell, Johnson and Johnson, Proctor and Gamble, Walmart, and the list goes on and on. What about Keller Williams, RE/MAX (shortened for two or three words), etc. They have strong brands because of branding as they moved forward.

    Having worked for tech companies and a startup too, branding can play an even more crucial role as you develop what you started rather than it being as critical as you start. I once saw a high-powered marketing executive blow a whole lot of money on 'branding' to no avail.

    Thompson's Realty could be big regardless of the person in the hallway and become a more recognizable brand through hard work and growth, not because of an expensive marketing budget.
  • He's dude, you are Thompson and everyone knows your name.
  • Hey Jay-

    Hope your feet are feeling better. Remember, these days, what happens in Vegas, goes on YouTube.

    I don't buy in that the name of a brand has anything to do with the success (or lack thereof) of a company. Focus on being honest, ethical and do what's right for the client. That's what makes a winning brand ... if not, that's when you suck.

    TF
  • Including the family name, I think, helps build trust and helps a newish brokerage. It may be less desireable when selling but may not be an issue at all. My only complaint is the apostrophe. It's thrown me off when searching online. Have you considered "Francie Thompson Realty"? :)
  • Your brand name points you out, and even if its not some hip catchy name, it seems to be doing you well. I suppose using your own name might only be a bad idea if you had some impossible to spell and remember name.

    -Tyler
  • coreywright
    this is all true...names, colors, logos, etc. are simply decorations. branding is about content, and what's behind all of the decorations. that being said, there is no reason to ignore the decoration end of the branding, as it can be a big part of your branding when done properly. in your case, i think you'll be fine though. good write up.
  • tylerwood
    Hey Jay,

    I work for a CB franchise but cannot say they are really a brand. What does CB stand for ? I know they are working on it but cannot say they stand for all that much in the consumers eyes other than they may have popularity, exposure. But a brand means you stand for something, a consistent experience.

    I do think a name, like Thompson's Realty, can mean something to people over time, and thus become a brand name. It takes time of doing what you described and working with clients. But it does come. We just recently changed our franchise brokerage name for that very reason. People knew who we where as a group within the franchise brokerage more than the brokerage itself because we've been around a while and had a good reputation of getting stuff done.

    I also disagree that you would have to sell to someone named Thompson. As you pointed out, what your company stands for has nothing to do with the name Thompson, but rather, a way of doing business. You can sell that business, once it is established, all day long.

    Great post, thanks for the insight.
  • Jay, it reminds of the story about a poor man who can only leave his son the family name. It was untarnished and the father wanted to make sure the son keep it that way. Unfortionately, I can't remember the whole story, or, who wrote it.
    You could have told the guy that New York Machinery, LLC was a catchy name. And, who can forget Countrywide, Enron, Go.com, Pets.com, or, Home State Savings Bank? Of course, a life time of good hard work can be shot to shit - ask Arthur Andersen. May it never befall Thompson. Good Luck.
  • Kyle
    "which incidentally isn’t for sale unless you’ve got a ridiculous amount of extra money lying around"

    So you're saying there's a chance... I'll take the idea to Shark Tank. here's the pitch: "responsible and caring real estate brokerage". They'll love it
  • Jay, this is perhaps the most insightful post of yours in quite a while. Awareness is king. Very nice, my friend.
  • The brand doesn't make you. You make the brand. (But you knew that) :)
  • Marc D
    Another fine example of the sprawling landscape of know it all's that permeate these events. One would be best advised to go to these events strictly for the cocktails with online friends than to expect to receive qualified, academic instruction on the finer things such as branding which is a day in day out exercise that requires a fantastic amount of effort on behalf of everyone involved in the brand to uphold, support and distribute to the masses.

    Jay you are part right here in your definition and I realize that a blog, one blog, can only dispense a modicum amount of instruction or commentary on a subject that takes years to learn and a lifetime to master.

    But I may, with your permission; I'd like to offer your readership the closest set of instructions on brand building that I can, amassed from 4 years of collegiate instruction and 30 years of practical use in the world. It would be as follows:

    1. Assign yourself a set of honest and pure core values
    2. Define them for yourself, for every single individual who bears your name and receives a paycheck and glue them to every action you take.
    3. Hold every single decision you make from this day forward against those values. This includes everything from your slogan to quality of your website, to how you deal with clients before, during and long after you service them to the very conferences and panels you decide to speak on because brand placement (the company a brand keeps) and the perception of the brand by association is equally as critical to building brand as anything else.
    4. Be militant. The decision to do anything has nothing to do with your likes or dislikes or even that of anyone who works for you. Everything you do is decided by how it will ultimately present your brand to the world.
    5. Repeat these things each and every day like clockwork.

    Great brands are not defined by their names as Jay pointed out. They are defined by the promises they make that they fulfill. This is where real estate falls flat on their face. The agents who promises to "deliver dreams" will never be a brand no matter what their name is because deliver dreams is essentially vacuous and impossible. So is calling yourself #1, the best, the leader and all the other nonsensical tag lines born from the stupid brand engine of real estate.

    Forget tag lines. Forget calling yourself anything. Just be who you really are. A person. With a name. A do that in which you promised yourself you would do every single day come hell or high water. If that is what Thompson Realty does, then Jay, you are becoming a brand.

    When will you be a brand? The day you no longer have to sell your services. The day you no longer have to advertise yourself to get clients. Brands sell themselves. They require no listing presentation, no scrutiny, no "send me your references", etc. People don't require that of Heinz. Porsche. Channel. YouTube. Twitter.

    If I have overstepped my boundaries, I'm sorry. I had no choice. My brand charter requires me to do everything possible to offer real estate folks the most accurate, unbiased information whenever possible, whether they are customers of my firm or not.
  • Marc - as always, thanks for your thoughts and your willingness to share and help us all learn more. You didn't come anywhere close to overstepping boundaries...
  • Yeah, no changing of brand names there, Mr Thompson. I just ordered cards...
  • Love this post! I received the same type of advice about 8 years ago & [sadly enough] bought it hook, line & sinker. Have spent a few years trying to repair the branding damage I did by going away from my name!
  • Observer / critic
    Dang, and here I was anticipating something valualbe that you discussed in the hall - I hope there is something a bit more insightful than ranting about how some guy didn't like the name of your company (I'm guessing somewhere between 90-98% of the audience viewing the article will find that it doesn't relate to them) or find that it delivered any branding virtue.

    Seems it was just an opportunity to use the interaction as a segue into self-promotion to the buyers and sellers out there.

    Let us know if there's anything that can be shared about the conference that can be utilized. As consumers/realtors know, service is obviously key, but I'm sure there were some things shared at the conference that are also beneficial and not so obvious.
  • "Observer / Critic"

    Sorry you got nothing from this post and felt it was ranting and self-promotional -- neither was my intent.

    I think your estimate that this doesn't apply to 90 - 98% of the readers of this article is way off. A significant proportion of this blog's readers are other real estate professionals and branding certainly applies to them. Some other (unknown) percentage of the remaining readership are almost certainly small business owners and branding clearly applies to them as well.

    I'm not a good enough writer to write something that applies to everyone, though to be honest I'm not sure it's possible for anyone to write an article that everyone will find useful.

    I thought the discussion in the hall was valuable. I find talking to anyone who has a different insight and opinion valuable. They tend to make me think. Thinking tends to lead to learning. All I was trying to do was share my own thoughts on branding. It's a complex subject and as Marc D mentions in his comment can take years to learn and a lifetime to master. Believe me, I am nowhere close to mastering the subject of branding.

    Yes, there was more, much more at the conference that I found valuable. There are already dozens of posts across the internet and thousands of Tweets sharing thoughts and observations from the conference. You are welcome to see if any of them apply to you or if you find they deliver virtue. I may, or may not write more about it. But if I do, I can assure you that nothing I write could possibly apply to every reader here and there will most certainly be some (or many) that get nothing from it.

    But maybe a few will.
  • Jay- I think your name is fine, and you obviously created your brand way before you went out on your own and put a name on a company. I also think there are many ways to use your company's name to your advantage, and reasons to put some thought into why you're picking a certain name.

    Just Google "Seth Godin The New Rules of Naming" to read it from the master himself.
  • 1000wattmarc
    @John, not a bad book but for what it's worth, there are far better books and more notable masters on branding that Mr. Goodin. Pointing to him and him only would be like me pointing my kid to Kurt Kobain as the master of pop rock songwriting. I know he's current and hip to cite but it would really be valuable for those interested to go back further to folks like Walter Landor. William Bernbach. David Ogilvy. Dale Carnegie - these are the people who branding and advertising into the modern era. Reading them will actually make Godin's stuff even more applicable.
  • I think in many cases, the name of a brand CAN be a make or break scenario and in any case someone will be turned off either by a name, logo, tagline, blog appearance, personal appearance, tone, style of writing, etc. If you haven't heard "your brand sucks" 100 times, you're fine but if it's something your consumers (ahem, paying clients, not random egos at a conference) don't complain about, then who cares?
  • My Name is Mischa Ben Nicolas and I'm the broker/owner of IET Real Estate in Los Angeles (www.ietrealestate.com). I'm often asked what IET stands for? "Are they your initials?"...my full name is Mischa Ben Nicolas so...no (I've gone by my middle name Ben Nicolas since elementary). I named my company after the company my father is from, the island Haiti (carribbean island neighbor to Domincan Republic) www.ietrealestate.com/about.php explains more. I choose this name because I have a good relationship with my dad and it meant something to me. I had many people (including my own mother) tell me not to name my company IET. Some said don't name it after Haiti because it is a poor country with a tarnished political history and that potential clients might not want to make what could potentially be the largest investment of their life with a company with that type of association. Some said don't use initials, because "everybody does that", I know like IBM, UPS, AT&T... Technically I didn't use initials anyway because IET isn't an acronym for anything anyway. I listened to these outsiders but eventually came to the exact same conclusion that you did above Jay. Our company isn't going to have a killer reputation because we sat around and thought of the perfect name or have some super sweet flash logo that takes a 1/2 hour to load when visitors go to our website. Our reputation is going to be built (or destroyed) by the service I (and my agents) provide to our customers, plain and simple. You don't need an MBA from Harvard to figure this out or read a bunch of marketing books.

    In a related story about 6 months ago a new agent was talking to someone who had called in on one of our ads. The lady asked what "IET" stood for and the new agent didn't know. The new agent said he didn't know exactly but that it was "something the owner came up with". The client got concerned that the agent didn't know what the initials of the company he worked with stood for and decided not to do business with us that day. I told the new agent that he needed to focus more on communicating the core value of our company and that to explain to clients in the future that providing high levels of service is what IET stands for. The name of a company has little to do with what a company actually stands for, what a company actually stands for is so much more than just a name.
  • A brand may attract a client the first time. However, it is their experience with the individual representative, not the company as a whole, that determines whether they become a repeat client.
  • Great post! I 100% agree. Your name does not matter. It only matters that you CARE! When you truly care about something or someone it shows. That experience will resonate in all of you other company dealings.

    JZ -http://reitvshow.com
  • I agree it is who is behind the name that really matters but working for a large brand franchise I do believe I gain a little merit before I even walk in the door. Disney has created brand awarenes for their name, what we would all only hope to do.
  • So, what was the guy trying to sell you? I find that most people giving unsolicited "advice" are insecure or are trying to overtly sell you something.

    Extra funny that you don't remember his name.
  • Well said Jay! Catchy names are fun and all, but real estate is simply a service business. Too many people get caught up in the hype of branding & flashy marketing, but when it comes down to it, they don't know how to sell homes and their clients know it.
  • nickomcbrain
    Not sure what brand name is. Everything depends upon the way you behave, think & perform.
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