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Get Ready for the Turnaround: Revise Your Branding Now
 Leading brands understand that trust is the key to ongoing success. They make brand promises that directly connect with their target markets and cultivate relationships by identifying what is most important and relevant to those groups of people.
Once this is established, the brand focuses all of its energy on fulfilling those promises.
Weak brands are unsure of what to promise. Because they are confused, they confuse the marketplace and their target audience. Brands that do not have a clearly defined promise are forced to live in a world of reaction instead of leadership.
What does your brand promise?
If you want to be ready when the market turns, answering this question would be a good place to start.
The Brand Promise — Seek Unique
In March, Builder magazine identified the top five U.S. builders from 2008 as D.R. Horton, Pulte Homes, Centex Homes, Lennar and KB Home. A month later, Pulte acquired Centex to become the largest U.S. home builder, further consolidating the market.
In regards to branding, how well do you think consumers understand the differences between the leading builders in the country? What brand promises distinguish any one of these builders from the others?
Now switch gears, pun intended, and compare the brand promises of Mercedes Benz, BMW, General Motors and Ford.
Mercedes focuses on its German engineering. BMW calls itself “The Ultimate Driving Machine.” In comparison, GM and Ford both lack a clear and distinct promise of what their customers should expect from those brands.
Next, let’s assume the average new home sells for $250,000 and the average new car sells for $25,000. It seems logical that the larger purchase — by more than 10 times — should make a deeper, longer-lasting impression on the buyers, right?
In reality, the opposite is true. Many home buyers can’t remember who built their home two years after purchasing it, but they sure know what kind of car they’re driving.
The demand for differentiation has never been higher. Our brains are hard wired to seek the unique and to define and recognize distinctions. It’s a basic survival skill imbedded in our DNA.
When we are unable to distinguish and identify differences, we become confused, frustrated and potentially fearful and trust is reduced.
As you prepare for a more vibrant market, now is the ideal time to concentrate on developing a brand promise based on differentiation.
Take advantage of a slow market to revisit what you are all about. What do you stand for? What is it that lives deep in your gut that continually motivates you?
Begin by answering three essential questions:
- Who are you?
- What do you do?
- Why does it matter?
The answers to these three simple questions are very important for your business. Once you have a clearly defined response to each of these questions, you’ll be well on your way to articulating a differentiating brand promise. To help you, here are a few of my favorites:
- “Think Different” (Apple)
- “Expect More. Pay Less” (Target)
- “Just Do It” (Nike)
The Power of Design — Design Creates Desire
Differentiation doesn’t stop with a brand promise — it begins there.
Once you have a strong brand promise, it’s time to give it creative life. That’s where the power of design comes in. Design is the key to leveraging the brand promise into unique experiences and associations.
The reality is that design manifests itself in every aspect of the home building industry — from exterior architecture, interior design, merchandising, signage and all levels of visual communication — its contribution to the success and profitability of a company is beyond debate.
The home building industry can learn a lot from leading brands like Apple and Target. These brands recognize that in order to sustain and grow market share, they must add value and differentiate themselves, and they are doing it through superior design.
For these companies, design has become a critical strategic and tactical weapon. At the same time, it also plays a crucial role in reducing costs by producing things with fewer parts and creating greater efficiency.
Design offers one of the most powerful strategies for breaking through the commoditization logjam.
Design creates desire. Consumers may not know what they want, but they know it when they see it. That’s the power of design. It produces an immediate, emotional reaction to visual imagery — and it motivates action.
Design is the ultimate tool that a company has to have in order to be competitive in today’s marketplace.
At the end of the day, design is about creating better experiences for people. The most important byproduct of producing better experiences should be better profits, as well.
As the home building industry continues to evolve and adapt to new challenges, watch for the design leaders to become the next market leaders.
Preparing Branding for 2010 and Beyond
Halfway through 2009, it is worth going back to branding basics now in preparation for the eventual market turnaround that is now coming into focus.
When buyers finally come out of hibernation, you will need to help them understand what makes your company different and what makes it better.
Differentiate and guide your brand with an authentic brand promise. Create desire and sustain your brand with the power of design.
By establishing this trust and style now, you could help make your company even more successful than ever before.
David Miles is president of Miles Strategic DNA, a real estate branding company based in Denver. Named as one of the 50 most influential people in the home building industry by Builder magazine in 2004 and 2006, Miles has earned numerous local, state, national and international creative awards, including 86 gold awards and more than 400 silver awards from The Nationals, NAHB’s annual sales and marketing awards program. He is a frequent speaker at NAHB conferences and for the Urban Land Institute, the Seaside Institute and PCBC. For more information, e-mail Miles, call him at 303-586-6709 or visit his Web site at www.milesdna.com.
This article originally appeared on the NAHB Sales and Marketing Channel.
 Tax Credit Web Site Looks at Opportunity of a Lifetime
Builders and other industry professionals can help spur home sales by referring prospective first-time home buyers to www.federalhousingtaxcredit.com. The NAHB Web site provides detailed information on the $8,000 federal tax credit for first-time home buyers included in the economic stimulus legislation signed into law by President Obama.
Consumers can use the Web site to find information on the tax credit – including a detailed question and answer section. It also includes information about other housing-related and small business measures in the legislation and a number of home-buying resources for consumers.
Spanish Version Also Available Online
A Spanish version of this increasingly popular Web site is also available to provide detailed information on the tax credit to Spanish-speaking first-time home buyers.
Industry professionals are encouraged to highlight either tax credit Web site when marketing to their potential first-time home buyer market.
 Subscribe to Sales + Marketing Ideas Magazine for Cutting-Edge Information
For additional cutting-edge sales and marketing information, subscribe to NAHB’s Sales + Marketing Ideas magazine (www.smimagazine.com).
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