YOUR BRAND
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Following the rebranding, the average
price of a property sold by the firm went up by £100,000. “It obviously works,” says Rampley. “It wasn’t an easy feat, but we are there now. The franchisee in Highcliffe, in Dorset, was previously selling property with an average price of £300,000. Now he has 70 per cent of the properties in the area selling above £500,000.”
It’s harder than It looks Rebranding and modernising an existing firm is more difficult than starting with a new company and a clean sheet of paper, believes Mike Simons, partner at refitting and branding firm, MPL Interiors. “An existing company has to evolve, but
retain the link,” he says. “One of the best examples is BP, they reinvented themselves as a green company with the sunflower logo almost overnight. It must have cost millions but it was extremely clever.” Estate agencies with a less high octane
budget can pull off the trick – if it is well done – with colours, fonts and text size. Few brands have been as successful in raising their market position as Foxtons, says Simons. “They raised the bar,” he says. “It is up to us to recognise what is fashionable, but which suits the character and culture of our clients. A strongly
CHESTERTON KNIGHTBRIDGE Before
‘The sum of the value of the properties registered with
them in September, just weeks after re-branding, was almost £100M.’ john adamson tuckergardner
positioned company like John D Wood & Co, for instance, is not going to get rid of the old badge because they don’t want to lose their brand value but I am a great believer in freshening a brand every five years, as a minimum.” Jared Saggers of Kraft agrees, “Every
market leading estate agency we work with looks to make branding changes on a fairly regular basis. A successful rebranding project serves both to re-energise a business and increase its public perception. It amazes me sometimes how the simplest of changes can refocus staff, bring new clients in and increase market share”. Mike Simons also worked on
Chestertons’ rebranding and admires the agency’s boldness. “They came up with the aubergine colour, which was a brave choice, different, regal and solid in stature.”
CHESTERTON KNIGHTBRIDGE After
the ‘modest’ budget Wiltshire based lettings agency Swindon Home Finders decided to rebrand last year, in response to a shift in public demand from buying to letting. Faced with increased competition from sales agencies expanding into lettings to save what business they could in the recession, one- branch SHF felt it was imperative to increase their visibility in the market. To do that, they wanted to emphasise their specialist industry knowledge. It coincided with a relocation to bespoke
offices in the town. They used a variety of agencies for the rebrand, including Jazzbones for the design and website, Aspect Displays for shop design and fitting and Vox PR for the rebrand launch. Their budget was a modest £45,000. The results, say SHF, have been
impressive. Tenant enquiries have risen by 15 per cent, the number of managed properties has gone up by 17 per cent and turnover has increased by 22 per cent. The staff, who were heavily involved in the rebranding process and the relaunch, were rewarded for their efforts by winning the silver regional award in the Estate Agent of the Year Awards. Says owner Sue Gidney: “The statistics
clearly show that the decision to rebrand made good business sense, and we feel our brand visibility has increased hugely. It has definitely been money well spent.” Cambridge-based rebranding firm
Mobas was called in by TuckerGardner, a local independent estate agent with 85 staff. After 21 years in the property sales
Chuck out the chintz! This Chesterton branch represented everything that was sold, comfortable, upmarket... when it was designed, but the look had definitely past its sell-by date and Chesterton took the bull by the horns and modernised, really modernised and it looks amazing!
PROPERTYdrum NOVEMBER 2010 17
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