Concise and Very True

19 07 2010

by Rob Wicker

For a slogan to be effective, it must be concise and it must be true. One of my favorite slogans is heard frequently around Christmas and Valentines Day: Diamonds Are Forever. The reason this works for De Beers is that as much as anything, diamonds really are forever, and the implication is that whatever romance is being celebrated will last forever too. 

I recently received an email from EJ and Lenny Cason, the publishers of Homes & Land of Greater Austin (TX). At the bottom of the email was a slogan that, to my mind, is true and important: Out of Sight, Out of Mind…Print Does Matter.  For any company or individual with a goal of creating top of mind awareness among consumers, these nine words should be strongly considered.


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Ink And Paper Win

12 07 2010

by Rob Wicker

Many pundits and bloggers believe that the future of magazines belongs to e-readers like the Kindle, Nook and iPad. As football commentator Lee Corso likes to say, “Not so fast my friend.”

As reported by Deliver Magazine, the CMO Council released a study showing that consumers prefer print over e-readers, and the score isn’t even close. Ninety percent of consumers surveyed said that they will continue to read printed magazines even with the option of an e-reader or online edition. 

In addition, in its most recent issue Advertising Age reports that magazine advertising is up for the first seven months of 2010 compared to the same period in 2009.  Admittedly, 2009 was a rough year, but the uptick means that ad agencies and marketing departments are nowhere near abandoning printed magazines.

Why should they? Magazines are portable, accessible, focused, engaging and fun to read; most importantly, magazine advertising delivers a strong return on investment.

Go to delivermagazine.com to read the full story.


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How Bad Is It?

15 06 2010

by Rob Wicker

Many markets are still devastated by the bursting of the real estate bubble—but not all of them. I spent last week in the medium-sized city of Greenville, SC, and I was struck by the diversity of perception. Some agents told me that “nothing is moving” while other agents were doing quite nicely. I spoke with one agent that generated 500 inquiries in May and a small developer that recently had five closings in a week.

Now is the time to make sure you know how the market really is doing. Get your hands on the best information you can. Your Board of Realtors should be providing an easy to understand market report. Analyze the data carefully. You may be surprised at what you find. Some price ranges may be moving, and that is where you should focus at least some of your marketing dollars.

In a down market it’s easy to fall into the “nothing is moving” syndrome and think that it’s okay to stop trying. That can be a fatal mistake for your business—especially when your competition knows better and is trying really hard.


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Compiling a Marketplace Analysis

14 10 2009

Realty Times recently posted an article by Dirk Zeller on how to construct a market analysis if your local Board of Realtors doesn’t provide one. His formula can help you assess trends in your marketplace.
Read Article


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Categories : Marketing Minute

Households Change

9 10 2009

by Rob Wicker

justMarriedThe housing market is going to recover. That is one of the benefits of being in a fundamental business like real estate. People need to move for a lot of important reasons. For example, every year two million people in the country get married. And marriage, more often than not, results in some type of housing change.

Earlier this year I heard an economist from JP Morgan state that if car sales remained constant, we’d all be driving our current cars for 27 years. Not going to happen. Car sales will recover and so will real estate.


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