Q. Purplebricks are on a march that seems to be built on purely the value of their brand awareness and name thanks to millions being pumped in. Will it hit their investors and their customers, ie property sellers, soon that this is just a hyped up storm in a tea cup with the tea leaves now showing very poor results and weak foundations?
A. But are they poor results? Purplebricks get paid on the listing, not the sale. But vendors don’t care because they believe their house will sell overnight. PB marketing uses comedy and entertainment to attract the attention and interest of potential house sellers – and it’s done very well. UK estate agency can either outdo them by being even more comedic and entertaining or even cheaper… or start using a tried and tested 2,000-year-old marketing technique that has worked since Adam was a boy.
People do not like to be sold to but that is how UK estate agency performs its marketing. We should stop talking about our estate agency, our estate agency services or our fees and start talking about the homeowner and the landlord, so we become interesting and relevant to them… because human beings are naturally attracted to things that they find interesting and relevant to them (everyone says we are in the people business – not the property business)
