Should you rebrand your real estate agency?

The short answer is no (unless you really, really have to). 

It’s no secret that a new trend of re-branding, particularly in our real estate industry, is emerging. However, a rebrand can often to more damage than good and should only be completed in very specific circumstances. Rebranding repercussions should be completely understood before a decision is made.  

Brand experts across the globe warn against changing a brand for the sake of it. 

According to renowned Brand Consultant and Professor, Mark Ritson, rebranding is “an unpalatable option” and goes on to explain why. “Take all the disadvantages of repositioning and then add the massive additional disadvantage of losing all awareness, salience and familiarity, and then having to build them from scratch, and you begin to glimpse the enormous fallacy of rebranding. You do it for only one reason – because for legal reasons you have to.” 

Marketing Guru, Seth Godin adds, “Your brand is not your logo… Smart marketers understand that a new logo can’t possibly increase your market share.” He goes on to say, “take the time and money and effort you’d put into an expensive logo and put them into creating a product and experience and story that people remember instead.”

And closer to home, on Gruen, Sunita Gloster states “the fundamental rule to great branding is consistency, and you should hammer it home and use it everywhere”.  Watch her below. 

With the above in mind, when should you rebrand? In an article published in Branding Mag, the only reasons to consider a rebrand are:

• Is my business outdated? Does your business no longer seem relevant for the target audience or the times that we are living in?  
• Do I want to reach new demographics? Do you feel that you would be able to expand your customer base with new brand elements? 
• Has my brand achieved all of its original goals? Do you feel that your brand no longer has anywhere left to go in its original form? 
• Has my brand suffered an identity crisis? Has something happened which may have turned customers against your brand?  

How does this relate to Real Estate?

For your Real Estate Agency brand, repetition creates recognition. Every “For Sale” Sign, REA and Domain listing, social post, DL, billboard, market report (you get the gist) deepens the connection in your market and adds to your brand recall in potential vendors minds. Why would you want to to break that? 

Unless you’ve had a significant shift in niche (for example, general to prestige), have legal reasons (change of partnership impacting your agency name), or reputation destroying bad PR (unlikely), you should keep your visual branding for as long as you’re in business.  

Not to mention, the time and effort you save reviewing a new brand could, and should, be invested into prospecting and building your brand in your community. 

As a final note, it’s important to remember that your logo and visual design assets are not your brand. Want proof, try the below test from Seth’s blog, The truth about logos:  

Ask a few people to name a logo they like. 

With very few exceptions, people will choose a logo that’s associated with a brand they admire. That’s because what makes a good logo is a good brand, not the other way around.