Ace the Base
5 April 2021
Written by Acme Mag
Karen and Peter Hutton of the aptly named Hutton & Hutton are four years into their most recent brand journey. Starting with a small agency and growing to over 23 staff across two locations, the brand and its flow-on effects is at the forefront of their business methodology.
Creating an agency whose marketing, campaigns and approach could stop traffic is no easy feat, and as Karen Hutton explains it all comes from creating a strong foundation to grow, similar to that of fine Italian cuisine, “learning about Italian cooking, there is this term they use that means ‘creating a base’ called Battuto and our base is that we decided to walk in our clients’ shoes and give them the real estate experience we’d love to receive – it’s about delivering joy”.
Following on from Karen’s analogy, Peter Hutton says where they are today is also due to a sharp focus on growth, “It was our intention to grow, we had a focus on growth. When we opened up our little agency back in 2017, it was just Karen and I and we started planning: how do we grow the business, how far we want to take it and what’s it going to look like in the end. So really, that’s where it all started and then we went about doing the tasks to make that happen”.
From the outset, the complementary nature of Karen and Peter is clear. Karen, the Director of Property Marketing is hardwired to engage through the use of storytelling and building consumer emotion. Whereas Peter Hutton, the Group CEO and Principal is a process-driven individual whose presence leaves no one in doubt of his genuine values.
Together, two distinct sides of the same coin have set forth to build an agency system that focuses on brand growth to allow and attract agents to join, because the brand promise is truly delivered. As Peter says, “Their (the agent’s) hard work would actually be complemented by the brand working really hard on their behalf so we’re really focused on building the brand and the way it’s seen to the public but also on how it serves the process of selling property in a way that makes it very streamlined for real estate agents and allows them to get on with business – that’s talking to buyers and sellers and listing properties, selling properties”.
Like two sides of the same coin, the duo are partnered professionally and personally, something that is wildly beneficial but comes with its challenges. Karen, a natural talker struggles with the balance between work and home, “Sometimes I’ll bring something up at night and Peter won’t like talking about work when he’s trying to relax but my mind is chattering away and I have to get it out, so that can be a bit frustrating and sometimes we have to set boundaries on that sort of thing.” shares Karen.
The benefits according to Peter are being able to merge different approaches for a unified purpose, “Being a business you need to have other people in the business with you, having them heading in the same direction, but with different skills and mindset to bring something else to the table and that’s the way Karen and I operate,” Peter continues “I’m sort of the mechanic of the business. Karen will come up with a great idea and I know how to get that idea rolling and bring it to fruition – so it’s a very powerful combination to have that idea person and someone who is good at taking action; that’s where I think we’ve really complemented each other”.
The secret to the brand and agency they’ve developed? It’s getting crystal clear on what and who they didn’t want to be like – starting with the reputation of the real estate industry, particularly how agents are negatively seen.
Next, according to Karen and Peter, on the chopping block of what they don’t like was the ‘big operators’ in the real estate industry. Unlike many new real estate brands, Hutton & Hutton wanted to stray far from emulating the big agencies within the industry, instead looking to carve out their own image which lead to discoveries in industries of fashion, architecture, prestige cars and those who do brand experiences well to create their unique and altruistic vision for Hutton & Hutton.
With a refined way of operating their agency, exceptional growth over four years and a well-defined brand foundation, one might think that Karen and Peter’s approach is to maintain through their known methods and processes – however, that is certainly not the case. The dynamic duo, from their past experience, have learned that you need to continue learning, growing and resetting the benchmark, not only for business success but satisfaction – professionally and personally. Peter talks of the past experience, “This is our second real estate agency that we’ve built. We did one from 2001 through to selling the rent roll in 2009 and I retired from real estate in 2010. What I learnt there is that I just lost interest in the business around 2005 because we set some goals for that business and we achieved the goals by 2005 but I never set anything further or anything else from that”.
