Real Estate in Review: Brand Differentiation

Steve Osborn

Co-founder & Managing Director, Identity Marketing

This is called brand differentiation. It’s known as a point of difference and gives brands the upper hand. It’s how consumers distinguish your brand from competitors in an interesting and non-real estatey way. To help you with this, I’ve compiled a list of predicted marketing trends that will be used to amplify real estate brands in 2022.

Get Topical

Topical marketing is a trend on the rise. Brands pick up on trending topics and use them in their marketing. This provides avenues for consumers to engage with your brand whilst still appearing lively and fresh. A good way for real estate brands to get this right is to set out communication guidelines. This sets out a consistent tone and personality along with brand values. This gives your marketing team a framework to communicate on behalf of your brand – as well as a means for topical conversations.

Represent A Cause

After everything we’ve collectively struggled through over the last two years, it’s clear consumers want to work with brands that make the world a better place. We can expect real estate brands to take on social issues. We will see real estate brands with campaigns for causes. This includes some subtle brand marketing about how their brand cares for an issue and is helping to make the world a better place.

Be Human

There is a difference between brands communicating and a brand talking. Consumers prefer brands to talk to them rather than pass out marketing messages, hence the rise of conversational style messaging. Real estate brands establish strong connections with consumers when they feel human. While some real estate brands have already started doing this, we will see this trend increasing in 2022.

Be Nostalgic

One final trend we will see is brands being nostalgic and looking back at simpler, better, and easier times. This is especially prevalent whilst we continue living in a pandemic where things are constantly changing. This will be particularly fortunate for real estate brands who have decades of market presence. This is a subtle way of reminding consumers they’ve been there for a long time and are a safe option.

Be Inclusive

I almost took this one out because it’s a movement, not a trend – and brands need to properly understand what it means. However, inclusive campaigns embrace diversity. A good marketing campaign reflects people in the real world, not just people who look like you. Brands who embrace this movement and understand what it stands for, instead of doing it for the sake of being trendy, also have the side benefit of connecting with newer audiences.