Zillow Mortgages: a case study in how to build a brand
The Davison Files
By Marc Davison, Tuesday, April 8, 2008.
Real estate companies battle the brand issue daily. It's a fight to connect a company message to the customer's actual experience when the brand's soldiers -- the agents -- are trying to build their own brands. Brokers fail because the message hardly ever matches the experience.
Flawed campaigns
Agents have been taught "branding" by sales coaches. Sometimes it works, but lately, most of it seems woefully out of date. Take the agent-posing-with-a-child campaign. It's compelling, and would work if the agents carried it across their models. Imagine providing childcare services for parents while they go searching for homes, or creating a playroom in the brokerage office stocked with video games, Foosball, plasma TVs, and Dora the Explorer videos. But that doesn't happen. It ends with the gimmick.
You would be wrong
You would be wrong if you think Southwest Airlines built its brand around being a great airline. For this company, the brand is about customer service. From the mission statement down to the personality-infused fight attendants, everything they do, every decision they make through every single brand touch point is looked at through that lens.
You would be wrong if you think Starbucks built its brand around great coffee. Starbucks is about elevating the coffee drinking experience. It's an experience built from corporate right down to the barista who foams your morning latte. The very minute the brand began to do things that did not support that experience (Does a turkey sandwich really belong in Starbucks?) the company began to stumble.
Zillow: A great lesson in branding
If you think Zillow is about Zestimates you would be wrong. If you think they're about displacing agents, you would be equally wrong.
Zillow is a great lesson in branding. As a brand, Zillow elevates the real estate experience through anonymity, innovation, transparency and connectivity. Its product line supports and fulfills these tenets on every level. You might argue by saying that Zestimates are not accurate. But that's not really the point. Zillow strives for accuracy, but that's not the brand promise.
It's the four-brand horsemen above.
Zillow Mortgages
If you've been foggy on this issue, stroll over to the Zillow Mortgage Marketplace and take it for a spin. You might find, as I have, that this is the most succinct expression of the company's brand to date. It hits on all brand cylinders as well as delivers a solution to a very real problem.
While not totally new in concept (the idea owes a lot to both LendingTree and HomeGain), Zillow's mortgage offering allows borrowers to solicit loans anonymously then compiles each quote along with the lender's profile in full view.
Lenders are encouraged to solicit feedback thus building upon their reputation – a major issue that has up until now been gnawing at the flesh of every online lending experience.
Peach fuzz
Up until now, Zillow has been a baby brand with a diaper full of controversy, a teething business model, and some wobbly products. But each and every one flawlessly supports its mission of providing the consumer with a real estate experience through anonymity, innovation, transparency and connectivity.
It's on that note alone and by expression through each of its touch points that the Zillow brand works.
Zillow's Mortgage Marketplace I'm sure will have some flaws and its detractors. It's part of the brand journey as they leave the baby phase and cascade forward into adolescence.
As time goes on, they will shave off each issue like peach fuzz and continue to move forward, providing a Zillow experience to real estate.
Real estate brokers: Put the controversy down for now. There's too much to learn. Go to school on Zillow. Study how they've weaved a cohesive thread from one brand touch point and one product to another. Study how that message is delivered by Zillow evangelists.
Zillow is a case study in branding that is worth your time.
Marc Davison is a partner at 1000watt Consulting. He can be reached at marc@1000wattconsulting.com.
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Submitted by Steve Loper on April 8, 2008 - 12:30pm.
Although it has detractors, Zillow has met a consumer need. They have put the data in the hands of the consumer in a simple way.
Most importantly:
They let you do it anonymously. You don't have to login, sign up or speak to someone to see home values.
Big props to zillow.
I would buy stock in their next venture: fatdoor.com
Steve Loper
High-Tech-Real-Estate-Agent
http://steveloper.com
Submitted by Joe Dahleen on April 8, 2008 - 1:21pm.
So true - it's PR and Marketing team should get a lot of credit. I have been so impressed with the new Zillow Mortgage. I have started on Day 1 and now I can't keep up with the volume of quotes.
Can the Zillow quotes help me build a brand?
Submitted by Marc Davison on April 8, 2008 - 1:43pm.
I'd like to make it clear that this article has little to do with the core competency of the Zillow product. It is both too new and too untested to make any claims pro or con.
My focus is on the brand and Zillow's attention to its details.
From my own experience purchasing many homes over the years, I can say that I have had both flawed and flawless experiences. There is no perfection in real estate as we have learned through the Zestimate discussion and how traditional CMA's are never perfect either by virtue of how many homes do not sell for the asking price.
All models, traditional as well as online marketplaces like Zillow, are constantly undergoing criticisms as well as advancements, and improvements. The consumer will ultimately and obviously be the final judge as to who and what they want to use, who is the best and or which brand they feel most comfortable with as time goes on.
This article is therefore not about the product and neither supports it or attacks the traditional models. As both a student, educator and consultant of branding, this article and my interest is based solely in the study of ZIllow as an emerging brand. In that regard only, I find them fascinating.
Marc
1000Watt Consulting
Turn On!
Submitted by Jillayne Schlicke on April 8, 2008 - 5:16pm.
Hi Marc,
FYI, if Starbucks didn't serve food, there would be days that I'd have to survive on coffee alone. The food they serve up here in Seattle is fantastic and fresh; tasty salads and healthy sandwiches. I can grab and go. Way better for us than fast food, and because it's Starbucks, I have high expectations for "fresh and delicious," just like my coffee.
RE: Zillow mortgages, I put in for a quote on my own home, received one quote, asked for a Good Faith Estimate and have yet to receive it.
I've never flown Southwest, but my impression from a distance is that they're a discount airline and offer less for less.
HOWEVER, during the last several years, all the food and service on flights has taken a nose dive....so perhaps I should at least give them a try.
Submitted by Jessica Swesey on April 9, 2008 - 10:57am.
Steve: I don't think Zillow has anything to do with Fatdoor.com. You may be confusing that with GlassDoor.com, something that Rich Barton has been involved in developing.
Submitted by Matt Carter on April 9, 2008 - 11:28am.
Jillayne, you can always take your Starbucks sandwich aboard your Southwest flight, but it's hard to do your own inspections for structural defects in the aircraft fuselage. I don't know, Marc -- don't you think those kinds of safety concerns -- or worries that you're going to buy an overpriced house if you rely on a Zestimate -- have an impact on "brand"?Submitted by Marc Davison on April 9, 2008 - 6:17pm.
Several things here to address but in a nutshell, sure, if Zillow delivered purely horrible Zestimates it could impact the brand. Remember, a brand can be built on assets as well as liabilities. So either way, the brand is being built.
Zillow promises transparency. Anonymity. That's it. Their loyalists, understand that.
But consider this, Zillow has created an opportunity for real estate people. A huge one I might add. Consider Jillaynes issue. I view her scenario as an lost opportunity for local mortgage people more so than a blemish on ZIllow's brand.
Granted if this continues and ZIllow fails in getting partners it will ultimately hurt them.
And this is all way I believe this in an interesting case study in how a company manages it's brand through these issues.
Marc
1000Watt Consulting
Turn On!
Submitted by Steve Loper on April 10, 2008 - 7:50am.
Jessica:
Thanks for the clarification. Richard Barton's site was the one I meant. He is a pretty sharp guy.
steveloper.com
High-Tech-Real-Estate-Agent
Submitted by Marc Davison on April 13, 2008 - 12:32pm.
Consumer empowerment and transparency the final leg witnessed by the consumer that delivers on the promise. Its textbook branding. It's what's often missing from the rest of the real estate experience - delivering on the brand promise.
Well done Zillow.
Marc
1000Watt Consulting
Turn On!
Submitted by thomson britto on November 12, 2008 - 10:07pm.
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Thomson
homes for sale by owner