Jul 5, 2009 18
Repositioning vs. Reengineering: Real Estate Brokerage
Marc Davison (@1000wattmarc) of 1000watt Consulting is one of the top thinkers and one of the most compelling writers in our industry, and his latest posts on the future of brokerage are examples of why one might think of Marc as Master Yoda of the Real Estate Jedi Academy. You can read part 1 here, and part 2 here. Marc takes on topics that are near and dear to my heart — real estate brokerage models, the future, and branding — and it goes without saying that I have to add my two pennies to the conversation.
As this post is likely to get long, let me summarize briefly at the outset.
I take Marc’s premise at face value (and agree with him), but then extend the solution beyond what he proposes. Our difference in approach lies in our different backgrounds — Marc was trained as a copywriter, and comes out of the branding/advertising world. I trained as an attorney and an entrepreneur, and come out of operations and marketing arenas. As a result, where he sees the need for a complete and effective repositioning, I see the need for a complete and effective reengineering. At the end of the day, we end up at the same place, since repositioning is impossible without a level of reengineering, and reengineering is impossible without a new understanding of brand.
Nonetheless, I believe there are valuable insights to be had by comparing and contrasting our different approaches, so to some extent, I’ll be focusing on differences between our approaches and viewpoints. Again, I think it’s important to keep in mind that Marc and I likely agree far more than we disagree, and that our agreements are fundamental while our differences may be stylistic and relatively minor.
Having said that, let us dive right in.
