So, today I had to pick up food for a group picnic from Costco. 75 hungry people were counting on me for dinner… but I digress.
As I wandered through the store, they were offering the samples that make the trip much like grazing. One of the offerings was turkey burgers… oooh, aah… exotic. I had my sample of the turkey burger… and just like any other hamburger, with just a little less edge… slightly more bland.
Just after I had my little slice of burger, I watched (in horror?) a mother, grandmother and son with their samples…
Granny apparently had a slightly different pallatte than me. Upon the turkey burger touching her tongue, she immediately stopped the boy (perhaps 6 years old) from eating his… “Spicy, hot!” Mom dropped hers and started scraping the tongue of her confused son. She admonished that he couldn’t eat it because it was too spicy. The child said it wasn’t, and that he really wanted a piece.
The demo person, preparing the samples had NO idea what was going on… she said there were no spices added. I didn’t have any spice in mine… I would have liked some. But Mom was freaking out that her son might have ingested flavor… the horror.
I see some of that in real estate as well. Agents are afraid of spice. Bland is the advertising of the day. Make everything go straight to the lowest common denominator. No bold colors. Don’t have anything unique. Counsel clients to make their homes just like all of the other homes…
It even shows up in personal advertising. There might as well be a template for agent ads.
- State that you are #1 in (insert whatever).
- Tell people that you sell homes in less time and for more money.
- Show your “Glamour Shot”.
There might be some homes in the ad… or maybe not.
But the point is that agents seem to like to commoditize homes… and themselves. And that is the wrong tactic. Instead of a commodity, why not be unique. Sell homes that are unique. Sell homes in a unique way.
And that doesn’t mean saying “I’m not #1, you are!” That is kind of overdone, too.
Just don’t chug wasabi… That would be too much spice.
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