VernonGirl

How a luxury real estate brand for Kelowna, Vernon and Calgary is born

When Gord Fowler, a dually licensed RE/MAX real estate agent in Calgary and Vernon, came to my company Lava Marketing to create a luxury real estate brand for him, I was delighted.

Obviously, everything about a luxury brand must scream:

professionalism,

quality

and class.

When a new brand is developed, we also make sure that elements like colour, font choices or design touches are consistent throughout the client's marketing pieces. 

For Gord, we developed a proposal that included a new logo, tagline and marketing photo. Once these projects were complete, he hired us to do a web page design, business card design, web page programming and 8.5 x 5.5 flyer.

Gord was decisive about choosing his new brand name: Fowler Luxury Homes. 

We came up with several tagline choices. The one that took first prize was:

You Deserve The Best.

This tagline has a double entendre....not only do you deserve to live in a luxury home with a luxury lifestyle, but you also deserve a specialist and seasoned professional in dealing with Okanagan luxury and resort properties, Gord Fowler.

Here is the logo with the tagline:

 

Every great real estate agent needs a really great photo. Our original intent was to take Gord's picture in front of a crackling fireplace inside a luxury home. As it turned out, the location we used for the photoshoot had a fabulous balcony in front of the Vernon Yacht Club. What better backdrop to scream "luxury" and "Okanagan lifestyle" than yachts? (A blue suit is always a safe and professional choice too.) Here is the result:

We integrated his logo/tagline, with his image to create a web page design that we uploaded (in pieces) to Ubertor, a template website system popular with real estate agents. I have to admit that working with a template system like Ubertor is challenging. We had to adapt our original design to fit into their rigid template. But I'm pleased with the results:

Here is the business card (front and back) that incorporates many of the same elements:

Business Card Back (notice the background with elements of the logo):

This is the 8.5 x 5.5 flyer design just approved:

What do you think of Gord Fowler's new marketing pieces? Do you think we hit the mark so that when you are looking to buy a luxury property in Calgary or the Okanagan, you'll call Gord Fowler? Please leave a comment at the bottom of this blog.

I really enjoyed working with Gord on this project. Thanks Gord!

Thanks for reading.

Courtenay Pitcher, Personal branding specialist

Interior Transmission Shifts its Marketing into Overdrive with New Logo

Interior Transmission, here in Vernon, B.C., recently worked with my company, Lava Marketing, to develop a new logo (pictured above). When I started this project, I didn't know anything about transmissions. I actually think that was a good thing. It allowed me to leave all assumptions aside and create an image that an uneducated customer, like me, could relate to at-a-glance.

In fact, transmissions aren't sexy at all from an imagery standpoint. They don't really look like anything one would recognize. And most people don't know what they look like. There are many styles of transmissions too, so there is no ONE icon to represent them. Not like Michael Jackson's glove, or Nike's checkmark, or McDonald's yellow arches, or Dolly Parton's....well....you get the point.

When I sat down to talk to Cindy and Kim Myers about their company, I asked them to describe the symptoms of a broken transmission. Kim told me they are a clutch that won't go into gear, a clutch that grinds, leaky fluid, pink puddles, a burnt smell, a "check engine" light coming on, jerking, banging and overdrive lights flashing.

So there are lots of things going WRONG with the interior workings of the car when the transmission is not behaving.

But, how could we get that across with imagery? Well, first, we came up with this:

The logo above was a good start. But the colour was all wrong, the car was the wrong style and its interior workings were too intricate. A logo should be clean, simple, modern and reflective of its owner's values. A logo should be easy to recognize when it is very small and details should be kept to a minimum.

In comes the sexy 1963 Split Window Corvette aka...the Sting Ray. Here is the image my client asked me to replicate in their logo:

Now, this image doesn't say anything about Transmissions, except that if you have one, you would probably want it to be sitting in this car....right? Yah......! I know I would.

But this image DOES say a lot about Kim and Cindy Myers. They like classic cars. Kim likes to fix them. And they REALLY like the Sting Ray. In fact, they might even own one. (Maybe they'll take me for a cruise in it sometime.)

Hence....the creation of the Interior Transmission 2010 logo:

I can't take credit for "Get Your Shift Together." They already had that tagline picked out. But I sure do like the logo....and the hot colour. What do you think? Please leave a comment on my blog by clicking the comments link at the bottom of it.

Thanks for reading.

Courtenay Pitcher (Wishing I was sitting in a hot red Sting Ray cruising by Okanagan Lake with my good-looking husband right now.)

p.s. If you have any of the symptoms of a mis-behaving transmission, go see Interior Transmission in Vernon. According to Cindy, Kim is a genius when it comes to fixing transmissions. He's honest too. And if his wife trusts him, I would too. Shouldn't you?

p.s.s. I would like to give a photo credit for the photo of the Sting Ray above...but I don't know where this photo came from. If you come across it, send me the link so I can link to it.

The next generation: A brand new logo and tagline for a second generation real estate agent

When Melissa Fowler, Re/Max Real Estate agent of Calgary, Alberta approached me to develop a new logo and tagline for her, I was delighted. Here is a quick story about how we strategized about the tagline and the imagery we would use.

Melissa Fowler has been in real estate for a number of years in Calgary. She is a second generation real estate agent, following in the footsteps of her father Gord Fowler, a well-known real estate agent in Calgary, Alberta who now makes his home in Vernon, B.C. and is part owner in the Salt Team with Lisa Salt, his wife, of Re/Max Vernon.

First, I met with Melissa by phone. I asked her who her ideal customers were and how she pictured herself. She mentioned that she wanted to be known as a cutting-edge agent who uses social media tools like Twitter, Facebook and YouTube to market her client's homes. Also, that she truly cares about her customers. What she was most proud of, however, was that fact that her father still has such a good reputation as an agent in Calgary, that often times she'll be asked by a prospective new client if she is related to Gord and, "How is he doing". Then, she'll hear stories about how he helped them choose their first home, or how he helped them sell.

As a Marketing Strategist, I wanted that pride to translate into her new tagline. "What is a tagline?" you ask. A tagline is a short statement after your company name that quickly and succinctly tells your customers and prospects exactly what you're about. It's a feeling. It's a bold statement. It implies your values or what is important to you. It is also a statement that positions you against your competitors, or sets you apart in the minds of your customers.

Here is what we came up with.....drum roll please...... "The Next Generation"

This statement, first off, lets us know that Melissa Fowler is indeed related to Gord Fowler. Next, it tells us she is leading-edge. It implies that she is using the latest technological and social media tools available to market, which is one of the main objectives of a great real estate agent. Thirdly, for anyone who is thinking about tearing down their old bungalow and putting an infill in, which is so popular in Calgary, it implies that the next generation of home can be accomplished. Fourthly, it speaks to those young professionals who are either thinking about having children, or have just had them, and are looking for a larger home.

Once the tagline was established, we moved on to an image for her company, also known as a logo or icon. We chose a font that looked fast and next generation-like for the main word that we wanted everyone to see: "Fowler". We used really easy-to-read fonts (typeface) for the rest. And we came up with a futuristic looking building on top of them all. Most important, was that this logo would be easily read on real estate signs. 

We made over 27 designs for her to choose from, and then refined them from there. We had the first 5 designs to her within 48 hours of our very first telephone meeting. The whole process took less than 30 days from start to finish.

Here is the final result of the blue version of the logo:

 

Once the logo was complete, we created it in black on white, white on black and red and blue, for marketing in other materials. Here is the black on white version:



Plus, we provided Melissa with the logo in .psd, .jpg, .ai, .pdf and .eps formats so that she could easily email the files to her printing partners in one single zip file to work with the format of their choice, depending on the size, colour and software they were using.

How do you like it? I would love to have your comments back right in my blog comments section.

For your next logo or tagline, please think of my company, Lava Marketing, to design it for you. The cost is way less than you probably think and I've been doing this for over ten years now.

Thanks for reading. 

Courtenay Pitcher, tagline writer extraordinaire

Owner of Lava Marketing & VernonGirl.com

http://www.vernongirl.com

http://twitter.com/vernongirl