The Insider: Issue 022

‘Morning. Read on for the week’s biggest hits, a new counter trend in consumerism, and a spotlight on one of the greatest characters and lessons in brand to ever appear on Seinfeld.

Last Week This Week

At this point, it’s possible you’re thinking “enough already” when it comes to chatter about Zillow’s exit from iBuying. And we kinda said everything we wanted to say in Brian’s Friday Flash.

But, well, we’re gonna share with you what we’re thinking about now that the shock has abated a bit:

• For the vast majority of agents and brokers, last week’s news will have zero felt impact. None. We all like a good story, and it’s good to pay attention to Zillow’s strategy, but honestly, it’s very easy to pay too much attention to this. Keep on truckin’.
  
  
• Zillow is going to get back on a different horse. Rich Barton isn’t on planet Earth to sell leads to agents (though Z has done an amazing job at that, getting to about 8x the revenue Move/Realtor.com did pre-News Corp, while also managing to be profitable). Mike DelPrete has suggested they might get into the cash offer/mortgage business, because they already own a mortgage and closing company. On the sell side, they may keep their in-house agents and offer a discount listing service, like Rocket or Better have. Or whatever. You get the point: Zillow will move onto its next chapter.
  
  
• Right on cue, Opendoor announced Opendoor Complete, a “single, streamlined, experience that takes us one step closer to enabling our customers to sell, buy, and close at the tap of a button.” OPEN also announced the acquisition of RedDoor, a mortgage tech company that claims to pre-approve people in 60 seconds.
  
  
• Side note: Watch the video in the Opendoor Complete announcement blog post. The first line hits like a ton of bricks: “Each year, thousands of homeowners find out the hard way that real estate is broken.” Zillow could never say that. They have a $2 billion dollar business based on real estate agents. As we’ve said a 1,000 times: Brand building is in large part saying and doing what your competitors are unwilling to say and unable to do.

Have You Heard About This?

iBuy Nothing
It was a Friday evening. A vegetarian neighbor had ordered a pizza and was delivered one for carnivores. He immediately put out a plea in our local Buy Nothing group on Facebook and was able to rehome the pizza to an appreciative belly nearby. What’s the strangest thing you’ve seen posted on your local Buy Nothing group? Never heard of Buy Nothing? We’d argue it’s the best thing to happen online in recent years. Neighbors gather within walled Facebook groups and gift items they no longer need, or put out a call for something they do. The idea is baked into the name. There’s just too much stuff in the world. Check out this recent NY Times article for a deep dive.

 

What's Inside

We won’t bite, promise
One of the benefits of being an Insider is direct, one-on-one access to 1000watt’s founders, Marc Davison and Brian Boero. Got an idea you want feedback on? A problem that’s stumping you? A brand or strategic question you want to bounce off of someone?

 

Inspiration Point

It Started With A Coat
Remember J. Peterman? The iconic Seinfeld character who was Elaine’s zany, eccentric boss for several seasons was based on a real person, John Peterman. In real life, Peterman was an entrepreneur with a brilliant mind for marketing. He and his business partner, Don Staley, launched the J. Peterman catalog in 1988, and for many decades have managed to do something no one else in their category had ever done nor does today… sell clothing without photographs of the items. No models. No action shots from different angles. No airbrushed aspirational takes on busy Paris streets.

J. Peterman clothes have always been rendered in the catalog by artists (they do have limited photos on their website today), and appear alongside some of the best copywriting in the history of the craft. (Check out a product page pictured below.) Why? Because Peterman’s initial idea was that the power of clothing was all in the story it told about the person wearing it. It just goes to show how simple ideas, taken seriously and obsessed over, can create the running throughline of a timeless brand. 

Why We’re Here
Brand purpose is something we sometimes dive into with 1000watt clients. Yes, the very purpose of business is to make money. But beyond that, there’s a powerful tool that some brands choose to go deeper on to attract more like-minded people to them and build more meaning into everything they do. We call that brand purpose. There are many different minds in branding and case study examples to study to see how this works in strategy and in action. We like this appetizer on the topic taken from Marketing Brew’s recent virtual event series.

 

Quote of the week

"If you can’t say why your brand is both different and compelling in a few words, don’t fix your positioning statement…fix your company."

— Marty Neumeier