Advertising guru Sir John Hegarty said it best: “A brand is the most valuable real estate in the world, a corner of the consumer’s mind.”
Early followers of the Hegarty philosophy, such as Harry Handelsman’s Manhattan Loft Corporation and Tom Bloxham’s Manchester-based Urban Splash, realised the value of a defined brand and leapt onto the “brandwagon” in the early 1990s, marketing an aspirational lifestyle to the public. But they were pretty much alone in the real estate sector, which has come undeniably late to the party.
Technically an intangible asset, a brand can be the most valuable thing on a company’s balance sheet.
In product marketing, a clear brand has long been key to a successful business, and it is increasingly important for real estate: buildings and locations such as the Shard, London Bridge Quarter, King’s Cross and Covent Garden now use their brands to promote their schemes.
But what is a brand in real estate terms? It isn’t just a logo, snazzy brochure and website. A brand has to create recognition and trust, so that your customer will choose your brand above others.
Martyn Evans, creative director at mixed-use developer Cathedral Group, says branding is “only good when it’s real”. Some property companies, he says, use brand “to create smoke and mirrors” – and as a result the brand lacks authenticity.
But authenticity is worth the investment, because brands are big business. Coca-Cola has a brand value of a whopping $79.2bn (£49.3bn), according to Brand Finance Global 500 2014, and it will cleverly use real estate to promote that brand further. It recently struck a deal that includes the full naming rights to the London Eye. The name has not yet been confirmed, so look out for it when the deal goes live next year.
Naming buildings is a developing area in legal and planning terms. In relation to the proposed renaming of Heron Tower as Salesforce Tower, the City Corporation recently ruled that building names should relate to the site owner or dominant occupier, building use, local history or geography.
House builders and residential developers tend to be familiar to the consumer. Berkeley Group, with four separate brands, is probably the best known to the house buying public. At the top end, self-styled global luxury real estate designer Candy & Candy is the acknowledged master of branding and its One Hyde Park development has become synonymous with luxury living.
Earlier this year it announced plans to license its brand internationally as part of its global business expansion: look out for a global brands chart listing.
For the new breed of PRS developers – such as Delancey, Essential Living and Fizzy Living – creating and maintaining their brands is crucial to marketing their products as a lifestyle choice. Serviced office operators also aim to differentiate themselves through their brands.
Shopping centres and other retail destinations have to take a slightly different approach. They work with their retailers to create a strong brand experience in order to draw customers in. Westfield, one of the best-known international retail property brands, boasts that it was the customer rather than the company that first used the Westfield brand. Land Securities, according to its website, no longer builds buildings; it build brands.
This strategy has paid off – it recently won a Coolbrands award for its Trinity Leeds scheme with its Everyday Wonder brand (see box below).
However, many of our commercial property developers are business-to-business brands. They have a strong and respected brand among the occupiers they need to attract but remain largely unknown to the general public. This may be something that will need to be addressed as they venture further into the world of residential property.
Everyday wonder
Land Securities teamed up with brand and retail agency Fitch to develop a brand vision for is Trinity Leeds shopping centre. The process included workshops for all areas of the business, so that both the people running the mall and its occupiers understood what the brand meant for Trinity Leeds as a whole. The result is that LandSec gets to interact much more closely with its customers. The brand has enabled the centre team to organise a flashmob to help with a marriage proposal; seen the mall’s roof cleaning staff dress up as Batman and Robin after being called superheroes for working in all weathers; and prompted the birth of Trinity Kitchen, a street food market that enables the REIT to provide an ever-evolving mix of food choices.
Name-dropping
In addition to mass-market chains of the Garfunkel’s or Nando’s variety, there are a surprising number of restaurant brands, all with a distinctive feel.
At the top end, Richard Caring’s Caprice Holdings is a recognisable brand, featuring such stalwarts as Scott’s, W1, and J Sheekey, W2 (all luxury and comfort), while Corbin & King is all about straightforward classic food, service and style. It operates jewels such as the Wolseley, W1, the Delaunay, WC2, and the new Beaumont Hotel, W1.
Jason Atherton, a Gordon Ramsay protégé, has his own “Social” empire, including Pollen Street Social, W1, Social Eating House, W1, and now City Social, EC2, aimed at the business diner.
Then there’s the Hix chain, serving resolutely British food, and the Galvin brand, which serves French food to grown-ups.
The high-end junk-food explosion has thrown up a few great operators – MEATliquor, Honest Burger and Kerbisher & Malt being some particularly successful examples. At the trendy end there are many successful new brands, such as Mexican chain Wahaca, and Pho, serving up delicious Vietnamese dishes.
Brand is different from chain – it’s an identity to dine out on.
Nicky Richmond is managing partner at law firm Brecher and a restaurant blogger at www.thefoodjudge.com
