Creating a brand is a lot like developing a building. While a sexy rendering is what gets everyone excited, it means nothing without a strong foundation.

Similarly, when it comes to branding it makes no sense to jump right into print ads, brochure and website mockups without developing your core foundational elements. That would be like starting work on the 30th floor before you’ve built the first.

Here are the four foundational elements every effective luxury multifamily development brand needs to start with:

Brand Character: The character is the personality of the brand. The goal is to turn your development into a living, breathing, thinking and feeling individual. The more you can bring your brand character to life, the easier it will be to know how your brand will carry itself no matter what.

Brand Voice: Just like people, every brand has their own voice. It’s important to specifically define the voice so that every verbal element sounds like it is coming from the same character.

Brand Identity: Colors, typefaces, and photography should all be defined and consistently used to make sure the brand is always visually communicating its character.  

Brand Name/Logo: Combining the character, voice and identity you can then start work on developing a name and logo. As the two pieces that will be used across every touchpoint, the name and logo should be considered a foundational element of the brand, rather than a marketing exercise.

Once you develop these four elements you’ll not only be able to develop a complete marketing campaign. You’ll be able to effectively weave the brand into the very fabric of the building and experience itself.  

That’s why these foundational elements will ideally be developed before you ever start design on the development. The more you can define these elements on the front end, the more likely your architect and your staff can integrate these elements into their work.

For example, if your brand character speaks to tranquility your architect may decide to include meditation spaces or a yoga room, while a brand character that emphasises adventure may include a rock climbing wall, mountain bike rentals or kayak storage. Textures, colors, lighting, staff uniforms, sales pitches, policies and more should all come from and reinforce the brand character.

Finally, the key to success is specificity. Have your brand character, voice and identity take a definitive position. Not only will it help you stand out in a crowded market, but it will greatly simplify your decision-making process. Instead of having to make arbitrary decisions based on a vague brand, you’ll be able to use your brand elements to ensure every decision you make is consistent and correct.

In our eBook How To Differentiate a Square Foot we show you the seven essential steps for building a luxury real estate brand that sells. By following our process, your brand will become a personality that can ultimately sell itself. Download the eBook now.

What does luxury mean? We use the word to define the finest materials, products, and brands. It connotes desirability, great worth and scarcity.

But in the real estate world, particularly in the large multi-unit skyscraper developments increasingly dominating downtowns around the world, luxury is anything but rare. According to RENTCafé, 75% of all large multi-family rental developments completed in 2015 were high-end.

However, a saturated market combined with economic and political uncertainty has already resulted in a slowdown in markets, with sluggish price growth nationally and slumps in major markets such as Manhattan, Miami, and Los Angeles.

With luxury no longer a rarity, developers need to find new ways to get their luxury units leased or sold. A well-defined brand can be one of the most important tools for doing so. But before you can define your luxury brand, you must first define what luxury means.

That’s because there’s no single standard for luxury. While luxury traditionally meant housing in the top percentile of transactions in a given market, the term has been liberally used by developers to describe everything from multimillion dollar homes to $3,000 a month apartments.

While alternate terms such as high-end, extravagant or affluent have been used to try and stand apart from luxury, the problem remains: luxury is subjective. Your idea of luxury might be chandeliers and gold faucets; mine might be stainless steel countertops and a heated pool; another’s might be ocean views and a starchitect-designed building.

When marketing a luxury development, then, it’s not enough to define your development as luxury. You need to define what luxury means to you, how it’s expressed in your development and what that means to your ideal customer.

Once you’ve defined luxury for yourself, seek ways to bring your definition to life throughout your brand. Beyond photography and a list of amenities, you can convey your definition through the endless choices to be made in color, typography, voice, content, marketing materials, and even the types of content you share on social media.

Alone, each of these elements are subtle. Together, when done correctly and consistently, they add up to a cohesive brand that signals your definition of luxury to the world. Those with a common definition of luxury will feel a clear connection to your brand and be inclined to put your development on their shortlist above the countless ill-defined competitors on the market.

In our eBook How To Differentiate a Square Foot , we show you the seven essential steps for building a luxury real estate brand that sells. By following our process, you’ll be well on the way to creating your definition of luxury and communicating it to your audience. Download the eBook now.