in addition to the shopping cart ads, may I suggest taking over the free balloon stand at the local market and issue your own balloon with pictures of Kris and Steve. Second thought, that might be setting yourself up for unneccessary jokes from the bubble blogging/aka doom sayers crowd.

speaking of trends, have you guys noticed the signs looking for real estate apprentice at $20,000/month have quietly disappeared and only to be replaced by the ‘avoid foreclosure’ signs?

You got me thinking, Jack. There may be an opportunity for some joint-venture marketing. If I buy your tongue depressors, can I put our pictures on them? No, wait, bad visual – Bad idea.

After walking around the Von’s parking lot for a couple months picking up carts in the noon day sun at 100 degrees off the pavement, I really don’t react well to Eric Delgado…………………….

Now, THAT’s funny! To clarify, Kyle is a college Freshman who happened to “intern” at Vons. Thanks, Kyle. Hope you are enjoying Pomona!

(Note: You remembered his name, sort of, so I guess there is something to be said for “Supermarket-ing”).

Ah, marketing versus sales. You are “BRANDING” Steve. Branding is one of the most difficult things to measure. Sure some people might choose a realtor from a shopping cart, but your reputation does more doesn’t it? You want to “brand” Kris and Steve. Step back and think about your “target” market. Focus or you will spend a lot for nothing. Honestly, Johnson and Johnson taught me a lot of this stuff. You only think of one baby shampoo don’t you?

Research the expense of using channels that target your market.

What you might want to do is write down all the channels you can use to target the market and then shop for pricing. That will give you an idea. Know this … today everyone is grey and unless you “hijack” a certain channel, no one will notice you.

Example … placing your advertisement on 20 buses around the city won’t do you any good. Placing your ad on ALL the buses in the city will work. Not because more people will see it but because that one person will see it many times and with each time they’ll show more and more interest.

Steve -

You are so right on this advertising thing. It’s become overwhelming and I’ve noticed recently it has crept into our everyday life and routine on a subliminal basis. Let me share with you some recent observations I have noted on your exact point. Last weekend at a local high school football game I was enjoying the halftime show when the band and pageantry club started to perform in what I thought was your typical serpentine patterns of drum majors, flute and saxophone players. Because I was in the nose bleed seats I began to notice that all of the participants between the chalk lines were actually forming a human facial in what truly looked like Ernie Vaca ! Can that be Steve ? I wasn’t totally sure until 2 trombone players ran late onto the field and appeared to be represent the “dot” before and after his website address was inscribed as well. At the end of the show, the cheerleaders were throwing note pads and refrigerator magnets into the crowd. That is just plain wacky stuff.
That not being enough, I find myself at a Padre game last week as well. As you might be able to ascertain, I don’t have a ton of activities to occupy my time these days. Anyway after large 2 diet cokes, the only thing lighter on my body was my wallet. With the situation growing more urgent, I make my way into the Men’s facility. I stand in line awaiting my turn. As I cozy up to the wall, I notice yet another real estate agents poster eye to eye with me as I struggle with the task at hand. Now, there is already great pressure to get through what you need to in this type of venue without some 8×11 photo of some guy warning me not to “flush my hard earned money” or some type of clever slogan like that. Perhaps it was the caffeine and the large cotton candy, but I could swear those eyes in the poster were slightly moving. I was shocked and appalled to say the least. I too have my limits and will draw my own line in the sand.
So if I clip some coupons and head to Von’s this weekend and your face is next to my head of lettuce or jar of artichoke hearts, that’s OK with me.
Anything more than that, I just might go online and do the whole thing myself. After all, how hard is it to sell a house these days?

-Nelson

Welcome back, funny man! Ironically, I was off to a business meeting at the local pizza place last night and saw the picture of a Realtor on both sides of a public phone booth. What amazed me most was not the agent ad but the fact that there is still a public phone booth in existence. Who knew?

Nelson: I know a good doctor. Call me. BTW, I was with a group of agents at a social event this past summer, chatting about our “adjusting” market and how challenging it was to sell our listings (we had 8 at that particular time). Suddenly, in frustration, I mentioned how I was going to rent one of those cherry picker type things that go up in the air about one hundred feet and advertise, ” Crazy Steve’s Used Home Sale! I am NOT coming down until they are all sold!!” Now, ordinarily I would have expected the usual good-natured harassment that one would expect of such a marketing gimmick. But everyone was clamoring about what a great idea it was and they were all seriously prompting me to do it. I’m thinking, “Lord, what is this profession coming to?” But I’m still considering it.

Get this- at a local parking lot someone paid to place their ads in the parking stripes- you know the lines that seperate where the cars go. So in every one of the lines was an ad…

Talk about annoying- clever, imaginative, creative… annoying

I parked on the line to protest.

That’s a new one, and I thought I had seen it all. The one that irks me the most is the claim check I get at my local car wash. I have to hold the smiling mug of one of my competitors for the fifteen minutes I wait. Your example definitely takes the cake, however. Reminds me of a humor article I read awhile back saying the GM was announcing Instant Winner Airbags in their cars. Given my recent experience with my daughter, there could be something here. Just imagine at every fender bender – “Call me for all of your real estate needs”! I’m surprised someone hasn’t thought of it already.