While I has some free time last week, I did something that I love to do, but hadn’t done in a while– I read an actual, real-life, hardbound BOOK. Amazing!
The book that I chose to read was “Meatball Sundae” by Seth Godin. I’m going to skip the Seth Godin introduction, and just assume that you know who he is. If you don’t– you should. You can start by reading his blog.
“Meatball Sundae” is one of those books that went straight to my core. It is one of those books with concepts and examples that are so relevant and easy to understand that I read the whole book twice in one week.
Read the book. Seriously.
What is a Meatball Sundae?
I’m not going to explicate the entire book, but you should understand the basic idea behind what a Meatball Sundae is, especially if you are going to get anything out of the rest of this post.
Seth describes the Meatball Sundae:
A meatball sundae is the unfortunate result of mixing two good ideas.
The meatballs are the foundation, the things we need (and sometimes want). These are the commodities that so many businesses are built on.
The sundae toppings (hot fudge and the like) are the New Marketing, the social networks, Google, blogs and fancy stuff that make people all excited.
The challenge most organizations face: they try to mix them. They attempt to slap new marketing onto old and end up with nothing but a failed website.
The Real Estate Industry is Built Upon Meatballs
The practice of real estate as a profession is pretty old. NAR turns 100 years old this year. That is a long time. While a lot of things have changed over that time, the foundations of the real estate industry really haven’t. I hear agents say all the time that the industry really hasn’t changed in the last 40-50 years, its just that now we do more stuff electronically than we did before.
This is especially true when it comes to the public-facing side of the real estate industry. If you look at any real estate publication today, the marketing in that publication is going to look exactly the same as it did 50 years ago. Granted, the paper quality has changed, and maybe the design is up to date, but the same old messages are being touted everywhere. One of the criticisms of NAR’s REALTOR awareness campaign has been that the ads (television, print, radio), all feel stale. They all seem to be saying the same types of things over and over and over again.
The real estate industry has become very good at churning out the same old meatballs year after year, decade after decade.
The Real Estate Industry Also Loves the Taste of Toppings
Right now, there is a whole lot of emphasis being placed on the sundae toppings throughout the real estate industry. There is buzz about video, social networks, blogging, you name it. All of the new marketing tools that make up the sundae toppings are receiving all kinds of attention. Hey, why not, right? All of this stuff tastes good, and all of it seems very promising. After all, this is what the consumer wants, isn’t it?
Every new thing that comes out is being touted as being able to revolutionize the industry. But is this really true? Or is the industry just preparing to serve consumers a big ol’ nasty meatball sundae?
The Real Estate Industry Needs Ice Cream
Just as Seth points out in his book, if an organization is wants to be able to make use of the sundae topping that is new marketing, that same organization had better have ice cream to put it on, and not meat bal
