Challenge
Houwzer is a startup real estate brokerage seeking to disrupt the market by hiring full time agents and waiving the selling agent's commission, saving their customers thousands. As they prepared for a growth stage, Houwzer was in need of an agency partner to refine their positioning and create the right marketing foundation to scale. Houwzer was struggling to explain their business model and communicate their value effectively to potential customers. Houwzer engaged Brolik in 2016 to help clarify their top audience segments.
Solution
Brolik created a detailed target audience analysis in order to help pinpoint the key demographics of Houwzer's most important customer segments. We started the process by refining Houwzer's brand messaging to better resonate with customers. Brolik simplified the way Houwzer explained their business model and value, then illustrated it visually for their new website. Then we led the planning, design and development of the new Houwzer website. First, we infused the value that Houwzer brings into every tagline and every page, to directly reflect their focus on their customers. Through our target audience research, we found that many consumers simply didn't understand how the real estate market worked. Therefore, it was crucial to educate users and show them how much money they could save working with Houwzer. It was also very important to show potential customers that Houwzer is comprised of passionate individuals that are focused on their communities by saving them time, money, and sanity. Our research revealed that people tend to move at transition points in their life, like getting married, retiring, or having their first (or second!) kid. Brolik developed a new marketing campaign based around moments of change. We created a social video ad to introduce Houwzer to potential clients on Facebook and illustrate that their clients save an average of $12,000 when they buy and sell with them. Brolik interviewed Houwzer customers, to better understand their pain points and behaviors and then photographed them in their new homes. It was apparent that homeowners most often find agents from recommendations made by friends and family, so we focused on referrals and created personal customer stories to give a human perspective. Following the website and marketing relaunch, Brolik completed the overhaul of Houwzer's full visual identity including bold new 'for sale' signs and Houwzer's first billboard campaign.
Results
Houwzer more than doubled closings in 2017 over the previous year, and recently closed a funding round to fuel expansion. Brolik is supporting their growth as a true partner should, balancing current brand awareness campaigns in Philadelphia while building out the roadmap for future expansion.
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