Defining our brand
Brand isn’t our logo.
Brand is who we are.
Our “brand” is the words we want people to think when they encounter our company. If they use our product; if they see our website; if they see our social media posts; if they talk to one of our salespeople at a conference—when they encounter our company in any way, they should come away from that experience thinking and feeling a certain set of words.
Those words are our company’s values. And if we’ve done our job well, our brand will resonate with people because our values resonate with people.
Defining our brand values
So, what are our values? How do we want our users to think of us?
Right after we had our first product design sprint, I got the Plunk founders in a room and made us all answer a long list of big questions, like: who are our customers? What do they care about? What problems are we solving for them? Who are we? What services are we going to provide? What are our differentiators? What are our values?
With all these questions answered, we picked a set of words for the consumer-facing brand of our POC app:
Empowering
We empower people to better their situation in their home
Trustworthy
We are honest and reliable—the most trustworthy source of guidance our customers have when it comes to their home and home finances
Approachable
We are warm and friendly, and our service is a reflection of that spirit: approachable and easy to use
Fun
We believe that everyone should love where they live, and making their home a place they love should be inspiring (and fun!)
Pivot to B2B
When we changed our focus to B2B, we were forced to revisit the brand
The users had spoken. And the consumer mobile app for real estate analysis wasn't a hit. But we had enterprise customers chomping at the bit to get their hands on the same feature set, so we pivoted to B2B. And that required that we revisit our current, consumer-oriented brand.
We swapped out two of our words for the upcoming B2B product releases:
Empowering
We empower our customers and partners to make faster, more informed financial decisions about residential real estate.
Trustworthy
We are honest and reliable—the most trustworthy source of guidance our customers and partners have when it comes to financial data and analytics on the housing market.
We are open and accessible. Our products and services reflect that spirit: approachable, easy to understand, and easy to use.
We are the thought-leaders; the experts; the authority on home valuation. We have the experience and the intelligence to provide relevant insights. And our data helps our customers and partners make smarter decisions.
We swapped out “Accessible” for “Approachable”. “Approachable” had been a good word for how we wanted users to feel using our app, but in the B2B space, "Accessible" took on a broader meaning. Historically, our real estate personas lacked access to the data and insights they needed due to exclusionary business practices. We aimed to dismantle this monopoly, making our user experiences accessible for anyone, regardless of technical expertise.
Finally, “Fun” was gone. Long live fun. While it resonated well with consumers, realtors, brokers, and RRE investors needed a more professional tone. Inspired by our North Star brand, Bloomberg, we adopted their core value of "Smart." This alignment reflected our commitment to providing timely and insightful data, mirroring the high standards of the enterprise space.
