How to Market a Free Service in Real Estate

Marketing Plan for a KW Service Designed to Generate New Clients

Product Idea

The product idea for this marketing plan is a service that Keller Williams could provide to potential home buyers/investors that no other competitor is currently offering: that is, free educational classes for the public about the process of buying, investing, owning, keeping up or rehabbing houses. The purpose of this service would be that it draws potential clients into the office and generates leads for agents working within the office.

Keller Williams is a national real estate brokerage with offices in districts around the U.S. The office branch of Keller Williams for this marketing plan is located in Houston, Texas, which is the "home" of Keller Williams -- the place where the brokerage began.

The problem that this service would target is the problem that a lot of new home buyers often experience, which is that they do not understand the intricacies of searching for a home, getting a loan, planning for the loan, understanding their needs (what is important, what matters, what doesn't), understanding what is needed to keep up a home, what is needed to rehab a home, what to look for, what to avoid, and how to go about getting started. A lot of buyers jump in thinking that they will find something "cheap" that they can fix up but don't understand that when it comes to foreclosures, most foreclosures are repossessed by the lender for a reason (namely, consumers couldn't afford to pay the mortgage) and that if the owner is behind on payments he or she is more than likely not putting money into the house to keep it up. And houses need constant attention, maintenance and upkeep or major problems that require a lot of money will end up being the result. This and a plethora of other issues, such as investing in real estate, relocating, finding renters, and preparing for a loan (which is much harder to get in today's market than it was ten to fifteen years ago) can all be addressed by these free public service classes.

The competitive edge that this service will provide is that it will get potential buyers/sellers and investors into the KW offices where they will become leads for agents in the office. Real estate agents know that generating leads is one of the most difficult and time-consuming things to do. It is not like it is for car salesmen, who have the product sitting on their lot. Real estate agents have no way to attract business to their offices and so they have to go out into the world, to events, parties, do cold calling on the telephone, or any number of other methods in order to drum up clients. This service is one that will bring clients to the agent: it would be like having a product on the lot; it can be advertised on social media and in traditional print media; and it can act as the pipe of the Pied Piper -- by showing that you are giving something for free that people can use, it will cause KW to receive more looks from more people, bring more consumers into contact with KW agents and affiliates, and put KW that much more at the forefront of the real estate market.

Challenges that KW might face in the marketing of this service might be that it could be easily replicated by competitors should they see that it provides an advantage to the brokerage. Another challenge would be developing the classes, maintaining them on a consistent enough schedule with a sufficient teaching "staff" that it can be an actually vital resource for consumers. Agents and affiliates (loan agents, home inspectors, etc.) would work together to cover shifts -- but this should not be too great a challenge as it is something that KW agents and affiliates already do with Ignite classes for new agent orientation.

2. Mission Statement

The mission statement of KW is to provide intelligent service in the form of education, planning, and commitment to clients who are looking to buy, sell or invest in real estate.

Present and potential customers benefit from KW services because of KW agents' commitment to providing the highest level of attention to meeting the needs of every unique and individual buyer, seller and investor.

Keller Williams has shown that it has what it takes to rise to the top of an industry that is full of high-performing brokerages -- and it has done so without relying on advertising: the message and value of Keller Williams has spread because it has a program of profit sharing that encourages new agents to come on board and because it has the best training program in the world (Larcker, Baron, Tayan, 2011).

By incorporating a system of virtue ethics in line with servant leadership principles, the program to incentive its agents through profit-shares and highly-touted educational programs like Ignite and BOLD, KW has risen to the top of its class in terms of acquiring agents and developing training programs. KW has more agents for the reason of its strong culture than any brokerage in North America and its long-term aim is to stay that way, to continue to grow and increase its agent list, and to provide the best possible service to its clients in every season and on every occasion, whether large or small.

The market that KW wants to serve is every aspect of the real estate market, and this includes not only residential but also commercial real estate, in every aspect. This market, in today's economy, however, presents certain obstacles.

The economic downturn in recent years remains a significant factor in this market because if the economy is in a downturn it is more difficult for a Real Estate Broker to drum up business (less money in the economy means fewer buyers/investors). So it becomes essential for Keller Williams to hone in on that sector of the market that is buying and selling and capture this market. This will require sizable expertise in marketing and salesmanship as well as motivation (through programs like Ignite and Bold) which drive new and old agents to succeed at levels never before imagined. Whether they are doing so independently or as part of a team, the end goal is the same: to generate leads, to make contacts, to secure listing presentations, to market, and to close transactions. Doing so in an economic downturn is especially hard because there are fewer potential clients. This means that one has to know one's market especially well so as to have the maximum amount of information to be able to provide to clients. But it also means that one must have the special skill and charisma needed to reach out to clients and get them to work with you.

Keller Williams and the agents who work with the organization view themselves as all being on the same team rather than in competition with one another. There is a culture of respect that the organization tries to cultivate. Other brokerages dislike this "familial" values core that Keller Williams paints as the secret to its success and they also dislike the commission split which favors the agent at Keller Williams, but the truth is that the motto "God, family, business" really is the core of KW's business plan and is the focus of all its initiatives.

3. SWOT Analysis

For the best companies in the world, a strategic mission is influential in establishing a corporate guideline -- and the shorter and more concise that mission statement, the more impactful it can be (Collis, Rukstad, 2008).

Keller Williams promotes the motto "God, Family, Business" in that order to show that in their workplace environment what comes first is not business but that which is more important than business: family and God. In effect, the workplace environment under this direction becomes familial and fosters a "spirit of mission" (Samaan, Verneuil, 2009) that is located in the overall objective of the employees to not only be successful in their careers but also to be successful as people, i.e., good, understanding, ethical, supportive, unified, and giving. In other words, the theory of servant leadership is combined with the theory of directional leadership in order to enhance employee development and facilitate employee commitment to the organization and its objectives. This is made easier and more possible because it is emphasized under these two theoretical approaches that the organization's objectives are identical to the employee's objectives.

Few companies embody the concept of managerial support the way that Keller Williams does. While the individual real estate agents who work for Keller Williams brokerage houses around the world are technically not employed and therefore do not "have" managers, the KW offices utilize a system of agent reciprocity rooted in the management support system doctrine. In other words, senior agents provide guidance (often 24/7) to young or inexperienced agents in order to help them establish and further their careers as well as their commitment to the office. The world of real estate is one in which various brokerages are often competing for talent, so keeping top-performing agents at any given company is a task in and of itself. The Keller Williams approach to recruiting and keeping talent is found in its vision of reciprocity: if you give us your talents, we will give you everything we have.

Thus, the KW profit-sharing program is set up in such a way that each office divides the profits "so that the owners who risked their investments enjoy roughly 52% of the profit and the associates who helped grow the company enjoy roughly 48% of the profit" (Thompson, 2009, p. 3). This nearly equal spit of profits has a two-fold strategy at its heart: first, it indicates that owners and associates are on an equal footing and that both depend upon one another for success; second, it rewards employees for growing the market center by bringing in new agents. The profit-sharing system is set up to share the profits of agents with those in the office who helped to recruit them. Thus, if Agent X brings three new agents to the company, a percentage of their profits will be shared between the owners of the market center Agent X since he is responsible for their being there in the first place. It is a system of reciprocity that is attractive for agents and in return they are compelled to help teach, guide and support new agents who require assistance (Larcker, Tayan, 2015).

Employee development is a crucial aspect of corporate success, as these companies show (their growth is literally off the charts when compared to that of more conventional, less employee-centric companies) (Gallo, 2013). At the same time, successful companies realize that their success is dependent upon attracting and hiring the "right" sort of employee: people-skills and an ability to serve others are a must; qualities like emotional intelligence (EI) and communication are viewed by managers as assets that are valuable in a service economy. This indicates that in developing employees and incorporating motivational tools like profit-sharing and other incentives, managers look to first have a solid base in terms of employee suitability. The "right" kind of employee in service sector companies is one who is aware of the need to provide high-quality customer care and is more people-focused than data-focused. At KW, this is a strength -- but the fact that consumers/clients are not considered in the same light is one of the company's weaknesses.

This weakness, however, presents an opportunity for growth: in today's economy with changing rules and regulations regarding the nature of buying a home, there is a lot to learn even for return consumers. This is an opportunity to educate the public and create a better relationship with the consumer that can be built and developed into a life-long enterprise.

Aside from this, KW's only real threat is a further collapse in the economy that could completely dry up the market place. There is also the threat of losing market share to competitors, each of whom seeks to have an edge in the market. With a lot of focus being on Internet-driven leads in recent years, an opening may be present to re-establish a face-to-face commitment to consumers that could prove a sustainable path towards traditional marketing. And since KW does not market, this educational service could be something acts as a service and is not perceived as marketing at all.

STRENGTHS: KW's strengths are its commitment from agents to each and the company and its focus on providing a customer-friendly, family-oriented experience

WEAKNESSES: KW's weakness is in its lack of a truly educational approach to its customers/clients; right now focus is all on educating agents

OPPORTUNITIES: The changing rules and regulations following the bursting of the housing bubble present a good opportunity to reach out to the public and provide education

THREATS: The economy is still in an unstable state and could collapse more; losing market share to competitors is also a constant threat.

4. Organization Objectives and Strategies

Five marketing objectives are to increase sales, improve service awareness, establish KW in the area, manage the KW brand, and foster relationships with consumers. The sales potential of the regions which this strategy looks to exploit are considerable and should be based on local economy, but even in depressed economies there will be incentive to provide this service as here governments are taking action to incentivize home buyers by providing free down payment plans, and that is something that KW could help to coordinate and to draw investors and/or buyers into a market that may have been previously shut off. Thus, it is impossible to say that any one segment is off limits, and with the advent of social media, it is actually true to say that every segment is open to penetration (Lindner, 2015).

The target market is a consumer market in every real estate region. Demographics that will be most valuable in a target market will consist of young person, age 18-35 who are most likely to be buying a house for the first time. In terms of psychographics, the market should not be depressed but should have a positive community spirit, should value education, should have an active lifestyle and good attitudes about buying and spending. Similarities between neighborhoods should also be highlighted from a geodemographic point-of-view to show how spatial distance is overcome in terms of maintaining community characteristics, which is helpful for knowing where and when to promote the service.

Geographies that will be targeted will be suburban and urban areas. Rural areas which are less dense will be less targeted, but the sweep and scope of the promotional phase of this marketing strategy will not limit itself to urban and suburban regions as social media will be a main driver and can be used to break any and all boundaries in order to penetrate a market.

Behavioral segments will consist of segments that are educated, employed, active lifestyle, who vote, and who have show signs of expansion. Expansion is a big indicator of a need to have more dwelling space, and thus this could be a segment that holds a high number of possible clients.

The rationale for selecting the target market, which will not only be the young first time home buyer segment but also the older, more experienced home buyer segment who is looking for a refresher or an update regarding the changing nature of home purchasing, ownership and upkeep, is that everyone is a potential client because everyone has to live somewhere. While it may not be as easy to get a loan today as it was ten years ago, lenders are still working to find ways to help everyone borrow what they can to make a purchase. So it is important to not rule out any segment. The main target, however, will be social media users, as this will be the main method of getting the message out to the public. Once it is on social media, the message should spread to those who are not on social media, but accessing the younger or more Internet-savvy segment is the main goal at the start because this is a group that is focused, determined, plugged in to what is happening and showing a desire to stay current and to be informed of any and all changes happening in a world. They also show a propensity to protect and do for themselves anything that might bolster their own position. They also tend to take advantage of free services that provide education: as Holmes (2007) notes, providing a free service like education is one of the best ways to generate sales.

The social media-savvy segment is also attractive for us as a marketer because this segment is the one that is most heavily-involved in the latest trends in consumer spaces, the latest headlines, and the latest community projects. Our marketing plan is involved in correlating all three of these elements; therefore, individuals who use social media are most apt to pick up on this and spread the word for us. The KW overall marketing plan is to use word-of-mouth marketing, which has been proven to work for the company, and this same use of the social media-savvy segment will help to support this same plan especially as the users will be incentivized to spread the word as they will receive something free for doing so.

In terms of expected growth, this is somewhat dependent on the banks' propensity to increase loans, because without tighter lending possibilities the sector will continue to shrink rather than expand. Thus working with lending affiliates in this service is essential. Revenue opportunities will continue to exist, however, from investors, buyers and sellers looking to take advantage of a "recovering" economy in which prices are still going up (Durden, 2015).

Past performance indicators show that revenue opportunities can exist in any market because every segment of society requires housing, so it is really about finding the ins and outs of each market segment, what factors drive it and then penetrating that market. Some will make use of more penetration than others, and some will require uniquely tailored services and education but as Lindner (2015) notes, this is what it means to actually market and penetrate: it is about adapting to the segment's needs rather than looking for a segment that "fits" your own.

In terms of accessibility and sustainability, with the right tools (social media), every segment can be accessed and made sustainable through relationships developed over the course of the providing of the educatory service (Eadie, 2009).

A competitive analysis shows that the top two competitors in the region or Huff Realty and Sibcy-Cline. Huff is the highest-grossing real estate brokerage in the region and Sibcy the number two grossing company. They offer significantly more branch offices around the region than KW and their current positioning within the market is at the top. However, in recent months as KW has been expanding, it has doubled its listings year-over-year and thus taken a significant portion of market share from these two competitors. These two competitors have been chosen because they are number 1 and number 2 in terms of sales, with HUFF maintaining a 38% hold on market share and Sibcy a 21% hold. HUFF is by far and away the biggest, but KW is looking to penetrate and absorb. A SWOT analysis reveals where they are.

HUFF:

STRENGTHS: strong marketing department, well-known name and brand, offices virtually in every region and segment of the area, very visible

WEAKNESSES: does not have the highest reputation of quality service in the area, does not lead in terms of strong relationship base among agents

OPPORTUNITIES: looks to capitalize on its own position by fostering better relationships with consumers through a more direct initiative

THREATS: KW poses a threat as it has grown exponentially over the years and has a reputation as being able to build and maintain strong relationships

SIBCY-CLINE:

STRENGTHS: well-known name and history in the region, performing well in the market, leading in listings

WEAKNESSES: losing in agent recruitment to competitors like HUFF and KW; lacking in directional capacity

OPPORTUNITIES: wants to expand into commercial segments even though there may not be as much potential here in certain areas

THREATS: KW's recruiting of agents puts it the number one position for this factor in the region and is a threat to Sibcy's overall growth

KW's service will be unlike anything else on the market because it is based on education, which is not something other companies provide because they lack the corporate culture that KW has, which is all about agents working together rather than competing with one another. Thus, the market will likely respond in a positive way to our service because it is something no one else is giving them. Our competitors may try to mimic our service but it will be difficult for them because it will cost them to pay persons to do it, whereas with KW our profit-share system covers costs, and moreover these competitors will have to change their corporate culture in order to reach and maintain the kind of vision and strategy KW has.

There are no real substitutes for this service, as it is a free service geared toward education the public. Internet websites are quickly outdated and thus up-to-the-minute guidance from professionals in the field in a one-on-one environment is far better and more effective than any so-called substitute.

5. Marketing Strategy -- Service

What KW would be bringing to market is a unique educational service that no other real estate broker is providing to the public. This would be free classes designed to inform the public about the best courses of action related to buying a home, investing in a home, rehabbing a home, selling a home, locating a home, maintaining a home, obtaining a loan, preparing for a loan, the costs of owning a home, the benefits of owning a home, the way to find out about taxes, insurance, inspections, etc., and more. This would be a crash course on everything a new home buyer would ever want or need to know about buying a house or piece of commercial real estate.

This service would be divided up over a period of weeks, with an hour long class given every evening and special mega-classes given on weekends for individuals who would prefer an all-in-one educational briefing. The beauty of this service is that it would be tailored to meet the needs of each individual.

The individual tailoring would occur in this manner: an interested party would register for the class via email or telephone call. An administrator would then contact the registrant and perform the following examination of the registrant to find out exactly what sort of information and level of home-buying knowledge the individual has so as to better place him or her in the right course.

That examination would consist of these questions:

Is this your first time buying a home?

Have you applied for a loan?

Are you working with an agent?

Do you know the hidden costs of home ownership?

Do you want to know whether buying is right for you?

Do you want to know about rehabbing a home?

Do you know what to look for in a home?

Do you know how to prepare to apply for a loan?

Do you want to know how to maintain a home?

The answers to these questions will help to give the examiner an idea of whether the registrant is a level 1 buyer (a newcomer) or a level 5 buyer (an old hand looking to pick up the latest information on the market). This will determine the arrangement of courses and how to manage them. Some individuals will want to take an entire course while others will only need one or two classes before being able to make a decision as to what to buy, when to buy, where to buy, how to buy and so on.

This service will be provided by the team of agents and affiliates connected with KW. While the initial run will be performed in the company's home base of Houston, it is essentially a service that can be conducted in any KW office around the country. All it entails is coordination among KW agents and affiliates and a strategy for handling the generation of leads that will result from the classes.

The courses will be taught on a weekly basis with an hour class in the evening, free of charge to the public, and a mega-class one weekend every month for those not able to attend during the week. This will be open to the public marketed to the public via Facebook, Twitter and the KW website associated with that region.

The intended target market is first time home buyers, as these are most likely to be the ones most in need of this educational information and who will return as clients for the agents and affiliates who participate in the teaching and administration of the course. A profit-share system will be enacted to ensure that all participating agents within the course receive a share of payment from closings that result these classes. This system will build on the system already in place at Keller Williams so will not require a great deal of work to set up and implement.

Marketing in today's world depends upon a mix of technological and cultural understanding as Spillan (2012) points out: the "reach of the Internet to unknown places" and the "social environments that exist in regional market segments" help to drive the economy and the markets that exist within it. Therefore, comprehending how the Internet and various social media outlets intersect and interact with social environments, especially in local regions, is supremely important in assessing this service's role in KW's market strategy.

Thus, this service will also be implemented with a live stream or downloadable video feature so that persons who wish to have access to this information from the comfort of their own home can have it. All they have to do is register (with a real name and real contact information) with a KW agent (so that lead generation can be made possible) and the information will be able to be streamed online.

Follow-ups with Internet-based education users will be essential to gathering these users as clients, and this will be performed strategically in the form of follow-up questionnaires, courtesy calls (to make sure the stream worked or that the information was relevant to the user) as well as calls to see if any further service could be provided to the potential client.

The added bonus of using the Internet to stream this footage is that it can allow for the best courses/classes and teachers to be used for streaming. It would not be a situation in which one video or course would work for the whole nation because every individual segment and KW center is unique with state laws and regulations regarding housing. Thus, every center would have to tailor its own course, but the basic framework would be made available for team leaders to use so as to guide the process from within their individual centers.

The rise of social media in the 21st century has impacted everything from the way we educate to the way we interact. Our perceptions of reality are informed to some extent by what is seen and heard on social networking sites such as Facebook, and the way in which individuals are conditioned accordingly can be measured merely by observing one's nearest social group. The evolution of Facebook and social media technology and influence over the past decade has certainly helped shape economic, social, and political history.

Facebook is after all the biggest social networking site on the Internet (which means in the world) and has allowed information to spread more quickly than ever before imaginable on the planet. Facebook has reshaped the way organizations operate, the way universities teach, the way entertainment is viewed, and the way people communicate. Such a tool is used by outsider and insider politicians, from persons like Ron and Rand Paul to persons like the Clintons -- all to cultivate -- that is, to develop and maintain a culture of ideas. Thus it is essential to the marketing of this service that social media be used. After all, KW does not do traditional marketing -- and doing so now would ruin the reputation of word-of-mouth business that it has earned over the years. That is why this service should not be "advertised" in the traditional sense but delivered "word of mouth" via social media, which of course is really a way to market without coming across as advertising in the traditional sense.

6. Marketing Strategy -- Pricing

This is a free service and the only price or cost is that determined by the individual agents and affiliates who partake in the program by giving an hour of their team each week or each month to connect with potential clients via the educatory service. The reason it is free is that, as Holmes (2007) asserts, giving something for free now is the best way to ensure that you will be able to sell something later to grateful people who appreciate the knowledge that you have given them.

This pricing strategy is thus rooted in the guide of the Ultimate Sales Machine himself Chet Holmes. What this should lead to, of course, is a 7% commission from clients looking to list properties after the completion of the service -- and this is price from the perspective of the agent that should be expected. But of course commission rates are always negotiable -- still, this is the target commission rate.

As no one is offering this service, there is no real comparison in terms of pricing, but it is the belief of this strategist that by expecting clients to pay for the education, it diminishes the possibility of future returns as it limits the scope of the service's reach. The service should be designed to penetrate every segment, not just one or two, and so there is no reason to limit it by putting a price on it. The price comes later when the agent signs a consumer relationship contract with the client and this is done according to commission standards.

How will agents and affiliates profit from this service? They will all participate in the proft-sharing program of KW, which will be re-shaped for this specific program by ensuring that those participating members each receive a percentage of the commission earned by a participating agent who closes a deal with an individual for whom this service was provided and who signed a relationship contract with a KW agent as a result of the service. The closing agent will receive his or her regular commission and then the portion that KW receives will be divided among the other participants. KW benefits from the expanded growth of its brand name and increases its market share hold and it agents benefit from working together and sharing profits.

Fixed costs will be limited to the office spaces which are already owned or rented by KW branches. There should be sufficient space for conducting this service and refreshments will be provided and this will be a variable cost.

The cost of providing teachers for this service will be that which is based on the cost of giving an hour or more to the program for each agent over the course of a week or month. This will be a variable cost for the agent and must be balanced and weighted against what the agent perceives he or she could be doing to provide leads and generate income alternatively. It is expected that agents will see the potential benefit of participating in this program and as a result of the KW culture will be excited to participate and to volunteer their time so as to reap the rewards of future client commitment and profit-sharing down the road.

The reality is that Keller Williams and the agents who work with the organization view themselves as all being on the same team rather than in competition with one another. There is a culture of respect that the organization tries to cultivate. Other brokerages may dislike this "familial" values core that Keller Williams paints as the secret to its success and they may also dislike the commission split which favors the agent at Keller Williams, but this is what allows KW to be successful in its growth.

Thus the pricing model for this service is free for the reason that it incentivizes consumers to want to spend time with agents and affiliates and the aim of this connection is to provide revenue following successful completion of agent-client agreements, wherein an agent will agree to represent a client in selling or buying real estate -- this is the overall aim. Thus the service is like a giveaway -- a direct marketing campaign in which a new product is given away for free to users who want to test its durability or effectiveness.

In this case, the effectiveness is determined by whether the registrant participates in the courses, has his or her questions answered and comes away with a better understanding of the price of buying/selling a home -- for which, if successful, the free price will make the consumer all the more appreciative and willing to work with the agent to meet his or her buying/selling needs.

7. Marketing Strategy -- Distribution

Distribution channels will be non-traditional in the sense that they will consist primarily of social-media as KW has a policy of non-traditional marketing. Social media usage will therefore be consistent with the firm's overall word-of-mouth strategy.

Channel members will help to promote the educatory service because they will be incentivized to do so through the understanding that they are receiving free information and knowledge that they can use to make better decisions about their future. Buying a home is most likely the biggest purchase a person will make, so it is important that they receive guidance -- and if people go to school to learn a job, they should also be willing to spread the word about a free school service that gives them knowledge about how to use the money wisely that they earn from their job when it comes time for them to begin shopping for a home.

At the same time Keller Williams should recognize that this economy is a new economy and is not likely to be similar to that of the early 2000s, which was fostered by easy credit and loans. That era is over and banks are more restrictive in terms of handing out mortgage loans to buyers. So Keller Williams should examine what can be done to help buyers secure loans (identify strategies for reducing debt-to-income ratios, boosting credit scores, and legitimizing income consistency) (Keller, 2013). It should also focus on identify the niche market that is still buying, selling and investing in real estate and develop a strategy to target that market via social media channels by tapping into the virtual world trends of emerging local markets.

The channel members should expect from the service provider about this service a comprehensive guide to everything they will need to know about buying, owning, selling, maintaining, investing in or rehabbing a home or commercial property. The KW organization is structured to accomplish this because of its strategic workplace culture that is set up to boost sharing and team work.

This is performed by uniting agents under the KW vision and by educating agents on how to proceed in a market downturn, how to focus time and energy so as utilize the vital resources needed to secure business in a way that is not wasteful. Old methods of securing business may prove to be outdated and agents should be educated on what methods are current and working now.

The third action to consider would be to educate other agents from competing brokerages on why Keller Williams is a good fit for them. This means putting out in the public consciousness a positive picture of what it means to work with Keller Williams. This campaign should be about spreading the good word about the core values that the organization represents in an effort to open the eyes of others agents in the industry looking to be part of a company that truly represents their best interests and wants them to succeed in the business.

Because the service will be provided totally in-house, there is no need for wholesalers or retailers -- although it may be designed that agents and affiliates will want to meet a group of investors or buyers at a destination outside of the KW offices and this will be possible because of the fluid nature of the KW culture and its willingness to adapt. The offices will be used primarily, however, because there will be room in them for larger presentations and will be able to hold enough seats of all persons registered for the courses. But if a large groups wants have its own private course, KW agents will gladly assemble and meet at the specific destination because they focus on providing a service oriented in team work and relationship building.

"The landscape is nuanced," as Lindner (2015) states -- and it is complicated by the fact that people no longer need or want to shop in traditional venues. With the rise of the Digital Age and the Internet, new channels have opened that service providers should exploit in order to tap into market segments.

Thus, Internet channels will also be used that provide streaming or video hosting of education classes for the public so that registrants can receive this knowledge for free without having to leave their home. This can be provided through the KW website and registrants will be given a passcode after signing up for the classes and providing information about themselves that can be used later to incorporate them into the lead generation strategies of the agents and affiliates participating in this service program. While people like reaching out because it gives them access to other segments (to the different ideas and peoples of places unapproached before), as Lindner notes, people also still want to maintain their own local sense of identity -- their own locally produced concept of self: and this is also KW's goal. Far and away, the majority of people polled tell Lindner (2015) that "they feel proud of their country's identity," and this is an idea that KW should tap into through its Digital channels on the Internet so as to secure a greater and wider field of new buyers and investors in the real estate market.

Therefore, for local marketers, going deep means tapping into that identity -- a brand is meaningless to KW otherwise: if it does not reflect the local culture's ideals, sentiments or belief-system. It is a crude currency that none will accept. Thus, as Lindner states, brands must "go deep" or flounder and perish, and this is exactly what KW must do in order to strengthen and dominate its position.

8. Marketing Strategy -- Promotion

The promotional strategy will embrace integrated marketing communications by including a consistent message to stakeholders, which is that KW is a family of agents who work together to strengthen and build their relationship with clients across the region. Using education as a tool to promote this industry, these agents will excel at having all the knowledge needed to give potential clients what they are looking for when it comes to buying a home. They won't want to go anywhere else.

The mix of advertising that will be used will include social media, PR (in the form of social events where KW agents and affiliates will host, support or patronize, sales promotion (which include holding open houses and tours), direct marketing which is what the service will primarily embrace, and personal selling, which is what will occur after the free service has been concluded and it becomes time for the agent to generate the leads based on the participating registrants and their level of commitment to buying, selling or investing.