Varumärket och dess roll för fastighetsmäklarföretag

Sammanfattning: The brand and its role in real estate agencies This survey investigates how well known brands are in real estate agencies in Stockholm, Malmö, Helsingborg and Lund. The survey also aims to look into employees’ attitude towards their company’s brand. The degree of correspondence between the customers’ expectations and their actual experience after doing business with the company has also been studied. The results of the survey to companies show that there are differences in brand knowledge and the use of brand marketing depending on the type of company. Brand is a well known term among most of the companies that took part in the survey, but investments in brand marketing differs. Franchise companies have the best knowledge regarding brand as a term. This can depend on that working with the brand is centralized and that they have the conditions for efficient communication and through that get the customers to understand the company in the way that the company wishes. A smaller share among other chain companies, compared to franchise companies, considers that the brand is a well known term. Smaller firms have the smallest share that considers the brand being a well known term. To what extent the company focuses on its brand, depends on the amount of resources as well as how the company is organized. By using information material about the values, profile and marketing campaigns of the company and by giving internal education continuously, the company has the right conditions for creating a homogeneous internal communication that also leads to a homogenous external communication. Chain companies as well as franchise companies seem to have a more developed and active brand strategy. However, the internal communication process seems slower. The use of a central unit gives opportunities to create a homogeneous communication but this presupposes that the information reaches out to the whole organisation. Smaller firms are less active with using information material and internal education. These results can be caused by a smaller need for using information material in smaller companies since other communication channels might be preferred. Smaller companies tend to lack resources such as capital, knowledge and time for an active work with the brand and by that have it harder to compete with larger companies. At the same time larger companies with more resources have to organize the work correctly for being effective so the results of the brand work is well anchored internally. Regardless of how well you communicate the brand internally, one has to work on communicating the same thing to the customers and make sure that the customers will get the same image of the company that the company strives for. A homogenous brand demands that all personnel communicate the same qualities and values. To be professional, have great experience and market knowledge are qualities that the companies wish to communicate. In brand developing, some qualities might have to be strengthened. The survey shows that the companies want to improve in terms of thinking in new ways and increase their availability. To be able to offer good customer solutions is a quality the companies also want to strengthen. Understanding what qualities one thinks the company communicates differs with gender and age of the personnel. This can explain why the personnel understand and communicate the company’s brand in different ways.