Everyone thinks they're a marketer

Ensuring brand consistency is no simple feat. Everyone has their own eye and their own opinion on what looks good. This can be hair-pulling stuff for franchised brands, and especially for its brand manager and marketing executives, designers and content creators.

Customers expect consistency when they choose a household name. If you walked into a McDonalds and the signature Golden Arches were nowhere to be seen, how would you feel? In addition, how do you keep small business owners in-line when they’re so heavily invested in their own personal brand?

The Ray White yellow is what customers expect; how does the Ray White Marketing team ensure that vendors and buyers are receiving what they signed up for?

Wrangling 15,000 astute members into one set of consistent brand guidelines is the focus of Ray White’s brand manager, David Williamson, who has been in the marketing team for over five years. Daily, the marketing team is faced with ‘rogue’ iterations of the Ray White look - small, sometimes indistinguishable changes to painstakingly created templates.

“We acknowledge that our agents and their teams are creative and have a strong desire to set themselves apart from the rest of the industry and make a name for themselves,” David says. “It’s our job to ensure they feel their personal brand is represented, while remaining within the guidelines of ours.”

Ray White offers thousands of templates to its members through its click-of-a-button marketing tools - print and digital assets from social media templates through to listing presentations, DLs, brochures, agent marketing materials and even recipe cards. It’s a huge undertaking, underpinned by a fully integrated tech system that pulls relevant information from listings and market/suburb insights.

But sometimes an agent wants to be set apart from the rest - which is where the Ray White Marketing team ‘fee-for-service’ offering comes in. The team operates like a creative agency for over 1,000 offices, should they want it, where designers can be briefed on specialty projects or materials, and complete projects at a fixed hourly rate. This ensures the Ray White brand guidelines are followed, with the scope to individualise based on the agent or business’ needs. The team sets the parameters, and ensures brand consistency isn’t jeopardised.

Damien Misso, Principal of Ray White Woody Point, often utilises this offering.

“We can rely on any designs we receive being on brand, and it's good knowing the team we're working with have our interests at the top of mind,” Damien says.

“The design team expertly uses the Ray White brand while also being able to showcase our individual skills and personality.”

In a world where design tools and tips are at our fingertips and everyone is a content creator, it’s tough to run a tight ship when it comes to being the largest franchised real estate company in the country.

Ray White Design Manager, Jackie Smith, has seen the fee-for-service offering grow and change during her five years with her group.

"Ray White offers a wide range of fantastic templates for members, but sometimes something unique is needed,” she said.

“That's where our service comes in. The design team is dedicated to the Ray White brand, so when tasked with creating something bespoke, we ensure it will be on-brand yet personally tailored."

“We’ve struck the right balance, I think”, David Williamson says.

“Our agents aren’t a homogenous group. We want their businesses, suburbs and points of difference to set them apart. But we’ve been able to put a system in place that means they’re happy that design stays squarely in the hands of the marketing team. Our little yellow logo punches above its weight in a big industry.”