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Web Wise
Log In to Convenience on the WRA Web Site
Have you created an account on the WRA Web site? More than 3,100 members have accounts, giving them access to myWRA and legal services content. Creating an account also enhances the online registration and product purchasing experience by auto filling the form and ensuring member pricing. We have recently made some changes that improve management of your account.
- Now there is a "Log In" link at the top of every Web page. When you are logged in, the link changes to "Log Out". When you are finished using the site, just hit the "Log Out" link and it will log you out. This is a nice enhancement for people who share computers, as they do not need to close the browser or Internet connection in order to allow someone else to log in.
- If you have an account and you want to change your username, password and/or hint, you can do it online at the WRA Web site. Just click the "Log In" link then the "Create/Update Account" link. Simply fill in all of the fields and your Web site account will be changed.
- When you create or change an account you will receive an email response. The e-mail will list your username and password for your records. Please retain this information for your records.
- Your myWRA Account Info page now displays your current WRA Web site account information for your review. Of course you have to be logged in to review the myWRA Account information, but if you decide you want to change your username, password and or hint, just click on the link provided.
- Want to create an account but you don't know your WRA member ID? Now there's an option. In lieu of the member ID, you can use your DRL license number when creating or updating your account. You will find this number on the license card you received from the Wisconsin Department of Regulations and Licensing.
Pay Your Dues Online!
You can pay your association dues right away if you go online. When you receive your WRA dues statement in the mail, simply go to
www.wra.org and click on the button on the left labeled "Pay Your Dues Online."
WRA Convention Web site Winners
We would like to congratulate the winners of this year's online scavenger hunt and online registration drawings:
- Samanthia Ramsey with RE/Max Preferred in Baraboo won the FREE registration for convention by registering online.
- Bob Pollnow with Century 21 The Real Estate Group in Oshkosh won the $50 gift certificate at Damon's restaurant.
- Siri Jinkins with Restaino Bunbury & Associates in Madison won the $75 gift certificate at Ingraffia's restaurant at the Kalahari Resort.
- Courtney Huffhines with RE/MAX Kenosha Inc. in Kenosha won the FREE golf green free at Trappers Turn on October 6th.
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WRA Honors This Year's Best
 Barb McGill - Instructor of the Year: Barb has been a REALTORŪ since 1977 and is currently the Director of Corporate Training for First Weber Group in Brookfield. Barb has numerous professional designations, such as the ABRM, CRB, CRS, GRI and SRES. Barb has led training programs throughout Wisconsin and for national organizations throughout the United States and Canada. During the past few years, Barb's specialty has been buyer agency.
 Karen Pavlicek - CRS of the Year: Karen Pavlicek, CRS, GRI, has been in real estate since 1984. She is currently broker/owner for Eagle Deer Land Company in Siren, WI, specializing in recreational real estate development. Karen has been active in her local boards, serving as president of the Polk Burnett board in 1989, and president of the Western Wisconsin board in 1995. Currently, she is a member of the Northern Waters board. She has served on many local, state and national REALTORŪ committees, served several years as state director and two terms on the WRA Executive Committee. Karen has been active in the WI CRS Chapter and RS Council, serving on several committees. Currently, she is WI CRS treasurer and a WRA RPAC trustee.
 Neal Kedzie - 2002 Presidential Citation Award: State Representative Neal Kedzie is recognized with this award for his unwavering and effective support for REALTORSŪ and REALTORŪ issues. The support was demonstrated in the past legislative session when Rep. Kedzie, in his role as Chairman of the Assembly Environment Committee, facilitated a national model wetlands legislation that balanced preserving the environment with preserving affordable housing, economic development and community growth.
This substantial legislative effort is not unique. Neal Kedzie has supported our association, our members, our customers and our clients for his entire legislative career, earning a near perfect voting record on key REALTORŪ issues. For these reasons, the WRA has enthusiastically given Neal Kedzie our unqualified support for his candidacy for the state Senate this November. We look forward to continuing our close working relationship with Neal in the state Senate.
 Matt Miller - 2002 Distinguished Service Award: Matthew Miller is the WRA's 2001-02 Chairman of the Board. Matt is a manager for the Stark Company in Madison. Prior to that he managed a company in the Lake Geneva area for 10+ years. He holds the GRI designation.
Matt has also served as president of the Lakes Area Association, as local director from 1990-1995, and has served on and chaired numerous committees on the local level. Matt was chosen as REALTORŪ of the Year by his local board in 1992.
Matt has been very active on the state level as well. He has been a member of the Executive Committee since 1995, a director since 1991, served as RPAC Trustee, Chair of Public Policy and License Law, and served on multiple task forces throughout his years of service. Matt is also a member of the Wisconsin Land Council and serves as the REALTOR representative to On Common Ground.
 Charmaine Hawke - 2002 Distinguished Service Award: Charmaine Hawke has been in real estate since 1979, working in the Iola and Waupaca areas, and is a sales associate with Coldwell Banker The Real Estate Group, Waupaca office.
She has served on the WRA Board of Directors, chaired the Member Policy and Board Jurisdiction Committees and the Real Estate School, and served on numerous other state committees, including the nominating committee.
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Strengthening Your Brand
by Stephen M. Canale, CRB, CRS, GRI, RAM
It's official. Today's consumer relies less on brand names to make their purchasing decisions than they did in the past. In fact, since 1975 the percent of people who "try to stick" to well-known brand names has fallen 10% to 20% all age groups.
Two reasons for this trend come to mind. First of all there are more brands today than in the past, and this naturally results in dilution of the power carried by any one brand name. Secondly, in today's competitive marketplace, many companies are changing their market focus and branding techniques too frequently.
On the other hand, as products and services become more similar due to increased competition, the importance of brand recognition actually becomes more important to the small businessperson, and those in the real estate business in particular. Even with the dropping reliance on brand names, no less than 59% of consumers "try to stick" with them; and this number is as high as 73% in the higher age groups surveyed.
Therein lies the problem. While consumers rely on brand names less than in the past, they are still powerful in their ability to persuade, and businesses often need to rely on branding even more than before.
Whether you're competing for business as an individual agent or on the brokerage level, here are three simple concepts you can use to strengthen both your brand awareness, and its effectiveness, as well:
- Understand is the importance of consistency. The problem is that many businesspeople tend to try one marketing tactic or strategy and then change it if the desired results are not immediately achieved.
As most branding techniques become more effective with time, this tendency is very counter productive.
To quote advertising "Guru" Rosser Reeves: "If you run a brilliant campaign every year, but change it every year, your competitor can pass you with a campaign that's less brilliant - provided he doesn't change it."
To bring this lesson to a more personal level, answer the following questions: Which company has such quality products that their repairman never has anything to do? Who keeps on "going and going?" What is "Good to last drop?" Realize that each of these questions has in several traits in common. They represent long-running campaigns that you may not have been exposed to recently; yet you still likely knew the answer to each one because of the consistency of the branding effort over the years.
Think about the power of consistency carefully the next time you consider changing your logo, slogan, or any other substantial part of your marketing campaign.
- Frequency. Most real estate agents do not impact their prospects frequently enough to be truly successful.
Again, let me make my point by asking a simple question: If I am transferred today and must sell my home, but haven't received your newsletter or been reminded about your services during the last 60 days, what are the odds that I will I remember to call you first?
If you really expect to receive a substantial amount of business from your personal sphere of influence, including past customers and clients, then you need to make sure that you're constantly reminding them about your services.
If you want a piece of the prospect's mind, you'll have to pay for it! And, that means marketing to your prospects with more frequency than most agents and brokers realize. I personally believe that in real estate, you need to reinforce your brand in your prospects' minds every three to four weeks.
However, sending a newsletter to your sphere of influence every three weeks might be a bit much. This would not only would be very costly to implement, but the principle of "habituation" says that increased frequency of the same stimuli results in reduced recognition and response on the part of the recipient. Essentially, too much frequency can result in dilution of your message.
Thus, the importance of variety comes into play. Rather than concentrating all of your branding efforts on one medium, realize that using several marketing techniques will usually be more effective.
For instance, an annual marketing plan that calls for sending a newsletter on a quarterly basis, along with four holiday cards, ten new listing postcards, quarterly email market updates and four personal phone calls would result in twenty-six marketing impressions each year.
That's a frequency of one contact and marketing impression every two weeks, with fairly reasonable costs and without the potential of the prospect becoming desensitized to your message.
Add in the consumer's exposure to your for sale and open house signs, as well as your classified advertising, and you've got a much better chance of retaining a bit of "mind share" in the prospects that you're targeting.
To summarize, if you want your targeted prospects to remember your brand and the services that you offer, you need to maintain consistency while using variety to step up the frequency of your marketing impressions without diluting your message.
Success can be that simple!
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