I'm goodlooking and therefore trustworthy

: Sherrie Perkovich

I was reading through a copy of the San Francisco Business Times the other day. Every now and then they have a special section on real estate and living in the Bay Area. Having a client in that space, I read on. In between the articles, I began to notice the advertising. And then I began to un-notice the advertising. Every single brokerage, firm, etc…all of their ads looked the same, down to the font or should I say fonts used.

At what point in history did it become a requirement to place real estate agents and brokers photo’s in the ads. You see them everywhere. Its almost as if that by seeing the person’s face, you’ll immediately judge them to be a trustworthy firm/person and you should give them business because of it. When everyone in the space is doing the same thing, how can anyone differentiate who is trustworthy and who is not?

A perfect example of this was found on back to back full page ads. One for Coldwell Banker and the other for McGuire Real Estate. Each feature a collage of photos of their “top performers” designed in a way that made me think of my grade school class photo. The only real difference being that Coldwell Banker ponied up for the full color ad. Now I by no means am isolating these two fine companies as the only two violators, I’m merely holding them up as examples of what everyone in the industry is doing. Just like in school when a teacher would give you a detention as an example to everyone else. Or was that just me?

I have an few ideas. Instead of plastering your photo all over your communications, whether they be print ads, business cards or your website, try differentiating your company and break away from the pack. This includes getting rid of the high school yearbook, trying with all your might to not use a photo of the Golden Gate Bridge or having so many properties in your ad they all look the same and it resembles a Sears catalog from 1965.

Go out with a strong brand message and reinforce it with everything you do. Do that, and it won’t matter what your face looks like. And you’ll still get voted homecoming king and queen.