Leaving on a jet plane to Scottsdale, AZ for an amazing opportunity to attend a conference with luxury real estate’s most elite agents and brokers.

Some of the highlights scheduled are:

• David Crook, Editor, The Wall Street Journal Sunday
• Michael Saunders, Michael Saunders & Company
• Andy Nelson, Willis Allen Real Estate
• Peter Rodgers, McGuire Real Estate
• HGTV Frontdoor.com
• duPont REGISTRY
• Alf Nucifora, The Luxury Marketing Council
• Michi Olson, Alain Pinel Realtors
• Peter Rabitz, WETAG Consulting

The event is being held at the Westin Kierland Spa & Resort in Scottsdale, AZ… will follow up with some further details…

below is a link to TheRealEstateBeat.com which is Luxury Portfolio’s extraordinarily insightful blog:

Many Industries Want to Follow a Zappos Model, Can We?

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Boulevard Customs was chosen as one of four custom shops worldwide to participate in a competition hosted by Mercedes-Benz to promote the upcoming release of their new GLK350. Each shop was given a new 2010 Mercedes Benz GLK and a build theme. The four categories included Rally Racer, Rock Crawler, Autobahn, and NYC Urban Whip

blvd customs

. The build up to the competition has been intense, but we’ve had fun seeing our spy rendering all over the web, and even published in Auto Week magazine.

Please Click Here and support our craftsmanship:  www.mbusa.com/glk

And TEXT here: GLK25 to 48457

All four customized GLK’s were unveiled at the Wynn Casino on November 3rd to kick off the competition being hosted at this years SEMA show in Las Vegas. All four vehicles are being displayed during the SEMA show, and will then be making their way to the world famous LA Auto Show afterwards, where they will be on display at the Mercedes Benz booth from November 19th thru 30th.

Just being a finalist in this competition is an honor …

Boulevard Customs is up against some well respected competition; including a well known competitor from Canada, as well as two factory sponsored tuners, one direct from Germany (with 350 employees!). The overall winner of the ‘GLK Tuner Challenge’ will be determined by an online and text message voting campaign starting November 3rd and ending on November 30th. Voters can only vote once from each computer and mobile phone, and we need your help! On the website there are fun and informative videos documenting each tuner and their build from start to finish so make sure to take a minute to check them out as well.

Yesterday I wrote about the iPhone and it’s imminent ubiquity. After I blogged, I read an article on a ‘free app’ that is also known as the nytimes… I will cite it later since I a ‘blogging’ on my iphone right now…the writer made a useless point about ‘how bloggers’ have nearly destroyed the written word … To this I cannot understand because it speaks to my point that I was making yesterday -

There is a huge media revolution that has been happening – and if you desire to be part of it – join in!!!

While I agree there are some grammatical atrocities out there (I am guilty of a few), the whole Internet isn’t that bad plus – the word ‘blog’ itself is not Daniel Webster approved…

The point… The generation that doesn’t pick up the ‘times’ (I do, by the way, I also pick up the WSJ, and enjoy content in both) – READING social blogs and online stuff – maybe they aren’t using a large heavy unabridged dictionary and strunk, but this is what’s happening – these are tomorrows leaders, inventers, teachers and millionaires … In sum, I try not to criticize what I cannot understand… I try and learn about it… Print will NEVER die, because there will always be people like me who like to use it, but if publishing a daily… just make sure people are allowed to use dangling participles however the choose.

Simple truths always prevail. Number one… advertising has been morphing, changing and picking up where no one ever thought was possible… Number two… if you do not adapt to the changing ‘tides’ or should I say… ‘wind shear’ – you will miss the space vessel to the next advertising mediums…

I don’t profess to know exactly what forms they will take, but I do proclaim this: I still believe PRINT, especially ‘niche-oriented,’ ‘highly-targeted’ print, will remain a special commodity for agents/brokers to broadcast highly effective messages… BUT, if you don’t believe that ‘dynamic‘ content has presented a slew of broadcasting opportunities, than you missed the launching pad and ended up at the ports. (no pun intended if you know what ports are in regards to programming).

The larger point (being a self-confessed gadget junkie – I had a PSP, a Mini-Disc player, a DAT, all the latest and greatest of cell technologies, a phonograph, a plasma TV, a DVD, HD TV with 5.1 surround, a CD burner way before they were standardized, the 1st Generation iPod that now looks like a phonograph, a Handheld Mini Cam which still operates quite well… you get the point) is if you don’t have an iPhone, (and I am not promoting it), or if you weren’t interested in one, you at least saw the lines and the public interest.

I have one – I also love Apple stuff – but I have one (not only bc of my gadget illness), but I am in a career that requires it. Everyday I offer marketing tools to agents / brokers, builders, etc. This device is not really a phone (though that is what it is marketed as). This is what our wallets, credit cards, computers, blogpads, iPods, books, televisions… are becoming… quickly… Don’t get me wrong – all of these things will still be around for a long, long, time… but so are TV’s with antennas, passenger trains, car phones, landlines, VHS tapes, cassette tapes, vinyl records, and record contracts.

I hope you get my point… I still love the sound of vinyl and riding a train… but if you can get on an airplane and be in NYC in 2 hrs while listening to every vinyl record you owned without bringing a phonograph player… why wouldn’t you get on the flight?

It occurred to me today that if you have an ‘Island Resort’ than it must be luxurious… just a random thought for a random post since I have been so completely on top of this (joke)… but… maybe there are some living resorts that aren’t luxury … so, maybe the logic only goes one direction, like… Pitcairn - it is very famous or an ‘infamous’ island in the South Pacific… I bet it’s beautiful… not sure I’d want to hang out there – maybe though… can’t rule it out… but the Bahamas… I am all over it!!!

Luxury Real Estate again proves to be such a different animal than all else that is sellable.  As I previously posted, there is a property out in Gold Beach, OR for sale by Karl Nettgen of Century 21 Agate.  The property can be seen in the 13th Anniversary Issue of the duPont REGISTRY A Buyers Gallery of Fine Homes.  The property is truly unique and quite a bargain, as previously mentioned. 

The larger point, however, is that often in a (typical) real estate transaction, a stumbling block to the closing may be the amount of bedrooms or baths – In the case above, believe it or not, it is the distance from the nearest landing strip for a private jet.  I presume it should come to no surprise to many, but it seems shocking that one would look for a jet based upon the distance to an airport or place to land your flying SUV.

Thought this was kind of interesting…

I had a great conversation with a client of mine today that clued me in on the most blatantly obvious fact. That their are a lot of people in the most AMAZING country in the world who are about to (if they haven’t already), buy some of the worlds most AMAZING property – and… you guessed it… the people are AMERICAN, and the property is in AMERICA… hmmm… but an agent might say this… “…because of the economy, because of x, because of y, all the buyers are coming from overseas…”

Now (to be clear), I am not saying that a lot of buyers aren’t coming from overseas.  What I am saying is if you are marketing a Luxury Property, do not – under ANY circumstances – underestimate the AMERICAN economy.  This point was illustrated to me by my client who told me about the Texas oil market… and the first fleeting thought was ‘how passé that was big in the 80’s’ – well, let me tell you I’m not getting rich off of the oil & gas market, but I’ll tell you this for certain – someone is… AND it isn’t ONLY from the war.

All politics aside here – this is not the forum – gas is at an all time high, right? Do you think that all the profits are being funneled to the Middle East? I beg to differ.  Their are many oil & gas tycoons who made their fortunes here in the United States of America – these could be a large uptick in a property that makes you a small fortune if you have a percentage of a commission on a luxury listing.

Did you ever get an email like this posts title? Did you ever wonder if the email that you were forwarded was something you should be reading? Further… did you ever get one of these emails that appeared to be ‘doctored’… like it really had not been forwarded? (just wondering)

Is ‘branding’ the only way to increase the odds of sustaining ones position in the marketplace? This is a veritable truth – not in selling a 20 million dollar home, but also in a world where the ‘long term’ is now seemingly the ’short term’ – People have gotten extremely impatient and demanding – look at the new iPhone… This iPhone is exactly what we all said would happen about 10 or 15 years ago… Do you remember the conversation you had when you realized that you didn’t have to go anywhere to buy anything?  I do… part of it was something like this: “someday… there will just be a device where we have all of our personal information, all of our banking information, our photos, our music…”

yup… that is the iPhone – and 10 years after this post – it will be even more portable – everything…

That is why branding is important…and that is why Apple always gets the most mileage from their product lines:

“Customization is key in the new world of branding.” With fragmented products, fragmented media and cultural diversity, it’s more important than ever to offer brands that link with the customer’s identity and customize options to keep your brand relevant to your ever evolving target. The goal is to get your target to see your brand as necessary: For instance, Starbucks is not coffee but “my coffee.”

Hmmm…that is what Jean Noel Kapferer says… 

I am no advertising expert.  I am an apprentice at best.  What I do know is this: When communicating an advertising message, be it online, on a glossy print magazine, on a classified ad or on a kiosk, it is absolutely 100%, beyond a shadow of a doubt IMPERATIVE that you speak with ONE voice.   

Personally, I have come to know this on this level… I have had the pleasure of working with a wonderful group of women in Laguna Beach, CA.  I have been actively seeking their business for about 2 years now.  I finally earned their business. (How is not the purpose of this post, but maybe next post) – What I did do, however, is watch their trend in their ‘personal branding.’  It is so absolutely EXTREMELY amazing that I would love to tell you their names, but you probably have already heard of them ; )

What I may say is this… I have seen their ‘virtual’ (web presence) grow and blossom… and once I finally convinced them wholeheartedly that I wanted to work to develop a luxury marketing campaign with the duPont REGISTRY™, I was able to design a magazine ad around their ‘already happening‘ website… 

By ‘already happening,’ I mean that it was ahead of the gorgeous print advertising they have been doing… You may ask yourself why? Also, if you have a job as someone who is in charge of circulation, paginating a magazine or ‘keeping in line’ the ‘pages’ being sold in a magazine… it would likely be a good idea that this be the main focus… after all if you have any of the aforementioned ‘jobs,’ than it would be even smarter to help in the vision and unification…

Ultimately – a previous point I made about the ‘web’ and ‘print media’ phenomenon is still the currency a few months later… which is this:  people will be looking through a paper, magazine, flyer, etc… and go to the website… AHA!!! Got it???!!! Oh I see… the website and the print ads should look closely similar… hmm…  why do I say? Because I have 4 new clients this month that I did this for… and they were absolutely blown away that it simply ‘matched’… guess that is some ‘thought for food’ : )