QR Codes, The Mobile Web and Real Estate

Whether or not actively house hunting, who hasn’t happened across a ‘For Sale’ sign followed by a quick glance at its exterior, then wanted to know more? How many bedrooms and baths? When was the electrical upgraded and that stucco applied? What about the quality of the local public schools? The price?

Your likely option is to call the number on the sign to leave your information with an anonymous operator. Alternatively, you type the long URL (if there’s one printed on the sign) into your smartphone browser only to be connected to a website built for the traditional web and therefore not readable on you device. So you wait for that return phone call. Just like you did in the last century.

But the future is now. This is the age of connectivity where digital space is no longer a mere channel, but inherent to the brand. Today, consumers are long accustomed to getting information they want or need now. And with the breathtaking growth of cellular technology (to wit: smartphones sales are on course to outsell desktop computers before the end of 2011), they also expect to access information when and where they choose.

Enter Clikbrix—the marriage of QR technology, the mobile web and on-demand content with the power to transform the real estate marketing space. So when you’re on the sidewalk standing in front of that house, instead of calling the number with your smartphone, you scan the Clikbrix QR Code with it. Instantly you find out the house has three bathrooms and five bedrooms. That the electrical was overhauled and exterior stuccoed last year, and it’s listed at $675K. You further discover that the address qualifies for one of the city’s best public schools a couple streets away. More importantly, you learn that the agent, Sara Smitherman, is the neighborhood expert who also volunteers at the local community centre and has a penchant for pre War architecture.

Quite simply, Clikbrix affords the ability and utility to connect prospective buyers with meaningful information and professional sales representatives anywhere, anytime… from the sidewalk or sofa.

Yet even amid the meteoric rise of mobile—where 23% of all mobile devices in North America are smart phones (a 52% increase from 2009) means endless marketing opportunities to enhance any brand—the risk is a deluge of data.

Consider that every 18 months for the last decade, as recently reported by The New York Times, the world has doubled the data it pushes to you. "Twice as much email, twice as many friend requests, twice as many sites to check, twice as many devices. When does the mind lose the ability to keep up?"

Today’s audience—your prospective home and property buyers—subjected to endless streams and fragments of messages, is highly selective and skeptical of brands and promises. We’ve moved from an era of ‘trust me’ to a time of ‘show me’, an existential challenge to the practice of perception management.

Amid an industry climate where real estate professionals are increasingly looking for even more ways to differentiate, to stay fresh and relevant, the rules of marketing and competition have changed. Brand conviction is more critical to success than ever before. The playing field for added value has changed too, spotlighting the need for strategic, efficient communications.

But at this intersection of lifestyle and technology what matters most is trust. No longer mere reflections, the most effective identity touch-points engage you, allow you to respond to their tone, style and content, and encourage you to recognize yourself within them.

Which is why we conceived Clikbrix, deliberately fusing high tech with high touch. That is, framing the technology for the prospective homebuyer as an intuitive, end-to-end, user experience that amplifies both agent and agency as brand.

Today it’s vital that the authentic values of anyone selling anything align with those of the prospective buyer—never before has the climate been so transparent. So, understanding consumer behavior, in tandem with evolving marketing needs of real estate professionals, is our guiding light. Amid this crowded marketplace and deluge of data, Clikbrix enables you to efficiently, affordably and instantly express yourself as a real estate expert and to tell your story.

We’re committed to making digital tangible through connecting all the relevant dots. Clikbrix robust system offers the very best in design, technology and product innovation with the unique, built-in ability to instantly connect people via QR Code technology.

No question smartphones will continue to transform life. Consumers are consolidating their brand choices and ultimately selecting the ones that reflect not only their realities, but their aspiration and values as well. No surprise that 78% of consumers, as reported in a study by Interbrand in 2008, choose brands that represent their aspirations.

In one of his recent blog posts, this century’s marketing guru Seth Godin aptly sums it up— “…getting people and organizations in sync is the project of our times.”