Revolutionizing Home Experience: Drew & Jonathan's Trust-Building Innovations and Media Strategy

Blueprint 2024 | Drew and Jonathan have developed and expanded their home-focused brand over the last 10 plus years which now has a presence in 150 countries and over 10,000 products generating nearly $1 billion in sales. They are focused on content-driven sales tactics and technologies that enhance the home experience, which has been an underinvested area. This includes opportunities in commercial and multifamily real estate.

Drew , “The home should work for you” It doesn’t matter if you’re buying, selling, renting. These moments are already stressful for owners and renters. Residents should be able to live in a home they enjoy, feel safe and be comfortable. This should be our goal, or mission in multifamily through every interaction with every individual.

When it comes to venture capital experience, the brother’s focus on early stage companies with strong technologies that enhance the home experience. They partner with firms like Groundbreak Ventures and Hopewell to leverage their real estate expertise. They specifically focus on opportunities that are not just flashy and cool, but have a true concrete business plan which can solve a need.

The brothers fully share one of their company policies is a “No Asshole Policy” which they stick too. One can have a very cool product, and be serving a need, but if one doesn’t have a true genuine ability to build a partnership, the opportunity will not come to fruition. Their brand is built on trust and they will never comprise on integrity.

Couldn’t we all lean in and appreciate the core value the brothers live by? Our industry is very large, but small. When we continue to build partnerships with others in the industry we genuinely want to all work with amazing, transparent, trustworthy companies and teams.

Shifting to Marketing and Media

Lessons from Drew and Jonathan media experience include the need for clear messaging, creating engaging content, and staying open-minded to emerging technologies like AI and virtual shopping.

The brothers shared their companies marketing strategy includes and is built on relationships, its about the long term haul. Multifamily can truly understand and agree our industry is closely aligned in terms of a relationships and true partnerships where there is a two way street as well as the long term goal, not serving the need to reach a goal immediately.

Both Drew and Jonathan expressed the importance of maintaining clear business pillars and messaging to avoid confusion among consumers and investors. They highlight the media's role in promoting their message but note that negative events often receive more attention than positive ones. Engaging the audience requires innovative, entertaining content rather than traditional advertisements, adapting to various platforms. Real-time marketing moments are the moments that must be taken advantage of. Remember the Stanley Real-Time moment? The car was on fire, but the Stanley cup survived and went viral.

The two sides to media, specifically social media. Media can help drive the message that a brand wants, which is a positive however the downside of our current culture is people are still really excited about drama. If a service, experience or even product fails, the exposure can get more organic coverage in a perspective that is not positive. The effort should be focused on the roll out prior to releasing.

Consumers want to see and engage with brands that are more than just a “commercial” or an “endorsement” The Brothers share people don't want something long and drawn out. Brands must speak to their audience according to the media channel that fits best. Know your audience and speak their language without shoving a brand message down their throat. Brands must continue to relate their stories to the consumer and emote emotion and humanize the experience. “If you can find content that people want to share, or if you find in a commercial that people want to talk about it, you can't buy that kind of market.” Create these moments where the audience wants to engage; this requires innovation, real time moments and adapting to various platforms.

The Future: Social/Virtual Selling:

AI is a topic that continues to be talked about in every conversation, however no one knows how AI will shake out at this point. We are all continuously learning and watching it develop in from of our own eyes. Virtual selling, real time shopping is where Drew shares his biggest interest. Drew continues to bring the knowledge of other markets like Asia are already dipping their toes into this concept. We have yet to figure out the the intricacies, however when you think about the possibilities, when watching content on TV, how can we shop simultaneously. We currently do this in some capacity, but it is on a separate device where the future is watching content on TV and being able to scan from the TV to purchase directly.

Nobody likes change, change is hard. We must stay open minded, stay passionate, fine good partners, that you can trust and finally make sure there is real business model.