Xome’s Brand Problems
Greg wrote about whether Xome is going to rebrand the other day.
I saw a television commercial last week during the Seahawks game advertising Xome as the official real estate app of the Seattle Seahawks.
I went to their website, and see the primary value proposition as:
Everything you need to buy and sell a home – under one roof.
Those who know the industry (like those who read this blog) know that’s a massively broad value prop that is all but impossible to deliver on. What does it even mean?
Their search experience looks like what you find on every other portal and agent/broker IDX site.
You can’t win the consumer without a differentiator. Why on earth would they spend millions of dollars to sponsor the Seahawks at this stage in the game? I have to imagine, there are better uses for that money. Like nailing the product.
Brand is not their problem. Differentiation/value is.
Sam DeBord
Posted at 15:22h, 10 JanuaryThanks for writing this, I wanted to get to it last week.
I saw the ad last week and was floored. This was a marketing budget searching for a hole to dump money in. Xome is a streamlined process with a limited service provider model and a discount/rebate. The seem to have buried the differentiation under a bland message, and posted it on one of the most expensive ad platforms.
I believe Nationstar backs it. They need some consulting on messaging. They have an angle, but they’re not talking about it upfront, and without that nobody will hear it.
It was a bit like Redfin’s new commercial. The agent finds a house where the clients’ son can overlook a female neighbor’s window. It was really off-key. It might have been cute, but I don’t know how that appeals to a potential client and it says very little about what Redfin really does well–tech.
Drew Meyers
Posted at 19:17h, 10 JanuaryWhat exactly is the angle they do have?
Sam DeBord
Posted at 09:46h, 11 JanuaryIf the consumer doesn’t mind the limited choices they have in terms of lending options and agents within their platform, the streamlined processing and discounted fees are an attractive angle to some.
Drew Meyers
Posted at 08:37h, 22 JanuaryJust saw Xome is a Diamond Sponsor at Inman Connect… man, really don’t get such a huge ad spend without any sort of noticeable differentiation. I wonder what % of traffic they get ever comes back.