The luxury customer is sought after not only for their capacity to generate significant revenue but because of their reputation as tastemakers, which can enhance brand recognition and prestige. Unsurprisingly, these customers are extremely discerning about which brands they associate with, and the ability to understand their needs and speak their language is paramount. That capability is the reason Luxury Portfolio International has been able to establish itself as the world’s leading network of independently run luxury real estate brokerages.
Impeccable Pedigree in the Luxury World Sets the Luxury Portfolio Team Apart
Luxury Portfolio president Mickey Alam Khan has elevated Luxury Portfolio by drawing on his rich background in the luxury world. A publisher and editor by training, he ran influential publications for two decades. During the pandemic, he decided to expand from his media roots and merged his publication, Luxury Daily, with Luxury Portfolio and turned his eye to the world of upscale real estate.
Over the past two-and-a-half years, he has built a new team to help deliver an upgraded level of customized marketing and intelligence services to the network’s accomplished agents.
“While the team I’ve assembled understands real estate on a deep level, we are not ‘real estate people,’ per se,” Alam Khan explains. Instead, they are a well-rounded group of luxury marketers who understand the lifestyle and can thus provide the services agents need to succeed.
“Real estate is one of many industries that frequently finds itself talking to an echo chamber,” he says. In fact, when he goes to conferences or examines other firms’ materials, he sees the industry is often recycling the same old, tired ideas. “It needs to seek fresh thinking, which is what we offer.”
Alam Khan’s team includes professionals who have worked in aspirational fields such as luxury retail, hospitality, fashion, furnishings and high-end commercial real estate, among others, and can apply this well-honed lifestyle perspective to real estate.
Their deep understanding of the luxury real estate buyer profile allows them to create affiliated events for some of the world’s most prominent brands and thus connect them with like-minded customers, including their coveted upper-echelon real estate clients. Through their Luxe Connoisseur brand collaboration program, Luxury Portfolio has held a fashion shoot with Neiman Marcus, a showcase of Bentley vehicles, and a co-branded gifting candle with Diptyque.
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A Wealth of Resources Bolster Broker Team
With that type of marketing acumen behind the brokers, Luxury Portfolio is clearly an attractive network. However, not just anyone can be an Luxury Portfolio broker, with stringent requirements that ensure it remains an exclusive, undiluted pool. Members must be independent, have great marketshare, brand presence, and top volume. The upshot of these exacting standards? Luxury Portfolio only added 20 new members in 2022, taking the total number of brokerages to over 250 within the global network.
Alam Khan and his team are equipped to serve as knowledgeable advisors to the successful brokers who are accepted into the Luxury Portfolio family. “We help them with networking, business development and knowledge sharing,” he explains. “Everything we do is geared to these three pinnacles, but we approach it in an elevated, bespoke manner, unlike cookie-cutter solutions some rivals may offer.”
He believes the soaring market during the pandemic served to turn many brokers into order takers, rather than salespeople, but today, those with the right skills will shine. “Our agents need to be polished; in fact, we compare the real estate sales experience to that of shopping in a designer boutique. A Gucci associate doesn’t immediately start selling,” he points out. “They let you browse and then make conversation based on commonalities. These are the skills we teach Luxury Portfolio agents.”
When an affiliated broker is competing in an intense pitch for a marquee property, they can call on the Luxury Portfolio marketing team, who will brainstorm a customized solution and present an impressive and comprehensive marketing proposal designed to showcase the extra level of competence that agent will bring to the property. “We let the client know we will have their back should they award the listing to our brokerage. The fundamental difference is that we have a personal stake in customer acquisition, whereas our competitors are not as deeply entwined.”
Once the Luxury Portfolio member brokerage wins the listing, the Luxury Portfolio team deploys its significant talent to ensure the property receives the visibility it deserves.
That includes amplifying it to a highly engaged audience through a full suite of integrated marketing channels – from drafting engaging listings to creating high-quality videos and attention-getting social media posts. They also handle an impressive level of public relations outreach before a property even hits the market to help create anticipation and demand.
Luxury Portfolio’s esteemed content offerings also include the ambitious magazine, Luxury Portfolio, which offers in-depth editorial content in four sections – real estate, lifestyle, design and travel – interspersed with advertising. The result is a coffee-table-quality piece, worthy of display, that is sent to high-value affluent consumers around the world.
It helps set them apart, Alam Khan notes, specifically because it’s tangible, rather than digital. “Affluent people own things – jewelry, art, yachts, planes, cars, furnishings. Print is still relevant in this market, and first impressions matter, so we use the finest paper, distinctive photography and intriguing copy.”
A Prestigious Difference
Real estate is one of the top three most expensive holdings in a consumer’s portfolio, along with art and financial holdings. Just as they rely on art consultants and financial advisors, Luxury Portfolio agents aim to be on that level as they assist with real estate transactions. “These clients are used to elevated experiences, whether they’re purchasing a Gulfstream plane or meeting with a president. We are there to earn their trust, which helps us earn their listings,” Alam Khan says.
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This article was produced by The Real Deal’s Brand Studio Team in conjunction with Luxury Portfolio. For more information about working with our Brand Studio Team please click here.