Technology and innovation has disrupted almost every industry in the past 15 years. One exception has been real estate, where legacy revenue models, commission practices and embedded behaviors have served as barriers to better consumer experiences. In short, the dated financial model of the industry created no incentive for change.

One leader in New York’s prestigious real estate market realized there was an opportunity to force innovation from the inside out. By embracing a revenue model devoid of legacy commission structures, a new consumer-led experience was created, born out of a service paradigm instead of a self-interest paradigm. With the baseline shape of the business in place, Combo was brought on board to design the product, create the brand and articulate the name and experience from the ground up.

Added to the dated business model was a complete lack of recognition for the most valuable segment of buyers, notably women, and in particular, single women. Accounting for 91% of overall decision making in real estate and with single women closing at twice the rate of single men ©, the most critical audience in the industry was generally being ignored. Combo strategists worked quickly to align to this audience’s unmet needs and helped ensure the brand design and user experience was reflective of the ignored opportunity.

Once baseline audience personas had been developed, primary and secondary research was executed that unlocked the core audience needs and helped drive immersive personalization logic within the product user experience, brand and marketing activations.

Few things are more sacrosanct than a person’s home, and so recognizing the legacy barriers of real estate and the invisible role great technology should play, the name Combo developed was born out of synergistic expression of familiarity and originality.

Utilizing Combo’s learnings from psychographic behaviors within dating apps, the Casa Blanca experience was built around a marriage of personalized shopping experience and engaging but respectful agent communications tools.

The brand and product ecosystem Combo designers developed was grounded in a calming and intuitive user experience and contrasted against the harried and frenetic category key-off codes. As such, kinship brands were more reflective of pioneers such as The Gentlewoman, MiuMiu and Apartamento magazine. By acknowledging and celebrating female home buyers, the brand’s strategic objective was to empower even more women to buy homes.