Real Estate Branding:Century 21

One of the first businessmen to perceive the power of branding and franchising,Arthur E. Bartlett,died in Coronado,California recently.Mr.Bartlett,76,co-founded Century 21,a real estate franchiser,with Marshall Fisher in 1971.Bartlett and Fisher encouraged local agents to come under the Century 21 brand,in order to build and participate in the prestige of a big name brand.Consumers have more confidence in the big brands,Mr.Bartlett observed.That applies as much to real estate as anything else.Franchising gives the small businessman a way to survive in our brand-conscious world.
Century 21 established itself by franchising to experienced agents,rather than recruiting novices.This gave it a considerable edge in the marketplace.The company was sold to TransWorld Corporation in 1978.Eventually,it was folded into Realogy,which is a multi-national,diversified real estate enterprise within a private equity portfolio.Realogy traded briefly on the NYSE,but was quickly acquired by Apollo Management Group,L.P.,a leading private equity firm.