Watched VH1 over the weekend and was amazed by a recent Journey concert film.  Three of the original (or at least from the “iconic years”) band members were there and looking/sounding good, but Steve Perry wasn’t there…and man, they sounded exactly the same.  They had this guy, Arnel Pineda, and he nailed every Steve Perry note.  But after a few songs I got a little bored.

All Journey is doing is extending the same memories I had growing up with those songs but nothing new.  They even have a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame….the absolute kiss of death for relevance.

On the other hand, a band like U2 has the same members since 1976 and Bono can’t hit the scream notes like he used to, but they keep putting out relevant albums, filling stadiums around the globe, and, Bono is even single handedly wiping out African debt!

So tying this back to real estate and Coldwell Banker®, it’s clear we can’t be Journey.   Hey, don’t get me wrong.  I would want my yard sign in the final scene and episode of the Soprano’s.  Wouldn’t mind Glee showcasing a re-made yard sign on national TV… except that my kids would like the Glee version better (Yuk).  But nothing new.  Nostalgia vs Relevance.

So, here we are.  A 104 year old Brand with a birthday coming up in August (no presents, please, just send cake) and we are plugging away to stay on top and remain relevant so that our customers and agents get real value by associating with us.  No Journey!

So I was thrilled to see that our great, “old” brand was nominated this week for two Inman Innovator of the Year awards…our industry’s version of the MTV VMA’s.  We were nominated for our new Bluescape ^sm search function on the all-new coldwellbanker.com, and for this Blog…Coldwell Banker Blue Matter.  And, we were nominated twice last year as well, and no other national brand has been recognized as much and as often as Coldwell Banker in the field of real estate innovation!

We are nominated alongside small start up firms, venture capital-backed entities and young guns looking to change real estate…just like we are.  It’s exciting, it’s motivating, and it shows that we live our tag line, “We Never Stop Moving^tm”.  So if you are looking for the next best thing in real estate, look for us…the young at heart, 104 year old real estate firm…Coldwell Banker.

Because for Coldwell Banker Real Estate, Life’s Not a “Journey”, it’s a constant push to provide relevant value to our clients today.

(Cut to Black, music stops)

Quiz: The original lead guitarist for Journey came from what seminal late 60’s band, whose namesake was staying relevant up to the early 2000’s with monster albums in 2000 and 2002.  Post a comment with the name of that band!

Flickr photo by Σταύρος