Nick Hughes talks about brands in real estate

April 18, 2026|Kim's Blog, Management Skills, Marketing, Property, Strategy|

Nick Hughes was my interview guest at the April Profile | Property Marketing Forum event. It was good to see so many property, legal, consultancy and design people from both Profile and Home – PM Forum attending. Thanks to the team at Trowers & Hamlin lawyers for their excellent hospitality hosting the event. And also to Neha Sawjani | LinkedIn and Morag Campbell | LinkedIn from PM Forum for organising. Profile Property Marketing – Nick Hughes talks about brands in real estate

It’s hard to capture the essence of the rich and story-laden material shared by Nick – but I’ve tried to extract some key themes.

About Nick Hughes

Nick started his career working in creative agencies. He spent three years as Global Head of Marketing Communications at Knight Frank Estate Agents | London & UK Property Experts. And then took the reigns as Director of Marketing and Communications for SEGRO for a decade.

In 2024, he established his consultancy and worked with Global Commercial Real Estate Services | Newmark (incorporating Gerald Eve).

Nick is a Fellow of the Chartered Institute of Marketing, has an MBA and is a professional mentor.

Nick Hughes Consulting

Kim Tasso’s journey in property brands

Snap! I’m also a Fellow of the Chartered Institute of Marketing (FCIM), have an MBA and qualified as a coach/mentor. It was interesting to compare my journey on property brands with Nick’s…

I had a three-year stint heading up the marketing team and a rebranding project at Weatherall Green & Smith (10 offices across the UK). I then helped them manage mergers with French and German property consultancies – which ultimately were all absorbed into BNP Banque Paribas Real Estate.

During this time, I forged my links with Estates Gazette and secured a monthly column on marketing topics. And then wrote two books under the EG label (Media relations in property – Kim Tasso and Graham Norwood and Growing your property partnership – Plans, Promotion and People.

I’ve been lucky to have spent some fascinating time working on MBD strategy with the rural team at Savills. And I had a long association with Stiles Harold Williams in the South East. More recently I’ve been working with Carter Jonas on business development. I’ve also been Non-Executive Director of three fast-growing property consultancies in both residential and commercial markets. Property – Kim Tasso and Non-Executive Director – Kim Tasso and her roles

Before Nick joined, I had done some work with Segro’s former incarnation – Slough Estates. The “brand” story was interesting – it was originally a close-to-Heathrow storage area for unused trucks and tanks. I still remember how the air smelt there thanks to the constant sugar processing at the Mars factory which dominated the original industrial estate.

Kaleidoscope of brand applications in property

The real estate market presents some particular challenges for branding.

For example, we have both B2C consumer (residential) and B2B business (commercial) markets.

And there are differences in the various asset classes – industrial, office, retail, rural – each with their own culture, language, networks and preferences. Not to mention social housing.

We have both tangible bricks and mortar PropCos and intangible services consultancies.

In services, we have the deal-oriented agent approach and the problem-solving professional mindset.

We also have the additional challenge of location – and the placemaking approaches that have evolved. What is Placemaking?

And sometimes we have to manage the tension between personal and corporate brands…

Culture wars and mergers

Peter Drucker famously said “Culture eats strategy for breakfast”. And it’s just as true for brand strategy.

Our discussion here nearly descended into aspects of the manosphere (when discussing market research into the reasons for online gambling) so I’ll be careful with what I share.

Nick reflected on the challenge of integrating cultures and brands through mergers. He reflected that when he worked at Segro there were three tribes – Slough Estates, Brixton and the newer Segro folk. They had different ways of working and thinking – and it was a challenge to find similarities and forge alignment.

He also talked about when Global Commercial Real Estate Services | Newmark absorbed top UK-based real estate advisory firm Gerald Eve. With a strategy focused on “buy the best” but little beyond that. (Newmark Acquires Top UK-Based Real Estate Advisory Firm… | Newmark)

Working with culture champions, culture carriers and revolutionary renegades (or, as one audience participant described it “herding cats”) is all part of the fun.

Board and partnership support for brand

While the culture of partnerships and corporate entities vary significantly in many ways – there is always the need for strong support for brand strategy from leadership.

Partnerships can have many partners who need to be educated, coaxed and cajoled into understanding the broad scope and long-term investment in brand strategy. Yet in a corporate structure, there is a need to prove the financial returns to distant shareholders too.

So marketing professionals often have to adopt an educator role – explaining the value of brands, showing how growth and the overall strategy is supported by brands and maintaining interest and momentum. So we must hone our influencing skills Buy in – Influence and Persuasion Toolbox – Kim Tasso

Internal brand communications

The education, engagement and energy on brands continues throughout the whole organisation – and is especially important in professional services firms which often comprise multiple divisions facing different markets and challenges.

Nick was clear that this role must be led and shaped by marketing communications professionals while acknowledging that human resources and learning and development teams have a valuable role to play in this endeavour.

Archetypes to support brand positioning

As a psychotherapist, I appreciate the work of Jung and archetypes – and often use them to help clients in therapy.

Nick talked about how he used archetypes to identify a suitable market position for Segro. Brand Archetypes Explained: The 12 Archetypes. He conducted workshops to help them select a suitable archetype and positioning. There was some surprise (and initial resistance) at the choice of creator for a logistics leviathan. But that is what Segro did – create spaces where tenant businesses could flourish.

Behavioural science and brands

It was encouraging to hear how Nick incorporates behavioural science into his marketing and branding work.

When prompted for his recommended reading in this area he shared the following:

Rory Sutherland In particular his book “Alchemy: The Magic of Original Thinking in a World of Mind-Numbing Conformity”. I was pleased to hear this as one of my all-time favourite books remains “Ogilvy on Advertising” by David Ogilvy – who is also from the Ogilvy and Mather stable. (Mind you, I have a couple of long-time close friends from Wolff Olins so I have to mention them too!)
“Thinking, Fast and Slow” by Daniel Kahneman (Nick mentioned System 1 (fast emotional thinking) and System 2 (slow rational thinking) – which Nick says is essential reading for everyone in brand, marketing and communications
And on right and left brain thinking “The Master and His Emissary: The Divided Brain and the Making of the Western World” by Iain Mcgilchrist
“The Choice Factory: 25 behavioural biases that influence what we buy” by Richard Shotton
I would add Book review: Nudge: Improving decisions about health, wealth

With regards to modern brand education, Nick reported that he had favourable feedback from his people who had attended Ritson’s Mini MBA in brand management (MiniMBA in Brand Management with Mark Ritson) course which covers:

The What and why of brand – concept, brand equity, brand salience
Brand management – management, planning and building
Brand diagnosis – heritage, founders, research
Targeting – target and mass marketing, two speed planning, the long and the short
Brand positioning – relative differentiation, positioning statements, articulation
Brand codes – distinctiveness, salience, codifying, brand execution
Brand objectives – funnel building, strategic goals, brand strategy
Brand architecture – portfolios, consolidation, diversification
Tactical execution – disruptive consistency, codification, exemplars
Budgeting and brand tracking – setting the branding budget, zero-based budgets, brand health

Future brand trends

We touched on some of the trends likely to affect the future of brands

Nick mentioned Past forward: The modern rethinking of marketing’s core | McKinsey “Our report reveals 94 percent of European marketing organizations are yet to advance their gen AI maturity, often hampered by cautious leadership, limited know-how, and scattered initiatives. But the 6 percent of marketing executives who describe their company’s use of gen AI as mature are reaping serious rewards: they have already seen 22 percent efficiency gains, which they often reinvest in growth, and expect gains to hit 28 percent within two years”.

The same report showed the top priorities as: branding (moving from brand-only campaigns to full-funnel programs that combine long-term equity building with immediate sales triggers), budget management, data privacy, authenticity and employer branding. Key themes: Be trusted, Be effective and Be Bold.

He touched on another Mckinsey report – The changing role of the CMO | McKinsey – that found that only 30% of CMOs thought their CEOs understood modern marketing, whereas 65% of the CEOs thought they did. Hence Nick stressed the importance of being a patient tutor or advocate for marketing within an organisation.

Naturally, the digital revolution continues to impact all brands – including those in property and real estate. As an increasingly large part of the client’s brand experience will be online – through web sites, emails and social media – so we must adapt our brand communications. Yet the property sector retains its preference for in person, face-to-face communications that are the foundation of strong relationships. Maintaining the dual focus – online and in person – adds significantly to the load of the modern real estate communications professional.

Nick reflected that whilst sustainability has been a growing trend in recent years, many investors and shareholders weren’t that fussed. So while brand owners struggle to incorporate key values such as sustainability, purpose, social responsibility and DEI it was hard to do so with waning interest in these areas in some markets.

It was felt that it was more important for brands to be authentic. Before the session, I’d asked a leading designer about his thoughts on future brand trends and he had commented that in this AI-generated and increasingly fragmented yet commoditised information economy there was a need for transparency and trust. This can only be achieved by skilled marketing communications and messaging.

(I’ve just seen a quote from Elliott Moss – Chief Brand Officer at Mishcon de Reya “Dissonance kills brands – whether it’s between internal and external messaging, or between what you say and what you do”. Strategic marketing case study – Brand at Mishcon de Reya)

Amplifiers, ambassadors and outliers

The digital age accelerated the rise of the personal brand.

The real estate sector had always had prominent characters driving awareness. For example: the Reuben brothers, Livingstone brothers (London), Candy brothers, Earl Cadogan, Jon Hunt (Foxtons), Sir Stuart Lipton (Broadgate), Simon Carter (British Land), Vanessa Hale (Real Estate UK), Peter Wetherall (Mayfair guru), the Swires and Michael Slade OBE (Helical Bar). Check out Property Week Hall of Fame | Property Week

There’s huge value in employee engagement amplifying the firm’s brand through personal pages and sharing the firm and colleagues’ content. However, there are also downsides where individuals decide to plough their own furrow and promote their personal brand at the expense of others.

(I’d like to mention here the fabulous work of Diversity in Real Estate promoting female brands LinkedIn personal branding for women in real estate – Kim Tasso)

Developing, implementing, protecting and ‘policing’ brand values and voice is an increasingly challenging role for marketing communications professionals. Nick referred several times to the need for positive “leadership communications”.

Inhouse or agency?

As Nick has been both sides of the fence, I asked him about his views on the skills needed by the inhouse brand and communications team and those secured through external consultancies and agencies.

Nick felt that best practice had evolved over time, as needs changed. But was an advocate for appointing strong agencies for specific projects as required to supplement internal resources.

Property brands to watch

Cheekily, I asked Nick about his favourite property brands (beyond those he worked for, obviously). He was bold in his response:

Savills at the large end – they were the main competitor when he was at Knight Frank Savills UK | Savills takes top spot in UK Superbrands list for 16th consecutive year
Home | Landsec – who jostled for top position as the leading FTSE PropCo with Segro and now has high-quality brand and marketing professionals in the team
And City consultancy Compton who he feels “really get branding”