LJ Hooker

Iconic real estate brand LJ Hooker is positioned as a major player in the Australian real estate industry, possessing both the legacy of a rich and successful history and a future-focused, innovative mindset.

The company identified that in today’s competitive and evolving climate, resting on past success and market dominance is no guarantee for future success. As such, LJ Hooker had to continue to evolve and differentiate from competitors.

LJ Hooker engaged TOAST to help refresh its brand identity. With a global network of 600 offices, it was essential that the brand’s key messaging was aligned across every touchpoint to create a unified brand image.

The brief was to create a unique and flexible brand proposition embedded in the business’ truth, ambition and vision while being flexible enough to support communication across a range of offerings and diverse market segments (e.g. residential vs. commercial, every kind of suburb vs. being perceived as a brand exclusively for Sydneysiders).

LJ Hooker’s messaging needed to apply from a corporate, head office level, right through to the level of specific franchisees. The tagline also needed to reflect the customer-centric values that sit at the core of the brand’s identity.

TOAST created the flexible, relatable tagline ‘When you know, you know.’

The new positioning found its roots in the famous statement from its founder Sir Leslie Joseph Hooker; “Real estate is not about houses, it’s about people”, encompassing the brand’s 92 years of industry experience, placing people, trust and results at the core.

Its purpose was also to illustrate the fact that often real estate property matters are a gut-led decision for many of us: at the point when you find the right home, you know… when you know, you know.

In terms of application, this tagline has also been created with flexibility in mind, allowing it to be customised to meet the needs of franchisees nationwide.

The outcomes of this process were summarised in a comprehensive Brand Kit, which embarked LJ Hooker’s network on the brand refresh journey and outlined clear instructions for implementation.