Welcome to Doorify with Warren McKenna (Recap)

We’re bringing you a recap of one of the most impactful conversations in real estate tech this year. If you’ve been curious about the buzz surrounding MLS systems, this episode dives into Doorify and its transformative launch. It’s all about how this rebranding is reshaping the industry.

In this conversation, Warren McKenna shares the journey behind crafting Doorify’s new identity, focusing on its mission to connect people with property. As the President & CEO of Agency McKenna, Warren collaborated with us to design a brand that balances innovation and community impact. 

We explore the importance of equity, trusted data, and how a thoughtful rebrand strengthens our connection with both professionals and consumers. Warren also touches on the year-long process of defining a clear strategy, gathering insights, and ensuring the new identity aligned with our vision. 

Don’t miss this chance to revisit a powerful discussion about how Doorify is raising the standard for MLS systems.

Specifically, this episode highlights the following themes:

• The strategic rebranding process of Triangle MLS to Dorify MLS
• The importance of accurate data and professional realtors in home sales
• Overcoming legal and strategic challenges in rebranding

Links from this episode:

• Get to know more about Warren McKenna: https://www.linkedin.com/in/warrenmckenna
• Visit Doorify MLS: https://doorifymls.org
• Learn more about Agency McKenna: https://agencymckenna.com

1ae5b43598204883b524f061d4880e6d10fca88c (for podfollow.com)

Chapters

• 0:00 Introduction
• 0:56 About Warren McKenna
• 6:02 Doorify: Revolutionizing equitable, affordable homeownership solutions
• 7:16 Fostering equity, access, and affordability in MLS
• 13:08 Creating strategic brand attributes for MLS transformation
• 14:27 Ensuring brand resonates; extensive research and strategy
• 18:57 Launched brand successfully through strategic focus groups

Transcript

Andrea Presnal [00:00:00]:
Hey, I'm Andrea Presnal, VP of Communications at Doorify MLS. This week we are revisiting our conversation with Warren McKenna and the story behind our new brand identity. We hope you enjoy listening to it as much as we enjoyed recording it.

Warren McKenna [00:00:18]:
So when we're talking about connecting people with property, really what we're talking about is creating relationships, stronger relationships with our subscribers and serving them, but also being a conduit for consumers in the marketplace, giving them trusted and accurate data that they can use to become homeowners.

Matt Fowler [00:00:46]:
Hi, everybody. Thanks for coming out today for the next version of the Triangle podcast. And we have Andrea with us today, our senior comms director, and Warren McKenna from Agency McKenna. And we're going to talk about a new project that just released yesterday, if the schedule holds. And Triangle MLS is now doorifymls.com as in, we were just saying, where there's a barrier to homeownership, to membership, we create openings, we create doors, and realtors open. I looked it up before the podcast opened doors for showings 82,000 times last month. So this is really important to us. It's our name, it's our.

Matt Fowler [00:01:26]:
It's our image, it's what we take to the marketplace. And Triangle is a venerable old name associated with Research park, of course, but in reality, Research park is a small part of two counties, and we cover 16 counties from Alamance up in the north all the way down to Smithfield in Johnston County. More than just geography, we're also talking to consumers as well. And we want them to see something that's friendlier, more approachable. So we reached out to Warren. I'm going to let him introduce himself and what he does, and we're going to talk through really quickly how we did this. More importantly, maybe why we did this. So, Warren, tell us a little about Agency McKenna.

Warren McKenna [00:02:04]:
Sure, sure. Agency McKenna is a full service agency that supports associations, trade groups, and mlss. We have a focus on real estate and the opportunity to work together with Matt and Andrea at Triangle. MLS opposed a really great fit for agency McKenna, both side, but as well as on the brand development side. So we were super excited about the opportunity. And I think one of the things that made us really intrigued about this program is being part of the strategic planning process with Matt and Andrea. And when Triangle came up with advancing equity, supporting community, and delivering excellence, we really felt that that was a really good cultural fit for agency McKenna and something that we wanted to get behind and support them. So when the branding opportunity came up to reposition and rename we said, let's do it.

Warren McKenna [00:02:56]:
We're all in. And let's make a big idea happen.

Matt Fowler [00:03:00]:
For Triangle, that's a fantastic for a marketing company. You're like, you have a legitimate for real story I'm making up, you know, it's under told out there. So Doorify was identified as a way to just say, look, we've changed and we'd like to open these stores. So I think the big why was about making the MLS value proposition that anybody can list a house and everybody gets it at the same time. And we're B2B 2C. We're also empowering that B in the middle to tell that story with these new brands. So after Dofi, Warren, after Doorify, it's got the connecting people with property part. And we actually kind of dug into that really carefully about, you know, what do we mean by people and what do we mean by connecting and drawing a line between what's actually in our operations to what we actually say? We believe.

Warren McKenna [00:03:47]:
That's a really important word, what we believe. And we believe doors are made for opening. And so when we're talking about connecting people with property, really what we're talking about is creating relationships, stronger relationships with our subscribers and serving them, but also being a conduit for consumers in the marketplace, giving them trusted and accurate data that they can use to become homeowners. And, you know, when we're thinking about what value a home is to consumers in the marketplace, it's a lot. It's stability, it's wealth generation, it's housing security. And that benefits both the realtors as well as consumers in the marketplace. So effectively, when we're talking about connecting people with property, we're really talking about using data and accurate trusted data to really build communities. And that's what we love about developing the tagline, connecting people with property and supporting really the primary brand name, Dorifi, in having a brand promise, really pick up off of what the name really stands for, which is we believe in opening doors for people.

Warren McKenna [00:05:00]:
And there's a huge benefit at the individual level all the way up through the community. And our Realtor members support that.

Matt Fowler [00:05:07]:
They do. And I think when our things as people, I think of the math teacher and Carrie that you helped us with an article that we ran last year that says math teachers can still buy a house in North Carolina. And we told her story And I think DofI and the consumer approach that we're kind of leaning into is about just amplifying these stories and, you know, telling people how she was able to find housing security and what it meant for her. I learned things talking to her. She learned a little bit about home equity talking to us, which was cool. But these things seem very academic. But that's why we did it. The what we did is we hired Warren and Elizabeth and Agency McKenna and they've done some other brands that we have seen before and respected that are, you know, big national brands in the MLS space.

Matt Fowler [00:05:51]:
So I hope that Doify is a new, like a new example in your trophy case that you pull out and show people and say, yeah, yeah, we're big time, we did Doorify. I hope you feel that way.

Warren McKenna [00:06:02]:
We think so too. I, you know, this is really a bit of evolution meets revolution. I, you know, when we're talking about what does the name mean and how does this create equity, fairness, support fair housing in the marketplace and really encourage homeownership. You know, we think about the role that Doorify has with its stakeholder organizations and there's a lot that they're doing from an advocacy standpoint. Why wouldn't we look at the technology being supportive of creating more homeowners in the marketplace looking for responsible land development, adding more housing inventory and affordable housing. I mean, that just brings the price barrier down so that more people can start on the ladder of homeownership. And that's really what this is all about is it's being part of that conversation that's beyond just the technical MLS data side, but actually thinking about the human side and that human story that we want to tell all the way through and be supportive of that homeownership and the bigger impact that that's going to make on communities, cities and in fact in the world. And that's why we're so excited about it.

Matt Fowler [00:07:16]:
Yeah, there's a lot there. Obviously we're in, we spend, I mean, inside the room, people don't know there's an MLS like building where people go to their MLS desk and do an MLS job. It's weird. People think it just comes out of the sky. But when we talk about these things about equity and access and affordability all the time and with the brokers and what we're trying to do here is just, you know, reach out to our partnership with the Keenan Flagler School at unc, with the partners that we have through the largest companies in this, in the country, are members of our, of our system as well as the, you know, one man offices in more rural counties also get all of their data from us. And we, we have Intentionality in how we discuss with them with a stakeholder council and all this stuff. Now we're just including home buyers as home sellers as a direct Persona or target of our. Of our storytelling because we want to inspire them.

Matt Fowler [00:08:12]:
Like, we want to tell a seller why it's valuable to use a professional to sell your house and why studies that MLsS around us have done have shown that houses sell for substantially more when listed on the mls. And that's a story we. Absolutely. We need a brand vehicle to tell that story. We have one now with dorifimls.com and one more point about. About. About opening doors in Dorifi. I was interviewed by the Triangle Business Journal just this morning about the work that we've been doing.

Matt Fowler [00:08:40]:
And they asked me one of the questions was, what would you recommend for someone looking for a house in the Triangle area? And the first thing I was able to say was, I would recommend you go to dorifimo.com because I can guarantee you that that's source data. Okay? That's like, where everybody gets their data. And you can be certain, I'm assuring you, that every listing that exists is in that database. And when you go out there, you're going to see the names of all the companies that have listings in the neighborhoods that you want to live in, and you'll click through to them and maybe. Maybe you'll work with them on their own platforms. But if you start on mine, you get everybody, and I want to make sure that they know that. And before. When did we launch? Well, before dorifimls.com there was no place that I could have said to send you.

Matt Fowler [00:09:25]:
I would have had to have said one of our brokers, which would have been. Which would have made 14,761 people mad. Okay. Or I can say mine. And now we have the ability to say our brand. It's our shared brand. It belongs to all of the community together. Without that, I wouldn't have been able to answer that question as affirmatively as I did.

Matt Fowler [00:09:45]:
So now we have an open door to consumers. That site will include information about homeownership and affordability that you wouldn't normally find on a retail broker's website for all sorts of reasons. It's part of our mission to talk to people who are under housed, who probably can't afford it today, and give them a clear path through our rental data sets or through education and the various programs that we support into some sort of housing security.

Andrea Presnal [00:10:12]:
And the process was not very short at all. And so I want to talk a little bit about how we developed this new brand identity. So does anyone want to take a stab at kind of talking about just those, those key steps we took because this has been over a year process and really rebranding who we are.

Matt Fowler [00:10:31]:
Why don't you do that, Andrea? You started with, you started with a basket of, of ideas like before, like, I went to Warren and I said, hey, we need a name. He was like, yeah, well, let's rewind a minute, right? I can't give you a name. Like, I don't have a box of names. We have to rewind and decide what. Who are you, like, what are you trying to say to people? So tell that story.

Andrea Presnal [00:10:51]:
Yeah, so we wanted to. This was the big undertaking. And before we could really, you know, do all the fun stuff like what is our name going to be? The. We really always want to start with strategy. And so comparing other leading MLS industry leaders, really having a conversation with them about their marketing and how they. And how they bring awareness and customer engagement, brand loyalty to their markets. And so we were able to connect with some of those mlss around the country. And so it was really starting with that.

Andrea Presnal [00:11:28]:
And then also not only looking at them, but looking at us like, what is, you know, best in class for our market and how we can position ourselves. We had already known that we've outgrown the triangle. We need to expand, as you said Matt earlier. So how could we also support our direct consumers and digital marketing and really identify a new identity tagline URL that's going to really connect to our subscribers and our consumers for what we stand for?

Matt Fowler [00:12:00]:
Yeah, interviews.

Warren McKenna [00:12:02]:
Yeah, I'll piggyback on that. I'll piggyback on that. So in addition to doing some of that competitive or comparative analysis that we did, we came out and we facilitated some focus groups and actually heard from broker owners and members who, who are on the board of directors. And we asked them, you know, what do you aspire to be like, you know, if the organization were a company, a well known, you know, B2C company, who would you aspire to be like and why? And so, you know, names like Nordstrom or Target or even Amazon, good data like Wall Street Journal or, you know, business moving publications like Inc. Magazine, but then also innovation. And that's really, that's really what this is about is, you know, at the speed of innovation. And, and so when we were talking about Apple and Tesla, that was really important to the leadership and senior staff to say, this is what we aspire to be like, and we want people coming back for more. And that was a really great lens to be looking at.

Warren McKenna [00:13:08]:
And then taking all of that input, you know, the comparative, the stakeholder interviews, some of the focus grouping that we did and then really distill that down to a North Star. And Matt and Andrea, you guys were amazing to work with because we just kept chunking down and that's a technical term, chunking down the information. And we came up with six brand attributes that I think are really directional for the organization and something that is out on the horizon that Doorify MLS through action. We call this branded action can. And that's. And that's a little bit about what you were just talking about, Matt, a few minutes ago. You know, customer first strategy, empowering our subscribers and consumers, creating a seamless experience, having accurate and trusted data, having a progressive mission and outlook on things. And then overall being engaging and creating like you were mentioning a little bit ago, the new website and all the new content that's meant to complement broker owners and agents out there with engaging content to consumers, you know, as they're trying to make one of the biggest purchasing decisions or selling their property in their lives.

Warren McKenna [00:14:20]:
So this has been incredible to have strategy really lead what we're going to do then tactically in building brand.

Andrea Presnal [00:14:27]:
And we've also had to make sure that, you know, the new brand resonates with both our clients and our potential new customer. So really creating that task force was huge early on. So we selected a group from our board of directors and had a couple of our senior staff members involved and we were able to consolidate feedback of all of our findings and what we were seeing and be able to present that and be able to come up with, you know, what is our. These are the finalists of our names. These are the finalists of our taglines. Does this go back to the strategy and our key learnings that we've learned? Also hiring an intellectual property attorney, that was a new, new experience for me, which was really exciting to kind of go through that trademark search. And so it really Was this like 12 to 15 month process and then obviously purchasing and making sure, you know, our new name is available. All of that really, you know, making sure it resonates was a big challenge.

Andrea Presnal [00:15:31]:
But also I'm glad we were able to take that time to really dive in to make sure that this is really going to align with our North Star of what we were strategizing towards.

Matt Fowler [00:15:42]:
Those meetings are really valuable. You can tell that you're learning when you go in and you're surprised. So I was surprised in a number of these meetings where we put it in front of the focus groups and they saw something we had not or really taught us something. So I think we came out of this with something really cool. It's great. It is really important, as Andrew just mentioned here on the way out, that you got to do the IP earlier than you think. The intellectual property. We brought in my old buddy George Kobler, who's helped me get a couple of patents.

Matt Fowler [00:16:09]:
And if it's not protectable or you can't get the domains, then, you know, it's not very useful to come up with a name that you can't actually deploy in. In the. In the marketplace. So Warren gave us that advice early on and worked with our folks and got us through. Everything's now protected. The domain name was acquired. And that's another reason to stay quiet for a long time until you got everything, you know, cleaned up. Yeah, those are great projects.

Matt Fowler [00:16:33]:
And I really would encourage other associations or mlss that are thinking about, you know, even if, even if you're thinking about it eventually, it's not too early to get started kind of defining what you're all about and going through those workflows and maybe end up with a new brand image or a new brand vehicle to approach the marketplace that you hadn't thought of before.

Andrea Presnal [00:16:53]:
This was such a long journey. And, you know, there was some challenges we faced during the rebrand process and we had to overcome. We have been having so many changes to our organization, and so to have a complete rebrand launch in the middle of all of it definitely was an interesting time to do this, but we're really glad we did. Warren and Matt, are there any, you know, challenges that come to mind when we were in the process of this?

Warren McKenna [00:17:24]:
Yeah, Matt, I'll let you start, but I'd love to do a wrap up on this.

Matt Fowler [00:17:27]:
Yeah, our. Our biggest issue was really timing, and I use these metaphors the times I talked to all these people. And I think of it as planes in the landing sequence and there was weather at the field is all I can really describe it. Right. So I had to. You had to circle for a while before we could safely land this project. And it deserved a, you know, a dry Runway. So we had litigation issues.

Matt Fowler [00:17:50]:
We had system changes. We have opened the door to licensed real estate brokers and appraisers in North Carolina. You don't have to be a realtor anymore to join the mls. At some point next year, we'll allow New users to join who don't have Realtor memberships. These are all things that are happening around us. The commission settlement.

Warren McKenna [00:18:08]:
Yeah, you know, I would echo that. I mean, the changes at NAR leadership, the DOJ and NAR settlement, you know, the fact that you were providing choice for subscribers to really pick their desired MLS platform. I think something as big as Doorify MLS and connecting people with property is so big that it really warranted that dry Runway to land the plane. I'm happy we still had gas in the tank for sure. But we also had our eyes on the prize of, you know, a big event that we're putting together, PropTech South. And what better way to really have a crescendo with the new brand is to unveil it next to one of our biggest events in the year. So, you know, we also had some due diligence that we had to do from a legal standpoint. And I do want to get back to that point earlier.

Warren McKenna [00:18:57]:
Matt, thanks for taking cues from us to say, you know, when we, we met with y'all and did the focus groups and the stakeholder interviews and I raised my hand and I said, what's the purpose of doing all of this, right, to, to build awareness and to build brand equity. And you know, one of your board members asked me, well, what does that mean? And I said, well, it's, it's really an acronym that we use a lot and it's, it's Create bump a bump and that's make something believable, make it unique, make it memorable and make it proprietary. And we had to take the time to work with an IP attorney to protect things. And so I think all of these things come together where we're going to be launching or we just launched the brand and it was good to give it the time that it needed in order to successfully land. And now get ready to take off.

Matt Fowler [00:19:44]:
So I'll wrap up with a quick look at the future. We're going to be doing strategic planning September 20, the day after PropTech South. And that event is bringing us to our stakeholders and shareholder together to write the outline for another three year plan. We just finished the first one, we're about to start the next one.

Warren McKenna [00:20:02]:
I think we have a enormous opportunity within organized real estate to positively affect other MLS around the country. And I think what we're doing here@doorify MLS. And Matt, thank you for hiring us. Andrea, thank you for working shoulder to shoulder with us on all of these interviews, all of the strategy.

Andrea Presnal [00:20:21]:
Well, I wouldn't be if we concluded with make sure you go to Doorify mls.com tweet/share like Comment all of the things we're so excited for you to experience this new brand. And if you want to create your own brand, Agent McKenna is open for business. So really appreciate you Warren for being on this podcast with us to talk all about our brand.