DOES BRANDING HELP IN A DOWNTURN?

Real estate firms are trying to fight the downturn in manyways. Some are cutting staff, others are turning towardenergy-saving measures, while more than a few have delayed projectsin the pipeline. For last week's GlobeSt.com poll, we asked ifrebranding a company could help fight the malaise. Most, 54%,disagreed, but a close 46% said that they thought those measurescould help. In the minority is Celine Clarke, executive managingdirector of corporate communications at Cushman & Wakefield.She says, at least for her firm, branding is crucial in thesetimes.

The Cushman & Wakefield brand is ultimately about ourpeople. So basically what we do during this time is leverage thebrand in any way that we can. We look internally and work with ourresident experts and have them put together white papers, businessbriefings and special reports on their topics of interest. Wetransfer our knowledge onto our clients to help their businesses asmuch as we can. We're smarter about the way we use our brand duringthis time.