Independents' Day

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Like auto dealers that no longer sell only new cars, real estate brokers need to be one-stop shops to be profitable. "Relo is really a group that helps us make money," says Pappas of Keyes Co. Relo members, who pay an annual membership fee of $1,000 to $15,000, derive about 5% to 25% of their sales from being part of the alliance.

And yet, Relo remains vulnerable. In the past year, five high-profile members have sold out to NRT. Relo's challenge is figuring out how to help its members increase cash flow -- and fast. President O'Connor says that she's seeking capital partners to take an equity stake in high-growth brokers. Warren, are you listening?

The Global Village

The Alliance: GlobalFluency, an international network of high-tech public-relations agencies (www.globalfluency.com)
Founded: August 2001
Members: More than 40 agencies in 26 countries
Driver: High-tech customers that are expanding overseas are seeking global PR firms.

John Metzger, CEO of a $3.5-million public-relations firm in Boulder, Colo., knows how to win over customers. Up to a point. "We have companies -- our own neighbors here in Colorado -- that won't hire us because we don't have offices in 65 countries," he says. Last year that stumbling block caused Metzger to join GlobalFluency, an international alliance of small to midsize technology-focused public-relations agencies.

The need for an international presence is what led GlobalFluency founder Donovan Neale-May to organize the alliance. The president of $10-million Neale-May & Partners, in Palo Alto, Calif., says that after one of his agency's European partners was gobbled up by a larger firm, Neale-May needed new overseas contacts for customers who were expanding into international markets. So, early in 2001, he started developing GlobalFluency.

Neale-May scouted out owner-run independent technology PR companies in 26 countries from Japan to Mexico and signed them up under the GlobalFluency brand. Each company pays an annual membership fee ranging from $500 to $1,500 depending on its size and region. Members have access to a GlobalFluency intranet, where they can manage collaborative projects with other members and find templates for GlobalFluency letterhead, business cards, and presentations. Start-up costs for the alliance ran about $100,000. Any agency can contact other members for any part of a project on an à la carte basis. "It gives us the flexibility to keep our boutique image," says Ben Merritt, president of $4.5-million Merritt Group, in Vienna, Va. "But if we have to go against a big boy, we can pull GlobalFluency in." If is the operative word. Because of the sagging economy and marketing cutbacks, GlobalFluency has not been fully road tested. But early results are promising. Members have been called on to pitch to midsize and large companies for both regional product launches and international campaigns.

Shawn Wolfe, director of marketing communications at McAfee.com, a $62-million software company in Sunnyvale, Calif., has spent the past year working with Neale-May's Manhattan office and GlobalFluency agencies in Germany and the U.K., two new markets for McAfee. "We do a phone call every Tuesday at 8 a.m. It's 11 a.m. New York time, 4 p.m. in London, and 5 in Munich. It's no extra work for me, and the results are far beyond what I'd get from a different style agency," he says. "Besides, I don't have the overhead of a big agency." And lower overhead allows alliance agencies to price their services as much as 20% to 30% below large competitors', says the alliance's founder.

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