The event was attended by 5000 visitors, played host to almost 250 product and service providers and is the mortgage industry’s showcase. We also wanted the event to be our own showcase and a huge effort went into our presence at the show and making a big impact with our revitalised branding and proposition. But what lies behind the branding, why was it so essential to make a big splash and most importantly of all, what is in it for our business partners?
TMB has worked incredibly hard in recent months to focus the business and deliver to the very highest standards in the intermediary market. Meeting the needs of our packagers and brokers is our raison d’etre. Wholesale changes have been made to the processes in place, the personnel working at the company and the day-to-day culture in which we operate. TMB has a long and proud history in the mortgage market and we want our partners to know that we are determined to build on our successes of the past as we seek to innovate and evolve into the future.
Our rebranding is based around superheroes, each of which represent the services we provide for partners and embody the effort we put into making sure we get it right for them. At the same time, we do not want anyone to worry that we have lost our sense of humour or stopped being a business based on personal relationships. The characters represent not only what we can do, but also the spirit in which we do it and the level of commitment we invest in the promises we make.
Superheroes break normal constraints, go beyond the boundaries of convention and always deliver when it matters most. Here at TMB we are challenging brokers’ conceptions of the mortgage market, how it works and what it can offer them. We want them to know that we can exceed their expectations and deliver a service that really allows them to do a fantastic job for their own clients on a daily basis.
There are six superhero characters in the TMB stable, Flexi Girl, Multi Man, TMB Man, 5 Star Man, Speedy and Thinker. Flexi Girl is the standard bearer of our flexible philosophy to product and service. She shows how we want to make things happen, rather than turn cases away and that we want to provide a proposition that suits the way brokers and packagers work while meeting the diverse, complex and ever changing needs of their clients.
Multi Man is our bastion of exceeded expectations. TMB is now offering more information on products, access to more market information for our partners, and a multi skilled approach to our business relationships. Knowledge is power and we want to put as much as we can in the hands of our partners.
TMB Man embodies the strength, drive and determination that lie behind our promise as a lender to meet the needs of our clients. If intermediaries have a problem then we will do everything in our power to find a solution that works for intermediaries and clients alike. It is not about simply offering a range of mortgage products as far as TMB is concerned, but about working with our partners to bring successful resolution to the problems they face.
Our next superhero is 5 Star Man who is a shining example of the service we provide. Never has TMB offered a better, faster or more accurate service and we want brokers to know that they can trust it both now and in the future. Daily updates on our service levels are available and we are focused on working above and beyond the timeframes that will make life easier and better for our business partners. We are also committed to communicating with them regularly and through the mediums that best suit them and their business models.
In an environment that changes as quickly as the UK mortgage market, being on top of things as they happen is imperative. Speedy is TMB’s representative of everything that is lightening quick. Whether it is a fast decision, prompt paperwork, a swift completion, or the very latest product information, TMB delivers. There is no time to waste in this market and we are not prepared to make our partners wait for what they need.
Although many of the cases we process are straight-forward, where we specialise is in helping with the more complex and challenging cases. Much of the mortgage market relies on IT and successful technology is essential in any operation. However this cannot be at the expense of common sense and good old-fashioned brainpower. Thinker is our herald of cerebral power. Taking time to look at and analyse a problem is key if the best solutions are to be found to the hardest problems. We want to work with packagers and brokers as partners and where they have problems we want to share in them and work together towards solutions.
There are many different messages that TMB is putting out to the market and the new branding seeks to show how we are challenging peoples' conceptions of the market, their conceptions of what we can offer and their conceptions of what we can deliver. It is bold and bright and represents our confidence in the business strategy and philosophy we now have in place and in the ability of the team at TMB.
We have also sought out the views of the brokers and packagers we seek to serve and tried to deliver a service that meets their needs. In the spring we conducted a client survey as well as using results from our packager index, which is supported by over 400 individuals. All of our directors and sales staff have been in continual dialogue with partners and we hope the results of these conversations are clear for all to see in the products and service we are now offering.
A lot of last year was spent reassuring intermediaries that TMB was back in the market for good and that it could be relied upon into the future. The volumes we are processing, the relationships we have grown, and the feedback we have received says that we are heading in the right direction. We are determined to aggressively keep heading in that direction and prove on a daily basis that TMB is the leading lender in the market for packagers and brokers. We aim to be the specialist lender in the specialist market and communicate what we can offer to our business partners clearly and directly.
The Mortgage Business Expo was the beginning of that process and the launch of our cast of superheroes and new brand was a clear representation of our intentions for the future. The 2007 calendar that we launched at the same time will be a daily reminder on brokers’ desks of the promises that we are making them and we hope and expect to be pushed and challenged into not only maintaining the standards we have now set, but also into developing them further as the months and years progress.
Unless there is substance behind the offering then our rebranding and more vocal marketing communication will count for nothing. We do not want the intermediary market to turn to TMB because they like what we have to say, but because we deliver on what we say. We do not want people to use us because they think our philosophy is right, but because we put our philosophy into practice.
In the end it will be up to the market to decide for itself whether or not we have lived up to our promises and kept them on a consistent and daily basis. However for our part we want to show that we have every confidence in our ability to do so. We want to let people know that we have put a lot of effort into getting our proposition right and are prepared to stake our reputations on it. By being bolder and more forthright about what it is we do and what it is we are trying to do, we hope intermediaries will see we are very serious about our business and about making it work for their businesses as well.
The Mortgage Business Expo was the first step along this road and to date the feedback has been very positive. By setting out our stall in this way, we hope partners will tell us when we are getting it right and help us make improvements where they want to see changes. We hope we can enjoy true business partnerships with all our brokers and packagers and want them to know we will be making superhuman efforts to make them work.
