In every walk of life people want choice, and to stand out from the crowd retailers have had to offer it in spades.
The mortgage market is a prime example of this and even with the product restructuring and pruning that has taken place over recent months, product ranges remain diverse with myriad options for borrowers.
On top of this there are multiple exclusive deals to choose from, and the question for many is what role do these exclusives actually play? Are they a valid part of the market and who do they serve?
Novelty over need
There is no doubt that in some cases, certain lenders use exclusives almost as gimmicks and do not give them the thought, focus or effort required to maximise their potential. It can be all too easy to offer a meaningless trim here or an ineffective cut there in a bid to simply keep distribution partners onside.
Lenders who dedicate their time to nurturing partnerships, however, understand that this tokenistic attitude to exclusives does not deliver any real benefit to lender, broker, packager or borrower.
Those that do operate in this way, have succumbed to the siren call of consumerism and are simply trying to fill their shelves with products they think will help attract customers through novelty, rather than genuine need.
Handing out exclusives like confetti may keep everyone smiling in the short term, but in the long term it will dilute their importance and create extra work, for poor returns, for the mortgage lenders involved. In a market, which already has tight margins that are continually being squeezed, this is not a viable commercial strategy.
As the name suggests, an exclusive should be something that is not the norm. It should not be an everyday product but something that is a little unusual and different.
Exclusives are at their best when they are used to test out new ideas and provide a targeted and well thought through benefit to a certain group of borrowers.
Exclusives should be all about identifying a particular need in the market and then seeing if that can be met by introducing a new and slightly different product.
