Is brand important to the average mortgage intermediary? Or is it just a collection of buzzwords and ‘strategies’ designed for the benefit of the marketing profession? Many senior people think it’s nothing to do with them, but actually brand is far more important than you think.
The big question is, what makes you pick a certain lender or deal with a certain solicitor when you place your business and what makes your clients pick you over all the other intermediaries in the market?
Undoubtedly a high level of service or a fantastic rate will certainly be factors, but there is so much more than that, that influences an individual’s decision to buy and if you are aware of those other factors, it can have a huge difference on your business success and profitability.
Whether someone buys from you has as much to do with how someone feels about you and your company as the service you provide. In a highly complex and broad market such as mortgages, it stands to reason that if you are able to differentiate yourself in a positive way, the more rewards you are likely to get.
find the latest industry jobs
This goes for the people you buy from as well; solicitors, for example, have traditionally had a low profile in the mortgage market, but over recent years this has changed and there are many who are raising both their individual profile and that of the sector. I would argue that this is not before time, as the role of conveyancers in the housing transaction has been hidden for too long.
The challenge for those conveyancing firms who are ahead of the game in terms of technology and processes is to get this message out to the market and support it with a brand that shows your customers what you stand for. This is certainly also true for mortgage adviser firms.
Brand names and logo
Many advisers use their own name as their company name, or the name of their locality. There is certainly nothing wrong in doing this, although it is crucial that the name is professional and does, in some way, distinguish you from your competitors. That’s certainly not to say that you have to be ‘wacky’ or use a name that is simply inappropriate, as I fear that ‘Con & Scarper Mortgage Advisers’ might not receive the level of business it really seeks.
It is a similar situation with a logo and brand colours which do, on an obvious and subliminal level, project an image about the company. Logos are generally about recognition but also relevance. A skull and crossbones motif may be striking on an advert or your office window but it’s possibly not going to be a prudent financial services logo. The most powerful logos in the world certainly work without even the company name needing to be mentioned but this did not happen overnight or without many millions of pounds invested.
The trap that many firms fall into is thinking that their brand has to be exciting or challenging or outrageous. Perhaps it’s better to consider the nature of the industry and the product being sold and position your brand as reliable and trustworthy.
Brand values
It’s also a well known trap to think that a brand is just about a logo. In reality it is so much more than that – it embodies every experience you have with a company. It encompasses everything someone knows or believes about the company, either factual or not, and every experience with that company reinforces their brand, either positively or negatively. Phrases such as ‘moments of truth’ have been created by brand experts to explain that your brand is present in every interaction that a customer has with you and these ‘moments of truth’ are there to be won or lost. Because of adverts, a shop window, a website or just literature, the majority of interactions that a potential client has with you happen without your knowledge or presence.
register for the next forum
To build a brand, you have to have a clear plan for your company. You have to be consistent in your policies and actions. You have to have a vision for the idea you want in the customer’s mind and you need to portray this not only through your logo and your name, but through every written message and every action you undertake.
It is a good idea to define exactly what your brand stands for and specifically what messages you can consistently convey. ‘Consistently’ is a key word here, because a brand is something that is built up over time and becomes a reflection of who you are. This is a very important point. Brand values are not about what you do but about how you do it and what you stand for. They are not product specific but company specific.
Your brand messages should be unchanging and transferable, i.e. something you are rather than something you do. If your brand conveys ‘quality’, ‘personal service’ and ‘professionalism’, these are attributes that are applicable irrespective of the product being sold.
You may need to convey brand messages that are not only synonymous with your firm, but will also address the opinions or brand of your whole industry. A negative article in the national press regarding mortgage advisers, has the potential to damage the wider market, your firm included, but by having a strong presence in your chosen market, and by behaving in a way that is positive and professional, you can create a strong brand for your firm which will help you to withstand the negative slur of a national newspaper article and keep business coming to your door at a time when your rivals are having a more challenging time.
Solicitors, for example, are doing a lot of work on how they are perceived as an industry as well as what they offer as an individual firm. Many conveyancing solicitors are becoming very high tech and hugely efficient, but this is not the image that often springs to mind when you mention solicitors, so we are building our brand carefully. First we need to get rid of the old fashioned image of a stuffy, cobweb-strewn office that our profession conjures up, while being aware that there will still be some older practices that may still work in this way.
Next, we need to build the brand of our individual company, distinguishing ourselves from other firms, proving to you, the intermediary that it is not only possible, but essential for you to find a legal partner with which you can work and in whom you can have confidence.
As a mortgage adviser, your messages will not be the same ours, but you can use similar messages to help build your own. You will need to be careful where you communicate those messages; if your brand promotes that you are an upmarket firm, then it’s hardly a positive reinforcement of this message to have an office in a run down part of town with your company name hanging off the wall. Your brand values have to reflect what your company is about and then you must live those values consistently.
When to build a brand
So when should you start building a brand for your company? In reality, you start building a brand the second you exist, whether you choose to or not. Every time people hear of you or meet you they will form an opinion of you, whether or not you have formally decided your brand values, your logo or even what your company name is. You’re either winning or losing ‘moments of truth’ from day one. The advantage of going through a formal process is that you consciously choose how you would like to be portrayed and can help influence it, rather than it being something done inadvertently.
Brand building becomes more important either as you encounter increased competition or in a changing market. Conveyancing, for example, is opening up as a market. More options are becoming available and there are a growing number of new providers – some good and some bad. If the role of the high street solicitor changes then advisers will start to look at bulk conveyancers and so these firms need to have a powerful brand to become recognised and win your business. Other market changes see mortgage lenders and advisers adopting a more collaborative approach to business partnerships and so again, conveyancing firms need to have a strong presence in order to win business.
As new people enter the market, will you as a mortgage intermediary go to a new unknown and untested brand, or will you stick with a brand that you know and trust? What will your clients do? As the market gets more crowded and you start competing with the internet as well as other immediate companies, a strong brand with good values can mean the difference between your business thriving or merely surviving.
get the daily news delivered to your inbox
