Mortgage Marketers: What's the ROI associated with brand identity?
Whether you’re a startup or a thriving mortgage banker or any other type of company in the mortgage space, there’s typically a laundry list of marketing items that dominate discussions when it comes to communicating with your target audience…website updates, campaign updates, public relations, enhancing or establishing a robust social media presence and the list of tactics goes on and on. The reason? Tactics like these are associated with driving business and meeting the current financial goals of the stakeholders. Brand identity, beyond that of a logo, tagline or name, is rarely discussed in any real depth…and it’s typically viewed as part of the marketing campaign itself where the identity is drawn out in some fashion from emulating competitors by taking bits and pieces of their messaging and twisting those messages around
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and injecting
alternate verbiage that seemingly sets you apart. Rarely does the entity go
through the work of developing an identity it truly owns, and can prove it owns,
due to time, budget constraints and know-how.Accordingly, when asked about the brand, many mortgage industry marketing professionals are caught somewhat off-guard by the question and tend to articulate very generic items…service, quality, leading provider, cutting edge technology, “we partner with our clients,” experience and on and on.
When digging deeper into these answers…that’s where things tend to get sticky. How is your service better than that of your top competitors? What makes you the leading provider? Your competitor says they have the best technology too…how is yours better? How do you partner with your clients in a way that others don’t? How about your staff/employees…do they understand these items to be true about your brand identity as well? Do you have any internal or external research that shows this or how do you know?
The fact is, if the research to back up the answers doesn’t exist, then a decision must be made. The company can either move forward with whatever they wish to believe and develop a marketing strategy around those beliefs, or a commitment can be made to conducting the research and dealing with the results…which could mean developing, or redeveloping, the brand. That could well be a layer of expense that was not expected.
Any business person would agree that having a brand identity is important for the long term, but very few are sure of how to measure it or if it can be measured. This is why many back off of the concept of developing a true brand identity that is truly customized and specific to their mortgage industry entity.
Definition of Brand Identity
According to Investopedia, “brand identity” is “How a business wants a brand's name, communication style, logo and other visual elements to be perceived by consumers. The components of the brand are created by the business itself, making brand identity the way in which a business wants consumers to perceive its brands.” I would add to this that a brand identity is also a promise to that brands’ audience made by the brand itself.How does development of a brand identity relate back to your bottom line? Here are 4 irrefutable facts to consider…
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A brand identity commands a higher price for your LOS system, collateral
valuation technology, etc. and/or higher market share for your mortgage company,
title, credit reporting company, etc. Don’t believe me? Take a look at any
sector of the industry, ask yourself who’s doing most of the business and why.
The answers come down to what people can expect from doing business with that
company which is directly tied to their identity.
This also holds true for much smaller scale companies. If you’re a small or medium size business, the only hope you have in competing and thriving through the good and bad times is not a “me too” campaign…you have to show what you bring to the table that not even the “big kids” can…and maybe your smaller size gives you certain advantages over them!
- If you can command a price premium or higher market share, then this creates the perception of higher quality for your product or service. If the top 5 command most of the origination volume, then they must be winning for a reason…ability to get deals done, quality of service, product mix, consumer trust, etc. How about a simple cup of coffee? If Starbucks can charge more than McDonalds, then it must be better coffee…but is it? That’s the perception, but you can get a good cup of coffee at the gas station, right? The gas station can’t charge the same price though.
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The better perception of a product or service leads to its natural selection
in a competitive marketplace which leads to higher usage and brand loyalty. This
perception logically is the biggest driver of a company’s ROI.
According to a research study conducted by Dr. Aaker in his book Building Strong Brands, “perceived quality is the single most-important contributor to a company’s return on investment (ROI), having more impact than market share, R&D, or marketing expenditures. Brand identity perceives quality that contributes to profitability, in part by enhancing prices and market share. Improve perceived quality and the organization’s ROI will improve.”
- Perceived quality is therefore a point of differentiation that a brand can leverage to its advantage. If you leverage this perceived quality to your advantage, then you can command a price premium or higher market share, which goes back to the first point.
I hope this post was helpful…I’d appreciate your comments!
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