The drive from Junction 16 of the M4 at Swindon to Abbey Meads is typical of the drive into any modern town. Brand names appear in abundance on either side of the road. In all there are about 25 starting with the Audi dealership and ending with the Safeway supermarket.
As I pass each one some sort of emotive response is triggered in my brain. From Citroen (yawn, boring) to Porsche (maybe one day . . .) and from Travel Inn (good consistent value) to Hilton (over priced) they all say something to me.
I feel excited by some and indifferent to others but the thing is I do feel something.
I can articulate about them and get into debate about them with friends and family. If necessary I will defend my favourites with vigour. I never buy from most of them but I still have opinions about them.
Finally I arrive at Abbey Meads. For those of you not familiar with Abbey Meads it is the name given to a huge spread of fields to the North of Swindon on which during the past few years a dozen or so house builders have built several thousand houses to create what the boards at the entrance describe as “A new lifestyle for the 21st century”.
So my first encounter with the brand of Abbey Meads promises something futuristic and modern. It certainly raises my expectations. However, they are soon put on hold.
For sure Abbey Meads has all the modern trappings of big housing estates: it’s all traffic calming and bike lanes, although but I’m not sure about the gigantic electricity pylons which cross the middle of it. And where are the lakes and the shopping centres I remember seeing on the original plans? Still under construction.
For the residents of Abbey Meads this “New lifestyle for the 21st century” looks like being a long time coming. The brand has yet to deliver. The message here is: “Unmanaged expectations = brand suicide”.
All around Abbey Meads are signposts giving directions to the nine housing developments that are currently in build. I’m standing by one of them right now. Nine different brand names are written on this sign. I’ve heard of all of them but there’s . . . nothing. The emotions just don’t stir I cannot articulate about them. They create an emptiness.
All I can think of is “housebuilders”. One homogenous lump, commodities like sacks of potatoes or tankers full of oil.
Most of us have at the top of our minds brands that we are aware of and which trigger emotional responses. In my case I get positive triggers to Sony, Alfa Romeo and Mammoth Mountain to name but a few.
In the murky depths of our minds lies a collection of brands that we are individually aware of but which we know little about so we tend to clump them all together – banks, building societies, estate agents and . . . housebuilders. And in general the public’s perception of these near commodities is more negative than positive. The key message here is high awareness does not necessarily mean high brand image!
The press has the same problem. All to often they indulge in a feeding frenzy about what they believe to be the lack of care and appalling standards of “house builders”.
Sometimes individual brands are named, recently Berkeley Homes and Redrow, to name but two, have come under the knife but the conclusion is always “they’re all the same, these housebuilders”.
This is an injustice because all housebuilders are not the same. Some indeed are currently changing out of all recognition (interestingly, it’s the same names that keep cropping up when I meet with industry suppliers and specialists).
One hopes that these change-driven organisations will find some way to get their brands re-evaluated by the consumer. It will do the industry no end of good to have some real brand champions.
Does it really matter?
There is a fundamental question. If consumers are content to make their most important purchase from companies they know almost nothing about and house builders are enjoying near double-digit margins – does brand strategy really matter?
The answer is - no, it probably doesn’t matter right now. But it will matter if a few housebuilders manage to break the mould. And for sure someone, somewhere is going to break the mould.
Brand strategy is not necessarily difficult to formulate but delivery to the market place is. In future I will be looking at techniques to help develop and deliver a strong, sustainable brand strategy.
My initiation into branding as practised by (some) housebuilders
After spending many years in the automotive business working for Volkswagen and Honda, both of which are world class brands, I found myself listening to an advisor to the housing industry. He went to great lengths to tell me that branding was considered by most housebuilders to be irrelevant because only three things matter in life, location, location, and location. (If I had a pound for every time I’ve heard that since . . .). Then a few days later I came across a “Select Development of Architecturally Designed 2 and 3 bedroom homes” That’s what the sign said anyway. (Again if only I had a pound for every time I’ve read variations of the above wording . . .). One home was obviously a show home - the door was open. So I parked up and wandered in. No welcome, no carpets, no . . . nothing! In the kitchen were some door samples propped up against the wall with a sign (an old piece of plywood with words written in gloss black paint by a two inch paint brush) that said, “you can choose from these kitchens”. Similar presentation had been used in the bathroom for the sanitary ware choices. Upon leaving the house I was immediately aware of someone getting out of a tired old Mini dressed in overalls and Wellington boots. Coming up to me he placed a word-processed document in my hand (which I later realised was the brochure) and informed me that if I was interested someone would be in the builder’s office on Monday morning to take my call. What a presentation! Sales boards bits of old plywood, corporate typeface formed by a paintbrush, uniform supplied by Wrangler and Dunlop. Over the course of the next few weeks I watched progress with interest as every home was sold. (It is now quite a tidy little development on the edge of a thriving town and I’ve no doubt the owners are as happy as those who buy from the Barratts and Wimpeys of this world). Ordinary people who wouldn’t so much as buy a watch from the back of a Mini seemed nevertheless content to buy their new homes in this way. That is something which has intrigued me ever since.Source
Building Homes
Postscript
Malcolm Pitcher is a director of PCL, a consultancy specialising in marketing strategy, brand strategy, culture change, change management, marketing research and customer satisfaction monitoring. Before starting PCL, he was marketing director for Wimpey Homes and held senior posts with Volkswagen and Honda. PCL can be contacted on 01666-510813, e-mail: info@pitcherco.com
