Brand Spanking Home Loans
We’ve got a guy called John Foxe to blame for what is now considered to be one of the most fundamental traits of business – branding.
In 1570, Foxe coined the phrase “new bodies, new minds and all thinges new, brande newe”[sic], which has since evolved into the marketing archetypical and ubiquitous use of the word today.
In business, ‘brand’ takes on a different meaning to the historical, albeit similar use of the word, that of indelibly marking cattle using a burning stake.
A company’s brand, it appears, is a necessary tool in distinguishing its products or services against that of another, typically a competitor or other company within a given market.
According to a new brandmanagement study of some 700 individuals, which examined the perception of branding in the Australian home loan market, brand plays a mixed role in the decision making process for choosing a home loan.
Just over one in four people (28.9%) believe brand is either “important” or “vitally important” to them when choosing one home loan provider over another.
Source: brandmanagement N= 700
On the other hand, one in four people (25.1%) believe brand plays a limited – “unimportant” or “extremely unimportant” – role in selecting a home loan provider.
Meanwhile, slightly less than one in two people (46%) of those surveyed said the importance of brand was “dependent on the product being sought”.
When it comes to what brand means, almost two in three (62.6%) respondents believe brand can be defined as “a term which distinguishes one product or company from another.”
Source: brandmanagement N= 700
15% of respondents who believe the essence of brand to be “a term used to describe the intangible philosophy a company stands for and represents.”
Few respondents believe brand has any correlation to experience with a company’s product or service, with a mere 4.8% associating one with the other.
This would suggest consumers don’t necessarily form their opinion of home loan brands based on previous dealings with them, but more so based on their perceptions of the brand.
Despite the large number of people (almost three out of four people) who are either indifferent towards the role of brand or don’t believe branding influences their decision to choose one loan provider over another, this supports the money spent by lenders in advertising and differentiating themselves in the market.
People may like to think that they make purchases based on rational information and knowledge, however it seems its actually the intangible feelings they have for a company or product that ultimately determines their choice.
symscovington says:
Does this mean a new logo for br& management?