Who’s new Ian Giles Brand Loyalty
Ian Giles joined as brand director last summer. On a mission to improve the awareness, clarity, and consistency of the Mortgage Advice Bureau brand; Ian wants to maximise MAB’s value in attracting customers, the best advisers and introducers, whilst retaining all three.
Brand and Marketing Director Mortgage Advice Bureau
Q. What’s your mortgage experience?
A. I’ve been in the mortgage industry since 1991 when I joined Mortgage Trust, one of the pioneering centralised lenders. I worked my way through most sales and marketing roles, becoming marketing director of First Active in 1997.
Since then, I have been involved in a mortgage broker start-up at Purely Mortgages and have also been marketing & communications director for Kensington Mortgages, before starting my brand and marketing strategy consultancy business in 2009.
Q. Why is MAB investing in its brand and hiring a director to focus on it?
A. Despite stagnant property and mortgage markets for much of the last six years, the world around us has been changing and changing fast.
We have seen a strong instinct for survival in our industry, but survival has been the only agenda item for so many for so long, that planning and investing for the future has been replaced with hanging on for a recovery.
We now have the start of our recovery and to make the most of it we need to build a brand that attracts more clients, attracts the very best advisers and introducers and retains all three.
MAB has been doing this for many years with an active PR campaign in the national media. And with the housing and mortgage markets both experiencing strong growth, MAB’s coverage as one of the leading industry experts has never been stronger.
Maximising brand awareness and loyalty is the biggest investment that companies focused on the future are making. You may think it’s not important that it’s only brands such as Virgin, Halifax, and Tesco that benefit from the investment they make, but that is definitely not the case.
Brand can be key in attracting and retaining customers and how confident customers are to refer their friends and family. More and more customers are researching companies on the internet and using social media before meeting or making that final decision on who to use. The clarity and consistency of the brand is therefore very important.
at MAB? Q. Is a brand a logo or is it a company name?
A. A brand isn’t just a company name, a trading style, or a logo - it’s an experience. It can instil confidence and trust, demonstrate scale, and ooze professionalism; all of which support the role of the adviser and puts them, and the business, at the forefront of a customer’s mind.
A remortgage letter or phone call in four years is not keeping the adviser or company at the forefront of the customer’s mind or giving them any feeling of importance to you.
Q. Isn’t giving my customer good service and leaving him or her with my card a good enough way of ensuring ‘brand loyalty’?
A. If it is a business card that the customer has as a reminder of what you or your firm have done for them, and how they should contact you if they need you; how will they know what sort of things they can contact you about? Isn’t it likely to end up in the bin anyway?
MAB has been investing heavily in its brand via PR in the national media. But it’s also about promoting your business locally, being the local expert, and most importantly, promoting your businesses’ brand to your existing customers rather than just new ones.
For a brand to have a value, it has to stand for something in the customer’s eyes. It helps attract and retain them, and that’s why a customer-focused brand is a key component of future success.
Q. What sorts of brand-related projects will you be getting involved in at MAB?
A. Anything where the development of brand awareness, clarity and consistency is a key issue, such as:
• Redesigning the website to maximise its professional appearance, its ease of use on all devices, and its search engine optimisation
• Developing best practice for brand & marketing strategy for MAB mortgage shops
• Maximising the use of PR and social media to attract new customers and retain existing ones
• Refreshing MAB’s marketing and communications material used to give each customer a consistent and high quality experience of the brand
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