Hodges Challenges
Q&A with Andrew Begg
What was the marketing challenge?
At our first meeting, Carmel showed us some of their existing marketing materials, and it had no personality whatsoever. The brand looked tired. She was the new CEO and wanted to transform the business from the ground up.
The existing brand identity did not have any meaning – the brackets [ ] were just a graphic element attached to the Hodges logo, holding empty space. So the key challenge was to modernise a 160 year-old brand, and ensure that it felt fresh, contemporary and relevant to the highly discerning, brand-conscious vendors and buyers in the suburbs, where Hodges have a presence.
Do you think Hodges were clear on their target audience?
Yes they were, but the challenge is the diversity of target markets. From the very upmarket bayside suburbs where the brand has enormous recognition and acceptance; through to newer, conquest territories like Cranbourne and Ascot Vale where the brand is establishing itself, the brand needs to ‘stretch’ to accommodate all of these variables.
The marketing materials feature brand images that speak directly and embrace each local region, proving that Hodges know the local turf because they are on the ground living and breathing the local communities where they have a presence.
What other brands were they keen to emulate?
Just like Hillary Clinton is campaigning for the white house, Real Estate agents are continually campaigning for the ‘white house’ on every street in their local community. At the same time that our designs were rolling out internally at the Hodges conference and brand launches, Hillary Clinton launched her ‘H’ campaign (with the arrow to the right). Although both brands hero the H, in our case, we were extending the arm on the H to form the ‘+’, which allowed us to attach new services, qualities, attributes and people to the brandmark via the ‘+ Hodges’ structure.
I have always said to real estate agents that they should look at how the politicians get their name and face out there at election time. In reality, it is no different for an agent getting their face exposed to the local community, endeavouring to get home owners to recognise, know and trust them.
Everybody looking the same was the ‘Groove Armada’ of the time – from a design POV, we wanted to look completely different from everyone else. The industry had gone through its black and grey stage – then almost overnight ‘white’ was the new black. So we maintained the orange given it was a key part of the brand’s DNA, and added some yellow to the colour palate to further enhance the impact of the new brandmark, and make it feel more contemporary.
What was the campaign objective?
The overall objective was to use the 160th birthday this year to relaunch the new Hodges and set it up for an even more successful future by promising that ‘You get more with Hodges’. More advice, more attention, more services, more local and industry knowledge, and most importantly, more for you property. The Australian property market has seen its biggest ever boom, and as a result the category is incredibly competitive. So in this competitive market, real estate brands have to ‘sharpen up’ to win more listings, as well as modernising and embracing the digital revolution in the category. These days, the sign-board you have on your front fence is now as just important as having the right brand of car parked in your garage – it reflects the image of yourself that you want to present to world.
What were the campaign’s challenges? (How did you get buy-in from all those franchises?)
We always find that the key is to get the key stakeholders involved, engaged and aligned from the start. In this case, from the initial briefing sessions and workshop, right through the creative development period, we ensured that everyone felt part of a collective journey and shared the ultimate success. These days you cannot force someone to like a brand – today with ease of access to design showcases such as the web, Pinterest, Instagram etc., everyone now has a point of view on design, and many business owners have a much better understanding of what a brand is.
What did the campaign achieve? (i.e. satisfaction amongst franchises, etc.)
Too early to be definitive about ‘achievements’ given it’s only just launching, but the feedback from right across the network has been overwhelmingly positive, and the buy-in to what we have created is already incredibly high. Not only with the brand identity and all of the associated elements that we’ve produced, but with the overall brand direction of ‘You get more with Hodges’. We see success with any brand transformation when the owners, and the employees want business cards the next day and want to have their office redone that week and the CEOs phone ringing with people wanting to join the network. That’s what’s happening already. The new brand what all about bringing MORE to the brand, and integrating the name into the +H. You+Hodges; Finance+Hodges; Selling+Hodges; Leasing+Hodges etc..
You+Hodges = the right property at the right price, for both buyer and vendor.
Andrew Begg – CEO Traffic