fresheye developed a simple and honest market positioning statement and a consistent brand image across Mundys’ property services, which was used in a promotional campaign managed by fresheye to re-launch Mundys. Mundys acknowledge that fresheye were instrumental in their achievement of an increase in market share within the first month of the launch, at a time when the property market was flat.

Business situation

Mundys is an independent estate agent for residential sales, lettings and commercial property, based in the city of Lincoln. In 1996 Mundys was bought by Philip Barnatt and he is now the senior partner.

The business had progressively developed through its good reputation, customer recommendations and marketing activities. The property market is extremely competitive and volatile and market share can quickly slip if businesses are not constantly pro-active in attracting and retaining clients. Over time a mix of brand images and messages had evolved for Mundys' three service areas.

To help meet Mundys’ goal of increasing their market share they planned to build up their existing commercial property services.

The requirement

The first priority for Mundys was to build on their reputation within the residential sales and lettings markets and recapture some of their heritage by re-launching their commercial property business.

In doing this it was felt that a more consistent brand and a single clear message would make Mundys stand out more in the market across all these different services. It would also deliver better value for their marketing spend through greater consistency in how Mundys present the company in the market.
To do this it was important to know what the local market felt about Mundys.

The deliverables

fresheye carried out market research and interviewed existing vendors; those who had bought through Mundys and those who had registered to better understand how they felt about Mundys.

A common theme emerged from the research; customers felt at ease with Mundys and they trusted them. These are views that are not commonly associated with estate agents so these attributes did make Mundys stand out from the crowd.

fresheye used this fact to develop a number of marketing positioning statements or strap-lines. The chosen positioning statement was ‘People Trust Mundys’ because it was clear and simple; it is unique for the sector and most accurately reflected what Mundys were known for.

The next step was to develop an image that supported this message and then launch these into the market. fresheye worked with designers and Mundys to find the right supporting image and developed the overall launch plan. fresheye worked closely with Mundys in launching the new identity and message. This included:

• Re-launching the Mundys image. The consistent brand image was introduced across all services and clearly stated what the customer would get when they chose Mundys.
• Working with the design team to develop the new look for advertisements to be used in Mundys' launch campaign, including the property section of the local newspaper
• Creating separate radio advertisements featuring the 'People Trust Mundys' statement and tailored messages and benefits aimed at residential sales, commercial property and lettings.
  

Why fresheye

At the outset Mundys liked the fact that fresheye interpreted their needs particularly well; by listening, determining which ideas would deliver the greatest benefit to Mundys and incorporating them into a coherent and practical programme.

fresheye managed the full branding and re-launch programme to ensure everything was done on time working with other partners as required to get the job done.

"fresheye has shown they have an excellent common sense grasp of my business needs and how these are driving things for the future. They provided great research that led to the right message for us and were instrumental in doing what was needed to put everything in place to increase our brand awareness" Philip Barnatt, Senior Partner.

The benefits

Since the re-launch in August 2005 the immediate result has been a first month increase in the number of properties that Mundys is managing. This has risen by 10% compared to twelve months ago and a 20% rise on their average number of properties.

"To see a rise like this in a market which is virtually flat is a real achievement."

The measurable results are ongoing and Mundys has seen an exceptionally good reaction to the new message and image from customers and the public.
Philip summarised the benefit of fresheye to companies like Mundys as "They listen to what you want and let you have it!"