Case Study: Countrywide Home Loans
by
The Gonzales Group
Word Count: 745
In the mid-1990's, few major residential mortgage lenders were targeting
underserved communities that included Hispanic consumers. Those that
engaged in Spanish-language marketing efforts at that time typically
adapted their English-language messages to Spanish and frequently used
terminology and images that were irrelevant or incomprehensible to many
members of the target audience who were often unfamiliar with the financial
services category and reluctant to enter into a relationship with a mortgage
lender without feeling comfortable in the home loan process.
Countrywide Home Loans made a corporate commitment in the mid-1990's
to increase homeownership opportunities among previously underserved
communities. The champion of this initiative was leader of Countrywide, Mr.
Angelo Mozilo, who was aware that it required a bilingual sales force at the
local level, and great marketing and communications to achieve this task.
Countrywide's strategic intent was very clear from the beginning -- to be the
#1 lender to multicultural markets.
Countrywide embarked on the development of a Multicultural strategic plan.
It was a very simple plan; the test for Countrywide was in the execution.
The plan focused on three key elements.
1) Distribution - identify retail branches in the high density multicultural
markets.
2) Team Members - hire bilingual and bicultural sales originators for these
targeted local branches.
3) Local Execution - provide the branches with effective marketing and sales
to help promote themselves to the local community.
From the onset, primary research findings made it very apparent that the
Spanish-dominant (or preferring) consumers were less likely to contact
mortgage lenders directly, due primarily to:
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Inability to communicate well in English
Fear of failure (rejection and/or inability to understand the process)
Lack of category experience
Lack of established banking relationships
Instead, Spanish-dominant consumers tend to put their trust in a bilingual or
Spanish-dominant real estate agent (typically referred to them by a friend or
family member) to initiate and navigate the loan process for them.
Countrywide, working with their agency of record, Español Marketing and
Communications, worked to establish selling propositions for their target
audiences - first time homebuyers and Multicultural real estate
professionals. As part of the value propositions, Countrywide positioned
itself as the lender multicultural home buyers can trust, and for real estate
professionals, that they can be more productive working with Countrywide,
because Countrywide understands the needs of the Multicultural homebuyer
during the loan transaction.
Countrywide created an educational campaign for first-time home buyers
designed to educate them about the home buying process and to empower
them to take the first step to buying a home by calling or visiting
Countrywide. The tagline became the underlying theme of all Countrywide
Spanish-language communications -- "facilitando sueños" making the dream
easy), reinforcing Countrywide's commitment to increasing homeownership
opportunities among members of historically underserved communities and
helping them realize their dreams.
As part of the local execution strategy, TV, radio and print advertising
initially ran in key local markets, frequently combined with educational public
service campaigns created together with media outlets. Countrywide also
created or sponsored many homebuyer's fairs, conducting educational
seminars in Spanish for potential homebuyers and partnering with Land
Safe to assess potential homebuyers credit scores and to pass out first-time
homebuyer handbooks, and brochures about loan products that were
specially developed for first-time homebuyers that might not qualify in the
traditional mortgage application process. For five years, Countrywide
sponsored a weekly home buying show on the Radio Unica national radio
network, where consumers could call in and ask questions about the home
buying process, and a Countrywide home loan expert would answer them on
air. In 2004, Countrywide became a network TV advertiser, and partnered
with telemundo network on several home buying education initiatives in
2005 and 2006.
The effect of the campaign paid off. Countrywide's internal research
indicates that consumer awareness, trust and market share for Countrywide
have grown significantly in the Multicultural markets (Hispanic and AfricanAmerican), due in part to the successful communications strategy and
executions. Countrywide is America's #1 home loan lender, and is the
leading lender to African Americans, Hispanics, and Asian Americans.
The external data also reinforces the success for Countrywide, not only by
the sheer number of Multicultural loan originators across the nation, but by
sheer loan volume and market share.
Oscar Gonzales, Ph.D. is president of The Gonzales Group, a strategic
consulting firm to the real estate industry specializing in the ethnic markets.
© 2008, Oscar Gonzales, Ph.D. All rights reserved. For information contact
FrogPond at 800.704.FROG(3764) or email susie@FrogPond.com;
http://www.FrogPond.com