Legal & General Homes
Background
One of the UK’s oldest and most respected financial services brands, Legal & General was established in 1836 and employs more than 7,000 people worldwide. In 2016 it launched Legal & General Homes, a brand-new property developer. We successfully pitched to transform our concept into reality and catapult Legal & General Homes into the highly competitive property market.
ThinkBDW launched the company and its first development in tandem and didn’t stop there…
Launching Legal & General Homes as a new company stood hand in hand with launching its first development. It was agreed that to stand out from the crowd, as soon as the company hit the market it needed to have a development ready to reflect the companies' ethos and values.
The main challenge was establishing the client in a very crowded marketplace; it was competing against recognised developers with far higher brand recognition
To counter this, we capitalised on the recognition and values of the parent company, including its integrity, trust and service. To help do this we utilised the well-known fonts and brand devices of Legal & General within our branding development of the new company.
The other challenge was giving Legal & General Homes a unique voice. We achieved this by developing a campaign that appealed to the heart not just the head. Creating an emotional link to the customer gave the client a unique position as a developer that doesn’t just build homes and push hard sales; it creates dreams. The campaign ‘Homes full of’ was developed, which was designed to appeal to a wide variety of purchasers including first time buyers, young professionals, families, and downsizers.
Following amazing results and feedback, this campaign was used as a template for all other marketing activity and has led to high recognition of Legal & General Homes.
Creating a look for our brand that is distinctive but more importantly, consistent
Denise Stewart. Sales and Marketing Director, Legal & General Homes.
Modular Marketing Suites and signage
At the heart of each of Legal & General Homes’ developments are the two storey modular Visitor Centres. Stunning in stature and design these suites represent all Legal & General Homes has to offer. The brief was simple, create a space where visitors feel comfortable, cosy and in control. Removing hard sales not only from all marketing collateral but sales suites was integral to the success of the new company. The ‘Visitor Centre’ name was born out of this way of thinking, it isn’t somewhere to have a sale pushed on you, it is a place of discovery.
The brief for Buckler’s Park – the company's debut site – was to conceptualise, build and fit out a Visitor Centre and design bespoke customer journey signage that could be adapted into a blueprint for all Legal & General Homes sites.
Legal & General Homes’ sites are all situated in big open spaces, often surrounded by country parks and woodlands. To reflect the nature of the surroundings we used timber in the cladding of the module and oak legs for the totems around site which created a clear continuity of the brand.
Dive into the Visitor Centres themselves and you are met with a warmth not often found in this market – from the natural materials used to the family focused spaces, including the kids area and the discovery sections where you can go at your own pace.
Branding, brochures and advertising
Mirroring our approach to the Visitor Centres, our design processes for each site’s branding, brochures and advertising was based on appealing to the emotions of the customer and not the hard sale.
To give a real sense of family and togetherness we commissioned a photoshoot of a real-life model family, the outcome is a bank of images that reflect the customer’s dreams of owning their own home. As well as developing the ‘Homes full of’ campaign across brochures and advertising, including: homes full of family, homes full of love and homes full of memories the photography of our families in real life scenarios really brought the collateral together.