Image Credit : Mark Lobo
Project Overview
Henley has been an established brand in the Australian home building industry for the last 26 years. However, recently the market has become more and more homogenous, and Henley struggled to differentiate themselves from their competitors. In collaboration with Hoyne, Henley developed a brand positioning that had clear values which could be easily communicated to their customers. The new brand - built on the pillars of Honesty, Transparency, Delivery and Support - represents a clear, straight talking, honest and open approach and successfully set Henley apart.
Project Commissioner
Project Creator
Team
Group Director, Strategy and Creative: Dan Johnson
Creative Director: Joel Priestland
Designer: Richy Vong
Copywriter: Jacquie Byron
Account Director: Melita Brown
Project Brief
The market for home builders is currently extremely homogenous and generic, with little differentiation between competitors. Henley needed to take a different approach if they wished to continue to be a market leader in the building sector. Hoyne was briefed to review the Henley brand position and establish opportunities for the brand to better differentiate from its competitors.
Project Innovation/Need
In an industry where distrust, apprehension, fear and scepticism are major barriers to sales, Henley needed to establish themselves as a business that actively positions itself around honesty, transparency, reliable delivery and support standards. This would address key consumer needs around reassurance and trust. The resulting design puts product at the fore-front, with content that is easily digestible to reduce the complexity of the home buying experience. The brand collateral and website brings the brand pillars - Honesty, Transparency, Delivery, Support - to life and represents a clear, straight talking, honest and open approach that is unique in the market. The website talks to the pillars of Honesty and Transparency by sharing all the inclusion specs as well as indicative prices for homes. The website also gives an accurate insight into the process of building a home, rather than just showing the end product. This supports the buyer journey and is a strong point of differentiation from Henley’s competitors. Furthermore, rather than simply having renders we aimed to have as many photographs as possible, with the aim of creating something that feels tangible and trustworthy; a realistic vision of what buyers will actually get once they’ve built their home.
Design Challenge
Buyers were often fearful and full of trepidation about home buying and perceive this as a painful process. The design had to mitigate this by supporting customers through the entire buyer journey. Our initial studies identified that buyers equip themselves with research and information before engaging with sales agents, and that the sales process now really begins before the customer even meets with anyone. Therefore, the challenge was to create brand collateral, both print and digital, that was a rich source of information for them to access at an early stage. It had to intuitively drive users to Henley products that best suit their needs and engagingly showcase the homes and an array of other Henley services. The tagline ‘Hello to Henley’ communicates Henley’s position as an approachable, straight talking, breath of fresh air in the market.
Effectiveness
The immediate impact has been hugely positive, with website statistics showing the clearest indicators of success. Within the first month after launching the new website there was a 293% increase in the number of visitors that spend more than 10 minutes on the website, showing a huge increase in prolonged engagement. Over 490 online form enquiries were made, which can be attributed to improved site navigation to ensure means of enquiry are more obvious and easily found.
Graphic Design - Identity and Branding - Lifestyle
This award celebrates creativity and innovation in the traditional or digital visual representation of ideas and messages. Consideration given to clarity of communication and the matching information style to audience.
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