MonCana’s campaign to promote brokers has renewed calls for other mono-lines – as a group, this time -- to mount a nationwide blitz geared toward promoting the channel.
“My feeling is it’s the mono-lines and us against the banks,” said Ron Price, broker/co-founder of DLC – The Price Team in Fergus, Ont. “Lenders, with their network and resources can band together and mount a generic campaign that can boost public awareness of the flexibility offered by mono-lines and the unbiased advice brokers have to give.”
Commercial banks corner about 75 per cent of the mortgage market leaving the remaining 25 per cent for mono-lines and other smaller lenders, according to Price. Mortgage professionals are also in fierce competition with the mortgage specialists retained by the banks.
The idea of mortgage-focused lenders leveraging their marketing efforts surfaced once more this week, when MonCana announced it has launched a two-week nationwide campaign, which features elevator digital screen ads highlighting the benefits of brokers’ services.
A longer, more sustained campaign involving other monolines would have an even a stronger impact, said Price.
“That would be amazing,” said Michelle Mohr, a broker with Invis, in Price George, B.C. “A straightforward non-branded awareness campaign would resonate better with consumers rather than one specifically tied to a single company.”
The idea calls to mind the “Get cracking” campaign of Canadian egg farmers and the long-running “Got Milk?” campaign of the California milk producers, Mohr said.
Among the issues such a campaign could target are long-enduring negative notions that portray brokers as shady operators compared to the banks.
“Such a campaign would be a big boost especially for independent brokers and those operating in smaller markets that are fighting an uphill battle against the bank-only mentality of many borrowers,” said Mohr.