CALA

NEW CALA BRANDING PLAYS TO STRENGTHS OF DESIGN AND CARE

To underline its commitment to design, quality, care and attention to detail, premier housebuilder CALA Homes has introduced a new brand positioning.

Drawing on extensive customer research, the award-winning housebuilder, which has six operating companies in the North, East and West of Scotland, in Yorkshire, in the Midlands and in the South East of England, and is part of the Edinburgh-based CALA Group, the privately-owned UK housing and property developer, has introduced a new corporate strapline – “We care about the things you care about” - and a new communications campaign featuring the company’s architects and designers, as the main focus of the initiative. 

In the last financial year for which it has produced audited accounts to end June 2006, CALA Homes completed 1078 new homes in the UK.  Based on the number of planning applications made in the last 12 months, in Scotland CALA Homes is ranked third largest housebuilder, in the West Midlands it is ranked number six and in Yorkshire it is ranked seventh largest.

Last year (2006) the company won the Silver Award for Best Medium Size House Builder and the Gold Award for Best Brownfield Development at the What House Awards, following the Gold Award for Best Medium Size House Builder which it won in 2005.

The new corporate style also introduces sophisticated gold and black colourways for the company logo and an accompanying feature scroll on all communications materials. 

The new branding majors on the fact that every CALA home is meticulously designed, with an additional level of care and thought going into each home, which differentiates the company from its competitors.

“Our research showed us that we were not telling the public the full story about how good our homes really are and what lengths we go to on a daily basis to deliver outstanding quality,” says Geoff Ball, Executive Chairman of CALA Group

“The new branding will help further differentiate us as a quality housebuilder, which produces the same high, consistent standard of build and finish in all our homes from small studio apartments to £1+ million houses.”

The customer research highlighted CALA’s attention to detail and the level of thought that it puts into its homes, including innovative use of light and space, as well as its high levels of customer care and strong relationships with suppliers.

“From the research we undertook, we realised that we had been underselling ourselves and our products,” continues Mr Ball.

“We stand out in an increasingly crowded market because the whole of the CALA team from our architects and designers through to land team, planners and sales and marketing people are involved in the design of our homes.  They take real time and effort to ensure that the layout and detailing are right for modern living.  In fact you could say that good design is in our corporate DNA.

“Our build quality is good and our customer care and recommendation levels are extremely high, according to both internal and external measures.  In fact in the 2006 HBF National New Home Customer Satisfaction Survey, we were only one of four housebuilders to score four stars for both customer satisfaction with the quality of our homes and for customers prepared to recommend our homes to a friend. 

“In short, our customers told us that we take more care to ensure that everything about our homes is designed the way they want it to be.  That is because throughout the company, at all levels and in all disciplines, we do genuinely care about what our customers care about.

“While our new branding and advertising campaign will allow us to communicate more clearly and concisely with prospective customers, it also holds good for our suppliers, as well as land owners and their agents, because we also care about a mutually beneficial and respectful relationship with the people we work with, the communities within which we build, and about optimising land values.”

The whole brand review process and new brand positioning was undertaken by Manchester-based Clear Marketing Communications.