Castle Group
Who They Are
Castle Mortgage (now Castle Group) is a multifaceted financial business. Working initially in mortgage brokering, they have now grown to provide insurance and leasing services to their client base. The model is to represent their client’s interests by getting the best price for services through both their deep industry knowledge but also, because of their volume of business, better rates. It is a true win-win relationship.
When our client started this new business, he knew from past experience that developing a strong and recognizable brand would contribute a lot to its success. ViewSource Media already had a relationship with the client so it was natural to begin a discussion about developing the brand. We all knew that the brand would be important for all of the different required elements to get the business up and running. They would require a proper slate of marketing materials as well as a comprehensive website that would enable direct interaction with their clients.
Our Solution
We were starting this one from scratch so the first thing was to actually decide on the name of the business. While the client knew precisely how the business would function he needed a name that would help identify the company with the product. A lot of brainstorming went into this step. When choosing a name there are several things to consider over and above the direct association with the business. You know you’ll need to incorporate some visual elements that will be the foundation of a good brand for future promotion.
From a large list of potential names it was decided that “Castle Mortgage” would fit the bill. Once that was set, we got to work on creating the visual elements to tie it all together. Every detail was considered. Graphic elements, fonts, colours, and sizes, were all set out in the final brand documentation. This allowed us to proceed with the next task of producing the signage and marketing materials.
Castle Mortgage was rapidly picking up business in the very competitive mortgage industry and eventually they saw an opportunity to add more services to their existing clients.
The first was insurance as virtually every client that received a mortgage then needed to work through the complicated process of getting appropriate insurance. At first the client wanted a different visual element to represent this part of the business and we started on the path of a distinct name. After a lot of back and forth we all realized that there was already a strong brand recognition for Castle Mortgage so we wanted to capitalize on that.
We decided that keeping Castle as the overarching brand could work with the insurance designation and chose to keep the graphic elements the same but use a distinct colour for the new branch of the company. Castle Insurance was born. Once that precedent was set, when the company decided to get into the leasing business the only brand requirement was to pick a new colour.
Castle extended their reach by including an online system to bring new brokers into the fold. So, once again, a new designation within Castle’s business became Castle Network with its own colour designation. At this point the main corporate entity is now Castle Group with four distinct divisions.
Having a strong brand foundation made the process of incorporating each division into Castle Group a lot easier and it has helped to solidify the highly recognized brand in the minds of their customers.
Throughout this process ViewSource Media has supplied printed materials, presentations, online tools through various websites, indoor and outdoor signs and every conceivable element required for the smooth operation and marketing of this very successful business.
It has been a great and interesting journey that we’ve shared with the Castle Group team for over ten years.
With the number of individual elements required, the newest iteration of our relationship with Castle is a connect retainer model that allows the different members of the Castle Group teams to get our ongoing support for their marketing needs while ensuring a consistent monthly billing structure. We keep an eye on consistently representing the brand and the members of the Castle Group use our services more often, knowing that there is a set monthly price.
The Result
Castle Group has grown from its inception in 2008 to one of western Canada’s top firms for mortgages, insurance and leasing. We like to think that the work provided by ViewSource Media has been a significant contributing factor in that success.
It’s a great feeling to partner with a company that knows the value of maintaining a strong and consistent brand.
Client Testimonial
“ViewSource Media is and always has been an excellent business partner for the Castle Group. They have consistently supplied excellence in quality of design and delivery from concept to completion. Do yourself a favour and let ViewSource Media handle all of your corporate branding and marketing needs.”
– Jeff Sparrow, Managing Partner