The Ontario New Home Warranty Program announced that it has launched a new corporate name and logo to communicate more effectively with new home buyers.
The new corporate name Tarion Warranty Corporation was introduced on Wednesday, April 14, 2004 at the Annual Industry Luncheon of the Greater Toronto Home Builders Association by Tarion President & CEO, Greg Gee. The Corporation will market itself under the name TARION.
Mr. Gee noted that the re-branding represents the next step in a series of improvements that are transforming the Corporation from being an out-dated, bureaucratic organization, into a modern customer-focused business.
Greg was joined in his presentation by the Honourable Jim Watson, Minister of Consumer and Business Services. The following are notes from Greg Gees speech at this important event:
Good afternoon everyone. It is a great pleasure to be here with you today. I want to thank the Greater Toronto Home Builders' Association for inviting the Warranty Program to participate at this Industry Luncheon.
This is truly an historic day for the Warranty Program in Ontario, because the day has finally arrived for us to launch our new corporate brand. I want to thank each of you for coming to this lunch and for participating in our launch event. Many of you in this room are industry leaders, and I know that you share with us a commitment to constructing quality homes, providing superior customer service, and communicating effectively with new home buyers.
I also want to thank the members of our Board of Directors who are with us. They have played a key role in developing our new brand, and I know they share the enthusiasm of management in wanting to see our new brand finally take flight and become a reality.
BACKGROUND INFORMATION ON CHANGES
Before I announce our new name, I want to give you a little background as to why we decided to develop a new corporate name and brand.
We are just past the midpoint in a 3-year strategic plan to modernize the Warranty Program. Research undertaken several years ago with both builders and consumers told us that the Warranty Program was an outdated organization that had failed to move with the times, and it had a severely damaged reputation.
In particular, consumers told us that the warranty coverage and claims process was not understandable, and that builders were not responsive in terms of providing after-sales service. Builders told us that the Warranty Program needed to take action against unregistered builders, that it needed to respond to builder enquiries more quickly and effectively, and that improvements were needed in the consumer complaints resolution process.
We evaluated the results of our research carefully, and our Board agreed to a strategic plan that is intended to evolve the company into a "modern customer-focused business organization".
Most of you here today must continuously deal with change changes to building materials and methods, changes to consumer tastes and attitudes, and changes to building standards and regulations. Similarly, the Warranty Program must embrace change in order to earn respect in the marketplace.
Our change agenda began with a number of management changes to acquire the skills we needed for the future. In fact, most of our senior people at the Vice President level are new to the Warranty Program. They bring outstanding business backgrounds as well as fresh ideas and perspectives. This has allowed us to refocus the organization and move from an outdated paper-based culture to one that has begun to use modern technology.
Today, we have 400,000 homes under warranty, and we need to use technology to service those kind of numbers. The changes we have implemented to date have resulted in much improved turnaround times, and improved cost efficiencies in handling our daily business processes.
Let me tell you briefly about some of the important changes we have recently made to keep up with today's marketplace:
(a) Modern Functional Website
Some months ago, we launched a very up-to-date website that is consumer-friendly and easy to navigate.
There is a host of relevant information on our website for both consumers and builders and most of our documents can be downloaded from our site.
I am pleased to report that our website is being used extensively. At present, we receive between 15,000 and 20,000 visits to our site each month. It is clear that consumers are hungry for the latest information on new home building, and our warranty coverages.
(b) Contact Centre
Another improvement is our Contact Centre.
We wanted to be able to respond more promptly and professionally to consumer and builder enquiries, and so we have begun to build a modern Contact Centre using the latest technology.
This new centralized facility will become the single point of contact for all of our telephone, fax, e-mail and written enquiries. At present, we average about 3,000 inbound telephone calls per week into the Contact Centre. About 60% of those calls come from consumers looking for information or clarification about their warranty coverage or the claims process.
(c) Homeowner Information Package
We have prepared standardized documents like our Homeowner Information Package which every builder must provide to a homeowner prior to the pre-delivery inspection of the home. This helps consumers to have a much better understanding of the warranty coverages and the claims process.
(d) New Customer Service Standard
With active participation from the home building industry, we introduced a number of new policies last October such as our Customer Service Standard which imposes specific timelines within which builders must provide after-sales service. Research had indicated that long delays in getting repairs made was one of the most aggravating problems for consumers.
These new programs, services and procedures have improved the standards for after-sales service that all builders must provide, and have given new home buyers the quality assurances they demand when contemplating a new home purchase.
While many of our changes focused on consumers, interestingly, our research told us that most builders find that an informed and educated consumer is easier to deal with, and has more realistic expectations about a new home purchase. So builders benefit from these changes as well.
We did make other changes specifically with builders in mind. For example:
(a) Tougher Enforcement Measures
We have taken more aggressive steps against unregistered builders in order to protect our registered builders those who play by the rules.
Last year, we began to take a more focused approach on enforcement activity, and our numbers were up significantly. Our team of 8 enforcement officers laid 831 charges last year (up 50% from the prior year), and we had 72% more convictions. We also recovered $1.9 million in unpaid fees from illegal building.
A few weeks ago, we obtained a jail sentence for a builder who had previously been convicted 3 times for illegal building, and other similar convictions are awaiting sentencing.
(b) Construction Performance Guidelines
Our Construction Performance Guidelines introduced last year are one of the most important changes that the Warranty Program has ever introduced.
This handy reference guide tells builders and consumers in advance how the Warranty Program will rule on a warranty item in dispute. Builders have told us that this has proven to be one of the greatest tools to educate consumers about new home construction, and to resolve disputes before they materialize.
* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *
I could go on to talk about numerous other changes that we have made over the past 2 years, but time does not permit. Let me say, however, that we will be making some important announcements later this year focused on further improvements and efficiencies as we strive to reach our objective of becoming "a modern, customer-focused business organization".
DEVELOPMENT OF THE NEW BRAND
Let me turn now to the development of our new brand. We retained external advisers to look at our corporate name, and to tell us if changes were required. They told us a number of things:
(a) Our current name "Ontario New Home Warranty Program" is an outdated descriptive name from the past.
(b) Modern corporate brand names are short and memorable, like NIKE (the sports apparel company) or CLARICA (financial services).
(c) The word "Program" at the end of our name suggests to consumers that we are a government program that could be terminated tomorrow.
(d) Consumers find the acronym "ONHWP" (or for that matter its predecessor "HUDAC") to be unintelligible attempts to short form lengthy awkward names.
(e) Our web address www.newhome.on.ca does not match our corporate name, and hence our website is difficult for anyone to find even with a search engine.
(f) Finally, we were told that others will not recognize how extensively we have changed the organization, if we continue to be identified by an outdated name.
We conducted research to learn the opinions of both buyers and builders, and a list of hundreds of names was generated for focus group testing. The name that we have chosen was the top choice of our consumer market testing it is a name that is engaging and progressive, and one that is easy to find on the Internet.
It is a name that is short and memorable, and while it will take some time, it will soon become recognized, remembered and understood by consumers.
We have decided to follow many other corporations, and use a "single word" brand name which will always appear with a tag line in the same way that companies like Allstate use the tag line "The good hands people". Our tag line will ensure that there is no confusion about who we are and what we do. Our so-called tag line is the 5 words "Protecting Ontario's New Home Buyers".
In terms of cost, we have set a very modest budget to make this brand change. We have chosen to have a "soft launch", meaning that instead of destroying supplies that we have on hand today, we are going to continue to use up all existing supplies with the old name, and will be introducing the new name gradually over a 6-month period. By October 1, we will have completely switched to using the new name.
The experts that evaluated our new name have concluded that it says the right kind of things about our organization. They said that our new name is:
Strong and trustworthy.
Modern but timeless.
Easy to say, spell and remember.
And consumers recognized that our new name is derived from the word "Ontario".
ANNOUNCEMENT OF THE BRAND
Ladies and gentlemen, I am delighted to tell you that beginning today and for the foreseeable future, the Warranty Program in Ontario will be known as
TARION WARRANTY CORPORATION
and we will market ourselves under the name
TARION
Protecting Ontario's New Home Buyers
You will notice that in addition to a new brand name and tag line, we have a new logo represented by 3 pillars in yellow which is a simple, yet bold representation of what we do.
The 3 pillars represent the 3 partners in the warranty dispute resolution process builders, buyers and TARION. The logo positions these 3 parties working together to resolve issues, with TARION acting as the mediator. It symbolizes that builders and consumers are to be treated fairly and impartially there is no favouritism. The 3 pillars also represent our 3 core activities: buyer and builder education, warranty enforcement, and builder licensing.
Our full corporate name is "TARION Warranty Corporation", however, this name will be used only on a limited basis for legal contracts and other formal documents.
To assist builders, we have also created a special TARION registered builder logo for builders to use in your day-to-day marketing. The TARION builder logo will in time become a very important asset for builders.
The builder logo tells consumers that you are a registered builder, that you have met the stringent requirements set by TARION for technical knowledge, financial security, and customer service. We intend to protect the integrity of this new logo by strictly enforcing usage standards among builders.
We also have a new Registration Certificate for builders to display that shows the number of years that you have been a builder in good standing with TARION.
If you look towards each end of this hall, you will notice a number of people wearing t-shirts with our new name making their way to each of your tables. They are bringing 3 things that we would like you to take home with you today.
The first is a detailed Information Package for you to share with your staff regarding our brand change, and the reasons behind it. Every builder in Ontario will be getting a copy of this package in the mail, so those of you present today are getting a sample copy.
If you flip to the back of this Information Package, there is a Licence Agreement that every builder is asked to sign to authorize the builder to use our new name and logo. There is no fee or cost involved. It is a requirement under trademark law that every authorized user of a name be licensed to do so.
If you wish to begin using our name immediately, and you are the principal of an organization, you can go to one of the tables located around this room, and meet with one of our staff members, and provide them with a signed copy of the Licence Agreement. They will give you an advance copy of a CD containing our new name and logo. Examples of our new name, and how it can be used with your advertising are included in your Information Kit.
There is no requirement to complete this today. You can also send it in to us when you receive this package at your office within the next few days.
Our staff members are also bringing 2 other things for you to take home a paperweight with our new name, and also a treat one of the best cookies in town with our new name noted on it.
It will take time for the TARION name to become recognized, however, we are commencing an advertising campaign across the Province immediately to raise awareness of the new and improved warranty program in Ontario.
You will be able to reach our website with a very simple web address that matches our name www.tarion.com, however, our old web address will also lead you to the same site for a period of time.
If you are heading over to the Home Show this afternoon, you will see that our new name has been unveiled at our booth. We will begin to build awareness of our new brand with the many consumers who will be attending the Home Show.
As I mentioned earlier, we will be gradually phasing in the new name over the next number of months. Any of your documents or brochures that have our old name can be used for up to 6 months, and to avoid any confusion, our communications with consumers will include reference to both our old and new names for a period of time.
Our change to a modern new name is an important milestone in the progress made at the Warranty Program over the past 2 years. It represents a great stride forward for the home building industry in Ontario, and an opportunity for you to tell your purchasers that they have coverage through one of the best warranty programs in North America.
I want to close by thanking Minister Watson and his staff from the Ministry of Consumer and Business Services (many of whom are present today), as well as the entire home building industry in Ontario for your interest, your enthusiasm and your support as we continue our evolution into a modern business organization.
Gregory W. Gee
April 14, 2004
