It’s official.
Confirming plans that HousingWire brought to light late last year and further revealed earlier this year, Nationstar Mortgage will indeed be launching a massive rebranding later this year and changing its name to Mr. Cooper.
Nationstar CEO Jay Bray confirmed the company’s plan to rebrand as Mr. Cooper during a call with investors to discuss the company’s fourth quarter and full year 2015 financial results.
When HousingWire first reported Nationstar’s plans to rebrand as Mr. Cooper, it was unknown, even reportedly to the company’s employees, how extensive the rebranding effort would be, but Bray told investors that Nationstar plans to combine its originations and servicing business under the Mr. Cooper brand umbrella.
In a presentation accompanying the call with investors, Nationstar stated that the plan is to consolidate its Nationstar and Greenlight Loans brands into Mr. Cooper.
According to the investor presentation, the plan behind the Mr. Cooper rebranding effort is to “create the most customer-focused company in the industry….challenging convention and status quo,” a mission statement that Bray echoed throughout the call with investors.
Bray said that for Nationstar, Mr. Cooper is more than just a brand, it’s an identity that will reshape the entire company and how it operates.
“Few would argue that the consumer mortgage experience is broken, and it’s time for someone to challenge convention and status quo in the industry,” Bray said. “We’re rethinking everything we do and we’re on mission to create the most customer-focused company in the industry, because we believe great service is great for business.”
Bray said that Nationstar’s research shows that it is seven times more expensive to acquire a new customer than to keep an existing customer. “And in today’s competitive landscape, our almost 2.5 million existing customers are our most valuable resource,” Bray said.
“So the business case for loving customers is both our marketing strategy and our ticket to building a strong company culture and improving financial performance,” Bray said.
And Bray said Mr. Cooper represents all of those ideals.
“(Rebranding to Mr. Cooper) represents a more personal relationship with a home loan provider and aligns the entire company behind this spirit of customer advocacy,” Bray said.
“When a consumer has a positive experience with a home loan, it’s usually because of one person, typically a Realtor, mortgage broker, customer service agent, a loan officer. They held the customer’s hand. They solved problems on the customer’s behalf and they made the experience positive,” Bray continued.
“Our goal is to create an entire company and a brand that embodies the spirit of customer advocacy,” Bray said.
Bray said that Mr. Cooper will build on Nationstar’s “track record as a leader in mortgage servicing and originations and will initially debut with our current 2.5 million customers later this year.”
The Mr. Cooper rebranding efforts won’t be fully revealed to customers until later this year, Bray said, but the company’s employees are already fully aware of Mr. Cooper and what it means.
When HousingWire reported the news of the Mr. Cooper rebranding earlier this year, sources told HousingWire that Nationstar employees received “swag bags,” complete with Mr. Cooper-branded materials, including coffee mugs, stainless steel water bottles, pens, notebooks, and plastic toy eyeglasses.
The name and logo for Mr. Cooper was also widely visible, in large and vibrant visuals, at the Nationstar’s Cypress Waters office location in Coppell, Texas.
Bray said that the response from Nationstar’s employees to Mr. Cooper has been enthusiastic.
“I gotta tell you, it’s been so well-received within the company,” Bray said about Mr. Cooper. “The energy level is awesome and I think people are really excited about it.”
Several Nationstar employees were apparently so excited about Mr. Cooper and their Mr. Cooper swag that they posted about the various branded materials on social media sites, including Instagram.
But in the wake of HousingWire’s reporting, the Instagram posts from Nationstar employees that referenced Mr. Cooper and the branded materials were deleted from Instagram, but not before they were captured in a screenshot, as seen below.
So where exactly did the name Mr. Cooper come from?
Bray was asked during the call, and said that the name was born out of discussions with Nationstar customers.
“I think, at the end of the day, we talk to our customers and we thought a lot about this, and we have multiple brands today so obviously you want to combine those,” Bray said.
“So we went out and said customers, customers, customers. They matter. Let’s ask their opinion,” Bray said.
Bray said that Nationstar ran several focus groups about potential names.
“We showed them Nationstar and some other boring financial services names,” Bray said. “And we threw out some radical names, like Mr. Cooper, and people loved it.”
Bray said that when customers have a positive mortgage experience, it’s because of connection with an individual, and Mr. Cooper is meant to represent that.
“So Mr. Cooper is meant to be that advocate, that person that’s going to connect with the customers to deliver a better experience and be an advocate for them day in and day out,” Bray said. “And when you talk to the customers about (Mr. Cooper), it’s been very positive as well.”
Bray said that the company’s legal name will still be Nationstar, and its stock ticker will remain “NSM,” but the company will operate as Mr. Cooper beginning soon.
Bray said the launch of Mr. Cooper also includes a “completely new web and mobile experience” that the company anticipates launching in the first half of 2016, as well as “new products and service offerings designed to remove the worry in the home loan process and reward customers over the life of their loan.”
Bray added that Nationstar plans to continue investing in training employees and focusing on improving customer experience.
“In addition, we are empowering our employees to resolve customer complaints on the first interaction, whether that be by phone, Twitter, Facebook, email, or the many other ways we communicate with our customers,” Bray said.
“This is not about spending more money,” Bray said. “It’s about being more focused, more coordinated, and delivering a higher quality customer experience through a consolidated, more modern identity with a fresh look and a supportive human brand voice.”
