Bath brand consultancy The House has helped property management firm Touchstone, also based in the city, to refresh its brand by reimagining its purpose.
Working closely with Touchstone’s senior leadership, The House helped redefine the company’s brand purpose as ‘turning rental units into homes’. 
This has energised Touchstone’s business strategy and sparked a full refresh of its visual identity, communications strategy and business approach.
The House creative head Steve Fuller said: “After 25 years in business, Touchstone’s employees really understand what it takes to make a rented house feel like a home.
“Our challenge was to capture the full breadth of Touchstone’s practical, market and human intelligence and turn it into a clear purpose that delivers competitive advantage.”
Focusing on turning rental units into homes makes good commercial sense for Touchstone. When tenants feel truly at home, they stay longer and value and look after the property. This reduces turnover, maintenance and management costs for landlords, while making renting feel less temporary and transient for a growing population of long-term renters, who are on course to make up a quarter of the UK population by 2025.
Touchstone chief executive Tim Saunders said: “We want to create a world where landlords and tenants recognise and respect each other’s needs. The more we can create a genuine sense of home for tenants, the lower the costs and the greater the profit.”
This approach has an added social benefit, as tenants who stay longer tend to create more long-lasting connections and become part of the social fabric.
Touchstone’s purpose can now be felt across every part of the company’s business strategy, culture and brand.
The House works with leaders to transform businesses with purpose. It helps companies build purpose-led vision and business strategy, values-led culture and creative communication.
