Brand Evolution with Divvy Homes

Divvy Homes offers renters an alternative—move into your dream home today, and build savings to buy it while you rent. Understanding that it's harder than ever to become a homeowner, Divvy exists to make homeownership, and all the power that comes with it, accessible to everyone.

During my time at Divvy, I worked to develop the company’s first-ever content strategy. I revamped the brand's tone of voice and creative strategy to bring a new look and feel to our digital content. I also audited and overhauled the entire marketing and UX content ecosystem to bring tone-of-voice and brand messaging consistency across all content. I created a new social media strategy, developed the brand's first content strategy, and pioneered a customer stories initiative.

As a newer company offering a non-traditional homeownership model, building trust with customers was pivotal for success. It's also hard to come by in the rent-to-own industry, with its legacy of exploitative practices. Looking to exponentially grow, the brand faced a few challenges:

The product and application were complex for those with less experience in real estate—a majority of Americans—making it challenging to talk about the program in a concise way

The concept of a rent-to-own program had negative connotations and associations to exploitative practives that heabily impacted communities of color

Divvy is an SF-based startup servicing communities across the country, mainly in suburban areas—lack of trust in "tech companies" made some customers skeptical

Our audience values trust & local expertise. They believe in the power of homeownership to build generational wealth. They’re fiercely independent, and goal-oriented

Working singles, who don’t have the safety nets of bigger families with more earners.

Starter families focused on establishing a secure foothold for their young kids

Rookie realtors beginning their careers, hungry but lacking experience, focused on building their business

It was time to officially introduce the US to Divvy, and there was a lot of ground to cover.

Developed both in-depth and “bite-size” pieces of explainer content that educated new customers and agents on the benefits of Divvy

Conducted a brand audit to understand exactly what language and terminology we were using and where, and standardized our tone and messaging across our entire ecosystem

Revamped our social media presence to bring the brand to life

Invested in customer storytelling to show, not tell, how Divvy’s product positively impacts its customers while building trust

We developed educational content that broke things down into simple steps and built friendly rapport with our customers.

A key part of this was developing human-led stories that connected with potential customers on an emotional level. Working with an external production, cinematography, and editing team, I developed 3 short videos showcasing real Divvy homeowners. I was responsible for finding talent, building out the narrative of each video, and managing the external teams during the shoot.

I also interviewed dozens of Divvy customers to learn more about their experiences and tell their stories across Divvy's blog and social channels.