Independent brokers may bristle at the idea of coming under the umbrella of a brand, an MPA Top 100 Broker has claimed.

As Liberty Financial prepares to launch its branded business, Liberty Network Services CEO Brendan O’Donnell has predicted that branding is the future in an industry already in the grips of widespread consolidation.

However,MPA Top 100 Broker David Westerman is sceptical about branding. Westerman told Australian BrokerNews many consumers may have little connection with some of the brands in the mortgage industry.

“I think brokers will be wary about giving up their own shingle or brand to endorse a product which might only represent 10% of their total business. Being branded as Liberty, for instance, will give the broker no benefit as 99% of consumers have no idea who Liberty is,” he said.

Liberty Network Services CEO Brendan O'Donnell has defended the company's branding structure, and told Australian BrokerNews very few independent brokers have managed to grow their own brokerage’s brand.

“The majority of brokers are not experienced in the area of marketing and don’t have adequate capital to invest in building their brand. The result is that many brokers are unable to move towards working on their business and instead their individual name is the business. This is not a bad thing, but if you can combine your personal name and the excellent service you provide and apply it to a brand you will be much more successful,” he commented.

While O’Donnell conceded that independent brokers have seen success, he maintained that the difficult task of growing a business in isolation would increasingly steer more brokers toward branding.

“Aggregators would not be where they are today if a boutique broker was not successful. This said, in the decade ahead we will see an evolution of the industry where I believe more brokers will move towards a branded proposition that provides them with partnership support, enables them to focus on their strengths and builds bigger businesses,” he said.

Westerman, however, believes brokers have little to gain from applying corporate branding to their existing business.

"The only winner here is Liberty, who gets free advertising from all of its branded brokers," he said.