Examples of two of Clayton Homes and their lending arm, Vanderbilt Mortgage and Finance (VMF), online ads are shown below.
In the light of their new ad campaign it may now seem counterintuitive – or deceptive? – for Berkshire Hathaway owned Clayton Homes to be telling the professionals in the manufactured home industry that it seeks to elevate the image of manufactured housing.
Why?
Because recent ads on the Bing browser are featuring Clayton Homes advertising their housing products as “Mobile Homes” [sic]. Here is one of Clayton Homes new online ads, from a screen capture earlier this week.
Clayton’s captive lender, Vanderbilt Mortgage and Finance (VMF), is doing something similar. They are using a nicer looking model home, but that may or may not make it better than the Clayton ad, above.
Bill Gates, Warren Buffett, and Media Outlets
It is worth Noting that Bing is part of the Microsoft family of brands, per their own website.
Bill Gates is the famous principle founder of Microsoft.
Warren Buffett Donates Billions More, Behind the Curtain Impact on Manufactured Housing
Warren Buffett recently donated over a billion dollars in additional Berkshire Hathaway stock to the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation. Buffett is a lifetime trustee of the nonprofit.
Manufactured housing has sought for years to shed the “trailer house” and “mobile home” image.
But for whatever reason, these new online ads with Clayton’s name and logo suggest that the Knoxville, TN metro-based firm is doing other than what ads like the prior report on their video image campaign below claim. Their online ‘image’ video ad, approaching 2 years online, has only had a few thousand views. Doesn’t it look like posturing to the industry more than a serious effort to change the image, especially in the light of their new online Bing campaign?
Clayton Homes “New” Image Campaign, Surprising Facts Behind Have it Made Stigma Attacking Video
Is it any surprise that with this kind of marketing, and the problematic support by Buffett through nonprofits of MHAction, that manufactured housing is now into 9 months of year-over-year declines? Are they being ‘crazy like a fox?’
That’s today’s latest installment of the industry’s most-read trade publication, the original and still #1 home of manufactured home industry “News Tips, and Views Pros Can Use,” © where “We Provide, You Decide.” ©. ## (News, fact-checks, analysis, and commentary.)
1) Marketing, Web, Video, Consulting, Recruiting and Training Resources
Submitted by Soheyla Kovach to the Daily Business News for MHProNews.com. Soheyla is a managing member of LifeStyle Factory Homes, LLC, the parent company to MHProNews, and MHLivingNews.com
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White House Announces Council on Eliminating Regulatory Barriers To Affordable Housing | Manufactured Housing Association Regulatory Reform
MHARR participated in a conference call on June 25, 2019, conducted by the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD), during which White House officials announced the impending issuance of an Executive Order (EO) to create a “White House Council on Eliminating Regulatory Barriers to Affordable Housing.”
Insights on Manufactured Housing From Obama White House Federal Archives
MHARR Cautions Congress on Two Unnecessary And Damaging Manufactured Home Bills | Manufactured Housing Association Regulatory Reform
Washington, D.C., July 1, 2019 – The Manufactured Housing Association for Regulatory Reform (MHARR) in a June 26, 2019 communication to both houses of Congress (copies attached), has called on legislators to take no action on pending proposed bills that are at best unnecessary and, at worst, harmful and damaging to both the mainstream HUD Code manufactured housing industry and the lower and moderate-income American families that rely on those homes for affordable homeownership.
The Masthead
Millions of Americans were taught or acquired a sanitized or weaponized view of American history. Even those of us who focused on history in high school and at university were to varying degrees tainted by the perspective of instructors, pop culture, or textbooks.
