Taco Bell Marketer May Teach Fannie Mae New Tricks

Fannie Mae has hired consumer marketing star Vada Hill as senior vice president of its marketing department, fueling concern that the loan buyer is horning in on lenders' relationship with consumers.

Mr. Hill, Taco Bell's chief marketing officer since 1997, is credited with rejuvenating the fast-food chain with an ad campaign featuring a talking Chihuahua.

The hiring comes as Fannie Mae and its smaller rival, Freddie Mac, have been trying to allay concerns over their rising profiles in the market.

Patrick McEnerney, the president of Bank of New York Mortgage Co., said the hiring makes the government-sponsored enterprises' loud protestations that they are not going direct-to-consumer hard to believe.

In a press statement, Mr. Hill said he was "looking forward to the challenges of bringing marketing, branding, and a consumer orientation" to Fannie Mae.

Fannie Mae's senior vice president of communications, John Buckley, said that Mr. Hill will be filling a vacancy that has been open for two years, and that his new focus would be on helping lenders in marketing to consumers.

"This is about how Fannie Mae can have a more sophisticated method of marketing for our business-to-business clients," Mr. Buckley said. "Mr. Hill's consumer sophistication will help Fannie Mae become more adept at creating products that our lender clients can offer to their clients."

Bear Stearns financial analyst David Hochstim said Fannie is clearly focusing on its brand image, but that does not necessarily mean it wants to originate loans.

"This is analogous to pharmaceutical companies' marketing to patients as well as to doctors," Mr. Hochstim said. "The doctors eventually write the prescriptions, but it doesn't hurt to have patients ask for antihistamine X, Y, and Z that they saw on TV."

Mr. Hill will stay at Taco Bell through June and will start at Fannie Mae on Sept. 1, reporting to Ann Logan, executive vice president of marketing.

Mr. Buckley said no that changes are anticipated in the agency's advertising strategy, and that all ad efforts will remain his responsibility.

Sales of the Taco Bell chain, which has about 5,000 full-fledged restaurants and 2,000 "express" outlets, increased 3% last year and 4% in the first quarter of 1999. The Irvine, Calif., company is owned by Tricon Global Restaurants Inc. of Louisville, Ky., which also owns Pizza Hut and KFC Corp.

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