How to make your brand stand out and deliver success
Increasing competition in the financial sector means that differentiation is more important than ever. Chris Torney looks at how firms can create a brand that helps deliver success.
“Consumers pick a firm based on who they think they can trust, rather than on actual product comparisons. Your branding needs to satisfy the following questions: are we believable in our claims? How do we deliver on our promises? Are we being relevant to our clients? And how are we different from rival firms?”
“What we’re doing is building a business that consumers will link their current accounts and credit cards to – so there is a challenge for firms like us involved in open banking to build a brand that customers will trust,” says Paul Lloyd, chief marketing officer of Snoop, a start-up that aims to take advantage of open banking to help consumers get the best deals on the likes of savings accounts, insurance and utilities.
Lloyd adds that a lot of fintech businesses make the mistake of focusing only on their product: “It’s right to start with the product – after all, if you don’t have a brilliant product, you’re nothing. But you can’t concentrate on that at the expense of everything else. If you’re going to build a product that has mass acceptance and mass adoption, you need a brand.”
To this end, Snoop has created an animated character – also called Snoop – that the business can use to communicate with consumers. “This allows us to speak directly to people and express ourselves in a personable way,” Lloyd says. “The potential for open banking adoption at scale is huge. In recent years we’ve seen a number of new technologies gain great adoption, things like social media or contactless cards. But to be successful in any of these areas, businesses are going to need a brand – and that’s what we’re aiming to create from the outset.”
For online mortgage broker Habito, one of the key challenges is establishing a brand in a unique part of the financial services market. “Branding in mortgages is different from other branding, let alone as a category within financial services,” explains chief marketing officer Abba Newbery. “That’s because there are very few people in the market for a mortgage every month, so the target audience for a mortgage brand is very small. Those people who are considering their mortgage think about their purchase deeply, because it is such a huge cost. But once it’s done, most people don’t want to think about it again for years.
“There are also very few recognisable brands in mortgage broking. Our research found that 90% of consumers couldn’t name even one mortgage broker – so we’re very much building a brand in uncharted waters.” Habito’s approach has seen the business reject typical financial services advertising – smiling families or people with moving boxes – in favour of a TV campaign that humorously reflects how stressful moving home can be.
“Putting yourself in your customers’ shoes and showing your humanity – either through funny copy or empathetic storytelling – builds better and stronger connections with consumers,” explains Newbery.
Under pressure
But the branding challenge isn’t limited to new companies. Existing businesses are coming under increasing pressure to ensure their own brands remain relevant to today’s consumers in the light of all this new competition. Recently published research by analyst Kantar found that, over the past 12 months, the UK’s top banks have lost around £11.5bn in brand value, calculated by the firm through a combination of financial data and consumer opinions.
“Consumers do not perceive the UK’s most valuable banks to be particularly meaningful or different,” says Alex Wright, client partner in the insights division at Kantar. “This is a wake-up call for UK banks that have been over-reliant on their name and history, some dating back nearly 200 years. Salience has kept brands buoyant, but without meaningful difference this is not sustainable. Salience will drain away, along with value.
“What we’re seeing is that banks are facing a number of challenges, not least the emergence of disruptive brands that are connecting with millennials who want a service available anytime, anywhere.”
But Peter Matthews at financial branding experts Nucleus points out that larger financial services firms have managed to respond to new entrants by developing their own technology. “Technology isn’t as big a differentiator as it was a couple of years ago,” he says. “As open banking enters the mainstream, it will show who customers trust to aggregate their accounts. And the outcome may surprise those who thought the disrupters had it all their own way.”
Alongside communications and technology, people have a vital role to play in creating a brand. “It’s certainly possible to think of examples of businesses where there is great technology, but what you hear about the people who work there is not so good – and that colours your perception of a brand,” Lloyd says. “Consumers are interested more today in the people behind the brands and businesses. It is a very important element of building that connection between a consumer and a brand.”
Ball adds: “It is really important to consider employer branding and how your company comes across to potential new recruits on sites like LinkedIn, Glassdoor and your careers pages. Creating content that shows what it’s like to work for you – starring your own employees as brand ambassadors – builds trust, which has an impact on the whole brand.”
How British are you?
One question facing UK firms is how they should deal with the issue of Britishness – especially as Brexit looms. Matthews says that whenever the departure goes ahead we can “expect a deluge of explicitly British branding, along the lines of ‘Cool Britannia’, created to draw attention to our newly independent status”.
He adds: “Whether this extends to banking and finance is questionable, but niche propositions in investment management, savings and payments will definitely continue to segment the market and the UK will become an attractive ‘close to Europe, but not in Europe’ financial centre for some services.”
Ball, however, believes that many financial services businesses would be better advised to play down their Britishness in order to attract talent and clients from overseas. “Branding can be used to reaffirm your commitment to supporting workers – for example with visa applications – and to carve out a brand identity that doesn’t hinge on nationality, but on togetherness and a collective identity as a firm.”
Case study: the new brand
Monzo is widely hailed as one of the most successful examples of a new entrant into UK financial services in recent years. “Monzo is the first bank since First Direct that consumers talk about with genuine affection, and there are a number of reasons for this,” explains Alex Wright, client partner in the insights division at analyst Kantar.
“The emotional connection is founded on both its innovative digital offering and great customer service. Essentially, Monzo has embedded its brand strategy in all aspects of the business, from tone of voice to employee engagement, right through to the way it develops products, for example using customers and fans to test prototype products.
“It is probably no exaggeration to say that it is the bank for the millennial generation, which has proved to be highly attuned to four key characteristics – this demographic is technologically engaged; feel less in control financially; have 24/7 service expectations; and seek a brand with purpose, which is transparent and that they can trust.”
Case study: the rebrand
Snoop’s Paul Lloyd says the rebranding of Northern Rock following its 2011 takeover by Virgin Money – where he worked as a marketing director – was a highlight of his time at the business.
“We had taken over a brand that had been incredibly damaged, but that had an incredibly important role in the North East,” Lloyd says. “There were a lot of people in that business who were desperate to get out of the bad times, to build their business.
“The rebrand to Virgin Money was not just about changing the logo, it was about introducing new products, for example getting rid of introductory bonus rates; introducing new store designs; and it was about lots of work with colleagues to understand what Virgin was about, what its purpose was and how we wanted them to bring that to life in their interactions with customers.”
Ultimately, Lloyd says, Virgin’s rebrand was able to turn Northern Rock from a loss-making business in 2011 into a company that made almost £200m in pre-tax profits in 2017.
About the author
Chris Torney