Strand Out is the very first blog devoted to financial services marketing.
View Strand Financial’s MD, Mike Symes on Financial Marketing TV
Listen to this month's Financial Symes Marketing Podcast
 |
|
          See this month’s featured client Video Testimonial
|
Best B2B Brand Passes 4Rs TestFriday 29th February 2008 Much of the focus within the banking sector is on differentiation at product level in order to drive short-term tactical initiatives to meet targets. However, in order for a brand to stand out in the mind of a customer it must reach far deeper.
Ultimately, a brand must stand up to the 4 Rs test and be measured against the following criteria: remarkable, reputational, relevant and real. For a brand to fulfill its promise, the four Rs must be
adopted at every level from corporate strategy through to engagement with the customer. Here, I take a look at some of the recent comments made by Annabel Pritchard, brand manager at Deloitte, highlighting why the firm's emphasis on using its 11,000 staff to ensure its brand promise is delivered resulted in its recognition as the Best B2B Brand of 2007. Remarkable
"The rebrand was very visual for the first couple of years, but it has moved on. We're still responsible for its visual aspects, but more significantly, we're focused on getting people involved and understanding what makes Deloitte different."
"We're not the only professional services company that did outdoor advertising in 2007, but we thought about it carefully, and we probably spent more. The aim was to be different and bold. Advertising on the Imax is something usually associated with consumer brands, but Waterloo is also a prime location for commuters. At another location we took four billboards and put nothing on them. That was brave. It's not what people expect from us. We want to be part of the Big Four, but also different." Reputational Relevant Real
"Branding in professional services is very different from FMCG. Our people are our brand. Their behaviour delivers and reinforces it. You can set expectations through sponsorship and advertising, but it's the people who make the difference." "This kind of engagement and passion, she says, is the 'Holy Grail' of professional services marketing."
The 4 RsThursday 28th February 2008 I have just received an email asking if I can post details of my speech at the recent Financial Marketing TV Seminar, with specific reference to the 4Rs. Here is an extract:
My starting point was two large scale commercial projects, which used data from hundreds of brands over many years to derive insight into how brands develop in mindspace and heartspace.
Young and Rubicam's Brand Asset Valuator model involved 350,000 consumer interviews measured 55 different consumer perceptions with regard to over 20,000 brands. It focuses on how mindspace is created. The Brand Dynamics Model, using Millward Brown data, covers 3500 brands across major world markets. I have combined these findings into a radar chart model showing how a brand can be built in mindspace. The 4 Rs represent the four attributes a brand in the minds of the customer. Remarkable (The starting point for all brands is awareness) Reputational (Esteem reduces risk of purchase) Relevant (Elements that matter most to people) Real (Emotional connection driven through experience of the brand, leading to familiarity, confidence and trust For a brand to fulfil its promise, the 4Rs must be adopted at every level from corporate strategy through to engagement with the customer. Exploring SPACEWednesday 27th February 2008 The Strand Financial SPACE model builds on the 4Rs and is a useful tool in helping financial marketers achieve a powerful, differentiated, balanced brand. It not only gives a brand snapshot, it is predictive over time - since there is a direct correlation between a lessening in differentiation and the accelerated rate of a brand's decline. The good news is that the opposite is also true in terms of adoption and ROI!
We can plot the points below on a radar chart against the 4Rs attributes, using data from a specially structured survey, enabling you to identify at a glance where issues and opportunities exist: S Strategy
P Positioning
A Architecture C Communication E Engagement We are now using this Model to rank and measure the perceptions of clients, intermediaries, directors and staff in a highly visual form of gap analysis. It can even be applied to specific products or used at a granular campaign level.
The Global Banking 100 IndexTuesday 26th February 2008 According to an analysis of the top 100 global banking brands, the top 10 most valuable are all headquartered in Europe or the US. No emerging market banks make it into the top ten and as yet there are no Chinese bank brands in the Global Banking 100 Index – at Strand Financial, we recognise this is just a matter of time. Interestingly, it is not only credit card oriented consumer bank brands that display the highest proportion of brand value to market capitalisation as we would expect.
Investment and wholesale banks also demonstrate surprisingly large brand values. In the consumer sector, the story behind the stats would appear to be the emotional and image related factors and in the investment banking sector the lack of requirement for retail infrastructure key personnel know-how and the corporate brand significant drivers of demand itself.
Asset Based Lending - A Branding Success StoryMonday 25th February 2008 Although consumer retail and investment banking have seen a downward spiral in public trust and performance, it's by no means all doom and gloom for the financial sector and the Asset Based Lending industry is extremely buoyant.
John Stewart, former CEO of Quaker once famously remarked, "If this business were split up, I would give you the land and bricks and mortar, and I would take the brands and trademarks, and I would fare better than you." In fact, brands and Asset Based Lending have clear similarities - the key is to understand the underlying sources of value intimately and manage them closely like any tangible asset. Here we consider a case study where a company has avoided the worn product route and uses the core essence of the brand as the key differentiator to create their own space.
Iceland, the home of Landsbanki Commercial Finance's parent company, is a world leader in geothermal energy. By combining the descriptive with the evocative in the term, 'Lending Energy', Strand Financial has created a unique and perfectly balanced brand essence for Landsbanki - a promise that translates to the customer experience. The Brand Pillars, which form the theme of the corporate brochure, represent the three principal types of business energy: Creative, Positive and Sustainable. The dramatic images used seek to convey the power and majesty of the dramatically changing landscape. Landsbanki's marketing and advertising brief extends to promoting the brand to its key target audiences and communities, including professional advisers, managing directors and financial directors. The concept of the Landsbanki 'Brand Iceberg' takes this a stage further. Just like an iceberg, only a small proportion of the brand's mass and power is visible, the rest is hidden. Effective brand management requires attention to the hidden internal brand elements as much as to the visible external ones. The team at Landsbanki knows that the key to branding success is to embody the brand itself in ALL words and actions. They also know that the relationship with the brand deepens as everyone becomes involved - moving from awareness to understanding as the essence of the brand comes alive through creating a clear, differentiated client experience. Ultimately, this is a recognition that brand equity is the sum of all the hearts and minds of every single person that comes into contact with the company. Message Overload!Thursday 21st February 2008 25 years ago, we were exposed to around 1500 messages per day. It's been estimated that this figure has now doubled and that by 2010, it will have risen to 5000 per day. Overload!
Today, I'd like to highlight the issues that financial marketers now have to address or face the problem of mass audience tune-out: Product clutter - too many choices and too many product features, resulting in customer confusion Message clutter - too many messages, leading to a battle for awareness and the fear of creating adverse disruption
Media clutter - too many media channels, making it far harder to reach the customer, without diluting marketing spend The Big Difference Agency EcologyWednesday 20th February 2008 Big Difference - The ability to show every client what it means to 'Create Your Own Space'.
How Financial Brands Are Rewriting the HeadlinesTuesday 19th February 2008 With the recent headlining losses from second largest French bank, Societe Generale and our very own baled-out, propped-up Northern Rock, the public's trust in consumer banking and investment as a whole is floundering.
This week, B2B Marketing Magazine asked me what actions the marketer should be taking to address these issues. My view is that global banks need to look very closely at the way in which their own crisis communications functions are operating. The court of public opinion is more important to their reputation than a court of law, particularly in B2B markets, where knowledgeable customers tend to be less forgiving. If the banks spent rather less time with their lawyers than their marketers and PR agency, they may have smoothed the roller-coaster dipping curve of crisis far earlier. There are two fundamental rules of engagement in a crisis situation. Firstly, the time to plan is before, not during a crisis and secondly, speed is of the essence in countering adverse publicity. The adoption of the latter rule was
much criticised by the national media in the handling of Northern Rock. One financial institution stood out positively in its text-book handling of a crisis situation with a carefully crafted campaign in the FT: "Why Merrill Lynch is Still Bullish on Merrill Lynch." The high impact campaign was planned meticulously and delivered at speed to market. The key to the success of the communication was its honesty and that it hinged on the core essence of the brand. The campaign acknowledges the position in the first line: "These have been a challenging few months." The communication reassures with quiet confidence: "Our financial position and liquidity remain strong." Then, they set the context with an example of how they had overcome previous setbacks with resilience: "It's worth remembering that less than a decade ago the economy and financial industry suffered an unprecedented series of shocks. In the years following 2001, the company produced five straight years of exceptional growth." The piece pivots on the brand values of the organisation: "The symbol on this page is not just a corporate logo. It represents the philosophy of Merrill Lynch, an embodiment of the pride, strength, integrity and optimism that have driven the company for nearly a century, and will continue to do so for a long time to come." With a brand-focused, values-based approach, Merrill Lynch is rightly bullish. Forget USPs - what's Your UVP?Monday 18th February 2008 The sales training industry owes a great deal to Rosser Reeves who coined the phrase USP as an acronym for the unique selling proposition in the 1950s. The problem is, a USP doesn't go far enough because business, particularly the financial services business, is far more complex. In today's financial services industry, differentiation comes through redefining or "re-imagining" the customer experience through creating a value proposition based on a central idea or core essence. That value proposition is something we call the UVP - Unique Value Proposition. Imagine a wheel with your core essence as the hub and spokes coming off that to specific points or nodes. Each one of these should create value and be connected directly to the Core Essence. There aren't too many conditions other than the fact that they must be remarkable, reputational, relevant and real in order to add value, be communicated effectively and be sustainable points of difference. It's a great test to validate your core brand essence - the ultimate test being your customers! Same Difference?Friday 15th February 2008 Scanning through the marketing collateral of financial organisations and trade magazines this month, I couldn't help but notice that most players are claiming exactly the SAME attributes as differentiators within their respective trade magazines.
Statements such as: "What differentiates us is our people, service, flexibility and innovation." peppering journals, brochures and web sites seems to me to be having the opposite effect to that which was intended. Ironically, it follows that the greater the organisational focus on these particular 'differentiators', the more similar these companies must seem in the eyes of their potential customers - resulting in inevitable commoditisation and price parity. The thing is, brands need to be different at the core!
As marketers, I believe we have a responsibility to ensure that each financial brand in our stewardship is treated individually. It therefore must have a distinctive core essence and a personality that sets it apart. The real opportunity to gain a competitive advantage is to focus and develop DIFFERENT attributes from competitors and to build a Unique Value Proposition and customer experience from that solid foundation.
Contrary Creative TechniquesThursday 14th February 2008 Next time you have a problem or opportunity, why not consider these contrary creative brainstorming techniques?: The 5Ss - Brainstorming "What If?" ScenariosWednesday 13th February 2008 We are often asked about the techniques we use as an agency for brainstorming differential strategic models. Here are five of the most powerful approaches to developing "What If" scenarios:
Substitute
How can I substitute the product, price, promotion or place or put my current solution/ product/ process to other purposes, potentially in other markets? Synergy What materials, features, processes, people, products or components can I combine? Selection Which parts or characteristics of the product/ process could I change, add or delete? Stretch When I modify the process in some way, what would the impact be on the customer? Swap What would I do if part of the product/process worked in reverse or was produced in a different order? Creating Oceans of DifferenceTuesday 12th February 2008 In Blue Ocean Strategy: How to Create Uncontested Market Space and Make the Competition Irrelevant (Harvard Business School Press), W. Chan Kim and Renée Mauborgne challenge everything you thought you knew about the requirements for strategic success, and instead argue that the way to win is to stop competing. At Strand Financial, we are not obsessive about a client’s immediate competition. Yet we do not create brands in a vacuum. We are aware of convention, so we can break it and help clients to create their own space. One way is to adopt "Blue Ocean" strategies for clients.
Many financial companies settle for a remorseless battle for success in a commoditised "red ocean" or shrinking profit pool.
In the red ocean, industry boundaries are defined and accepted, prices are driven lower, and the competitive rules of the game become more transparent. As the market space becomes increasingly crowded, Kim and Mauborgne argue that companies need to use an "opposite approach". Instead of benchmarking the competition, brand pioneers set their own rules and create "blue oceans" of uncontested market space.
"Oppositioning" is one of the most successful competitive strategies ever to be unleashed on a cluttered marketplace. Why not ask how Strand Financial can explore Blue Oceans to help you Create Your Own Space? http://www.amazon.co.uk/Blue-Ocean-Strategy-Uncontested-Competition/dp/1591396190 From Positioning to OppositioningMonday 11th February 2008 "For every action, there is an equal and opposite reaction." The Brand IcebergThursday 07th February 2008 One of the main areas that delegates at the recent Financial Marketing TV seminar have asked to learn more about is the “Brand Iceberg”.
In the best-managed brands, the brand’s values are accepted by the entire workforce, particularly in financial services businesses. The employees have a relationship with their brand that is the counterpart of the intended client relationships. This recognition that brands now serve as much more than just an identity system can be illustrated by the concept of the
Like an iceberg, only a small proportion of the brand’s mass and power is visible, the rest is intangible and hidden. But effective brand management requires attention to the hidden brand elements as much as to the visible ones. Externally
Name Brand Identity Brand Experience Marketing Collateral Advertising Public Relations Referral Products & Services Internally Brand Values Management - Control Structure Internal Communications Business Process Training Quality Staff Motivation Knowledge Management Recruitment Policies HR Policies & Processes Technology 10 Immutable Laws of InnovationWednesday 06th February 2008 Here are what I consider to be the 10 Immutable Laws of Innovation, as featured in my Connected Marketing column in Business Money magazine this month: The Law of Inspiration
Think creatively to position your brand, solve a specific problem or create a specific opportunity
The Law of Intelligence Gather accurate, relevant and recent marketing intelligence; don't make important brand decisions in a vacuum
The Law of Invention Invest time up front in developing or re-inventing your core brand essence, brand pillars and unique value proposition
The Law of Image Focus on maintaining a consistent, coherent image that resonates with your core market
The Law of Integration Gain organisational commitment at every level
The Law of Impact Be distinctive, bold and original if you can't lead your existing segment in positioning terms, create a new segment you can lead
The Law of Impression Reverse-engineer your brand from the perceptions you wish to create in your prospect's mind
The Law of Interpretation Listen closely to the market when you're treading new ground
The Law of Interaction Engage in conversations with customers, encourage a dialogue of ideas
The Law of Influence Identify how you can gain great testimonials and referrals as a result of your commitment to continued innovation
When you keep the above laws and act on them, you know you are truly embracing innovation, not imitation!
Porter: Banks must set themselves apartTuesday 05th February 2008 In an interview with Banking Strategies, Harvard professor and best-selling author, Michael E. Porter, commented: "We need to start moving into the next phase, which is one of strategy, the phase in which individual banks make It is my view in these credit crunch times, that boardrooms of financial institutions need bold visionaries who will drive differentiation strategy, rather than fall back on the endless cost-cutting that starves innovation. Venice on Video, Finance on FilmMonday 04th February 2008 Here’s a brief extract from my Connected Marketing column in Business Money this month, in which I discuss the Asset Based Finance Association (ABFA) conference. “I thoroughly enjoyed the 1st ABFA Conference in Venice. From the moment we were picked up by a James Bond-style water taxi, to the reception at a magnificent palace and from the quality of the conference itself to the quiet times wandering the lanes adjacent to St. Marks’ Square, the ‘difference’ was both experiential and evocative. Above all the conference made me think. Entrepreneur, Doug Richards said, “If you can’t decimate an industry, what good is an innovation.” This contrasted with the comment in the session with the smaller independents, where the trusted values of “delivering our promises”, “regional focus” and “choice”, were cited as points of difference. I believe that the challenge of innovation is an individual one, not a collective one – that focus on a distinctive attribute or ‘core essence’ is brand-shaping and potentially market-shifting.” I hope you enjoy the conference video!! Good and Bad URLsFriday 01st February 2008 We’ve long recognised the power of the URL in creating market space from both brand recognition and generic (search engine optimisation) contexts. The site below posts a stack of helpful rules using real life examples, all of which make a specific point. One of the main ones is: THEURLINCAPSDOESNTMAKEFORCLARITY.COM Another point the site makes is that the act of using the prefix WWW is unnecessary in advertising terms, since every user understands the convention and all browsers should add it automatically. Note to self: check out http://www.goodurlbadurl.com/ or should I say, GoodURLBadURL.com |
 Maximise your Online ROI. Request your FREE Web Site Audit now.  |
RSS Feed
| Strand Financial Limited | Adam House | 7-10 Adam Street | Strand | London WC2N 6AA | Privacy Policy | © Strand Financial Limited 2007 |