Communication differentiation research helps Financial Services brands appeal to the emotional aspects of their clients’ financial needs to earn deeper engagement and loyalty.
Having worked in financial services research for longer than I care to mention, I am acutely aware of the difficulty in creating brand differentiation in the sector. Let’s be honest, it’s a category that many consumers find complex and ‘dull’, it’s often regulated to the point at which brands can’t say anything without having a bunch of caveats attached and the product landscape has changed very little over the last 20 years.
And yet…
Money and finances are hugely emotional. Over the years I have spent time with consumers who have experienced huge highs and lows with their finances, ranging from the depths of despair when a debt has gotten out of hand to the highs of making an investment that turned out way better than imagined.
These contrasting, and to some extent, conflicting market dynamics make “cutting through” hugely challenging which is why there is high inertia in many areas of finance.
So how can communication differentiation help Financial Services brands?
If you find it difficult to connect with customers, take an informal inventory of these three key areas where an innovative approach could impact your positioning and messaging.
- Focus on emotional not functional. Building on the notion that many consumers find finance complex and dull, there is often little to be gained by focusing on the functional attributes of what is on offer. Sure, the functional elements of a product or service need to be accessible to consumers (e.g. via a product page on the website) so that they can reassure themselves that they are making a smart choice, but that’s not what will make the connection with them.
- Talk about benefits not products/services. Linked to the first point, consumers (as in many categories) need to understand what’s in it for them or what they will get by using you and not a competitor. Again, the functional elements that are delivering the benefits need to be accessible to consumers so that there is ‘proof’ that the benefits will be available to them, but ultimately they need to be convinced there is a return on the effort made to choose or switch to your brand.
- Talk about what’s different, not better. This is potentially a harder one (and maybe more open to question) but I think showing what or why you are different is a stronger position to take than trying to claim to be the ‘best’ at something or best in a category as very often you can be matched or beaten in the short to medium term.
There are no doubt other elements to consider—Who are we targeting? What do we want to achieve? Which channels to use?—but keeping these three front and centre will help to ensure success.
In a competitive environment, research supports successful activation.
As with any new positioning or communications program, research plays a critical role in not just understanding what to convey, but also how to convey it (i.e. tone, language, imagery, etc.)
Understand the market landscape.
But before talking to any consumers we generally recommend conducting a competitor audit to understand the landscape and what consumers are being exposed to in terms of the positionings and messaging of your competition. At a simple level this stops you going down a “me too” route but it also helps to build a detailed picture of where the gaps and opportunities might lie. Having done this many times across many products and sectors, it’s amazing how often we see most of the market saying the same thing.
Global market landscape research helps brands understand their core goals while meeting the needs of their customers or clients in each region or locality they serve. Learn about our research approach.
Gain deeper insights through qualitative research.
Following the audit, and depending on what you already know about your target audience, we would recommend an initial phase of exploratory qualitative research to understand:
The full context of the landscape in which your product or service operates. This may involve looking beyond just your product/service and financial services in general so that you can unlock insights that will help your brand tap into the wider motivations or fears that the audience has. So, for example, if you are in the investment space, this could involve exploring people’s longer term goals, worries and aspirations or if you are in the lending space it could involve learning how confident or risk averse consumers are in their lives and what drives that.
The full range of attitudes and emotions that are linked to your product/service; motivations and barriers? How are they making decisions in this space? What do they prioritize? What can they sacrifice?
Within the qualitative stage you may also want to explore what they know and believe about your brand and the competition as you want to be sure that whatever path you take, it’s credible for the brand relative to where it is seen to sit in the market today.
Develop and test creativity.
The insights from the competitor audit and the exploratory qualitative research can then form the backdrop for a phase of creative research and messaging development. Some clients may want to take this in-house and/or work with their advertising/marketing agency, but this is an area we can help with as we have a hugely talented team of facilitators that run ideation and creative workshops on a regular basis.
Communications research helps brands build trust, nurture relationships, and foster loyalty. Learn how research insights guide effective messaging.
Test concepts in qual sessions.
Once a set of possible positionings or messages have been developed these can be taken back into qualitative testing to ensure that they are fine-tuned, clearly understood and landing well with the target audience; if possible it’s great to go back to the same participants that were involved in the exploratory research to see whether what’s been developed is resonating with those that provided the inputs and inspiration for the creative executions.
Gain additional validation through quantitative methods.
And finally, depending on how many executions you have at this point, there is the option to take them into quantitative creative concept testing to identify the most compelling and impactful. We offer both a full/detailed testing approach or our newly updated Quick Turn Concept Testing approach providing proven, smart, and cost-efficient solutions for testing refined concepts in a rigorous, faster timeframe.
Regardless of where you are in the process of developing your positioning and/or messaging, we have the tools and team to help you and would love to collaborate with you to help achieve success.
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