Financial Services Sector Case Study

Key Challenge

Following a change in corporate structure and facing increasing competition from both traditional and non-traditional brands, a national financial services company needed to discover new approaches to engage with their consumer audiences in meaningful and long-lasting ways.

Role of Apex

To uncover the current and potential drivers of consumer attitudes towards the Brand, in order to inform future brand messaging to aid in strengthening brand engagement, and ultimately improving key business metrics.

Findings & Implications

• In terms of the rational elements of service delivery, the Brand performs extremely well
• The Brand’s key audience feels financially savvy, but not necessarily financially secure
• While the key audience is certainly aware of the Brand, they know very little about it and display little preference for it over competing platforms
• They desire to feel understood and would prefer a deeper emotional connection with the Brand
• The Brand should not simply be positioned as a platform they use, but as a brand they can rely on every day

Application

• A fresh positioning strategy was written, intending to evolve the Brand from the primarily logical proposition they had promoted for years (safe, secure, convenient, easy) to a more emotional proposition (reliable, dependable, empathic, there when I need them)
• Fresh messaging was launched based on this updated brand position

Impact

One year later, Apex was measured again. Audience expectations in this category had evolved year-over-year towards desires for a much more humanized brand experience. The Brand’s Apex Score had evolved accordingly, being seen in a much more emotional light. Every single emotional measure increased for the Brand, and feelings of trustworthiness, empathy and respect were primary contributors to overall growth and importance of this dimension of improved engagement.