Positioning and communication issues in building financial services brands

This paper argues that the task of brand building in financial services is fundamentally different from packaged goods markets. This is partly because financial institutions have to manage a much wider range of contacts with their marketplace, but also, more fundamentally, because in the service sector consumers are unreceptive to ‘synthetic’ brand positionings, taking on board only those brand positionings which seem to flow ‘organically’ from the beliefs and convictions of the business. For those responsible for developing financial brands, the challenge is therefore either to identify, or — if they have sufficient authority — to introduce and nurture convictions held across the business which provide the basis for a differentiated brand.