Financial marketing

Financial Brands – It's About Soul, Not 'What'

23rd January 2024

Many marketers have probably been guilty at some point of simply focusing on the ‘what’ of a brand. Take a random look at some financial firms’ websites and you will see a fair few starting with the facts, figures and features – how old they are, areas of specialisation and how they are ranked in their industry.

However, such features frequently fail to connect with a time-poor target audience at an emotional level and are extremely unlikely to impact their perceptions of the brand.

In other words, what you do is not your differentiator.

A brand is the soul of an organisation. It is far more than a logo. It embodies a single vision for the firm, a totem of everything it stands for, is proud of and is committed to. With financial brands, a high percentage of market capitalisation is attributable to brand value. Brand is therefore arguably one of a financial organisation’s most valuable assets.

Many brand development processes involve a branding agency ‘telling’ the client what they need. It is usually a protracted process and the firm does not always love the solution. Long processes are arduous, lose focus and are expensive.

In a service business, the brand lives through the people in the organisation. It is a product of a thousand gestures. Therefore their active involvement is crucial.

So we at Financial Marketing have flipped perceived wisdom on its head and produced a one-day Brand Workshop that is quick, inclusive, energising and highly effective.

It’s inspiring to watch teams working together closely to define their ‘soul’. We always see people walking in with different views and walking out energised with a truly differentiated, single-minded purpose and shared vision and values.

Everything we sell in the financial world is based on delivering some form of promise – “I promise to pay you this money if your house falls down” – “I promise to look after your money and make it grow”. How we engage the hearts and minds of everyone in the organisation in the delivery of those promises defines brand success.

If we start with Soul in financial branding, our words, thoughts and deeds will flow together, naturally.