We're all familiar with Warren Buffet's words:
it takes 20 years to build a reputation and five minutes to ruin it.This sentiment is particularly true for financial services brands particularly because they are service-driven and therefore consumer interaction happens on a regular basis.
Building a reputable financial services brand on the basis of a solid customer experience is critical to the success of any financial services organisation because there are so many opportunities to either surprise and delight clients, or to get the service experience wrong.
The evolution of technology has also meant that customers have expectations of how brands should act, react and interact. This forces organisations to pay attention to how they deliver their brand across all elements of the customer journey at any given time.
Now more than ever, customers expect brands to DO what they SAY they will do, and again this is even more true for financial services brands from a reputation perspective as compared to some other businesses.
It is always important to see and use social media for what it is, a potential engagement and education platform or tool that provides access not only to your current customers, but a larger audience. To this, my approach to social media is simple:
The pandemic has forced a lot of organisations to rethink how to communicate with clients, and what to say to them. At the beginning of lockdown, we had to ensure that all our client touchpoints were informative and provided a sense of calm - reiterating the message that as uncertain as the world feels now, they can count on us to be there when they need us the most.
We could not pretend everything was normal, because it was not. We had to redefine the status quo for ourselves. And slowly but surely craft the new normal, however short-lived that too might have been. We used a lot of our channels and resources to reiterate our support for government's lockdown initiatives, as well as how we truly were in it with our clients. Something we at Liberty make a point of doing.
It is no understatement to say it has been a year of great learning, tweaking and agility.
Two years ago, together with our agency partners, we embarked on a brand repositioning exercise to bring ourselves closer to our clients and potential customers. In the process we relooked some of our business practises with the idea of bringing these into better alignment with our customer needs, as well as those of the market.
The intention was always to take the new positioning to market in 2020, and when the pandemic and lockdown restrictions hit in the first quarter of 2020, we knew that this would throw a spanner in the works for us. However, a lot of great work had happened behind the scenes and we pressed on.
All of this meant that we had some limitations with some of our above-the-line elements, launching to an internal workforce that was working remotely, and landing a message in the market during a time when people were fighting for survival the world over.
Ultimately, we delivered a campaign that was truly reflective of where the world was, what clients needed to hear and how we could show up to not only offer support during this global crisis, but land our new positioning which is the idea of being In It With You. In hindsight, the challenges provided opportunities to become part of a narrative grounded in doing good and showing care when the world was in turmoil.
The increase in branded content over the last few years has provided brands with additional avenues and platforms for exposure. It is a more customer-focused type of content marketing, which provides value through making an emotional connection, as opposed to direct punting and selling of products.
I think that there is great value in branded content, through its ability to attract attention to the unique values and ideals of the brand to create an affinity with consumers. Branded content seems to be well-placed in creating brand love and stickiness through relatable content that sparks interest and conversion without a hard sell approach.
It's a great addition to the traditional advertising mix of tools, each of which have a clear and complimentary role to play.
To the young and upcoming marketers, my best advice would be to: