BrandLove Financial Services Index

A new index that measures brand success has just been launched. BrandLove is based on the quality of relationships that brands have with their customers and aims to reveal the depth of love that exists between them

The words ‘mortgage’ and ‘love’ don’t appear in the same sentence very often but a new index from brand agency Uffindell, in collaboration with research agency Morar Consulting, saw over 2,000 consumers asked to describe their love for mortgage brands. The inaugural BrandLove Index saw 53 brands – 29 of those from the financial services sector and of those 29, eight from the mortgage lending arena – ranked according to how much they were loved by their customers. The BrandLove Financial Services Index includes just the 29 FS brands extrapolated and analysed.

All you need is love?

So why is it important for customers to love their mortgage lender? The BrandLove index shows that those customers who demonstrate consummate love are more likely to be loyal as well as advocates for the brand.

Uffindell’s managing director, Sholto Lindsay-Smith, says that BrandLove is a new way of measuring a brands success: “BrandLove is very different from traditional brand valuation studies as it probes the emotional connections we have with brands. The research aims to reveal the quality of relationships customers have with brands and, ultimately, identify the perfect relationship formula for brands looking to win over customers. The first ever BrandLove Index reveals how the type of love expressed for a brand relates directly to customer advocacy and sense of loyalty. It’s key in an industry that has taken a real bashing and where competition is high, that brands are building loyal customers bases and are wooing new customer with the right service experience.”

Types of love = types of customer

The story identifies eight categories of love ranging from consummate love (the most loyal customers and those who would strongly recommend the brand) and companionate love (customers that know they brand well and are committed but are not excited by the brand), to empty love (customers who buy a brand through habit and are vulnerable to competitors) and non-love (customers who are not interested in the brand and those who think the brand isn’t distinctive). Other love types include ‘friendship’, infatuation’, ‘fatuous’ and ‘romantic’. For brands that fell into the ‘empty love’ and ‘non love’ categories it’s a clear warning sign that they need to change the message their brand sends out to customers and work on building a stronger emotional connection.

Mortgage lenders rank surprisingly well

One would have assumed that post-credit crunch and with the phrase ‘banking crisis’ part of our every day vocabulary, mortgage lenders would have performed badly. However, First Direct, Nationwide, NatWest, Lloyds TSB and HSBC all made the Top 10 of the BrandLove Financial Services Index. Each displayed high intimacy scores, showing that consumers regard them as an essential part of their everyday lives.

How mortgage lenders ranked (overall FS ranking out of 29)

1 First Direct (1

2 Nationwide (3)

3 NatWest (4)

4 LloydsTSB (9)

5 HSBC (10)

6 Halifax (15)

7 Barclays (17)

8 Santander (23)

First Direct was the runaway success story, ranked the mortgage brand customers most loved, as well as topping the overall BrandLove Financial Services Index. The direct outfit has the most loyal customers and the largest amount of customers who would recommend the brand. This is an amazing scoop considering it has no high street presence or aggressive advertising campaign. When respondents were asked to describe First Direct, it was most considered ‘helpful’, ‘efficient’ and ‘approachable’, which brings us on the notion that service is key to building customer relationships.

Santander diagram

The customer is king

Brand experiences that lead to success and brand love have been revealed to focus on customer care and approachability. For all its global strength, the BrandLove index shows Santander didn’t rank well when it came to building emotional connections with its consumers. It was also one of the most complained about banks in the last six months of 2010, according to FSA data, with only Barclays receiving more complaints.

Whereas NatWest, the third best mortgage lender and fourth placed overall FS brand, is reaping the rewards of its highly-focused customer charter initiative, with a high number of customers who know the brand well and are committed to it. This shows how engaging with a customer and demonstrating commitment to them, over a straightforward awareness building campaign has helped them achieve consummate love with higher proportion of their customers.

Overall financial services results

The BrandLove Index - where 53 brands including Apple, Google, Amazon and Sainsbury’s where ranked on brand love - revealed that consumers love brands in the technology, fast food and food retail sectors far more than they do brands in the financial sector. In fact, insurance, investment and pension brands fared worst. The 24 non-FS brands where included to validate the research and provide a benchmark but their inclusion clearly shows that their emotional connection with consumers is far deeper than brands in the FS sector. The FS brands that performed worst were Go Compare, Legal & General and Admiral and the FS brands that were most loved were First Direct, PayPal and Nationwide.

Lindsay-Smith concludes by saying: “The BrandLove results show that mortgage lenders should be focusing as much effort on shaping a positive customer experience as traditional advertising, if they want their customers to stay faithful.”