More cultural relevance for Sparkasse
Challenge
How can the Sparkasse brand be charged with new cultural relevance after the financial crisis? In the face of digital transformation, the role and attitude of the Sparkasse should be sharpened and interpreted in a contemporary way.
Approach
We visualized the place consumers assign to the savings bank in their world of imagination and motivation and how the fields of attraction for financial brands have shifted. In this way, they could be strategically targeted.
Result
With a new brand identity and an advertising campaign, as well as innovations in the digital area, the savings banks now present themselves with a new self-image; with more direct contact between customers and advisors, also online and via app.
More cultural relevance for Sparkasse
Cultural Transformation
How can the Sparkasse brand be infused with renewed cultural significance in the wake of the financial crisis?
The Challenge
The Sparkasse brand savings banks are a trusted institution in Germany, widely known as a reliable financial partner for businesses and private individuals. In this post-banking crisis era of digital transformation however, the Sparkasse has found itself occupying a changed cultural context. In response to these changes, the organization was looking to sharpen the focus regarding its identity and brand attitude, re-interpreting these in contemporary way. In order to assist in this undertaking, we first had to obtain a crystal-clear understanding of what is important to private and corporate banking clients and the decision-making criteria they operate under.
The Transformation
Utilizing “MindMarker”—our cultural mapping instrument—we delineated the ideational and motivational topography of Sparkasse customers. We identified a shift in the attraction fields of financial brands in the target markets, which we then were able to pursue in a strategic context. In partnership with MetaDesign, this work resulted in a more focused brand identity for the Sparkasse revolving around human relationships, security, a warm progressiveness and simplicity. These core traits remain in place today, flanked by a range of digital innovations and a brand image redesign by the advertising agency Jung von Matt.
“STURM und DRANG’s MindMarker study provided valuable insights that we built upon to sharpen our profile.”
Christian Achilles, Sparkasse Head of Communications and Media
Financial world in a changing cultural context
As cultural strategists, we believe brands are only relevant and valuable to people if they solve a cultural problem, providing an answer to the complex of consumer issues. Exploring these complexes means studying changes in the cultural context of consumer life.
It’s the year 2014, and in the wake of the banking crisis, the Sparkasse realizes that society has changed around it. We identified the three principal cultural dichotomies relevant to the savings bank:
1. I VERSUS WE
Unrestrained greed is no longer accepted as the norm after the financial crisis. People increasingly take a critical attitude toward materialism and profit maximization. The prospect of a financial market collapse leads many people to think more about community, yearning for more of a ‘we’ feeling. Nonetheless, people remain keenly interested in suitable, viable investment strategies that meet their needs.
2. GLOBAL VERSUS LOCAL
Globalization gives rise to opportunities in all economic sectors, including finance. At the same time however, it gives rise to fears and has led to a revaluation of the local and regional.
3. PROGRESS VERSUS TRADITION
The digital transformation is accelerating, and irreversible. Feelings of unease, insecurity and being overwhelmed associated with this phenomenon are causing many people to look to what’s familiar and established for something to hang on to.
This change in cultural context holds tremendous potential. The brand analysis we conducted yielded in-depth understanding of how customers currently perceive individual private banks, direct banks, cooperative banks and the Sparkasse.
What mental cosmos does the Sparkasse occupy?
MindMarker is a cultural mapping tool that involves a research professional conducting interviews with the aid of software that supports laddering as appropriate to qualitatively drill down and clarify ambiguities. The tool utilizes the repertory grid technique, a method well-established in psychology. Working in pairs, the study participants compare and contrast the brands being considered. They are then questioned individually as to the extent to which they associate a brand with the defined characteristics. This allows statistically calculating the ‘mental distances’ between brands and the distance of a given brand to the defined associated characteristic. The individual associations are then evaluated and weighted in order to study their valence.
The primary product of MindMarker research is a graphic representation of a “mental cosmos” mapping the study participants’ subjective associations and the semantic counterpoles to these associations.
MindMarker illustrates how people perceive a brand universe, what their associations with brands are, and above all, the conceptual poles comprising the spectrum how they consider brands. In our brand project for the Sparkasse, this mental cosmos was employed as a strategic frame of reference.
Culturally speaking, what movement is possible for the Sparkasse?
To enhance the strategic utility of MindMarker results, we introduced “the ideal financial institution” as a comparison element. For existing and prospective Sparkasse customers, the greatest attraction field was between the characteristics of people-friendly and approachable.
The Sparkasse enjoyed a favorable starting position which the organization was looking to build on, playing to its strengths. For example, by infusing the brand with a modern energy without in any way detracting from the high level of trustworthy solidity and respectability the public associate with the bank. Or imbuing the important local, community presence for which the Sparkasse is traditionally known with even greater people-focus and modernity, so that the organization is perceived as flexible and uncomplicated.
The brand re-vitalization centered around three key cultural fields seen as relevant for positioning the Sparkasse for the future: progressiveness, approachability and people-friendliness. The human element to the Sparkasse was not to be defined exclusively in terms of local presence, but rather also as a vibrant connection with people as customer and bank together enter the digital future.
The new “why” proposition for the Sparkasse brand
In cooperation with our partner MetaDesign, we crafted a new, more targeted core brand message on the basis of the strategic insights derived from the study: “We make it easy for people to improve their lives”. This message is underpinned by three new brand core values:
- “Understanding people”
- “Envisioning the future”
- “Providing security”.
The brand relaunch with advertising campaign by Jung von Matt combined with digital innovations have given the Sparkasse a new self-image and self-understanding. A progressive take on simply understanding and appreciating people has been energetically implemented and is now an integral element of the bank’s corporate identity, with more direct communication taking place between customers and bank associates, including via the modern channels of online chat and app. The Sparkasse has changed tack, moving away from witty TV ads in favor of a multi-channel approach focused squarely on people, their lives, and their needs.
