Brand positioning in financial services: A longitudinal test to find the best brand position
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Jenni Romaniuk is a senior research fellow with the Marketing Science Centre at the University of South Australia. She has completed a Masters by Research examining measures of brand awareness and a doctorate that explored the relationship between brand image and customer defection. She regularly acts as consultant to companies on the topics of brand development, tracking and interpreting image results.
Abstract Brand positioning is a core activity of most marketing departments. In this paper, the relationship between six different positions and customer vulnerability is tested over time in the business financial services market. Two particular attributes relating to fees and charges and relationship/service were found to have strong relationships with customer vulnerability, both across brands and over time. This research suggests that the ‘better’ brand positions, as defined here, can be common across brands. Therefore, marketing managers of financial services should perhaps not be striving for a unique position for the brand, but aim for distinctiveness in the way the position is communicated. Research techniques to identify ‘better’ positions should also not assume that these ‘better’ positions will be those that differentiate between brands. Keywords
Brand management, positioning, customer vulnerability
INTRODUCTION
Jenni Romaniuk Marketing Science Centre, University of South Australia, 46 Paddington St, Paddington, NSW 2021, Australia. Tel: +61 2 9380 9146; Fax: +61 2 9475 0203; e-mail: Jenni.Romaniuk@marketing sciencecentre.com
Positioning the brand has been long acknowledged as a core branding activity.1–3 This involves selecting specific attributes with which it is desirable for the brand to be associated. The marketing/ brand manager then develops a plan to establish and/or strengthen this association via marketing communications. These activities take up a large amount of company resources, in both management time and money. They are undertaken with the hope that if successfully executed, customers will be more likely to buy the brand and/or pay a higher price.3–5 One of the aspects implicit in most positioning literature is that there are some positions with which it is better for the brand to be associated, than others. Some
# Henry Stewart Publications 1363-0539 (2001)
Vol. 6, 2, 111–121
criteria given for this are that the positions are distinct from competitors (ie unique), strong, and prevalent among consumers.6 To date, little empirical research has been undertaken to test which attributes are better for positioning purposes. This is an important question given that in most marketing communications there is only the opportunity to communicate a simple message that is usually based around a single attribute. A marketing manager, therefore, has to decide upon the best position to communicate, but has little guidance available to make that decision. This paper tests six different potential positioning strategies for financial services firms. To establish which position was ‘better’, the relationship b
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