How Nationwide’s Dominic West gambit has paid off

For some people, Nationwide’s decision to rebrand and deploy The Crown star Dominic West in 2023 was an act of sacrilege. But two years on from the rebrand, the results, according to Kantar are unequivocal: the mutual’s distinctiveness and overall brand equity have soared.

Speaking about Kantar’s latest brand ranking (methodology here), Pete Aitken, Head of Customer Strategy and Insights at Kantar, said that the ads, featuring the Crown star as an arrogant and out-of-touch banking executive, had been “incredibly positive” for Nationwide.

“They were kind of on the norm for the category average for being perceived as different. But then over the following years, they really lent into what it means to be a mutual and how to communicate that through their brand refresh, their advertising campaigns.”

The brand has used the platform since then to talk about various features that mark it out from competitors, such as its promises around its branch network and its scam prevention service. The campaigns, Pete says, successfully translated abstract qualities of mutuality such as warmth and humanity into advertising through humour.

“What Nationwide have done is identify something that they uniquely can own in the market, something that’s really important for customers.”

A more emotive positioning, delivered consistently, also saw other financial services brands seeing improvements in their scores. HSBC UK, notably, beat Vodafone to top the league table overall. A few factors have played into this: in particular, the bank has grown its salience and placed itself “increasingly front of mind as a brand that will deliver what [customers] need.”

Purpose-driven marketing, although the term may have fallen out of favour, has played a key role in the bank’s success. Pete notes that partnering with Shelter for several years has helped HSBC lead the category in perceptions of “mak[ing] people’s lives better”.

“It’s clear that real actions which demonstrate what makes the brand different really do resonate with customers. Banks need to go beyond marketing rhetoric with real propositions that bring to life, in a tangible way, why they are different from the others.”

But there is further for the sector to go in terms of ensuring distinctiveness. As Jodie Gillary, Head of Brand Activation at Kantar, says, “disruption is one of the big drivers of long-term sustainable brand growth,” but also of pricing power.

Pete says this is borne out in the data: brands with higher scores for differentiation in 2023 grew four times faster than less differentiated ones.

Meanwhile Lloyds, the fourth fastest growing financial services brand in terms of value, has differentiated under CMO Suresh Balaji by putting customer experience at the centre of its brand. Pete notes how the campaigns during Balaji’s tenure have centred features in the app or new propositions, which is very different from the traditional black horse-themed work.

The key is that the differentiated brand values play out in the customer offering.

“Difference without meaning is at best intrigue, but at worst it feels like hot air because there’s nothing to substantiate it,” says Jodie.