Brand trust study: Insurance and bank brands weaken - with exceptions
80 percent of Swiss people consider their bank or insurance company to be interchangeable. Mobiliar stands out as one of the few brands that can hold its own.
Local fintechs as well as international technology giants are pushing into the financial market. Brandtrust, a brand consulting firm, conducted a study to determine the future viability of well-known Swiss banks and insurance companies in the face of this new competition. The result: around 80 percent of respondents find their bank or insurance company interchangeable. Only Mobiliar can hold its own as a brand.
"The power of this iconic Swiss brand lies in its calm, discipline and clarity," explains study author and Brandtrust partner Achim Feige. Despite the turmoil, Raiffeisen is holding up remarkably well as a cooperative bank. Specialists like Smile Direct and Swissquote stand out from the rest. All other brands weaken, as the overall ranking of 25 Swiss banks and insurance companies shows. The interchangeable customer experience is the biggest problem.
Need for action for most Swiss financial brands
"If the services are interchangeable, the danger of 'cheating' is great," Feige said. He said it is particularly problematic that no added value can be conveyed. Only nine percent of respondents showed willingness to pay more for the services they received. Financial service providers are currently profiting more from tradition and customer inertia than from excellence in customer experience and uniqueness. Bank Frick from Liechtenstein showed a way out. It specializes in blockchain services and, according to Andreas Thode, enjoys very high demand due to this niche positioning.
After all, customers trust their banks and insurance companies to last a long time, even in the digital upheaval. The trust and habitual aspect of stable brands helps here. Likewise, people will remain the first point of contact for the time being - only just under 20 percent of those surveyed would prefer to be advised by a digital assistant.
The Brandtrust Future Index measures the power of recommendation and causes such as differentiation power, price willingness, brand experience and life expectancy. It was tested in the financial industry with over 2100 customers in Germany, Austria and Switzerland.
