The article discusses the main trends of positioning in the field of banks and finance, their differences from other sectors of the economy, factors of influence. As an example, the image and reputation of Alfa-Bank, one of the largest private banks in Russia, is being studied. As a result of the implementation, it is concluded that it is necessary to change the filing of banking organizations and how to stand out among competitors.
Keywords: positioning, bank, advertising campaign, competition, image, reputation.
Fierce competition in the modern market of goods and services raises the issue of survival more and more acute. The successful existence of a company depends on the direct attitude of the consumer to it. In the modern economy, a competent brand presentation is the key to the success of any business. Therefore, positioning comes out on top when developing the strategy of the enterprise. Of course, this factor has its own specifics in different sectors of the economy, and the banking sector is no exception. The «builders» of the brand should understand that finance and credit transactions are a delicate matter and one beautiful logo will not attract a potential consumer.
It is quite difficult to create a competitive product in the banking market — offers and marketing strategies are similar to each other. That is why emotions are important to clients. Most likely, people will go to the bank that shares their life views.
First you need to understand the essence of positioning. American economist and marketer Philip Kotler defines positioning as actions to develop a company's offer, its image, aimed at taking a separate favorable position in the minds of the target group of consumers. As mentioned earlier, the set of services provided by banks is quite monotonous. Moreover, on the territory of the Russian Federation as of June 2023, there are 325 credit institutions, respectively, it is difficult to distinguish yourself among such a number of competitors. Also, external factors play an important role: the level of public confidence in banks in general, the index of visibility in the market, the pandemic of coronavirus infection, the political situation, etc. Therefore, the bank needs to create an image so that there is an opportunity to demonstrate its stability, despite the great competition and circumstances from the outside. This requirement simultaneously benefits the reputation, but at the same time there is a high probability of «getting lost» among the many banks that traditionally focus on their reliability in their advertising campaigns, which has already become a kind of handwriting of financial organizations. According to some sources, the words «tradition», «stability», «guarantee» are used in advertising appeals by about 70 % of banks.
The uniformity of banking services does not allow us to offer customers something new, so it is necessary to take a creative approach and form a certain unified emotional state in people when viewing advertising, when they are in the bank's office, when reading information about it. The audience should feel something concrete when mentioning the organization, it may have specific associations.
Ways of forming the image of the bank in people's minds:
- Advertising. It consists in finding creativity, an unusual approach to creating a mission, design, commercials, etc. It is usually used to simplify people's understanding of finance and other banking transactions. There is an opportunity in circulation to link a monetary organization with the spheres of life — education, sports, creativity. The advantage of the approach is originality, quick memorization. The disadvantage of the approach is the high risks of being misunderstood.
- Focus on technology. It consists in positioning the bank as an advanced, modern, highly equipped one. The advantage of the approach is a high level of trust in banks with such a message. The disadvantage of the approach is the rapid pace of technological changes.
- Focus on the bank's staff. Forms a trusting attitude towards employees (from the point of view of marketing, the consumer associates the service with the one who provides it, for him they are one). Plus of the hike is the feeling of simplicity and mundanity of the bank. The disadvantage of the approach is a fairly frequent technique in positioning.
In the future, when analyzing the object of research and its competitors, universal positioning methods should be taken into account:
— associations;
— finding a solution to the problem;
— method of application of the product or service;
— matching the target audience;
— advantageous offer;
— discrediting a competitor;
— distinctive characteristics;
— against the product category.
Next, let's look at a specific example, namely the positioning of Alfa-Bank JSC. In parallel, we will turn to theory.
Alfa-Bank is one of the largest private banks in the Russian Federation. It was founded in 1990. Provides a full range of financial services for individuals and legal entities.
The index of visibility (according to data for 2022) is an increase of 1.9 % compared to last year (8th place in the list of banks of the Russian Federation);
The confidence index (according to data for 2022) is 64 (5th place in the list of banks of the Russian Federation).
It was one of the three banks of the Russian Federation with the best reputation according to the Reputation Institute company as of September 2019.
Target audience: men and women aged 20–45, with a relatively high level of income, living mainly in cities with millions.
Value proposition: a bank for successful people.
Unique Selling Proposition: success, ambition, self-realization.
In March 2019, Alfa-Bank presented its new positioning with a creative frame «Nothing to blush for» (russian: «Не за что краснеть»). The upper-level values and principles of communication were formulated.
First of all, the design of the logo underwent a change: the full name of the bank is missing in it, only the letter «A» remains. This means that the organization demonstrates itself as an easily recognizable brand, people can understand what it is about, in addition, you can afford to remove some bulkiness from the design.
Further, Alfa-Bank released several commercials with the participation of Vladimir Pozner and Alexander Petrov. The videos differ in construction, shooting method and presentation.
The video, in which Vladimir Pozner takes part, is called «Freedom» (russian: «Свобода»). In it, he talks about his desire for freedom and love for the color red (red is the corporate color of Alfa–Bank).
The advertisement with Petrov makes a subtle hint of superiority over competitors. The plot of the video is that two characters, a man and a woman, have bank cards in their hands. The characters are confused and don't know what to do with them next. In the next scene, Petrov talks about the advantages of the Alfa-Bank debit card — free service, interest on the balance, the possibility of free access to the mobile application.
Before choosing brand ambassadors, the developers conducted a quantitative study (questionnaire). In addition to domestic opinion leaders, foreign candidates were also considered. The results showed that Russian individuals are trusted more. Vladimir Pozner and Alexander Petrov were in the first places in the rating of customer preferences.
The audience reacted mostly positively to the changes in the positioning of Alfa-Bank, but some did not even notice a significant difference. In 2020, the advertising campaign with Posner was awarded the «Bank of the Year» award in the category «Best Advertising Campaign» conducted by the Banks.ru portal
But it should not be argued that any change in the identity or organization of Alfa-Bank's work is obviously well perceived by the audience. But it can be assumed that, despite the bank's not always successful policy, advertising messages almost constantly demonstrate their effectiveness. Alfa-Bank is not afraid of changes and experiments, this distinguishes it from most other financial organizations that use a mature style and consider stability in all respects to be the key to success.
For example, at first glance it may seem that the Internet series with the participation of the showman Morgenstern, shown to a wide audience in the spring of 2021, caused significant damage to the reputation and image of Alfa-Bank. Being already an organization with fairly young clients, the bank decided to attract an even younger audience by appointing the scandalous rapper to the position of «director of youth work». In order to understand whether the risks are justified, we can list the positive and negative consequences of this action.
Positive consequences:
— More than 160 thousand people have purchased a digital card from Alfa-Bank;
— the average age of new customers is 20 years, i.e. a completely new layer of loyal consumers is being formed;
— Morgenstern's commercial on his YouTube channel has 25 million views and 81 thousand comments (data for June 2023), therefore, high awareness of the Internet audience about this cooperation can increase its interest in other Alfa-Bank projects;
— Alfa-Bank has competently built relationships with users of social networks through a properly selected influencer.
Negative consequences:
— an administrative check was carried out against Morgenstern (propaganda of narcotic substances in the video), in turn, the bank stated that the «appointment» of the rapper as an ordinary employee of the organization is an advertising move, it turns out that the organization misled the audience, this undermines the level of trust in any case;
— the FAS (Federal Antimonopoly Service) recognized this video as a violation of the law «About Advertising».
If we compare the positive and negative aspects of this cooperation, we can conclude that this action had more favorable consequences for Alfa-Bank, provided that strong risk factors are taken into account. This strategy has definitely distinguished the bank from other competitors.
Alfa-Bank often uses creative extraordinary ideas in its promotion, which is unusual for the financial sector. A striking example of this is the video of 2022. In the video, an animated bear smashes the facade of the Moscow City complex with a huge credit card. The goal was to create a viral video with the scrapping of the fourth wall. In the same year, a transparent ATM was placed in one of the capital's shopping centers, through which the mechanism of its operation can be seen. Only money was hidden from people's eyes — for security reasons.
From the point of view of profitable offers, Alfa-Bank, throughout its existence, has always found an answer to the audience's question: «If I choose this brand, what will I get in return?». On the rational side, the bank in its advertising appeals briefly and clearly explained what advantages the audience gets by resorting to its services. One example is an Alfa-Bank advertising poster, where «Быстр». (means «Fast» in abbreviation) is written in large font and the banner area is not enough to add the end of the word, it remains only to shorten. The expression «кредиты — 15 мин». («credits — 15 min».) is laconically indicated at the bottom. This illustration is a demonstration of the immediate benefits for a potential consumer. The method of combining a creative approach and a benefit decree is also used in short Internet commercials that last no more than 10 seconds.
After a comparative analysis between the general unspoken provisions on the positioning of the financial sector and the positioning of Alfa-Bank JSC itself, it can be concluded that this organization departs from market standards and tries to find a way to its potential customers with new methods. The very first aspect that needs to be paid attention to is that there is no cliched phrase in the slogan with the words «solid», «reliable», etc. Instead, «Nothing to blush for» (russian: «Не за что краснеть») is used, which generally presents the bank as trustworthy, but outdated techniques are not used in this expression.
It should be noted that the bank uses all three ways of forming the image of the bank in the minds of people.
The advertising technique is strongly expressed. Alfa-Bank is distinguished by non-standard plots of its commercials and unexpected collaborations. The emphasis on technology and the emphasis on personnel, though less often used in strategies, but have a place to be. The Bank actively shares its technological achievements and presents its employees as «partners for active people».
Moreover, Alfa-Bank applies several positioning methods at once. Every year the number of species used increases. There is a pronounced emphasis on the benefits and the solution of the problem, in addition, there is a certain orientation against competitors, albeit weakly manifested.
Based on the above, it can be concluded that restraint and pure facts no longer contribute to leadership in the financial market. The key to successful banking positioning is a balance of trustworthiness, the ability to constantly change the market, customer trust and a bright, but at the same time positive image.
References:
- New positioning of Alfa-Bank [Electronic resource] Access mode: https://vc.ru/marketing/61537-novoe-pozicionirovanie-alfa-banka-i-reklama-s-poznerom-i-petrovym-mneniya-specialistov-rynka
- Official website of Alfa-Bank JSC [Electronic resource] Access mode: https://alfabank.ru
- Product positioning as an element of targeted marketing [Electronic resource] Access mode: https://vuzlit.ru/215095/pozitsionirovanie_tovara_element_tselevogo_marketinga
- Award for the best advertising campaign of the year [Electronic resource] Access mode: http://www.alfagroup.ru/press-centre/news/top-stories/?id=13692
- The level of trust of Russians in banks [Electronic resource] Access mode: https://romir.ru/studies/doverie-rossiyan-bankam
