Every year Interbrand’s report on the world’s Best Global Brands sheds light into the standing of some of the financial industry’s major players in the public’s opinion. While 2013 has favoured the bold, some institutions are struggling to distance themselves from popular resentment post 2008. Isabella Grotto reports
Interbrand’s 2013 Best Global Brand report confirms financial brands struggling to stay on top, as some of the biggest names in the field fight to recover brand value in the wake of the crisis.
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Continuing on a slow but marked downward trend, the outlook remains far from rosy for financial brands, as for the third year running, the number of finance names in the consultancy’s Top 100 fell from 14 in 2011 to11 this year.
High performers are to be found primarily among global card-providers, while some of the longest-standing financial brands bear the signs of a particularly punishing year.
Among the highfliers, at $17.7m American Express (AmEx) remains the most highly valued global financial brand, replacing clothing retail company H&M at 23rd in the Top 100.
The corporation increased its brand value growth from 8% last year to 12%, qualifying as joint fastest growing global financial brand this year and managing to retain both its primacy and its distance from its competitors, with HSBC settling at a fairly distant second at 32nd.
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By GlobalDataInterbrand’s report credits the company’s success to its attention to ‘meaningful social and digital experiences’, as well as its ability to ‘find fresh ways to build relevance and anticipate future needs for its consumer and business clients’.
Its companion in first place, US investment banking firm Goldman Sachs, managed to achieve a brand growth rate of 12%, but maintained an overall downward trend. As negative press and public sentiment continue to hound the company, according to Interbrand its name remains a target for consumer frustration.
Another success story is financial corporation MasterCard. The 2012 new entry into the Top 100 registered a yearly growth of 8%, despite falling three places to 97th in the overall ranking.
Competing financial corporation Visa registered the second highest level of growth among financial brands, at 11%.
According to Interbrand, the corporation’s investments in new payment technologies, core product and services expansion have helped it develop and increase its flexibility as a brand.
The year’s poorest performer overall was undeniably Morgan Stanley.
Despite strong mid-year earnings, the US financial services corporation saw the value of its brand fall dramatically by -21%, dropping it 17 places to 71st in the Top 100. Its standing also dropped among financial names, from 6th last year to 8th in 2013.
According to Interbrand, at the heart of the company’s fall in brand value lies in a mis-alignment of its strategic priorities.
‘Since the economic crisis, the brand’s decision to transform its business model by downsizing its trading and wealth management businesses has led to poor performance and raised questions among investors’, states the report.
And although the firm ‘is beginning to better manage expectations of external stakeholders and deliver on its key strategic priorities’, its brand value shows little sign of recovering its former clout.
Overall, Interbrand’s report shows a financial sector struggling to regain the brand prestige that characterised it before 2008. As memory of the crisis begins to fade out of public memory, financial brands are settling into a ‘new normal’, according to the consultancy: ‘Maintaining margins in today’s financial marketplace requires more creativity than ever due to increased regulations and heightened public scrutiny’.
On the basis of 2013’s results, it warned: ‘Brands aiming solely for one-size-fits-all innovation will miss out on the storytelling and loyalty that more customized relevance can yield’.
