For our first task of 103, we were given a try to brand something. In this case a bank for the age group 16 to 25 that we would create ourselves. I began with research about what people in this age group were looking for in a bank as well as what they’re happy/unhappy with and made profiles from there.
For my research for the bank branding project, I decided to first look into reviews and what banks offer in this country to a younger audience. After talking to several people in the age group (16-25), I came to the conclusion that a lot of younger people have two banks, one which they got when they were younger, that their guardians signed them up for and still have and an online bank, such as Monzo or Revolut.
I also made a survey that I sent to people within the age group to get a better understanding of what they wanted in a bank, how they spend their money (Cash or card), and if they would rather have it online or in person. From the survey I made, I collected data from 9 anonymous individuals that chose to take their time to fill it.
Out of the 9 participants, 8 were within the age group of 16-25, 3 were between the age of 16-19, 3 were between the age of 20-22, and 2 were between the age of 23-25 as the picture below says.
The majority of the people that answered were full-time students, 44% of them, but I was informed that they weren’t allowed to fill in two options, in case they were studying and working at the same time. So it was hard to see what the actual number was.
But other than full-time students, 33% had a full-time job and 22% had a part-time job.
Everyone that participated in the survey found their bank to be satisfactory, the same result showed in the question of whether they were happy with the security provided with their current bank.
I also chose to include questions in my survey that focused on features and if the bank would be physical or not, 7 out of 9 people (78%) of the participants wanted an online bank rather than a physical one. On the other hand, 2 out of those 9 wanted a physical bank (22%). This could be because today’s society is becoming more and more digitalized. This would make the bank’s customers more used to using their digital devices, and rather than going there in person, which not many people can base on what their occupation is (44% working and 33% being full-time students). Banks have very specific opening times, and during weekends people rather take time off and relax rather than go to the bank, which also has a very limited opening time, closing early on Saturdays, if not completely closed, and always completely closed on Sundays. In conclusion, Online banks are more accessible, handier, and less time-consuming if it is online.
The vast majority of the participants would also rater use their bank card rather than cash, this could also be a factor to the online banks getting more and more popular since you can follow your transactions online in a few seconds with a phone in your hand, or with a computer in front of you, rather than going to an ATM being surrounded by strangers, and having to maybe move a longer distance to be able to get access to money.
There is also a lot of services in the UK that doesn’t accept card, like buses, taxis and some food places, compared to other European countries, cash might also help with keeping track of spending.
The digitalization of our society makes the use of cashless desirable in some instances, but sometimes it’s necessary for transport.
For the last three queries I asked about features and if the app/website provided by the bank was easy to use. 2 people answered that they think that the app/website provided by their bank is a little bit confusing at times, while 7 people answered that they found their app/website easy to use.
The last two questions were about features to be added and if they would be interested in having easier access to the stock market through their bank as well as if they were interested to have features regarding spending and saving money. There was a majority that were interested in overlooking their spending in detail and helping you save money, whilst the majority of the participants didn’t want easier access to the stock market.
The Final question to the survey was if they were interested in their current bank, and if not, if there was anything that could be changed to make it suit their situation and needs better. 100% of the participants were happy with their bank.
Overall: After I had gathered the data, I realized that many of my questions didn’t give me much information to go about with. Except for question 8 & 9, regaring features that could be added. Surveymonkey, which was the website I used for this, didn’t let me have as many questions as I wanted there to be, I wasn’t able to chose how the questions were to be answered either. Because of this I chose to interview people within the selected age group about their banks and their spending habits to be able to analyze what they would find interesting and good in a bank.
To gather more information of the userbase I began with asking people what brands and services they used and what they found good and bad with them. This made me gather information to get a general idea of what people looked for in a bank. I began with asking people what brands that they were customers of / using on a regular basis, and what’s good and bad about them. I later on gathered all the data I got from them and put them in a google docs document and transfered it into a website I set up for easier access to read the data.
Here is the website in mention:
https://flinkfeltm.github.io/spending_research/Studierangbank.html
A lot of the participants in my research was very aware of the environment, as well as saving money. After asking them if they would be interested in a few features such as:
- Being educated about the benefits to save money, and how it helps you in the long run. As well as how to efficently save money and learn about it.
- Getting educated about the environment depending on what you spend money on and how you can help to reduce the Co2 emissions (inspired by the co2 emission feature in the Klarna app)
- Getting informed about stores that strive for ethical sourced products, e.g. Fairtrade, no slavery, cruelty free etc.(Also if buying their products goes to charity for example)
I also asked them about what bank they used and if they were happy with it, and if they werent, why.
The vast majority of the people I interviewed had santander, and it’s from back when their guardians signed them up for it. Being unhappy with the bank, a few of them had migrated to an internet bank instead, still using the bank they were signed up to. Even though it had a lot of good features in terms of overlooking your outcome and income, there were several faults in the app. Younger people would use the banks app more than their website or go visit them in person, so I believe that it’s very important for a bank app to be able to have features on it’s app so you don’t have to rely on the banks staff, in emergency situations or in situations where you can’t go there in person or call customer service.
Looking into Santander online as well, since it was the most used bank throughout the participants. According to the people I interviewed as well as their online reviews, Santander is a bank where you have to rely heavily on their staff. Their online features is very limited, it’s limited to a point where you can’t easily open a second bank account within your bank account on the app, but you have to use their website or visit them in person to do so.
The vast majority of the participants that I interviewed used their bank online, whereas one person used it in person. I chose that it would be a fitting choice to chose to proceed with an online bank.
With the help of the information, I had gathered from interviewing people and the survey I did, I made three user personas of people that would potentially use the app.
I wanted to create a variety of potential users of the bank brand, not only to suit exactly what it stands for. I felt like it made it more realistic, therefore easier to set realistic standards on the bank.
These are the following values I chose to proceed with from my research:
- Educational
I want the users to learn about the importance of saving money and budgeting. I also want to make the users more educated on the choices they make depending on what they buy and where they buy from. Like how their choice may be more environmentally friendly. - Sustainable
I want an environmentally friendly bank that would give more rather than take. It would operate like any other bank, but give more, like an overdraft would have a very low-interest rate for students to make them more comfortable and less anxious if they were to overspend. There would also be features such as charity, where if you were to put x amount into a savings account, either weekly or monthly, a tree would be planted.
- Encouraging (a better lifestyle)
This basically has the same principles as the educational one. I want to educate the users about a better lifestyle, for themselves and for them to understand how important the environment is, and that their choices matter.
- Efficient
The bank is going to be easy to use and understand, not making it overly complicated. A lot of banks are confusing nowadays and don’t bring out features that their users would have great usage of.
- Ethical
Another Value that is linked to the other ones is Ethical, whereas the bank strongly supports ethical choices and supports ethical companies that strive to make the world a better place. Such as ending slavery, fighting for equality and making the world a better place for everyone. One step at a time.
Now when I was done choosing my core values for the brand, I went on the task of giving it a tone of voice.
I did so by writing up all my values and listing down what I thought about whenever I heard them while thinking about what I wanted to achieve based on my user research, I ended up with 5 Tones of voice characteristics: Friendly, Educational, Professional, Positive & Inspiring.
At this point, now that I have my values, Tone of Voice and what I want in a bank, I needed to come up with a name.
It was hard at first to come up with a name, but after looking into Idioms and metaphors, also read a few sections about brand names and what to think about, from the book “Designing Brand Identity” by Alina Wheeler. It helped me a lot to understand what made a good name and the different types there were. I chose to proceed with a Metaphorical name, since it felt like a good choice that can have a double meaning, in a good way.
I began with names from Norse gods and ancient history, that would have a certain meaning behind the name. I realized though that no one would really know about them, therefore I chose to continue with other names. My Bank values are mainly about saving smart and learning about the environment and how to improve your spending and do better, so I made the decision to play around with name ideas that would have a biological connection and a metaphor for it. Of course, all the names I came up with didn’t have a metaphor connected to them, a lot of them were synonyms of words, like flourish.
The majority of the names I came up with were a metaphor for growth in various ways, I chose to focus on the more biologically related word for it, such a flourish, but also cocoon e.g. a cocoon from which a butterfly will grow, or bud, if not sprout.
For a lot of the names, you could easily add another addition to the name, like a bank, finance or banking, etc. I chose not to add that to every name since it would work either way.
Here are the following names I came up with:
| Jörmungarndr | Vår Bank | Logic | Sprout | Thrive | ECO-nomical |
| Njord | Loop (Finance/bank) | Branch | Bud | Spore | Grønn/Grön/Grøn |
| Slepiner | Hoot finance | Root/Roots | Buddy | Shroom | Organic banking |
| Babylon | Eco-Logic | Path | Burgeon | Mushroom | |
| Seed(Finance) | Eco-finance | Steps | Prosper | Eco Bloom | |
| Flourish
(Banking/Finance) |
Cocoon
(Finance/banking) |
Eco-Steps | Bloom | Eco Bud |
After looking through my options, and reading into what would be better for a bank, as well as asking around. I came to the solution to use the name Vår Bank. Which has a double meaning. First of all, it sounds good with an English accent. But Vår in Swedish means Spring and Ours at the same time. Which I find very nice and fitting. I really wanted an organic name for the bank, that would be friendly and symbolise growth and renewal.
Thank you