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Financial firm linked brand strength to customer flows

A three-layer brand measurement model revealed that a Swedish financial firm's communication focus did not match the attributes that actually drove conversion, leading to reprioritized marketing investments.

Background A major Swedish financial firm operating in both banking and insurance experienced that brand measurements showed stable or increasing awareness levels, but that new customer volumes did not follow the same trend. Traditional brand trackers could not explain the gap. ## Challenge The firm had invested heavily in communication around innovation, digitalization and modern customer experience. Brand measurements showed these messages had landed: associations with innovation were strong. But conversion to new customer values did not increase proportionally. The question was: do these brand attributes actually drive customer choice, or are we communicating something that customers perceive but do not act on? ## Reflect's work We designed a brand study in three layers that measured the brand from awareness down to conversion drivers: ### Layer 1: Awareness and association Traditional measurement of aided/unaided awareness, spontaneous associations and image attributes. Confirmed that the innovation positioning had landed. ### Layer 2: Consideration and preference Measurement of which brands were actually considered and preferred in a choice situation. Here the first sign appeared: innovation attributes correlated weakly with consideration. ### Layer 3: Conversion drivers Driver analysis (Shapley-based) that identified which attributes actually predicted switching of bank/insurance provider. The result was clear: personal advisory, pricing transparency and fast case handling were the three strongest conversion drivers. Innovation ranked far below. ## Results The study led to a strategic reprioritization of the marketing budget from innovation messaging to messaging emphasizing personal advisory and pricing transparency.

Key takeaways

  • Three-layer model: awareness, consideration, conversion drivers
  • Innovation associations correlated weakly with actual customer choice
  • Personal advisory and pricing transparency were the strongest conversion drivers
  • Strategic reprioritization of marketing budget

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