NEW YORK– Financial services has been ranked 14th out of 19 industries studied in MBLM’s Brand Intimacy 2022 Study, which it said is the largest study of brands based on emotions. The study offers some insights for credit unions in 2023.
The enhanced 2022 study, now in its 12th year, combines MBLM’s proven Brand Intimacy model with the power of AI and big data to analyze more than 600 brands, assessing how consumers bond with the brands they use and love, according to the organization.
USAA was rated atop the industry, followed by Standard Chartered and PayPal. MBLM said it found that the top keyword for USAA was “Service.” Standard Charter’s top keyword was “Reliable” and PayPal’s was “Efficient.”
The remaining brands in the top 10 for financial services in the Intimacy survey include Mastercard, Robinhood, Visa, Citi, HSBC, Goldman Sachs and Chase.
Tops in Intimacy, Tops in Performance
Consistent with previous years, MBLM said it also found that top intimate brands outperformed Fortune 500 top brands across profit, revenue, and stock performance.
“Financial services ranks six industries below newcomer crypto in this year’s study, revealing that the industry overall lacks in building emotional connections with customers the way crypto does,” said Mario Natarelli, managing partner at MBLM, in a statement accompanying release of the study. “We believe that the two industries will become more intertwined; however, financial services needs to evolve, focusing more on building trust and valued relationships, or risk falling further in our study.”
The ’Dominant Archetype’
According to MBLM, financial services has an average Brand Intimacy Quotient score of 32.1, which is below the cross-industry average of 36.8.
“Enhancement, which is related to becoming smarter, more capable, and more connected through the use of the brand, is the dominant archetype for financial services,” MBLM said.
MBLM said it has also published an article analyzing the industry, “Can Financial Services Overcome the Trust Gap? Comparing the top performing financial services brands.”
The agency said it examined the top-ranked brand, USAA, the top intimate bank, Standard Chartered, and the top credit card, Mastercard. Overall, MBLM concludes that the industry tends to have a negative reputation due to scams and scandals and because it tends to provide a transactional, impersonal service.
‘Need to Go Above & Beyond’
“Brands need to go above and beyond to reassure customers,” MBLM said. “And as crypto and digital assets develop further, financial institutions need to expand the ways in which they build trust and help customers.”
According to the company, the Brand Intimacy 2022 Study contains the most comprehensive rankings of brands based on emotion. The scale of the study included more than 600 brands and more than 1.4 billion words analyzed over 2021.
To download the Brand Intimacy 2022 Study, go here.
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