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Do you know what’s in your wallet?

Stormy outlook as new Stewart-Allen Brand Barometer suggests ¾ of consumers don’t recognise 7 out of the top 20 global financial service brands

London, September 15th, 2005 – A new consumer poll measuring the international perceptions of the brands of the world’s most influential banks and financial institutions suggests a less-than-sunny outlook as many consumers are not able to recognise the logos of their own country’s leading banks.

The Stewart-Allen Brand Barometer surveyed 15,500 consumers in 17 countries about their opinion of financial services that are marketed internationally.
Participants were asked to put names to brand logos and offer their perceptions of brand values, country of origin and service quality among other factors.

Regardless of how well they are marketed, there was some interesting logo confusion. The poll found that over 1 in 4 UK consumers identified the Deutsche Bank logo as belonging to HSBC. The Royal Bank of Scotland logo had a higher recognition amongst consumers in Spain, Japan, France, Germany and Italy than in its UK home market. Only 4 in 10 British consumers were able to correctly identify the HBOS logo and 36% identified it as belonging to the Royal Bank of Scotland.

In all countries, the most recognised brands were Mastercard and Visa (both 93%) and the least recognised brand overall was HBOS, with only 7% of respondents able to recognise it.

Country of origin also affects how brands are perceived. American Express, Merrill Lynch and GMAC are all shown to be negatively affected by their U.S. roots outside of the U.S. This re-enforces previous polling by GMI which has shown that U.S. brands need to look and act more ‘local’ to avoid consumer scepticism as their U.S. roots and heritage can act as a barrier abroad.

When asked to associate values with a brand, HSBC, known as the ‘world’s local bank’ was described as ‘alert’, ‘socially responsible’, ‘environmentally friendly’ and the ‘most customer-focused’ brand in the UK whereas the French thought the bank to be low on ‘responsiveness’. Interestingly, Deutsche Bank scored poorly in its home market. German consumers rated the bank as ‘socially irresponsible’, ‘immoral’ and ‘unresponsive’.

Panellists were also asked to describe their personal encounter with a brand. For positive values like ‘helpful’, ‘convenient’ and ‘puts the customer first’, Visa was the highest scoring brand. RBS came top for ‘friendliness’ and HBOS for ‘listening’ while MBNA was perceived as ‘frustrating’ and Deutsche Bank as ‘rigid’.

Overall, the twenty financial organisations are not rated highly on how well they deliver on their customer promises. Visa scored best whilst Capital One, HBOS and BNP Paribas were ranked lowest. These findings suggest they are not consistently trusted by customers.

Allyson Stewart-Allen commented on the first Brand Barometer: “Given these are international brands with big marketing budgets and global and national campaigns, we were surprised by how inconsistently all of the brands were viewed across 17 markets. The outlook is more unsettled than we expected. Three-quarters of consumers not being able to immediately identify big brands is one insight worth further analysis.”

“There are some truly global brands and these are doing well. But aspiring global brands like HSBC have a more mixed range of perceptions to deal with. The question for their marketing managers is whether the inconsistencies in their brands around the globe are intentional, a function of poor marketing, or even on their marketing agenda at all.”

About the Brand Barometer

Allyson Stewart-Allen – one of the world’s leading authorities on international marketing – recognised the need for international brands to better align their global and local marketing practices. Working with GMI GMI (Global Market Insite, Inc.), which has one of the world’s largest international consumer panels and runs global polling services, she devised the Brand Barometer. A worldwide panel of over 15,500 consumers – aged 18 to 64, men and women in proportion to their nation’s average across 17 countries – is surveyed on their perceptions and direct experiences of the world’s most recognised brands in four key industry sectors, run once per quarter.

About Allyson Stewart-Allen

Allyson Stewart-Allen is recognised as the world's leading authority on trans-Atlantic business, international marketing and working across business cultures. As founder of International Marketing Partners, Allyson Stewart-Allen advises a number of national government agencies and Fortune 100 companies. She is an American based in London and Los Angeles, a member of the Advisory Board of the New York-based organisation Business for Diplomatic Action (BDA), and a recently selected judge for the UK's 2005 International Business Awards. Co-author of the first book on U.S. business (Working with Americans, © Prentice Hall), Allyson Stewart-Allen is a regular contributor to the international business media, including CNN, BBC, USA Today, Newsweek, Business Week, Les Echos, Bloomberg, Financial Times, Sky News, Wall Street Journal, Marketing magazine as well as the major daily newspapers.

More information available at:
www.intermarketingonline.com
www.workingwithamericans.com

About GMI

GMI (Global Market Insite, Inc.) is the only company that provides comprehensive integrated solutions for global market intelligence for both market research firms and corporate market research departments at Global 2000 companies. Solutions include Net-MR®, a suite of software tools to manage and automate research throughout the project lifecycle, desktop analysis tools, 24x7x365 service bureau capabilities, and one of the world’s largest, highly profiled, double opt-in managed panels, spanning across 200 countries. In addition, GMI offers high-value, real-time enterprise feedback solutions for customer, partner and employee programs. Founded in 1999 with world headquartersin Seattle, Wash., GMI has operations on five continents.