THINK AHEAD - how to unite two brands and three countries in one mission

Thanks to our Marketing department, we have created a new customer communication concept “THINK AHEAD” by identifying internally shared passion points, and thereby enabling us to unite two brands across three countries.

How can we unite two brands across three markets in the business- and communications approach to our customers in the Nordics?

That was the challenge Jenny Gaffner and Lisbeth Bjerre Sanderhoff from our Nordic Marketing department set out to solve.

Jenny sets the scene:
“Our starting point was that we had both an internal and an external exercise. Internally, we have colleagues working from three countries who are working with our local customer brands; Express Bank in Denmark and Norway and SevenDay Bank in Sweden. Externally, our goal was to create a common Nordic position across markets and brands.

A task of this nature benefits from collaboration, which is why we engaged with colleagues across countries and functions. Thanks to their insights, our overall communication strategy and the analytical and creative work carried out by our agency Nørgård Mikkelsen, our ultimate goal was to develop best practice across the Nordic region.”

A vehicle for long-term costumer relationships

“We wanted to find a way of communicating our brand strengths across our three business lines and by that identifying the key roles of the brand presence”, explains Jenny and continues:

“All competitors are battling in the same playing field where the positive effects of a private loan are communicated. The focus is either on the freedom a private loan gives you or on being able to achieve your dreams and hopes for the future. We wanted to communicate something else and address the customer’s need for a trustworthy and honest relationship with a bank that looks beyond the immediate situation for the customer. We identified a playing field where we could communicate the key drivers of being trustworthy, a stable and secure bank that takes the time to understand the clients’ situation and economic status.

Nordic consumers seek trust when it comes to their financial services, and they want to feel confident that they are making the right decisions. We are not driven by short-termism. We seek the optimal long-term solutions for each individual customer. This approach is not just a communication approach, it is a business approach.

THINK AHEAD

In relation to the new customer communication strategy, Lisbeth elaborates:

“The purpose of the communication strategy is to optimise and strengthen our perceived value perception across all customer communication. We want to differentiate ourselves from competitors and stand out in a market that has a tradition of promoting consumer credit in one particular way.

The new unifying central communicative element in the concept is a pay-off: THINK AHEAD. The pay-off is being rolled out in all our commercial channels, and embedded is the approach that even short-term financial decisions must reflect your long-term interests = we THINK AHEAD.

THINK AHEAD illustrates a change in strategy and tactics in our customer communication, as we abandon commercial messages that lean solely on dreams and solutions.

Instead, our messages focus on the process of granting a loan and emphasise the importance of your long-term interests. Thereby, we switch to a branding-oriented approach, where we explain to customers who we are, what we stand for and why they should choose us.”

The THINK AHEAD concept is executed via TV commercials, sponsorships, radio spots and online advertising, and you can watch the new commercial here.