Brand Framework
How do we create an optimal brand experience for two distinct brands living under one entity?
The Context
Our team wanted to understand how customers perceive a financial company that embodies two different brands. We wanted to understand how when to use secondary branding in key moments of discovering, considering, and using a new product or service in order to evaluate and refine a proposed secondary brand framework
Note: I researched some awesome stuff, but I can’t show you everything. Below is a case study that summarizes the research I did with a client.
The Challenge
This financial company is iconic, but customers still get confused about it's dual identity. One side of the business is for investments and the other is for personal banking. We wanted to understand how to best educate customers on this distinction.
Target Audience
Ages: 25-60+
Any level of education
Annual income between $100,000 and $500,000
Mix of current customers and non-customers
My Role
UX researcher alongside additional product designers, brand specialists, and product managers
My Tools
UserTesting
Figma
Timeline
~12 weeks
“The change in color seemed like it was a third-party scammer site.”
What did I do?
In this project, I created a research plan and conducted in-depth interviews (IDIs) with 10 participants to evaluate three versions of prototypes. I presented the findings at several high-profile stakeholder meetings.
Control (current experience)
Brand Distinction: Minimal difference in branding
Brand Distinction: Obvious differences in branding
Each participant saw the prototypes in a different order to prevent bias, ensuring that the results were not influenced by the sequence of the prototypes they viewed.
Research Goals:
To understand customers' brand expectations (existing customers and prospects) while they navigate the digital platforms
To further clarify how much brand amplification supports or does not support customer activities
To understand if customers can identify which brand they are interacting with during their experience and if they can name the relationship between them
Why was this important?
Users care about branding. They trust Brand #2 and were sometimes confused by the presence of Brand #1.
Users noticed the change in brand color, however the color palette in Brand #1 confused some users in this first round of research.
Comments included:
• It felt "off-brand" or "clashed"
• Reminded them of a competitor bank
• The change in color seemed like it was a third-party scammer site
More brand distinction between the brands creates a sense of separation.
Users understood that Brand #1 had some sort of partnership with Brand #2, but none expressed confidence in fully understanding the relationship.
Research Recommendations
Brand distinction needs to be more obvious in the next round of research for users to make a connection between the brand and the services/products.
• Push the "Obvious" branding even further in Round 2 of testing
• Amplify brand distinction during the "discover" and "consider" stages
• Collaborate with Content to communicate better with users
. . .
Did users understand that they were opening an investment account with Brand #1?
Not quite. Users were across the board in their confusion.
Most users used the Brand #1 and Brand #2 name interchangeably, and some referred to it as one entity. Even when users navigated the "Obvious" prototype with the highest brand amplification, some users thought they were "investing with Brand #2, the brand meant for personal banking" The relationship between Brand #1 and Brand #2 was not clear for users.
So which design elements communicated the most brand distinction?
Although users focused a lot on reading the content on the pages, call to action (CTA) buttons and logos also made an impact. Users pointed out the Brand #1 logo and the Brand #2 symbol as indicators of which brand they were working with at any given time.
