Diagnose

Uncovering the codes of banking brand communications

Codes & Moments

 👤

Client

An American multinational financial services firm.

🎯

Challenge

What are the current brand communication codes? Where does the client and its competitors position themselves relative to these codes? What are the white spaces for the brand’s future positioning?

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Insight & Impact

Through unsupervised learning, we extracted, grouped and clustered both text- and image-based posts, including over 1.6K social media posts from 9 brands’ Instagram accounts, 42 Youtube videos from 8 brands accounts, 185 ad visuals, 64 brand slogans, over 1.6K Instagram captions, and text scrapped from 9 brands’ websites. In our analysis, we 6 different brand communication codes—spanning from tactical to experiential spaces—, as well as the share of brands that are playing within each code. Our insights informed codes that the brand communicates the strongest, and thus were ones recommended to explore further to strengthen their communication strategies.

To understand brand communication themes, we extracted and AI-clustered 1614 data points from brands’ Instagram profiles

Brands signal happiness with smiles and soft colours

The visuals of happy people, families, and children hugging themselves tug on the heartstring of consumers:they evoke a sense of nostalgia and affection for loved ones near or far. This particularly resonates with migrants and other working class people who work hard to provide for their whole family.  The soft color palette evokes a warm and comforting feeling which adds to the overall theme of happiness. These visuals are a reminder to consumers of what/who they work hard for (theirloved ones).

Top Colours detected mapped to visuals

Top Significant Emotional Expressions mapped to visuals

Sentiment

“If you have only daughters in the house, people will talk about it saying “these people don’t have a son, who will carry on the family name?”. Relatives and neighbors talk about it in a very negative way. They will not allow the parents to live in peace.”

Tweet from Nepal

“Actually daughters are fine as well, but a sense of security a safety can only be provided by a son, no?”

Tweet from China

Gen Z Next Door

This community minded segment enjoys a sense of belonging. As such, they care about how they are perceived by others, and try their hardest to fit in and uphold duties. They are most likely to follow trends and respect influential figures.

😎  Informality
👤 Individualism
🚀 Improvement

Idealists

Driven by a sense of purpose and responsibility, Idealists want to do good in the world. They put in the work to drive positive change and impact. However, there’s also an undertone of realism, as they know that action is limited.

👓  Ideology
🪞 Introspection
👤 Individualism

Explorers

Characterised by their expressiveness and independence, Explorers pride themselves on having a different approach or mindset to life. This includes spirituality enthusiasts, solo travelers, and freelancers, among others. They seek to live life on their own terms.

😎  Informality
👤 Individualism
🚀 Improvement

Forgers

This segment comprises of highly ambitious goal-getters. Their goals are not always conventional ones (i.e. graduating at the top of their class), but rather tend to be about finding their passion and excelling at it. They look for opportunities at every corner and strive to leave a lasting impression.

🪞 Introspection
🚀 Improvement
👓  Ideology

Signallers

Driven by a need to prove themselves to the world, signallers are hard-working and practical individuals. To them, success is about financial stability and external validation. As such, traditional status symbols are important to them.

📚 Information
👓  Ideology
🚀 Improvement

Passive Rebels

This passive segment are merely observers of the world: they don’t take things too seriously, they aren’t concerned with other people’s opinions on them, nor do they hold any strong opinions themselves. They are “here for a good time” and enjoy a nihilistic sense of humor.

📚 Information
🪞 Introspection
👤 Individualism

Orthodox Fanatics

Protective of traditions; Afraid of shame; Influenced by social norms.

🙅 Deniers

Natural Order Keepers

Protective of traditions; Afraid of shame; Influenced by social norms.

🙅 Deniers

Armchair Activists

Agrees with ideas of reducing meat intake when convenient.

😶 Passives

Early Eco-Switchers

Motivated by environmental challenges: making diet transitions.

💪 Actives

Animal Sympatizers

Believe in preservation of animal rights  and welfare

💪 Actives📢 Advocates

Holistic Seekers

Progressively incorporating lifestyle beliefs of wellness.

📢 Advocates

Top visuals

Top formats

Amazon RetroTron:
“Back in Time, Anytime”

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Amazon is launching a Gen Z offering that takes users back in time to explore and experience iconic moments or events of the Y2K era

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This product will be an interactive Amazon Alexa skill, featuring content tailored based on user preferences and interests

🕹️

Through this trend, Amazon can provide customers with an immersive new product offering, as well as capitalize off the growing interest in retro-style products among Gen Zers

Airbnb Hustle Haven:
“Focus. Create. Succeed.”

💰

Airbnb is launching a Gen Z offering that celebrates the power of monetization

🌟

Highlighting inspiring stories of people
who have used Airbnb properties to achieve success

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Could feature content creators, Roblox developers, and other individuals who have leveraged their side hustles while staying in an Airbnb property

✈️

Visuals should be evocative and captivating, portraying the potential of living life to its fullest while utilizing Airbnb's flexible and affordable options

Explore more...