Professional Documents
Culture Documents
This thesis centers on the management of brands. Particularly the phenomenon is examined
through studies from the financial service industry and the case study of Saxo Bank A/S. The
findings reveal that in order to satisfy today’s demanding customers, offerings should be
thought of as experiences, and created through internal processes with the aim of being
innovative. The challenges are to suc- cessfully develop, align and coordinate the internal
processes, while at the same time incorporating consumer insights in terms of wants and
needs. In order to differentiate the brand, innovation needs to be founded not only on the
tangible features and functions of the experience but just as much on the intangibles, such
as the emotional rewards, the values and the personality of the brand.
At the outset, the study seeks to explore the trends, motives and drivers of the brand
management within the financial service industry. Consequently this thesis materialized from
an initial explorative research supported by theory and the case study of Saxo Bank.
increasing competitive marketplace. Accurate consumer insights along with effective internal
management of resources are vital elements and the underlying premises of this thesis in
Consequently, the problem area of research in this study centers on the implications of the
changes in today’s economy, to the management of brands in the Financial Service Industry.
Thus, this study is a theoretical and empirical examination of 1) “How should companies in
the Financial Service Indus- try create brand experiences with the goal of maximizing
shareholder value?” and 2) “How can the stages of the brand management process be
applied to a case?”
In the case study analysis, it is found that the developed brand management process applies
well to Saxo Bank. However as the focus on brand management has been almost non-
existing, the company needs to improve within many areas as outlined in the case
conclusion. Conversely Saxo Bank has through its remarkably strong corporate culture,
1. Introduction
The pace at which the world is changing is accelerating every day. As a consequence we as
humans and organizations need to adapt increasingly faster and the ability to response to
the changes be- comes imperative for success in this new millennium. Jack Welch former
During the nineties and the first seven years of the new millennium, the emergence and
evolution of the Internet and other technological advances have transformed the world.
Today individuals have the ability to collaborate, compete and consume globally in a more
dynamic, transparent and liberal way. Technology is a key factor contributing to this change,
as it is through technical means that in- dividuals and organizations can communicate faster,
cheaper, having a global reach and being able to access and exchange more knowledge
simply through the use of a PC. These technological advances have had an effect on the
way companies compete and collaborate to satisfy consumer demands, leading in many
cases to product commoditization. The Internet has been the greatest force of this
commoditization; its capability for friction-free transactions enables instant price comparisons
across many offerings, physically located in different geographic regions; while its ability to
rapidly execute these transactions allow customers to benefit from time and cost savings.
The financial service industry has been significantly affected by these changes and like
many other industries, found their products and services commoditized (Kevin J Clancy,
2001). Until recently, the companies within this industry, have been protected by little
transparency making it difficult for customers to compare offerings and hence easy for
companies to overcharge their offerings. How- ever, the emergence of the Internet increased
transparency and enabled customers to easily compare price and offerings. With no
discernible differences among brands, consumers select financial serv- ices products based
brand companies will find themselves stuck in a low-price rut trying to out cheap their
This paper will discuss the implications of the changes in the economy throughout the last
decade and their impact on the financial service industry. Grounded in the field of brand
management it will propose the necessary adaptations to models and frameworks to answer
In order to answer this we set out with an exploratory research that serves to identify these
implica- tions and key elements, for further investigation. The exploratory research unveils
the interrelation- ship of these implications and elements and resolve in a set of research
This research question serves to identify the important elements of brand experiences.
Moreover it aims at explaining the relationships between these elements and their connection
to the field of brand management. Based on this it seeks to propose a brand management
process, that can be used within the industry. Finally a set of propositions will be presented
financial serv- ice industry. The Danish online investment bank, Saxo Bank presents us with
a suitable case that al- lows for investigation: a multinational company, which emerged in the
90´s and has rapidly ex- panded through innovation led profitable organic growth. Saxo Bank
is currently facing the chal- lenge of creating a strong brand to leverage from its evolving
capabilities and to sustain as a signifi- cant player in the increasingly competitive market.
1.2 Research Motivation
The research and foundation of this present thesis is motivated by a number of factors.
Firstly, we believe that the changes the world is undergoing, presents some challenges that
the companies have to acknowledge. A main contributor to this change derives from the
that have transformed the economy in his bestselling book “The world is flat” (2005). These
developments include the PC (which allows every individual to produce his own work in
digital form), the Internet and the fiber-optic cable (which en- able individuals and
organizations to access more digital content and global resources) and software
(which empowers individuals and organizations to coordinate the exchange and production
of knowledge in digital form). Changes, that all have had a major effect on the consumer
Secondly, the literature review revealed that not much literature has attempted to construct a
brand management process that captures the mentioned changes of the 21st century.
Kapferer presented in 1992 the “Identity System” followed by Aaker (1996) the “Brand
Identity” as processes to build a strong brand. However, as they originated prior to, or at
least at the same time as, the radical changes of the 90´s, these processes do not capture
the changing elements and have to some degree turned obsolete. Later several authors
have presented brand management in this new context (Smith & Wheeler, 2002;
Chernatony, 2006; Ind & Bjerke, 2007), but none have explicitly formulated a proc- ess or
model to follow. Instead various theories and concepts on how to incorporate this into brand
Thirdly, little emphasis in the financial service industry has historically been placed on brand
man- agement due to an extensive amount of “low hanging fruit” (Von Hippel, 2007).
However recent years has shown a gradual shift towards increasing focus on this area e.g.
Deutche Bank, Citi Group HSBC, Zecco, E*Trade. As a consequence of the increasing
transparency the Internet has crafted, the competition has increased, which has eliminated
the “low hanging fruit” and required a mean of dif- ferentiation to avoid commoditization.
At the same time the industry has historically been product centered rather than costumer
oriented. This has led to many advanced and technical products based on what the state-of-
the-art technology allowed, rather than focusing on the customers actual needs.
1.3 Central Definitions
The following section serves to outline the main concepts of the thesis and the way in which
they
should be understood to avoid any misinterpretations.
Brand
Brands are often confused with logos or trademarks. A trademark is a distinguishing name,
sign, symbol, or design, or some combination of them, that identifies the goods or services of
one seller. While a brand is a distinctive identity that differentiates a relevant, enduring, and
credible promise of value associated with a product, service, or organization and indicates
the source of that promise (Larry Light 1999). Following a strong brand can be defined as a
distinctive identity with which con- sumers are familiar, which promises a special experience
Is the process that seeks to maximize returns to shareholders by understanding both the
internal and external environments of the firm, crafting a vision, understanding its
consumers, sourcing the neces- sary resources and aligning the organizational value adding
processes to create and maintain a prom- ise of a relevant and differentiated brand designed
experience.
Brand promise
“Buy this brand, get this experience.”
The brand promise is what should ultimately define the offering and should be the essence
of the ex- perience. A promise of value and deliver on that promise is critical if a company is
going to differen- tiate itself from its competitors and take a solid claim in its intended market.
The offering encom- passed by the product, service and or experience will act as the
Occurs when two conditions are met; first there must be a perceived need or desire by
user group, or other distinguishing characteristic. Second, the brand needs to be among the
set considered to be relevant for that submarket by the prospective customers. Being
relevant within a submarket, however, is no longer enough. There are two other challenges,
first the submarket associated with the brand should be a relevant one; and the brand should
Differentiation relates to the ability of a brand to promise and deliver a unique value
An experience is the totality of the cognitions given by perception; all that is perceived,
sensory stimuli based chiefly on memory. This definition entails learning, knowledge, sensing
and feeling emotions. Expe- rience as an offering occurs whenever a company intentionally
uses services as the stage and goods as props to engage an individual (Pine and Gilmore,
1999).
1.4 Structure of the thesis
The structure of a paper is always determined by its purpose, problem field and context, in
which the research is carried out (Andersen, 2003). It serves to guide the reader by providing
context, states the problem as well as research questions that will be examined. Furthermore
Chapter 2 describes the research strategy and methodology the paper relies upon. It
explains the rela- tionship between empirical research and theory and their connection to the
context and case example. Additionally it raises the question of the validity and reliability of
the paper, as well as it provides the reader with an overview of the limitations and
constraining factors.