Strategic Brand Management - Case Study Example

Strategic Brand Management

Introduction

Beyond a reasonable doubt, it is safe to claim that in terms of international entrepreneurship an immensely important role plays strategic brand management. In other words, it helps to maintain, improve and uphold the brand at home as well as international markets so its name is associated with positive results. In its turn, such an approach provides the organisation with the opportunity to gain the loyal customers, stakeholders or investors. To crown it all, strategic brand management plays an even more notable role for the new, emerging organisations, which are aiming to get its part of the market. Therefore, within a framework of this work we will develop a country-specific brand strategy for how Start-up Tandem Bank would build specific local strategies in the new market, particularly in France. Apart from it, we will take into consideration the major characteristics of the brand and its portfolio, and clearly demonstrate how the brand can be exploited.

The importance of strategic brand management

To start with, there is a need to define what is considered strategic brand management and provide a brief overview of the company, which will be analysed within a framework of this work. As it has been indicated before, strategic brand management can be defined as “the process of maintaining, improving, and upholding a brand so that the name is associated with positive results” (NA, 2016). Not to be alone, brand management also involves a number of “important aspects such as cost, customer satisfaction, in-store presentation, and competition” (NA, 2016). As a consequence, strategic brand management is mostly built on a marketing foundation but focuses directly on the brand and how that brand can remain favourable to customers. From another perspective, an appropriate implementation of the brand management can significantly increase the sales of not only one product or services, but of other associated with the brand name products.

As it has already been mentioned in the previous paragraphs of this paper, before analysing strategic brand management of Tandem Bank, there is a need to briefly overview the company and its history. To start with, it is worth mentioning that Tandem Bank Limited or as it also well-known Tandem, is “a next generation, mobile-first, digital retail bank, which is based in the King’s Cross area of London” (Kharpal, 2016). Apart from this, Tandem Bank claims that its main objective is to put the needs and requirements of the customer in the first place. To accomplish this, British company currently is using customer research from it Co-Founders to obtain the information regarding what the clients really need from their bank.

One of the key distinguish features of Tandem Bank in comparison with traditional banks lies in the fact that it is on-line bank, which uses its own application to meet the needs and requirements of the customers. In other words, according to the official website of the company, “the Tandem app aims to address the recruiting themes that customers have told us: that they do not feel in control of their finances” (NA, 2016). Hence, the app is designed in order to automatically help the clients to identify new opportunities to save money. From the other perspective, being digital-only provides Tandem Bank with another advantage, the essence of which lies in the operating at a much lower cost comparing to traditional banks. Altogether, “by means of using financial, social, and behavioural data in its decisions, Tandem develops a deeper understanding of customers’ needs and offers products intended to meet those needs and requirements” (Kharpal, 2016).

To expand its business internationally, Tandem Bank has used crowdfunding, probably one the most effective as well as frequently used approaches to looking for investors in the digital-only bank market. In spite of the fact that “The British start-up lender received its baking license at the end of 2015”, recently it smashed its 1,46 million fundraising target in just 15 minutes. Altogether, such an approach to the way of conducting the business provides Tandem Bank with the opportunity for the rapid growth and development in the international arena.

Talking about the expansion of the brand into France and developing a Brand Strategy plan, there is a need to analyse the factors, which might have a notable impact on its business. So, the main components which are needed to be taken into consideration during the development of the brand strategy for expansion into France are the value proposition, target audience or clients, the ways of providing the clients with the service, major competitors and their advantages. In the next paragraphs of this paper we will thoughtfully analyse each of those above-mentioned components and on its basis will define how Tandem Bank can enter new market.

Value Proposition

The first and foremost thing, which should be taken into consideration during the international expansion of Tandem Bank, is the value proposition. Talking about this particular component, it should be mentioned that it includes such features as working 24/7, easy to use, environmentally friendly and saving the money technologies. Those above-mentioned features play an immensely important role due to the fact that they have to meet the needs and requirements of the market where the business is expanding. Apart from this, by means of offering such value proposition start-up Tandem Bank can gain new target audience in France by means of gaining a notable competitive advantage over the rivals. For instance, in comparison with other banks, Tandem is probably the only one bank in addition to other digital-only banks such Atom and Mondo, which work 24/7. Hence, the clients of the bank have the opportunity to manage their finances whenever they want to. Apart from this, the process of managing the finances is significantly alleviated due to the fact that Tandem Bank is a digital-only. In other words, the customers can access their bank accounts via the application. Thirdly, comparing to the majority of traditional banks in France, Tandem Bank is environmentally friendly, since it is a digital only. Therefore, such type of banks has some features of corporate social responsibility, which undoubtedly has a positive impact on the brand’s image. The last but not least, Tandem Bank aims to save the money of the clients. To put it simple, “the tandem app aims to address the recruiting theme that customers have told the company: that they do not feel in control of their finances. Therefore, the app is automatically helps to identify opportunities the for customer to save money” (Williams-Grut, 2016).

Target Audience

To properly enter a new market, it is immensely important for the company to choose the most appropriate strategy. In its turn, one of the major steps in developing the expansion strategy is to properly define the target audience. Since Tandem Bank is a digital-only start-up, it seems more reasonable that the major target audience is the younger generation of people, which are more acknowledged with modern technologies. Therefore, it needs to be pointed out that there few major groups of clients on which Tandem Bank should channel its efforts. The first and foremost is millenials. The explanation of this lies in the fact, that the generation of millenials is the generation of technological advancement and development. They much better acknowledged with modern technologies and their advantages. Therefore, such people appreciate more the convenience of services. The second group of the customers to which Tandem Bank should pay a lot of attention is tech savvy. According to Cambridge dictionary, it can be defined as those person “who knows a lot about modern technology, especially computers” (NA, 2016). Since this part of target audience is interested in any kinds of innovations and technologies, Tandem Bank can significantly increase its customer base by means of involving them into using their application. The third group is innovator-leaders. Such people always try everything new and want to be the first to it. So, during the expansion into France, Tandem Bank should pay an additional attention to such type of people. The last but not least group of the target audience of the bank is the workaholics and young middle upper class. The main distinguish feature of this particular group lies in the fact that these people do really care about their money comparing to tech savvy or innovator leaders, who just want to be the first in trying innovative technologies. Therefore, it would be reasonable for Tandem Bank to pay the most notable attention to this group. Apart from this, young middle upper class is one of the biggest social classes in France, where Tandem Bank is going to expand its business.

Competition

The other thing, which is worth to be taken into consideration during developing a country specific brand strategy for Tandem Bank in France is existing rivalry. Notwithstanding the tough rivalry among the traditional banks in France, an additional attention should be paid to digital-only banks similar to Tandem. Hence, the major competitors which provide similar services to their clients are Mondo, Atom, Starling, B and Fidor banks (Jones, 2016). While Fidor and B are mostly operating in the United Kingdom, Mondo, Atom and Starling are also available for the clients in Europe and in France in particular. To properly challenge the issue of tough rivalry among existing digital-only banks, there is a need to analyse their advantages as well as disadvantages.

Comparing to Tandem Bank, one of the most influential competitors Atom bank offers its clients “a one-year fixed-rate savings account paying 2%, and a two-year version paying 2.2% - close to the top of the best-buy tables” (Treanor, 2016). Talking about the downsides of Atom bank, it is to too early to claim something. To be more specific, “the bank is not planning to offer cash switching incentives to lure people to its current account” (Williams-Grut, 2016).

The other rival, which can significantly affect the state of affairs of Tandem Bank is Mondo Bank. Its motto claims “Finally, a bank as smart as your phone” (O’Hear, 2016). In comparison with Tandem, Mondo is immensely good into the application process but it still does not have a banking license. The offering of Mondo to its clients includes “full current accounts to customers and is running a test of its prepaid MasterCard, which is open to members of the public – anyone can sign up via website” (Williams-Grut, 2016). To put it simply, Mondo Bank currently “is trying to send out 1,500 cards a week to everyone who wants one” (Jones, 2016). It is worth mentioning that there are no charges or fees for using its card, including abroad, which is immensely important for the international expansion.

The last but not least digital-only rivalry bank, which already exist in France is Starling. In the same way as Mondo it is also “in the process of applying for a banking licence and is hopeful to getting one over the summer” (Williams-Grut, 2016). Similarly to other digital-only banks Starling offers “planned current account, for which there are no details yet. Still, there will be an emphasis on tools for money management” (Dunkley, 2016).

To gain a notable competitive advantage over the main rivals Tandem Bank should take into consideration their drawbacks and try to minimise the negative effects of the own downsides. For instance, together with Atom Bank it is the only bank that already has a banking license, which significantly alleviates the process of international expansion. Secondly, it should pay attention to its way of conducting the business and providing the customers with the services. For instance, comparing to the app of Mondo Bank, Tandem Bank makes bigger emphasis on helping the clients to identify opportunities to save money. Therefore, while Mondo working on providing the clients with a detailed statistics of the account, Tandem Bank aims to increase customers’ savings.

The other important thing is client service. Since all the digital-only banks work in the same field, their services are quite similar. Therefore, to gain a notable competitive advantage over the rivals, Tandem Bank should pay more attention to improving the quality of its services and making its application as perfect as it possible. Apart from this, since all the banks have practically the same value proposition, it will be reasonable for Tandem Bank to cooperate with them. Such an action will significantly alleviate the process of international expansion and will make digital-only bank services more widespread.