• by Tanya Gazdik , January 31, 2011

Financial services companies that want to dominate in the next decade will empower their customers while cultivating authenticity, according to a study from Change Sciences Group.

Promoting real customer empowerment should be the goal of banks looking to create an effective consumer brand in the post-financial crisis world.

"We think that banks that dominate the next 10 years will empower customers and be perceived as authentic financial partners," Change Sciences Partner Steve Ellis tells Marketing Daily. "The problem is that authenticity is hard. Consumers have been burned, and they know it. Recognizing that there is a problem is the first step."

The 45-page report evaluated 76 sites and identifies 10 best practices that will shape the future of financial services online. Coverage includes branding, navigation and interaction design, the use of video, mobile, cross and up-sell, and social media.

Smaller banks can grab market share through a comprehensive approach to good user experience online. The technology is there but the execution is too often lacking, Ellis says.

The value of traditional bank brands is at an all-time low. Upstarts like ING Direct and now Ally capture market share by tweaking and breaking consumer perceptions of what a bank should and can be, according to the report.

At first glance, the brands of Ally and ING Direct seem bland, according to Ellis. "The visual design on both sites is minimalist, and in the case of ING, very much in need of an update," Ellis says. "But what both firms understand is that the most powerful attribute of branding is how customers are treated, that is, what customers experience while interacting with the organization."

Ally is doing this by innovating in product design, and making things like account opening truly easy, Ellis says, while ING Direct excels with its strong emphasis on saving.

The most surprising finding of the study is "how few banks are willing to recognize that their consumer brands are in a kind of crisis," Ellis says. "Most bank sites look the same as they did three years ago."