Building brand equity in the banking industry: Analysis of brand attributes that can help banks increase their brand equity

Abstract

The aim of the study was to analyse and evaluate what brand attributes are most important for bank customers. Questionnaire for a new survey instrument was made from aspects theorised to be important to bank customers in prior research. Additionally, two models were used to frame the questions, they are CBBE model and EBBI model, finally economic, social, and governance factors of known frameworks were analysed to measure ESG factors and their importance to customers. The questionnaire was designed to measure four main brand attributes: differentiation, segmentation, perception and additionally the ESG attribute. It was theorised that the dependent variables trust, loyalty and likelihood to recommend the bank to others would give an indication of what customers value. The survey was conducted in Iceland. A survey was sent to a random sample of the customers of one of the countries three largest banks. Findings show that differentiation and segmentation have a positive effect on trust, segmentation has a positive effect on whether customers would recommend the brand to others and perception has a positive effect on loyalty. The ESG attribute was found to have no effect on trust and no effect on to what extent customers would recommend the brand. ESG however had negative effect on loyalty. The findings suggest that segmentation and perception are attributes that are most important for bank customers.