Rebuilding Society - a look at Nationwide's Dunfermline Building Society part 2
Part two of three part interview with Alistair Welham, head of products & marketing regional brands at Nationwide discussing the evolution of the Dunfermline Building Society and its sister brands Cheshire and Derbyshire Building Societies.
“It’s that balance between having to market and the requirement in terms of achieving your business plan. If you can do that without having to invest millions of pounds in marketing because actually you have a very strong proposition and a strong customer base that you’ve building through reputation, which is what we are doing, then actually there isn’t a need to go out there and do that and there’s precious few organisations that people are having such confidence in,” Welham continues to say as he explains the initial marketing strategy for Dunfermline.
He adds that he does not plan any above-the-line TV campaigns for the brand in the near future, and will continue to concentrate to use three core marketing platforms; press, in-store and digital.
In terms of the brand’s use of digital, Welham admits it has been “a little bit slow in developing,” but plans to change that having been able to experiment with internet channels through the Derbyshire brand.
“That is part of the benefit of having three different brands that we are doing different things with. It means we can learn stuff, we can take that development and put it across different brands. I hope that we can be doing a lot more in the internet space in terms of how we’re engaging customers and driving that through into transactions.”
Both Cheshire and Derbyshire Building societies were acquired under similar circumstances as Dunfermline in 2008 by Nationwide and now feature much commonality, with Welham overseeing the marketing of all three brands.
While he is able to ‘experiment’ with marketing through one brand, he is insistent that each retains their own values and personality, but also remain true to the values of Nationwide.
“What we don’t want is for, and there are some other institutions that do that ‘plug and play’, same content, same design, campaign, just with a different border. We’re not in that space. We have refreshed the Derbyshire and the Cheshire brands so that they are quite distinct and different, and we will retain those personalities and style guides through those brands and we want to come on and do the same for Dunfermline. So one of the things you will see is a brand refresh, which we want to do over the next six months.”
While it is still in very early stages, the refreshment of the Dunfermline brand, it is understood, will retain the Saltire, but, he insists, this refresh is more about “evolution than revolution” and that the changes will be subtle.
“When we look at the brands, some of them distinctly look very Seventies and slightly aging and potentially not appealing to younger audiences. What you want to do is to freshen them up without alienating the older population.”
In terms of how the three brands work in tandem, Welham explains that they operate using the non-external brand statement ‘Proud to be Local’ with each looking to operate within their own regions and become a vital part of their communities. The recognition and success of Dunfermline as a brand over the last year has even led Nationwide to consider, but not yet actively pursue, the idea of launching it South of the Border, with some trials already having been carried out.
“It is the fact that people want to be able to transact, speak to and have relationships with people in the areas in which they live and work. And they feel more comfortable about doing that with some sense of local identity. A brand that they have grown up with, with great stories that we’ve heard in the focus groups such as ‘My grandmother took me along to get my first children’s savings account, which led to me taking up my first mortgage there and that’s why I feel comfortable about having savings with them.’ All of those things are elements of what goes towards building strong, local brands.”
In tomorrow's final installment of this interview, Welham reveals plans to 'review' the regional brands marketing framework and whether the brand strategy has been affected by other mergers and acquisitions in the marketplace.