Marianne Bruijn – Rabobank

Marianne Bruijn is a Brand Strategist at Rabobank. Rabobank is one of the largest financial institutions in the Netherlands, operating in 38 countries worldwide. Its corporate purpose is to help customers achieve their ambitions. In doing so, Rabobank wants to contribute to welfare, prosperity and society. At Rabobank, Marianne and a creative team of brand specialists are responsible for brand differentiation, relevance and activation.

the Main KPIs and drivers for brand growth

We talked with Marianne about the most important drivers and KPIs for Rabobank’s growth. ‘’The essential driver for Brand Growth at Rabobank is a combination between reputation and brand. At the highest brand level, we have cooperative brand associations, which include how we service our customers and how we help society. These are the two most important brand associations. On an underlying level, we also look at relevance, distinctiveness, and cooperative brand value. Additionally, we look at website visits and the proposition purchases of, for example, a starter mortgage.”

“We obtain the results of our drivers from different reports. Because of our reputation tracker, we know that good conduct and having a positive influence on society are determining drivers for a positive reputation. Because we operate in the banking industry, where it is hard to differentiate between products and services, relevance is needed to realize Brand Growth. For this, having an emotional connection with the target group is crucial. So the emotional connection is incredibly important to us. Additionally, our products, financial services, and the Rabobank app must work perfectly.’’

‘’The emotional connection and relationship of customers with our cooperative brand is what we find extremely meaningful.’’

SUSTAINABLE DEVELOPMENT GOALS

As a cooperative bank, we work together with partners and members on solutions that benefit both customers and the living environment. Three sustainable development transitions are central to this: inclusiveness, sustainable energy, and food. At the brand level, we aim to communicate these transitions in a comprehensible way and to offer different target groups direct tools so that people can get to work on these themes.

‘’Financial well-being and sustainable living are important topics in which we want to help our clients in the Moments of Truth.”

life events as a moment of truth for rabobank

Through Rabobank’s cooperative mindset, the company works on solutions for people and the world around them. “At the brand level, we try to reach the widest possible audience, connecting to important social themes like, ‘financially healthy living’. Several life events are important for Rabobank to respond to.” Marianne explains. “These life events are part of a social theme and can be big Moments of Truth. For example, people starting to live together is a big life event, which is a moment when people could switch banks. Multiple life events can fall within the same social theme.”

Marianne elaborates: “People giving birth is also a very important life event because many parents open a Rabo savings account for their baby. Later on, parents open people open a payment account for their children until 18, there is almost no reason to switch to another bank because the interest rate and banking fees are almost the same everywhere. However, when people turn eighteen and become financially more responsible, they may switch banks, which creates another Moment of Truth to be there with the right message at the right time.

In addition, as mentioned, moving in together or buying a house are relevant life events for  Rabobank to tap into. As Rabobank is one of the market leaders in mortgages, we keep on diving into this opportunity, for example, by giving a mortgage discount if they also open a bank account with Rabobank. We use storytelling to respond to specific needs, help to make our customer´s household more sustainable and be there in the Moment of Truth with the right message.”

RABOBANK´S STORYTELLING

Marianne elaborates on one of Rabobank’s campaigns: “In our ‘Better Housing Future campaign’, we created storytelling with three different customer stories. The stories included starters in the housing market, people looking to move out, and people looking to live more sustainably. So we distinguish three different customer needs. At ATL1 (Above the line level 1), we tell a broad story and communicate in such a way that we want to offer a better housing future to everyone. And in our segmentation, we dive further into first-time buyers and use different resources on the separate messaging.”

INNOVATION IN THE FINANCIAL SECTORS

“It was only 25 years ago that people kept the track of how much money was spent on a household book. Nowadays, there are many helpful digital tools that work on algorithms. Based on people’s needs and age, people are shown what is relevant to them. Our Rabo banking app is beneficial for many people, becoming almost a financial buddy in your pocket. The app is easy to use and helps with -many relevant life phases.” explains Marianne.

“Finances are crucial to many, and it keeps people awake, especially with all price increases. But do you know that 20% of Dutch households do not know precisely how much money comes in and goes out? Through modern apps and tools, such as money jars, people are becoming increasingly aware of their financial matters, and it helps people achieve their psychological financial goals. If emotional factors are attached to it, such as saving for a sabbatical, or investing for your children’s future, saving becomes more concrete, fun and easy to keep up.”

‘’Through modern apps and tools, such as money jars, people are becoming increasingly aware of their financial matters, and it helps people achieve their emotional financial goals.’’

Read our previous interview with Rabobank and Marianne about creatives.