Banking Brand Research: How to Improve Your Reputation

Imagine you’re at a gathering, and someone asks, “What do you think of [Your Bank Name]?”

Do you know how most people would answer?

For financial institutions, brand reputation isn’t just nice to have, it’s crucial for survival in a fiercely competitive market. In fact, we’ve found through years of helping banks with brand research that perception often outweighs product offerings.

In this guide, we’ll cover what banking brand research involves, why it’s essential, and actionable tips for effectively measuring and leveraging it to differentiate your bank.

What Does Brand Research For Banks Measure?

Hint: It’s more than your logo!

Your brand represents your bank’s personality and promise, influencing everything from customer acquisition to loyalty. Without clearly understanding customer perceptions, marketing efforts become guesswork.

In my experience, banks investing in brand research consistently outperform those relying on assumptions.

For example, we once worked with a regional bank convinced they were seen as innovative. Brand research, however, revealed customers viewed them as traditional and outdated. Understanding this gap allowed them to pivot strategies effectively, boosting customer retention and growth.

Key Metrics to Include in Bank Brand Research

Successful brand research goes deeper than surface-level questions. It explores your audience’s genuine feelings and perceptions about your bank.

Important areas to assess include:

• Brand Awareness: Do customers recognize your bank easily, or do they confuse you with competitors?
• Brand Perception: What emotions or adjectives do customers associate with your bank, such as trustworthy, outdated, or friendly?
• Brand Loyalty and Satisfaction: Are customers proud to bank with you, and would they recommend your services?
• Competitive Positioning: How does your bank compare to fintechs and traditional competitors?

Drive Research surveyed 1,000 consumers about their banking habits and preferences. See the results and download the report.

Proven Methods for Effective Banking Brand Research

There’s no one-size-fits-all solution for brand research. Combining a hybrid of research methods provides comprehensive insights.

Here are several effective methodologies specific to banking:

Online Surveys

Online surveys offer a quick and efficient way to gather measurable data on brand awareness, perception, and loyalty.

Our banking research company finds they particularly useful for financial services providers because you can easily reach a large number of customers or prospects to understand broad trends and attitudes.

Plus, when designed thoughtfully, surveys can give you actionable insights and reliable benchmarks over time.

Focus Groups

If you’re seeking deeper, qualitative insights, focus groups provide invaluable context.

Unlike surveys, they reveal nuances such as emotional reactions and nonverbal cues.

For example, a focus group might uncover that younger customers find your branches intimidating.

You could then act on these insights by redesigning your branches to be more welcoming, training staff on approachable customer service, or creating marketing campaigns highlighting your bank’s accessible, friendly atmosphere.

In-Depth Interviews (IDIs)

One-on-one interviews, similar to focus groups, deliver qualitative insights but allow banks to go even deeper into individual experiences.

IDIs are especially effective in exploring sensitive topics or complex needs, which might be difficult to discuss openly in group settings.

For instance, banks could use IDIs to gain candid feedback from lower income clients or those who struggle with their finances, tailoring personalized strategies and services based on these in-depth insights.

Mystery Shopping

Lastly, mystery shopping offers a direct look at customer service and brand experience from the customer’s perspective.

Evaluators acting as customers interact with your branches or customer service representatives, revealing strengths and areas for improvement in real-time service delivery.

We once conducted a mystery shopping project for a banking client that revealed important insights about responsiveness, product explanations, and overall customer service quality.

The mystery shop revealed…

• 72% of residential loan inquiries and 80% of commercial loan inquiries received callbacks within 48 hours.
• But only 63% of residential shoppers noted loan officers did not thoroughly explain available products.

This showed a clear area for improvement. Using these insights, the bank enhanced training programs, improved product communication, and increased overall customer satisfaction.

Best Bank Brand Research Questions

Here are some sample questions for your project to use. You’ll want to specialize these for your brand and your questions but here are the baseline questions you can use:

Brand Awareness Questions:

• When you think of banks in your area, which ones come to mind first?
• Have you heard of [Bank Name] before today?
• How did you first hear about [Bank Name]?
• Which banks do you see advertised most often in your area?
• If you needed a new bank account, which banks would you consider?

Brand Perception Questions:

• What words or phrases come to mind when you think of [Bank Name]?
• How would you describe [Bank Name] to a friend or family member?
• On a scale from 1 to 10, how trustworthy do you think [Bank Name] is? Why?
• What do you believe [Bank Name] does better (or worse) than other banks?
• What kind of people do you think bank with [Bank Name]?

Brand Loyalty Questions:

• How likely are you to continue banking with [Bank Name] over the next few years?
• Have you ever recommended [Bank Name] to others? Why or why not?
• If [Bank Name] were no longer available, which bank would you switch to?
• What would make you consider leaving your current bank?
• How well does [Bank Name] meet your expectations?

Best Practices to Follow

After conducting hundreds of studies with financial institutions, we’ve seen firsthand what works and what doesn’t when it comes to branding.

Whether your bank is launching a new product, rebranding, or simply trying to understand why customers are choosing competitors, there are foundational steps that lead to better outcomes.

Here are key best practices to ensure the effectiveness of your brand research:

Segment Your Audience

Not all customers experience your bank equally. Segmenting your audience provides clearer insights such as:

• Customers vs. Non-customers: Customer feedback reveals satisfaction and loyalty, while non-customers highlight awareness barriers or misconceptions.
• Demographic and Geographic Segments: Segmenting by age, income, education, and location can highlight differences in brand perception and service usage.
• Behavioral and Psychographic Segments: Understanding customer behavior and motivations, such as convenience, ethics, or technology preferences, enables targeted improvements.

Check out this example banking consumer segment we created from our survey of 1,000 banking consumers.

Combine Qualitative and Quantitative Data

Both types of data have their place.

Quantitative data helps you measure awareness, favorability, and satisfaction—things you can benchmark and track over time. But it’s the qualitative data that helps explain the “why” behind the numbers. That context is what drives smarter decisions.

Let’s say your NPS survey shows that younger customers are less likely to recommend your bank. That’s helpful.

But through follow-up interviews or focus groups, you might discover that they find your mobile app outdated or your marketing unrelatable. Now you have something to act on.

The most successful brand research combines both approaches.

Regularly Track Your Brand

Don’t treat brand research like a one-time event. Perceptions change. Competitors launch new campaigns. New customers come in with different expectations.

Ongoing brand tracking allows you to spot trends, measure progress, and react quickly. If brand awareness is growing after a marketing push, great—keep going. If trust is slipping among long-time customers, it’s a red flag to dig deeper.

Even a simple quarterly pulse survey can be enough to stay ahead.

Ready to Transform Your Bank’s Brand? Contact Our Market Research Firm.

Whether you’re looking to measure awareness, reposition your brand, or track customer loyalty over time, our team is here to help. We’ve supported community banks, credit unions, and national financial institutions with brand research tailored to their exact needs.

Have questions about where to start? Want to chat through your goals?

We’d love to hear from you. Fill out an online form by clicking the button below or email [email protected] to get started.