How TSB used market research to overhaul its business and brand

Reports of Friends star David Schwimmer driving around the Kent countryside in a VW camper van will have come as little surprise to the marketing team at TSB.

While the bank is tight-lipped about what the final ad – set to go live before the end of the year – will look like, it is clear it’s an important step for a brand still rebuilding from an IT crisis three years ago that make a big dent in its reputation.

The team has spent the past two years transforming its marketing with an extensive customer insight programme, new business purpose and brand plaform, developing a new brand identity, rebranding its branches, integrating it social media activity, overhauling its agency roster, developing its team and creating an in-house content agency.

One thing that has taken up lots of his time is a big piece of customer research, with TSB speaking to more than 10,000 customers across the country including in immersive groups talking to people for up to three hours at a time.

TSB wanted to understand people’s perceptions of banks, and their relationship with banks and money. Head of brand, content, transformation and social, Keith Gulliver, describes it as “eye-opening” in terms of better understanding the mindset of customers.

“There were some really tangible insights that came out of that early on around the level of stress people have with money. It’s a very short-term thing of coping between pay days. Understanding that rhythm was eye-opening,” he tells Marketing Week.