August 2nd, 2023, Stephan Shakespeare
Nationwide recently announced that a £100 “Fairer Share” payment would be deposited into certain customer accounts after registering profits of £2.2bn (a jump of 39%). It’s a move that, according to YouGov BrandIndex, has led to a significant improvement in the brand’s already better-than-average Buzz scores.
This measure, which tracks whether consumers have heard anything positive or negative about a brand in the past two weeks, doubled from 6.0 to 11.9 (+5.9) between 18 May – 18 June. At their peak, net Buzz scores hit 15.7 (30 May). By comparison, banks and building societies on average saw scores stagnate, changing only from 1.5 to 1.7 (+0.2).
Net Word of Mouth scores – again higher than average compared to the sector as a whole – jumped from 7.5 to 11.1 (+3.6) over the last month, peaking at 14.5 on 30 May. Compare that with the industry average (which went from 2.8 to 2.7), and it’s clear that Nationwide’s initiative has made some noise.
But outside of positive chatter, have the payments made a difference? Nationwide’s Value for Money scores saw an improvement among the general public from 13.0 to 13.7 (+0.7), but among the bank’s current customers they rose from 42.4 to 49.8 (+7.4). Its Reputation scores, which measure whether consumers would be proud or embarrassed to work for a brand, dropped a point from 24.7 to 23.7 among the general public, but among the bank’s customers they improved from 53.6 to 58.0 (+4.4).
So in terms of the general public, we can say the Fairer Share Payments have been a success for Nationwide from a PR perspective; in terms of the brand’s current customers, they are more likely to consider the brand good value and to esteem it as a workplace. In a cost-of-living crisis, bang for buck may be especially important: ask the public what their primary motivation for choosing a bank is, and our Profiles data shows that the top choice is “a trustworthy brand” (18%) – but the second-most popular option is interest rates/value for money (17%).