MINTEL

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Stretching the brand
None of the retailers have chosen to create completely separate brand identities for their financial services operations (unlike the online banks for example). Sainsbury’s banking arm is simply Sainsbury’s Bank, Marks & Spencer’s is M&S Money and ASDA’s is ASDA Financial Services. Instead they have chosen to piggy-back on their existing brand, stretching it into new markets and taking the core brand values with them, hence, the comment made by the marketing director at Tesco Personal Finance: “Customers see us as Tesco rather than Tesco Financial Services.”

The fact that these organisations already benefit from a strong brand means that they do not need to spend substantial amounts on awareness advertising. For the supermarkets and other retailers, a simple but bright, colourful in-store display will work wonders at catching people’s attention. This is covered in The Consumer section.

With the personal finance markets being extremely competitive advertising and promotional spend has been essential – both above the line (television, radio, newspapers, outdoor, Internet) and below the line (direct mail).

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Advertising expenditure of the main retailer financial providers
Mintel here includes advertising data for the financial operations of the major retailers in this sector. The data, collated by Nielsen Media Research (NMR), encompass television, radio, press, cinema and outdoor advertising as well as direct mail (excluding door-drops and inserts).

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Home Shopping - UK - March 2009

The changing dynamics of multichannels in Home Shopping
UK home shopping has moved online – Mintel estimates that e-commerce accounted for 70% of all retail