1st July 2022

Treating customers fairly by tweet

The Halifax has told customers this week who do not like their very ‘modern’ thinking surrounding pronoun use on staff name badges, or its views on inclusivity via tweets, that “We strive for inclusion, equality and quite simply, in doing what's right. If you disagree with our values, you're welcome to close your account.”

I am sure as the days unfold what seemed an well-thought out, well-timed reaction to customers concerns that did not align to Halifax staff and corporate thinking will end up being a massive PR and brand disaster. Not everyone in the UK is aligned to the gender and inclusivity direction of travel being embarked on by the Halifax, or indeed the FCA who seem hellbent on creating the route map by way of regulation. 

'Halifax Dave' wrote further on their behalf that “We want to create a safe and accepting environment that opens the conversation around gender identity”.

Opens the conversation? I think quite the reverse. 

Any conversation on this highly contentious subject is closed as the brand, in this case the Halifax, accepts no counter views, no majority alter-thinking, or those running the brand comms and PR have embarked on a guerrilla mission of their own.

If the Halifax wanted customers to respect their name badge gender, what is it doing to ask customers what pronoun salutation they would want on communications to them from the Halifax?

This issue questions what makes anyone buy a product or service from an established brand? Or in this case stops buying when the brand embarks on changes to what created trust in what they do linked to the ‘FIFO’ attitude demonstrated in telling customers go elsewhere.

It is worth noting that many may very easily move their bank and savings accounts, many already have done, on social media too, but that is not necessarily the case if you have a loan or mortgage.  

Not very TCF is it? 

Will this pave the way for mortgage lenders to add their customers diversity and inclusivity attitudes to the affordability and creditworthy checks before approving a mortgage.

It takes many years to create value in a brand. Brand values are an essential part of any business whether you make stuff, sell stuff, sell knowledge, experience or provide a service. Brand value is often supported by very clear brand guidelines determining size, resolution, fonts, pantone colours, where it appears in adverts etc.

Your customers want to engage with a brand and its values because they have accumulated a trust based on their knowledge of what the brand does, how well they do it and in today’s world of social media, can read the experiences of others. 

To achieve brand value is not an overnight thing at all, positive brand image, experience and trust takes years to achieve and can be easily destroyed by upsetting your customer base.

I guess for people of a certain age, the name Gerald Ratner may spring to mind. He was the ceo of a nationwide firm of family-owned high street jewellers- ‘Ratners.’

On the 23rd April 1991, in a now infamous ‘benchmark’ speech, in front of some 6,000 of the business world’s great and good at the Royal Albert Hall, he joked “We do cut-glass sherry decanters complete with six glasses on a silver-plated tray that your butler can serve you drinks on, all for £4.95. People say, "How can you sell this for such a low price? I say, because it's total crap”.

He then went from bad to worse by going on to remark that one of the sets of earrings being sold in his stores was "cheaper than a prawn sandwich from Marks & Spencer's, but I have to say the sandwich will probably last longer than the earrings".

This speech became known as the biggest corporate gaffe in history seeing some £500m wiped off the value of the firm and almost putting it out of business

Brands need customers. To do that, they need strong core values that are well communicated to their employees, but more importantly, are understood and readily identified with by their customers. 

This last year has seen a plethora of long-standing brand images being ‘rainbowed’, but, most consumers do not necessarily see a reason, need or value for long standing brands to do this. 

Rainbow logos and pronouned name badges firms may think should not define a brand yet in this case they have, in a negative way.

A brand is much more than the logo design. Core brand values are at the centre of a brand identity;  via the quality of your product, your customer service, trust, consistency, behaviour and pricing. Your brand is your voice, don't abuse it.

Consumers will engage and remain loyal to a brand that represents core values they are aligned to. They may dise 

If customers cannot identify with these nuanced changes to reflect some ‘woke’ thinking agenda, or are told if you don’t like it, go elsewhere, disaster looms. 

Ratner in marketing motion all over again. 

But why?

We see that the FCA is beating the diversity and inclusion drum even louder. But since when do they have responsibility for brand values?

Are consumers demanding this? Do they actually care?

Are the regulated financial services and products that consumers buy seeing improved value or are they seeing increased costs to counter this race to be more diverse or more inclusive?

Society and now financial services brands are being subjected to minority thought and image control. But for who and by who?

Some numbers to reflect upon from latest government data with a UK population estimated in 2022 as 68.6m. 

White 84.8%

Asian/ Asian British 8%

Black/ Afro Caribbean/ Black British 3.5%

Mixed ethnic 1.8%

Other 1.9%

Some transgender numbers 0.9%

As yet there is no data on pronoun useage.

In 2021, ONS research showed that more Britain’s identify as lesbian, gay or bisexual, an estimated 2.7% in total

UK banks and investment firms must meet the requirements on the diversity of their board, which are contained in Chapter 6 of the General Organisational Requirements Part of the PRA Rulebook and SYSC 4.3.A9R to 4.3A.11R of the FCA Handbook.

As I noted above, if your brand is your voice: 

•          What do you think makes a brand ‘established’ in the 21st Century? 

•          Using the Halifax as a benchmark in our industry, is there everything to gain and nothing to lose by telling your customers to go somewhere else? 

•          What would Howard think of this?

I would be interested to know your thoughts?

Panacea Comment