Project 01

Create a brand for a digital banking app aimed at 16-25 year olds.

To begin this project, I researched what people liked and disliked about both traditional and digital banks.

What’s Right with Traditional Banks?

• Face to face
• Feels more official
• Feels safer (been there forever)
• Tradition
• Ritual

What’s Wrong with Traditional Banks?

• Poor customer service due to severity of security
• Viewed with mystery (fear of unkown)
• Money is associated with evil
• Banks are owned by the rich
• Current political climate
• Don’t know how to properly save
• Fear of financial collapse
• Always closed

What’s Right with Digital Banks?

• Convenience
• Microservices
• Control
• Security feels more “up to you”
• Not relying on opening times
• Can use anywhere

What’s Wrong with Digital Banks?

• Some services unavailable
• Fear of unknown/new
• Need seperate account with different bank
• Can’t deposit cash

It’s clear to see that digital banks are going to become a much more common thing due to how much they do to fix issues people have with traditional banks. Most of the issues I found with digital banks seemed to be natural issues which are limited by the format, except for the issue of some services being unavailable, which is largely due to digital banks being relatively new. What occurred to me is that while some services are unavailable, there really are hundreds of services that banks offer that are hardly used. I want to research into the commonly unused services banks offer to see if any of them could be beneficial to users if they understood how to use them.

I’ll come back to looking into the unused services; I first want to look at other digital banks to find how they are popular amongst my target demographic

Competitor Analysis

Monzo

Founded in 2015, Monzo sought to remove the frustrations of traditional banking. The inconvenient hours that banks are open, the slow time for transactions to show, and the difficulties around freezing accounts, are prime examples of the issues that Monzo sought to do away with. By providing all these “Microservices” through just their app, Monzo created centralised control over bank accounts which allowed users much more flexibility and freedom when it came to banking. Monzo’s goal of taking away the hassle is something I can see being a great selling point, and could be something I expand on or explore further in this project.

As Monzo began as a small team and can now rival major banks, this provides another selling point towards youth aged 16-25. There is a current want to upset and rebel against the establishment amongst young people so ditching major banks in favour of a modern bank with more liberal controls over your money is very attractive to young users. This could definitely be an angle I use in this project as the desire to move away from the greed of major banks is something that could be appealing to my target audience.

I think Monzo will be a good influence for this project so I will make sure to revisit their brand design later in my research.

Starling