Brand development process in the digital age - Case: S-Pankki

Abstract

It is the dawn of the digital revolution and a lot of brands in many industries are struggling to keep up with the accelerating fast-paced progress that is disrupting industry after another. Traditional and well-established brands lose their competitive edge overnight and distance themselves from the digital native customer which require a strong digital presence from brands. Businesses that stay relevant in the long term manage to innovate successfully and continuously develop their brands forward. A truly meaningful brand has a shared purpose and vision which resonates through the entire organization and to all stakeholders by answering the question why first. A meaningful brand can establish a strong connection with it’s customers and propose an authentic customer value proposition as there is a shared mutual goal with the company and the customer.

This thesis describes the brand development process as an on-going continuous loop where old product lines finance the new innovative product lines which in return give a halo of modernity to the old ones. This kind of cyclic process is proposed as a key to success in the longer term in brand development as the research question is “How to develop a meaningful banking brand in the digital age – Case S-Pankki”. The answer to this research problem is intended to find through a structure of three goals which include defining the disruptive brand development process, defining the problem areas in S-Pankki’s brand development and developing S-Pankki’s own disruptive brand development framework.

The empirical research part of the thesis constructs a bridge between the theory and practice of the thesis and lifts up insights and findings that help to form a practical action plan and the elaborated version of the disruptive brand development process framework that facilitates the future efforts of S-Pankki’s journey towards becoming a digital bank and improving their current brand development process. The thesis sums up with conclusions and future implications that suggest implications for future research.