Nationwide rebranding

Section62

WillPS said:

We're talking about the words that go beneath the brandname itself.

You perhaps are.

I think the rest of us are talking about how 'Building Society' appears to be vanishing elsewhere, the example recently given is the apparent change on Facebook. (I don't know what it was before, so can't comment on that).

And in more general terms how the concept of being a mutual building society (i.e. generating a profit to distribute to members with some degree of fairness) is being replaced with something else. But it isn't clear what.

WillPS said:

Section62 said:

It does surprise me that Nationwide - when trying to be different - decide to ditch "Building Society" and focus on "Bank" instead.  Especially when the TV advert running alongside this change goes out of its way to highlight the difference between NW as a building society and the banks.

Yes, it's almost like the actual words 'building society' are a problem for them somehow (perhaps perceived as old fashione), yet what being a building society actually means isn't.

That sounds a like a guess?  But in any event reads like a great demonstration of what I meant by 'lack of clear strategy'.

"We've just spent 'X' years and millions of pounds telling everyone how we are a building society, only to discover our target market think building societies are old fashioned?"

"Yeah"

"Let's ditch 'Building Society' on our logo then.  That will work."

WillPS

Section62 said:

WillPS said:

We're talking about the words that go beneath the brandname itself.

You perhaps are.

I think the rest of us are talking about how 'Building Society' appears to be vanishing elsewhere, the example recently given is the apparent change on Facebook. (I don't know what it was before, so can't comment on that).

They have changed their brand wording on Facebook, yes. Similarly Sainsbury's no longer push their 'feed the nation for less' branding via that channel. As demonstrated with that previous Google search they are clearly not shy about the fact they are a building society, and I expect when/if the next 'fair share' happens you'll see more comms explaining this point of difference.

Section62 said:

And in more general terms how the concept of being a mutual building society (i.e. generating a profit to distribute to members with some degree of fairness) is being replaced with something else. But it isn't clear what.

I think you're putting 2 and 2 together and getting a peculiar result. The wording 'building society' wasn't on their signage between 1992 and 2016, do you allege that they were somehow trying not to be a building society in that period? I ask because that doesn't tally with the fairly hard line taken by the board in response to the sustained campaign by carpetbaggers to demutualise; that does not speak of an organisation which is uncomfortable with its ownership structure.

The brand, logo, company name (if they change that), Facebook profile name and whatever else do not determine anything with regards to the organisation's ownership and governance. Aside from these items, nothing has changed, and any movement to change would have to receive the support of a majority of members in a vote.

So long as you don't look at the rebrand in isolation, and look instead at what the current leadership have done on the whole - i.e. committed to keeping branches open (for a bit), made a song and dance about giving money out to members and launched a major marketing campaign which emphasises that they are not at all the same as their banking competitors - I struggle to see how you'd come to the conclusion that their governance/ownership/profit sharing arrangements are being "replaced with something else" at all. If anything, they're leaning more in to it. 

Section62 said:

 But in any event reads like a great demonstration of what I meant by 'lack of clear strategy'.

A change of marketing strategy (after a 7 year period, which is a fair run as these things go) is not at all the same thing as an overall lack of strategy. The landscape has changed a huge amount in the time since 2016. 

Lions_89

Spoke to soon, missed a couple of calls from nationwide apparently from fraud dept, to confirm my ID. As it’s approaching a month since application I am moving towards the abort button. But hopefully they will call again.

gt94sss2

Seems Nationwide are refreshing the app and getting rid of the card reader

https://www.nationwide.co.uk/ways-to-bank/banking-app/

Section62

gt94sss2 said:

Seems Nationwide are refreshing the app and getting rid of the card reader

https://www.nationwide.co.uk/ways-to-bank/banking-app/

"Secure your account with a new authentication method so that you can do more in the app without a card reader." (my bold) doesn't sound like "...getting rid of..." ?

Rob5342

gt94sss2 said:

Seems Nationwide are refreshing the app and getting rid of the card reader

https://www.nationwide.co.uk/ways-to-bank/banking-app/

At least they are doing something but they are still miles behind everyone else.

2010

NW new app - still won`t be able to download statements.

Lightning360

And they still have a brand that is poor for accessibility despite it failing simple accessibility tests and numerous people complaining about it when it launched. Just shows that Nationwide really doesn't care about their members.

kev2009

Mine updated today, can't say I'm a fan of the new app tbh, looks if anything more confusing. Also not a fan of the new logo. 

MACKEM99

kev2009 said:

Mine updated today, can't say I'm a fan of the new app tbh, looks if anything more confusing. Also not a fan of the new logo. 

Did you notice it looks very much like Natwest? Well the tabs at the top of my pc are and I'm always taping on the wrong one😄