PurposeHaving a successful brand that is integrated and coherent can provide a sustainable competitive advantage. The aim of this paper is to identify internal factors contributing to financial services brand success and ultimately to facilitate better‐informed branding activities, thereby growing brand equity.Design/methodology/approachA grounded theory approach is adopted and indepth interviews were carried out with 68 respondents amongst six financial services organisations.FindingsThe organisations with more successful brands were characterised by the following factors: a holistic, consistent and integrated approach to branding, a focus on excellent and personalised customer service, an ethos which challenges the norm, a responsiveness to change, a high degree of brand literacy, and a synergy between the brand and organisational culture.Research limitations/implicationsThe study was bound by the availability of respondents' time. The focus was to examine a relatively small sample of organisations in considerable depth. Moving forward, it is intended that a quantitative study will be undertaken to generalise and expand on these findings within the financial services market.Practical implicationsA number of significant managerial implications are drawn from this work, for example using the brand ethos model to enable employees to internalise their brand and the use of “brand jigsaw” workshops to facilitate brand consistency.Originality/valueThe results provide valuable insights into financial services brand management, encouraging the employment of more effective branding techniques within a sector that has traditionally had little interest in branding.

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Purpose -To investigate the factors characterising financial services brands in the UK which are succeeding rather than thriving. Design/methodology/approach -From a grounded theory perspective, depth interviews were conducted with 42 respondents within four UK financial services organisations. Findings -Brands which had not achieved "greatness" tend to be rooted the past, place emphasis on financial performance rather than brand success indicators have inadequate leadership support for the brand, be poorly differentiated, exhibit a lack of understanding and confusion about branding issues, have service quality concerns, demonstrate HR activities which could be more fully "on brand", and have a culture and values which are not clearly and consistently reinforcing the brand.Research limitations/implications -The study was bound by the availability of respondents' time. The focus was to examine four organisations in considerable depth. Moving forward, it is intended that a quantitative study will be undertaken to better generalise and expand upon these findings within financial services. Practical implications -A number of significant managerial implications are drawn from this work, which are of value to managers, consultants and academics. Originality/value -While the extant literature is rich in suggestions about what might promote brand success, less attention has been paid to the opposite scenario. This paper seeks to bridge this knowledge gap by addressing the factors which may be linked to some financial services brands' relative lack of success.

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PurposeThis paper seeks to consider the interaction between corporate brands and organisational cultures within less successful UK financial services organisations to provide guidance about better managing corporate brands.Design/methodology/approachA total of 41 in‐depth interviews were conducted within less successful UK financial services organisations from a grounded theory standpoint.FindingsGiven the link between culture and employee behaviour and the criticality of employee behaviour in services brands, organisational culture was perceived by managers and staff as being key to brand success. However, amongst the corporate brands studied, the cultures were not brand‐supportive and a misalignment was noted between culture and brand. The study found that the organisational cultures were confusing and inconsistent, were undergoing a process of change, were focused on quantitative performance targets, were averse to innovation and in one case were unnecessarily “tough”.Practical implicationsThe results highlight the need for managers to be attentive to the consistency and congruence between values in the organisational culture and corporate brand, to ensure that cultural change is managed appropriately, to adopt a holistic approach to brand management and to empower employees. A model is posited of the cultural pitfalls to avoid when managing corporate brands.Originality/valueThe value of the paper is that it can help financial services brands achieve their potential by allowing them to manage the interaction between culture and brand so as to optimise brand performance by avoiding the pitfalls encountered within less successful brands.