Monzo’s brand strategy: how the neobank championed community
Since launching in 2016, Monzo (previously Mondo) has won the hearts of gen z and millennials across the UK as their bank of choice. Their distinct hot coral bank cards, easy-to-use banking app and excellent customer listening have proved to be a powerful combination for the neobank.
In 2021 Monzo scored 5 stars for customer service and an 83% overall satisfaction rate.
Monzo entered the market when trust in UK banks was at an all-time low at only 37%. Monzo challenged the traditional banking industry, reinventing the wheel by embracing transparency, consumer trust and most importantly community. Here’s how they did it.
Community:
Community is the cornerstone of the Monzo brand and it continues to be a crucial part of their marketing strategy. From in-person meetups - when that was still a thing - to community forums. Monzo changed the idea of what it means to be a bank by rejecting the sterile and corporate feel of the high street and adopting a friendly and inclusive tone of voice. This encouraged brand affinity towards the company and helped the brand establish a personal customer relationship - which was needed as unlike other banks, Monzo lacked a physical presence.
The amount of support that Monzo has achieved has not come overnight, it’s been earned. The Ticketmaster hacking scandal is a great example of this. In 2018, Monzo was early on in spotting the signs of a major data breach at Ticketmaster. Monzo acted quickly and reissued the cards of all the users who may have been affected. After publishing a breakdown of what happened in a blog post, many of their customers praised them for their swift action. This really showed their community how much the company was invested in their users and earned them more brand advocacy in the process.
Cards as a fashion statement:
When it comes to Monzo’s brand strategy - how can we not talk about their iconic coral neon card. Former Head of Design at Monzo said they wanted something that people might ask about if it was handed over in a restaurant. In a market where high street banks and fintech brands are saturated with navy blues, purples and the odd use of primary colour, Monzo made their cards bold and distinctive. It paid off, the card became the latest fashion accessory attracting early adopters such as Shoreditch creatives and uni students generating lots of PR buzz.
Word of Mouth Marketing:
Monzo knew how to create a buzz and get people talking, especially through word of mouth marketing. Their use of referral schemes is a great example of this.
In Monzo’s beta stage, users on the app’s waiting list could refer others to get a higher place on the waiting list. After the initial beta launch, they then distributed “gold tickets”, the customers who received these tickets could send them to their friends so they could skip the waitlist and gain instant access to the app.
Referral systems are a great tactic to grow your brand as referred customers are 18% more loyal than non-referred customers.
Since the beginning, Monzo utilised word of mouth marketing, even giving out free pre-paid Monzo cards with £10 on them (pre-banking licence), the word got around and encouraged many people to get a card for themselves.
By leaning into word of mouth marketing and referral marketing strategy, Monzo was able to build hype around their product and make it more sticky for its users as all their friends were using it.
Tone of voice:
Along with the look and feel of the card, Monzo’s tone of voice has contributed to its challenger brand identity. Their jargon-free, witty friendly tone really distanced themselves from the corporate-speak associated with traditional banks.
Their mission was to mirror the language of their customer and to be transparent in their communications across all aspects of the business, this included when things were going well and when things weren’t.
In 2019, Monzo alerted its customers that the details of 500,000 customers had been leaked within the company, allowing their software engineers access to some customers’ PIN numbers. Monzo quickly then notified all customers urging them to change their numbers.
Though no information was leaked outside of the organisation, Monzo was honest with their customers about what went wrong and how they will prevent something like this from ever happening again in the future.
By crafting their tone of voice in this way, Monzo was able to humanise their brand, making their customers feel understood and respected.
Social media + content strategy:
Most of the traffic Monzo generates is organic. They have a strong engine of content powered by their social media channels and blog. They understand the importance of meeting their audience where they are and being active in those spaces as well as creating their native hub of content.
Year on year, Monzo has increased the number of native blog content being published. According to Dataconomy’s research study of Monzo’s blog content, ‘The obvious insight is that Monzo started ramping up their blogging 2 years ago. However, when you connect that to their 144% increase in organic traffic between May 2019 & April 2020, you’ll see that search engine marketing is a compounding long term game.’
Product updates, how to save money articles and even guides on the business basics of social media, are some of the components that make up Monzo’s SEO long-term content strategy.
Their social media is a further extension of their tone of voice, never missing a beat with their finger on the pulse of the latest trends and memes. Their social media channels don't feel sterile and corporate, too salesy or too forced - which is a pitfall that many brands can face resulting in a lack of brand trust. They use social media not like a company but like a creator and that's the difference.
TikTok marketing:
Monzo’s TikTok presence is another example of the company meeting their audience where they are. With over 39k followers and over 450k likes on the app, the brand’s TikTok account further captures its gen z and millennial audience. Creating relatable memes about ‘zilennial’ shopping habits to trending sounds, sharing creative money-saving tips and showcasing the brand’s hot coral mascot plushie.
The brand leverages its unique consumer data insights to create viral, relatable and shareable content. Did you know that the most popular emoji used in the Monzo app to say thank you when receiving money across the UK last year was the hands raised emoji ‘🙌 ‘ - except in Telford where the aubergine emoji ‘🍆 ‘ took first place.
What we can learn:
- Embrace a challenger mentality - From the product to the language and customer experience, Monzo used every opportunity they could to get creative and innovate the traditional banking experience. As a start-up, finding a way to differentiate your brand from your competitors is what attracts people to your brand - because you’re offering something different to what’s already on the market.
- Be transparent - Transparency communicates the integrity of your business; always be honest with your customer and respect them enough to keep them in the know - even when things go wrong.
- Consistency is key - We can all learn from Monzo’s consistency, most of the strategies that they’ve employed have been organic and this takes time. There is no shortcut to brand loyalty, so think of your efforts toward your goal as a compounding long-term play.
- Customer listening - Put your customer first and the rest shall follow. If you want your customers to engage, to stay on your app for longer or to re-purchase - you have to build a product that fulfils their needs.
To hear more successful brand strategies, click here to read about how Gymshark leveraged influencer marketing to build a $1 billion fitness wear brand.
