Brand Barometer - HSBC is banking on the green option

by Sundip Chahal, Media Week 31-Jul-07

Financial giant invokes tree-climbing goats in TV campaign to promote its eco-friendly credentials.

Saving the planet is normally reserved for Irish rock musicians and
former US vice-presidents. Now, however, a major bank brand is
attempting to get in on the act.

From 1 July, HSBC current account customers have been able to "go

green". Customers who take the green option will no longer get paper

monthly statements, cheque books, paying-in books, letters, paper, and
so on, relating to their current account.

Not only will less paper be used, HSBC will also donate £5 to WWF,
Earthwatch and The Climate Group for every customer that goes green
before 26 August.

While it may seem terribly obvious to the customers of online banks that
already operate a non-paper policy, the move should surely garner
support in the current eco-conscious mood that prevails on these
shores.

It should also swell the profits of parent group HSBC Holdings (£7.10bn in 2006).

Whatever the primary motives for the move, HSBC trumpeted the launch of
the new green option with an ad that carries on the theme of it being
"The World's Local Bank".

The opening scene shows goats (yes, goats) climbing a tree and grazing
on the fruit (in the Tamri area of Morocco, goats climb Argan trees to
get at the berries). The scene then switches to people from around the
globe as they are asked what trees mean to them (grazing, fertility,
oxygen, paper, leaves, nature and home).

YouGov's BrandIndex shows that since the campaign began at the beginning
of July, HSBC's Overall Brand Health (Index) remains unchanged at +4.
Buzz has moved up three points to +2 and Corporate Reputation has
improved by two points to +9.

Perhaps the key indicator for the number crunchers at HSBC is
"recommend" - a key outcome of customer loyalty (and loyal customers
take on more debt) - which briefly rose three points to +4, but
retreated back to +1.

Not a disaster by any stretch of the imagination, but hardly cause for
HSBC's rivals to turn green with envy.

Methodology

YouGov's BrandIndex is a daily measure of public perception of more than
1,100 consumer brands across 32 sectors, measured on a seven-point
profile, with data delivered on the next day.

YouGov interviews 2,000 people each weekday, more than half a million
interviews per year.

This means you can spot trends as soon as they happen, not when it's too
late. Respondents are drawn from an online panel of more than
130,000.

The score is the net rating: people are asked to identify the brands to
which they have a positive response, and then those to which they have a
negative response, to whatever is the prompt measure.

The net score is the positive minus the negative.

The seven measures that make the complete profile are below.

Each is taken independently - in any one survey, any individual
respondent is asked about only one measure for the sector, not all
seven. Therefore, none of the readings influence each other within the
survey.

1. Buzz

2. General impression

3. Quality

4. Value

5. Satisfaction

6. Recommend

7. Corporate reputation

In addition, we supply an index score.

www.brandindex.com.