What's in a name? Well, quite a lot actually, it could be make or break for some tech businesses, especially when growing into new territories. You have to consider how the name translates across markets, is it an offensive word, is it easy to say and spell, can we get the domain name etc. in key new territories? There's a lot to consider.

The power of a good name

The history of company names is interesting as they, like everything else, have evolved and have fashions–what's in, what's out. In the past, company names were quite literal or descriptive, based on what people sold, such as the world's oldest tech business, International Business Machines Corporation (IBM, 1896). As time moved on the tech industry changed and grew, literal names went out in favour of single names, such as Sony (1945) and later the more established tech companies turned their names into contractions or acronyms e.g. Apple Computer Company (1976) - Apple and IBM.

The tech industry is ever-changing and, in very recent years, has become volatile. According to Forbes, 90% of startups fail (within one to three years), with only 10% surviving. So, the lesson is, don't let a bad name be a barrier to success.

To rename or to not rename: is renaming a big deal?
Naming or renaming your business should not be taken lightly. Your company name is more than just a label, it's the foundation of your brand identity. It's the first impression you make on potential customers and partners, and it will shape the way they perceive your business. Your name should reflect and make sense in the industry you serve. So, a flippant name that sounds great or PR-able for instance may not work for a serious fintech. Have a look at your competitors to get a feel for what works, but remember your goal is to standout.

A naming service in a branding agency is the process of creating a unique and memorable name for a company, product, or service. It is a crucial aspect of branding that can impact the success of a business. When choosing a name, it is important to ensure that it is available and not too similar to any existing brand.

Choosing the right name for your technology company is crucial as it will be a part of everything you do. A good name will make it easier to build a strong brand and create an emotional connection with your customers.

Investing in a good name for your tech business is a smart move. It will help you stand out in a crowded market and attract the right customers.

Case study: Look for a unique tech company name
A recent brief we undertook, saw the merger of two industry-leading software providers, Compusoft Group and 2020, to create a new global tech powerhouse. The merger enabled the software company to scale and better serve its customers with a global presence of over 2,300 employees and 70,000+ customers across 100+ countries, which all came together under the new name, Cyncly.

Getting the name right was an important task. It had to feel right for the former businesses but also for the future growth of this newly merged business–a unifying banner that everyone in the newly merged company can stand behind. The name is derived from the words ‘synchronisation’ and ‘simplicity,’ bringing together the company’s mission to be the ultimate platform for connecting designers, retailers, manufacturers, contractors, and consumers to make spaces amazing.

The Importance of a good name for your tech business
Naming a tech company can be a daunting task, but it's an important step in creating a successful brand. A good name should reflect the company's mission and values, and also be memorable and easy to pronounce.

One key aspect of naming a tech company is to tell a story. Your name should give your audience an insight into your organisation and what it can do. It's important to find terms with emotional resonance or those which help to highlight essential visions and values for the brand. Naming is part of our service offer and our team can help you brainstorm ideas and find a name that truly represents your company.

Another important consideration is to ensure that your name is unique and memorable. With so many tech companies out there, it's important to stand out from the crowd. Working with a branding agency that has a naming service, there will be a name generation creative process (each agency will have its own format). Following the brainstorm sessions and creating an initial list of potential names, it's important to research them thoroughly to ensure that your top 3 names are not already in use, if they are, scrap them and move on to the next names on your list.

The goal of the name:

• identify what you’re offering
• differentiate you from competitors
• evoke positive emotions and associations 
• pique curiosity and interest 
• boost brand recall 
• inspire and motivate employees

How do I come up with name Ideas for my business?

As mentioned, there is a creative naming process where all factors such as the industry vertical and naming conventions are considered (such as naming after the founder/s), a short-list is drawn up and the one that sticks is the winner. It's good for a client to garner opinion on the potential new name across the team to see how it sits with them. When it comes to potential names for your business there are a series of do's and don'ts. Let's discuss a few.

Do's and don't of naming
When brainstorming for a list of names for a modern tech company, it's important to consider different options such as made-up or founder-based names.  Every branding expert will have their own method for naming and styles they will explore, such as suggestive, descriptive, metaphor-based etc. However, in general, the naming process looks something like this, singular (single word name)- e.g. Meta, coined (made-up name)- e.g. Google, and portmanteau (see below) or compound (joined words) - e.g. Facebook.

The name should be unique, impactful, and easy to remember. However, when naming your tech company, it's important to avoid literal names that describe your specific initial service offering. Instead, try experimenting with industry terms relevant to your business, or make use of a technology company name generator for ideas, but avoid being literal.

Portmanteau Names: Portmanteau names can be a great option for tech companies looking for a simple and memorable moniker. By combining two or more words, you can create a unique name that describes your business in a straightforward way.

When choosing a portmanteau name, consider the following tips:

• Think about the words that best describe your business, such as industry terms or unique selling points.
• Experiment with different combinations of words until you find a name that sounds catchy and memorable.
• Keep the name short and easy to remember, as well as professional and appropriate for your target audience.

Remember to keep the name of your company short, easy to remember, and professional. It should reflect the mission and values of the business, as well as represent what you want it to become in the future. Cool tech business names are great as long as they can go the distance!

At DesignByStructure, we believe that a good tech name needs to evolve with your brand. Consider these five ideas:

Five naming ideas for a tech business

Naming a tech startup or renaming a tech firm can be challenging and everyone wants a great name, but it's a crucial step to establish your brand. Here are five tech name ideas to help you come up with a great name:

1. Reflect your mission and values: Your name should represent what your business stands for and what you want to achieve in the future. It should also reflect your company's mission and values.
2. Consider your products or services: Think about the software, products, or services you offer. Your name should be authentic and relevant to what you're selling.
3. Be unique: With so many tech companies out there, it's important to stand out from the crowd. A unique name will help you do that.
4. Get feedback: Before settling on a name, be sure to get feedback from your target audience. Their opinion matters as they will ultimately be using your product or service.
5. Use a name generator: If you're struggling to come up with a name, try using a tech company name generator. It can give you some inspiration and help you find a name that fits your business.

And finally...

We understand the importance of a great name or rename for your tech business. When naming your business, it's important to choose a name that reflects your mission and values, as well as what you want your business to become in the future. Authenticity is key, so consider what type of products or services you're selling and who your customers will be.

Remember to consider these points:

1. Authenticity: When it comes to tech business names, it’s all about authenticity. Consider exactly what you’re selling and who your customers will be. What sets your tech company apart?
2. Successful business names: In general, successful business names are simple, memorable, and easy to spell. Avoid using complicated words or phrases that are difficult to pronounce or spell.
3. To come up with a great name, you can use a tech company name generator or take inspiration from existing technology company names.
4. Make sure the name is available and not too similar to any existing brands.

At DesignByStructure, we believe that a great business name should be memorable, easy to pronounce, and easy to spell. It should also be unique and distinguishable from competitors.

To ensure your business name stands out, we offer naming services that include research, brainstorming, and testing. We'll work with you to create a name that accurately represents your brand and resonates with your target audience.

Don't let naming your business be a daunting task. Let us help you create a name that will set your business apart and help it grow.  Contact us to learn more about our naming services and how we can help you create a memorable name for your tech business.

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Read more from our brand strategy series:

• Brand Strategy – What it is and Why every Tech Company Needs One.
  
• Cracking the Code: Understanding the Importance of Brand Strategy for Tech Start-ups.
  
• How to Define your Brand Purpose.
• Working with a Brand Design Agency can add Value to your Business.

This week saw the start of London Tech Week, so, it's a good time to discuss brand strategy 101 for tech start-ups.

Tech start-up brand journey

The Tech Start-Up Brand Journey

Starting a tech venture is exciting, but it can be overwhelming with many plates spinning at the same time. You have to communicate your differentiation, the thing that makes you stand out from competitors as quickly as you can to give your business the edge. A clear brand strategy is essential for long-term success. A well-rounded brand strategy should include research & insight, positioning, strategy & TOV, a design identity system, brand guidelines and the deliverables (e.g. website, sales deck). There are other facets built into a brand such as brand sound and brand culture etc., and they are guided by the brand positioning.

Brand strategy is built on a platform of differentiation. MarTech magazine suggests that a company should use its value proposition to create competitive advantages and satisfy customer needs. The key to long-term success is using brand strategy to define your market position in order to create market share and revenue growth.

Culture and employer value proposition form another facet of a well-rounded brand strategy. A brand agency can help you curate your startup's culture to ensure a clear articulation of its purpose, as well as a unified identity. A well-rounded brand strategy should be your north star, from which you can create a strong foundation for your tech start-up's brand journey and its future.

Why Brand Strategy is Important for Tech Start-ups

A well-crafted brand strategy is crucial for the success of any tech start-up. It helps to create a clear articulation of the company's purpose and a unified identity, that can be expressed for both internal (culture and employer value proposition) and external communications (all brand touchpoints your customers see and engage with).

Developing a strong brand strategy helps businesses identify long-term growth goals. It enables entrepreneurs to move towards their achievement in a clear way, and also to track their progress against key objectives. A comprehensive brand strategy keeps them updated on whether they are moving in the right direction. For a tech start-up, having a clear brand strategy will help you stand out in a crowded market and attract the right audience from the start!

Brand Strategy Vs Marketing Strategy

Most start-ups will have a business plan which is the roadmap which defines your company's objectives and goals, covering the activity plan to achieve its goals and key milestones. The business plan should cover your marketing, financial, and operational needs. Each with its own strategy to fulfil commitments and key activities.

However, a brand strategy and a marketing strategy are two different things that are often confused with each other. They are not the same thing, one informs the other. Branding is the process of creating a unique identity and persona for a company, while marketing is the tactics used to attract, engage and promote products & services to a specific audience, to converting that audience from one-time purchasers to loyal repeat customers.

A marketing strategy produces a set of go-to-market tools to reach and align with consumers' needs. It includes digital marketing, content strategy, advertising, PR, and more, and can change based on customer data, budget, and trends. On the other hand, a brand strategy focuses on how a business positions itself within the market and category. It is a fluid, long-term strategy that requires nurturing and being revisited based on its success and changes in the marketplace.

Brand managers implement brand awareness strategies, assess customer perception, track sales progress, and create sales and marketing strategies to increase purchases and revenue. For many start-ups, a brand manager may not be an option early on, so founders may have to wear this hat among all the others they wear in the early days.

Small teams in the early days of a start-up's journey.

What is included in a brand strategy?

A brand strategy is a plan that outlines how a business will present its brand to consumers and position itself in the marketplace. It is an essential component of any successful marketing strategy and should include the following key elements:

• Brand Positioning: A unique value proposition that differentiates your brand from competitors and resonates with your target audience.
• Brand Purpose: A clear and concise statement that defines why your brand exists and what it stands for.
• Brand Voice: A consistent tone and style of communication that reflects your brand's personality and values.
• Target Audience: A detailed profile of your ideal customer, including their demographics, behaviours, and pain points.
• Brand Identity: A visual representation of your brand, including your logo, colour palette, typography, and imagery.
• Brand Guidelines: A set of rules and standards that govern how your brand is presented across all channels and touchpoints.

By developing a comprehensive brand strategy that includes these elements, you can establish your business, attract your target market, and effectively articulate how your business differs from competitors.  As you go through the brand journey and creative process, your brand story will come to life.

Crafting Your Brand Story

Your brand story is the narrative that defines your company's values, goals, and mission. It's the tale of how and why your brand operates in the way that it does. Every interaction your customers have with your brand, whether in-store or online, is set by this story.

A compelling brand story is essential to building a successful brand. It's the foundation upon which all other brand strategies are built.

Crafting a brand story involves defining your company's origin story, fundamental values, and mission. It should captivate your customers by relating to their experiences or aspirations. A well-crafted brand story can make your brand marketing more effective by evoking an emotional response from your audience. It is something your customers can identify with and believe in.

Branding Design: Creating an Identity for Your Business

Brand design involves creating, redesigning or refreshing a distinct identity for your business, one that distinguishes it from competitors and makes it recognisable to consumers. This includes key design elements such as the logo, colour scheme, typography, and other creative components.

A successful branding design strategy should align with your brand's mission and promises to customers. It should also be consistent across all platforms and communication channels.

Branding design is a crucial aspect of a business's brand strategy. It involves creating a visual identity that represents the company's personality, values, and philosophy. This includes the company's name, logo, fonts, and colours, which should be consistent across all marketing materials. A comprehensive brand strategy also includes building rapport and favorability within the market, becoming memorable in the eyes of the consumer, and creating a chosen image of the company in the minds of its customers.

Successful branding design can help build brand equity, which is a particular feeling or opinion about a company that drives buying decisions. Equity is achieved by creating positive experiences for customers that encourages them to stay loyal to your business. Emotional engagement is difficult but once you have it, it's hard to break.

Brand strategy - organising all the elements

How to Emotionally Engage Your Audience with Your Brand

To create a strong emotional connection with your audience, your brand needs to be more than just a logo or a tagline. It should be a reflection of your company's values, personality, and mission. Here are some key points to keep in mind when crafting a brand that emotionally engages your audience:

• Define your brand's personality: Your brand's personality should be consistent across all channels, from your website to your social media profiles. It should reflect your company's values and mission, and resonate with your target audience.
• Tell a story: A great brand tells a story that resonates with its audience. Your story should be authentic, compelling, and relevant to your target audience.
• Create a visual identity: Your brand's visual identity should be consistent and memorable. It should include your logo, colour palette, typography, and other visual elements that reflect your brand's personality.
• Engage with your audience: Engage with your audience on social media, respond to comments and messages, and create content that resonates with them. This will help you build a loyal following and create a strong emotional connection with your audience.
• Stay true to your values: Your brand's values should be at the core of everything you do. Stay true to your values, and your audience will respect and trust your brand.

And finally...

In conclusion, a well-crafted brand strategy is essential for the success of any tech start-up. It helps to create a clear articulation of the company's purpose, a unified identity, and attract the right audience.

At Design By Structure, we understand the importance of both brand strategy and marketing strategy in creating a successful business. Our team works closely with clients to develop a unique brand identity and create effective marketing tactics to reach their target audience.

We can help you create a brand strategy that sets you apart and drives your business forward. Whether you're starting a new business or looking to refresh your brand's image, our branding design services can help you stand out in a crowded market. Contact us to learn more about how we can help you create a brand that resonates with your ideal customer base.

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Read more from our brand strategy series:

• Brand Strategy – What it is and Why every Tech Company Needs One.
• How to Define your Brand Purpose.
  
• Making the Right Choice: What Should I Name my Tech Company?
• Working with a Brand Design Agency can add Value to your Business.

Artificial intelligence (AI) was first coined by American computer scientist Prof. John McCarthy in 1955, he said, ‘Our ultimate objective is to make programs that learn from their experience as effectively as humans do.’  In the 66 years since AI has only come into its own, particularly in the past decade, where the technology has caught up with the theory. In 2016, Amazon, Apple, DeepMind, Google, IBM and Microsoft formed the ‘Partnership of AI’ to set societal and ethical best practices for artificial intelligence research.

So, where is AI today?

AI in the 20s

IBM’s definition of AI is, ‘Artificial intelligence leverages computers and machines to mimic the problem-solving and decision-making capabilities of the human mind.’ The reality, widely accepted, is that true AI doesn’t exist in business yet. What does exist are AI applications, which learn from interactions and make recommendation-based responses based on those learnings, namely;

• speech recognition, (such as Siri, Alexa),
• virtual agents, (Slack, FB messenger),
• recommendation engines,
• and self-driving tech.

The uptake of these *applications grew during the pandemic as people were forced to become more connected during the lockdown.

AI has made inroads into enterprise technology, streamlining workflows etc., and while there is a big ambition for the adoption of AI, the reality is its uptake among global companies is not where it should be according to Forbes Insights. A KPMG report (2020) suggests that there is an AI 'trust gap', which has ‘prevailed amid a lack of quality data and an ensuing reluctance to hand critical business decisions over to machines’. This lack of data is perceived as a barrier to adoption. Similarly, the 2021 McKinsey AI report, suggests that its ‘findings show no increase in AI adoption’.

What’s the problem with AI?

As a branding agency working in the technology sector, we have seen many AI-driven propositions in our time, interesting and cool stuff that isn’t accelerating as fast as perhaps it should. It seems to us that AI has a bit of a positioning problem in the following three areas:

1. Language – exclusive and not very clear.
2. Perception – fear and distrust.
3. Clarity – what is the problem being solved?
   
   

1. Language 

AI is sometimes positioned as a silver bullet or a panacea, but that doesn’t make it real for end-users who aren’t clear about how it works or what problem it's solving. The word ‘artificial’ doesn’t evoke trust or security and has not changed since its inception in the 50s. There are many definitions as to what AI is, again confusing, and on top of that, there are subfields (machine learning and deep learning) often used in conjunction with AI which muddies the water even further.

AI washing in marketing

This isn't helped by the many products and services that claim to use AI but simply don't, a marketing practise known as ‘AI washing’. We see much of this kind of activity in FMCG, where a fast turnaround is often driven by ‘new and improved’ messaging in a bid to shift more products.

For example, in 2019, an ‘AI’ toothbrush was launched, claiming to track brushing and supply feedback, it was sold on the marvels of new AI tech. Does the brush decide the brushing technique based on what it has learned? No, it doesn’t. This type of activity can confuse consumers about the reality and capabilities of AI.

Marketers may be guilty of feeding the mistrust when they launch products that appear to be AI-enabled and future-forward, but which in reality are simply tech-enabled devices. Therefore, the power of language is important, and so is how brands use it to hit cues of connection and understanding with consumers. If we examine other categories, such as the car industry and self-driving cars, we can see genuine strives in the AI arena, where the tech is looking at and reading situations to make decisions. One of the big players in this sector is Tesla with its Autopilot technology.

Tesla’s use of ‘Autopilot’ is interesting. It’s a word we all feel familiar and even safe with (from our experience of flying), but in this context, Tesla cars always require a driver. Following well-documented Autopilot crashes, the need for clarity of information on what the tech actually does is more important than ever. The brand has been warned about this–a German court found that Tesla’s ad copy misled consumers and has banned the car company from using the terms, ‘full potential for autonomous driving’ and ‘Autopilot inclusive’, in its advertising materials.

In conclusion, the importance of clear language is paramount for safety and understanding because when consumers read about crashes and misinformation, this is when fear and distrust set in.

2. Perception: fear and distrust

A global survey by Statista revealed that only 23% of UK respondents said they trust AI. There are many reasons for this but some of the distrust is fuelled by what they read about AI and their perception of what it is doing or going to do.

People trust mainstream media to supply true and faithful narratives, it's where they often source their information as ‘fact’ and therefore it shapes their perception. But the Media is also guilty of sensationalism, so, while people are unsure about AI, they are acutely aware of when it goes wrong, with headlines such as Tesla’s driving-assisted cars involved in fatal accidents or a Microsoft chatbot spewing racism or smart speakers caught recording and analysing private conversations. All of which have a negative impact on trust.

AI has been the subject matter for many fantastical movies, which always seem to take a fatalistic POV, think about Terminator or Transcendence or AI, where the human is always being persecuted. In the real world, it also doesn’t help either when industry leaders such as Elon Musk, publicly fuel the misguided fear that AI will quickly evolve from being a benefit to human society to taking it over. He is quoted as saying, ‘mark my words… AI is far more dangerous than nukes’. The irony of the Tesla owner's remark hasn’t gone unnoticed.

There are some very cool and interesting developments in AI and its subfields, which are being undermined by the negative impact of sensational press stories and pop culture, which are shaping a skewed narrative that is damaging to both the perception and understanding of AI.  We need to challenge this by being clear about what it is, what it does and how it helps us... and we should celebrate those stories.

3. Clarity - what is the problem being solved?

Are humans being augmented or are they being replaced? There’s a big difference between the two. Given that AI is unproven as a replacement for people, we think it would be wiser in the near term to position AI as an aid rather than a replacement e.g., it’s about helping humans do something better.

Currently, there are too many unknowns, therefore defining a clear narrative on AI and the implications and limitations of adoption will increase the chance of success in the long term. We need to talk about AI as an aid, not as a decision-maker or as something that takes control away from us. We need to market AI as something that enhances our choices and decisions, this could help drive adoption and ultimately move us to a place where AI could become fully autonomous in a way that would be more acceptable to the masses. Marketing should focus on addressing the consumer pain points rather than the technology itself, such as ‘park assist’ – i.e., a useful tool for a specific problem.

Moving forward

To reposition AI, we need to rethink the terminology and how we talk about it to make it accessible and transparent. The solution pivots around a people-first approach to AI-enabled tech with a clearer definition of what it is and what it isn’t.

Let’s make it feel more real, not fantastical, it's about using smarter technology to speed things up, enhance performance, and drive better outcomes faster.

...

*Uptake in speaker ownership is 38% in the UK, up from 23% in 2018, citing the pandemic as a purchase driver. (UK Smart Speaker Consumer Adoption Report 2021 by VoiceBot, 2021)

John Galpin is a Co-Founder at Design by Structure.

This article was first published in Top Business Tech.

John Galpin

It’s been an incredible 12-18 months for the tech sector with exponential growth. The UK tech VC investment hit a record high of $15bn in 2020 despite the challenges of the pandemic, which has fast-tracked the uptake of tech in both our personal and professional lives – there’s an app for everything.  Its widely debated whether we have or have not entered a golden age of technology, many experts believe it is down to geographical innovation as to which point in the age individual nations are at. There’s no doubt however that technology is remaking the economy, its role during the pandemic is evidence of that.

Then, echoing our love for space in the 60s, there is the advancements of space tech and the space race 2.0 by a handful of billionaires who are looking to democratise space travel - within days of each other Bezos and Branson have both successfully gone into orbit this summer.

It appears that we are innovating and pushing the boundaries of what’s possible again. Like his tech peers, Elon Musk is also determined to buck the trend for zero innovation in space travel. He believes we need to act ‘with extreme urgency’ when it comes to innovating the sector.

While we laud techs 2020/21 success stories and live-stream the low orbit flights, when it comes to the developments in tech there is something else we are witnessing – the joy of failure.

In recent years, there has been a shift in mindset away from the harmful negative connotations of failure to something accepting and even celebratory. That's something worth discussing.

In Western Europe, people tended to find failure difficult to accept and even more so to share or talk about. Whereas in the US it’s a badge of honour -  it’s expected to have several failures before you make it – and people are more open about it. The idea of ‘move/fail fast and break things’ (devised by Zuckerberg) recognises that failure is also a part of the journey to success.

What we have witnessed is that 'failure' has been rebranded and repositioned.

The repositioning of failure

 "If things are not failing, you are not innovating.
Elon Musk

'Failure' has leagues of followers, fans, and devoted communities online, where people share their successes and failures with an equal sense of pride. Failing is about learning and moving on and then sharing those learnings so everyone can innovate, develop and grow. Space X’s Starship launch failures were live-streamed as the teams tested, learned and iterated as part of the innovation process. Musk understands the need to work at pace to maintain innovation, and that failing faster is better in the long game, better for the entrepreneurs and investors alike. Failure makes us ask, can it work, can it scale?

What’s this shift about?
Changes to the perception of failure:

1. The heroes of failure - the people who are prepared to fail.
2. Sharing failure - people who share failure.
3. ‘The mindset leveller’ - if you don't fail you don't learn.

1.The heroes of failure

If we look at some of our biggest tech success stories, we uncover heroes of failure. Tech titans such as Bill Gates, Jeff Bezos and Elon Musk are part of this positive shift in attitude to failure. They are on the record discussing the failures that helped them achieve greatness.

But the shift is bigger than just the big players, it’s embraced by the small and big players alike. Where did it start? This openness and sharing mindset is relatively new. In a post-WW2 world shrouded in secrecy, iron curtains and walls, the 90s generation wanted to open barriers and tear down borders in the interest of transparency and growth, which was expedited first by mobile phone technology and then the arrival of the internet.

The advent of social media in the 00s said sharing was good. And so, the heroes of failure were born and given a platform to tackle the negativity aimed at tech geeks and stargazers, who embraced the tech to share the failures and the journeys that allowed them to succeed. In a refreshing change, where once there were coverups, now failure is a TedTalk playlist.

But social isn’t just for the big players to discuss their failures. It’s where the nerds and geeks coalesced, and they brought tech failures to a whole new level – FailArmy has 15+M YouTube subscribers with a dedicated channel to tech fails.

‘When we are developing a new product or service or experimenting in some way,
and it doesn't work, that's okay. That's great failure.’
Jeff Bezos

2.Sharing the journey

Technology itself became the facilitator of failure shares. Sites such as YouTube allowed people to film themselves trying out home developed tech, which invariably leads to smashing, crashing, and blowing stuff up. Importantly, it has allowed communities to build a cultural movement of sharing the good, the bad and the ugly of innovation. The proliferation of new channels from 2005, Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, and Tik Tock etc., allowed these communities to reach and build new audiences, launching the ‘follower’ era –a thumbs up for failure.

Social media has created some tech failure stars, such as Simone Giertz who is famous for being the ‘Queen of Shitty Robots’. Giertz has a league of devoted fans and followers, has done TV appearances and has recently done a successful TedTalk about celebrating failure.

Similarly, there is a whole army of YouTubers and other channels following the innovation in the Space industry, with live streams of test flights, launch infrastructure construction and daily general progress updates. People delight in the crashes and burns (unmanned) as much as successful flights.

3.The shift in mindset

The adage, ‘if at first, you don’t succeed, try, try again’, couldn’t be truer in the sense that not everyone gets it right the first time. The difference is that you hear about this more now than ever before, and not in a derisory way, but because people recognise that it is part of the entrepreneurial journey - some ideas fly, others don’t. And there are many reasons why things don’t succeed – timing, being best not first, or not letting perfection be the enemy of progress and so on. For every success story, there are 80% of businesses that we never hear about and that fail in the first year. This is increasingly becoming the natural order of things. But the flip side is that it is better to try something and fail fast rather than continue blindly. The agility of fail-fast innovation, while counter-intuitive sounding, helps people find success. It’s also about knowing when to stop, Sir James Dyson’s ambition of building the next-gen electric car (with £2bn planned investment) bailed after £500 million because it wasn’t going to be ‘commercially viable’. However, from the ashes of his failure has risen advancements in car battery technology.

The combination of the heroes of failure and the openness and transparency of sharing their stories are behind the shift to accepting failure as part of the road to success. Seeing others, both big and small players from industry and back gardens alike, try and fail has opened the door for acceptance.

Conclusion

“It’s fine to celebrate success, but it is more important to heed the lessons of failure.”
Bill Gates

The three points discussed come back to one thing, Technology. It’s not failure that has changed, but how we perceive and respond to it which has. It is the normalcy and accepted expectations that a certain number of failures will take place before the eureka moment. The thing about tech is that sometimes it works, sometimes it doesn’t. And that’s fine.

In 2021, the open attitudes to how we achieved our success, built-in with an expectation of failure is simply refreshing. And when someone such as British-American entrepreneur, Astro Teller, talks about the joy of breaking things to foster an environment where it is safe to fail (X Laboratories (Google)), it helps to take the pressure off someone who is starting out with just an idea. Knowing that there are platforms where you can share and discuss your ideas safely without judgement is a support system for innovation, because if you are afraid to fail, you may not try anything at all. Imagine living in that world. The message here is that it’s better to have tried and failed than to have never tried at all–celebrate your triumphs and your failures.

John Galpin is a Co-Founder at Design by Structure.

This article was first published in Top Business Tech.

- Moving office during a pandemic - 

A Q&A with Nicole Clemens, CEO.

The lease on Structure's former office came up for renewal, this presented the perfect opportunity to review how we align a new space with the changing needs of the business and our clients.

Why a shared office space?
We knew we wanted to stay in Shoreditch and looked at different options, traditional and modern. Our new office (Fora in Shoreditch) provided the perfect combination of shared and private space. It is also located on Great Eastern Street, which is where our previous office was, so we thought it would provide some familiarity for the team and clients while providing the least amount of disruption for the move.

Why did you choose this space, what did you hope to gain?
The Fora building offers a variety of options and while the physical office space we occupy is much smaller than our previous one, access to the surrounding open spaces provides a superior offer to where we were.

The space enables our team greater flexibility, the freedom to choose an environment that is the most conducive to producing great work based on their needs – spaces to collaborate and connect, to work alone for deadline-driven tasks, spaces with open light and plants for tranquillity or inspiration, even outdoor areas for sunshine and a change of scene.

The terrace at Fora Shoreditch.

Through the move we were able to review current methodologies, we left our printer behind and moved to digital ways of working, how we review creative work for example.
We set the team free with their own laptops so they could enjoy and make the most of the space – while working with digital channels like Slack so we could still stay connected. We reviewed our archive and took the material that would continue to add the greatest value to the future of the business moving forward.

How did you make the office transition, were there any pitfalls?
We moved in March 2020, within weeks lockdown happened, with a directive from the Government to work from home. We were fortunate that we had already started to embrace different ways of working that could be adapted to working from home with the least amount of disruption to the team or our clients. The Fora team was also extremely proactive and implemented safety and social distancing procedures including hand washing and sanitising stands on reception, checking everyone’s temperature remotely on entering the building and capacity restrictions in certain areas.

What's your experience been – what have been the pros and cons of shared space?
We are still navigating how to get the most out of a shared office space. Having worked from home for the best part of a year we also wanted to connect with the team about what working in the future might look like. We conducted an internal survey to get a better sense of how many days a week the team would ideally want to come into an office space, was having a regular desk still important, what were the benefits of working from home and in an office space. We wanted to make the most of our lockdown experience, to build on positives and lessons we’ve learned as a business – the goal, to create a hybrid model that can make the most of each environment for our team to let them produce the best work possible for our clients.

The shared space certainly feels more like a community. A hive of people trying to grow their businesses, which seems especially important right now. We have shared office facilities – kitchens, dining spaces, breakout spaces and phone booths for quiet calls.  We are also fortunate enough to have a large terrace which runs the length of the building which means in the summer months we have the additional option of working outside, during a time where distancing remains important the ability to sit in the fresh air is a huge bonus.

We have embraced sitting next to (socially distanced) complete strangers in the communal office areas. It is actually interesting to speak to someone outside of your sector experience and get insight into how they work, it helps us to stay agile and continue to review our own approaches.

What have you learned from the move and the pandemic?
The new office space has made us completely rethink how we use and appreciate space and manage certain aspects of our business activities. It forced us to reinvent processes and become more digital as a team, to improve our green credentials in a meaningful way which is important to us as a business.

The pandemic has enabled us to become more agile, we don’t need to book large spaces for workshops we run these digitally with our client where traditional static material is now all on screen.

We are excited to get back into our space and reset as a business in this new hybrid model which will enable us to create a new working rhythm, so we can balance the benefits of working from home and working in an office for the team. We will continue to reassess our needs over the next year and look to conduct a new survey in 2022 so we can grow as a business and continue to create an environment that meets our evolving needs.

Moving into a shared space certainly changed things for our business for the better.

Design by Structure's new office life in Fora Shoreditch.

Content from this article was published as part of a Business Reporter special for The Economist.

A Q&A with Jesse Swash, Co-Founder.

Jesse Swash

What does the new normal mean for brands?

It's been a year of restrictions, lockdown, working from home.  As the world changes faster and faster, brands need to do more to keep up, to stay ahead, to survive and to succeed.

For brands, it's time to go faster.

It used to be 'survival of the fittest'. Then it was ‘too big to fail’. The new normal has put all that aside. The new rules are ‘survival of the fastest’.

Got a product. Still relatively new to the market, when is the next version going to be ready? Got a platform. When is the next update? Selling software, when is the next feature going to be added… And that’s just the product side.

You’ve built a brand. You’ve built a powerful proposition. You understand the competition. You’re on top of your routes to market. You get the channels. You know your customers. You’ve connected to your prospects - or so you thought.

Someone just hit the fast forward button. Be on the website all the time, not just one time. Build campaigns twice as fast. Send emails every other day, not just on Tuesdays. Be on LinkedIn all the time and Twitter even more if you can, and try out the new social platforms.  Because the competition got fiercer.

Technology allows you to be everywhere, wherever you are. Own a dance studio in Weybridge, you can sell classes in China. With technology, you simply ‘can’. Opportunity is all around. Technology can empower, unlock and unleash. But it can also take away, hide and remove. Overwhelm.

When it comes to your brand. The only way to succeed is to continue to re-invent, re-think and learn new techniques to reach the lifeblood of any business - your customers. Keep connected to them, listen to them. What are their needs and how does your brand meet those needs. You need to do this faster and faster and faster before your competition does.

In short, live in your brand. Update your messaging. Keep agile. Keep ahead and keep connected.

Because in this new age of ‘normal’ only the fastest will survive.

A Q&A with Jesse Swash, Co-Founder.

Jesse Swash

What is a digital brand in 2021?
A digital brand is one that lives and primarily functions on every screen you own from your monitor to your iPhone and everything in-between. What would we do without alerts on our iWatch?

In reality, almost every brand is a ’digital’ brand. What is different is how digital a brand is. This is, or should be, driven by the needs and demand drivers of the core users and target audiences.

After all, we’re all digital now.

A digital brand, like any well thought through brand, has to be standout and distinctive for the right reasons. Digital or not, the brands that succeed and survive are those that are sure of their purpose, of why they exist.

Solve a problem and you will always succeed.

A truly digital brand looks and thinks about everything it does through a digital lens, embracing digital channels and methodologies to communicate with and engage with its target audiences.

Succeed by being digital-first.

The great digital brands are at the forefront of transforming how we work and live. Their offer, driven by better UX and well thought through service lines, spread through organisations rapidly, changing the way companies behave and operate.

Join in or be left behind.

What are the current innovations in digital brands?
The innovation is where these brands are seen and found, in new channels, with new ways of reaching consumers and prospects with new forms of content and messaging.

Being new now is what matters.

The leading digital brands are driving profound behaviour change. We work, collaborate, and live online. We may be at multiple locations, but we’re increasingly accustomed to working together in this way.

Change is one step at a time.

The real innovations are only just starting. There is a tsunami of AI, AR, and VR developments just around the corner, waiting for us to accept the next stage of virtual connecting and working. Hold tight it’s almost here.

With the impact of COVID-19, what trends have you seen in digital brands?
We have seen huge shifts in the willingness to engage with people we have only ever met on digital channels. The power of the handshake has been replaced by a smile on a video call. We have quickly let go of the need to meet people physically to work with them.

Technology and access to digital brands is now seen as more than a necessity. It’s increasingly a fundamental part of our lives, delivering the tools we need to get on with our job.

Digital is now a must-have, a human right.

In the first two months of lockdown, we believe we saw two years of change. Businesses and organisations adapted to the new blended digital and physical normal to survive. This trend will continue beyond this moment. Who wants to go back to the daily commute?

What are the benefits and challenges of having a digital brand?
Digital brands and services can transform experiences. Just think of something as simple as booking a restaurant via an app, all from the comfort of your sofa. This is the benefit of convenience, something everyone likes and wants and possibly demands and craves.

This is never going away.

The ease of use comes with the requirement to log in or supply data. The data in turn gives brands the ability to target their audiences with pinpoint accuracy. This is the ability to create markets and segments of one.

Making everyone feel like a VIP.

Digital brands also have the power of agility and responsiveness. Be in total charge and control. But open that door and the energy and pace required to sustain the communications and reach is a full-time task.

The best digital brands employ Jeff Bezos’ ‘Day 1’ strategy to stay ahead. They behave like a start-up even when they are years old. Because the side effect is that new isn’t new for very long anymore and the disruptors are being disrupted faster than ever.

When it comes to digital brands what is the best strategy?
Digital brands, like all brands, need to respond to pain points and challenges that need solving. The best solve a problem for a poorly serviced audience who can and want to be reached in a new and meaningful way. Find a problem, show you understand it and deliver the digital solution.

Many of the brands we speak to have grown so fast, they have lost touch with what their customers need. For digital brands being ruthlessly user-centric is key. Do this by following the data and constantly trying and testing things to see what works. In the world of digital brands, the data never lies so take all the insights and use them to give yourself a competitive edge.

Money is a precious resource, but time is more valuable. Brands need to be effective in where and when they invest their time to get their biggest return. As digital channels grow, all brands need to be strategic in where they deploy their effort.

How can organisations get the most out of being digital?
For organisations to get the most out of digital they need to be truly immersed. The senior leadership team needs to get behind the digital strategy and be seen to be truly living it.

The best organisations encourage adoption and don’t force it. If everyone comes to it open-minded it always has a better chance to succeed.

Finally, embrace the idea that digital is a continual journey to improvement. Understand that it never stops, be open-minded and it will always be a success.

Author: Jesse Swash, Co-Founder Design by Structure

Jesse Swash

We are living through an extraordinary moment; it's been said so much this year. Years of change brought on in a matter of weeks: no time to catch your breath; continually on video; everything remote; everything in the cloud. It’s not a question of embracing it, it’s just the new reality.

How we work. How we communicate. How we meet. How we pitch. How we convert. How we deliver. How we grow. How we innovate. And crucially, how we (in business) survive.

If the past year has taught us anything, it’s this – if you weren’t already doing it – you must put the user, the client, and the customer right at the heart of everything you do. You need to continually drive better services. That means being brave enough to test, fail, and learning to improve all of the time.

This behaviour, attitude and way of being, is as relevant to the future of banking as it is to any and every other business that wants to survive and thrive. But what’s the point of simply surviving. In fact, it is the businesses that are built on these behaviours and cultures that are the new giants. The very companies we now rely on to exist in this new normal.

What if banks allowed themselves to adopt some of these agile SaaS tactics, allowed some of that energy, drive, and desire to create rich, useful and meaningful user experiences through their doors. Not all at once, obviously, but to start the process of change.

Granted, it's easy to say. Harder to do. And risky to get wrong. And if there’s one sector with a low appetite for risk, it’s this one. So where can banking brands access ideas, inspiration and parallels and also de-risk adoption?

Parallel lines. Parallel sectors. Learn from the successful. Those who are re-thinking the way they and their sectors behave. Look to the brands that have succeeded and prospered. Look at the mistake’s others have made along the way. Look at how they have transformed their industries and take, take, take and learn, learn, learn.

Like it or loathe it. Amazon sets the bar pretty high and is littered with clues. Start with its total clarity of purpose, of why it exists, an understanding that it exists to deliver. Whether it’s must-have items, groceries, information from the corner of your room with Alexa, movies on your TV with Prime, hosting the websites you surf on AWS, or cargo and trips to the moon with Blue Origin. It’s all about 'delivery'. Problem-solving of 'every day is the first day' despite being one of the largest companies in the world. With daily stand-ups. Problem-solving in agile blended teams. And mix in an obsession with making everything user-centric with the customers’ needs always first and the door is wide open to add services, dominate competitors, and to take market share.

Amazon - 'every day is the first day'

The path to change

Change offers opportunity. To reach more customers means more opportunities to sell. Asking more questions such as, what can we do better? means adding new services and product lines which in turn allows you to drive further sales loyalty and ultimately success. Those banks which re-think the right parts of their business and re-think their offers are the ones that will go further.

A recent client of ours, Mews, is a prime example of a business driving fundamental change in the hospitality sector. On the face of it revolutionising the sector with its technology. But actually, all driven by a deep-rooted desire to transform the guest experience for the better forever.

• Cloud-based. Tick.
• Easy to use for guests and hotel professionals alike. Tick.
• Solving a user problem, eliminating long check-in queues, allowing weary travellers to get to their rooms faster, adding buyable services at online check-in, and removing the check-in desk entirely allowing the owners, designers, and architects to make use of premium space in better ways. Tick.

What is the secret? It's a familiar tale. Behave as though every-day is ‘the first day’. Agile ways of working. Blended teams from inside the industry and outside solving the problems that matter. Technology deployed to service an enhanced customer experience, not the hotel’s business admin needs. The net result, staff who can focus on their guests who in turn spend more and enjoy more. Everyone’s a winner.

So, take these three simple methods and apply them to the banking sector:

1. Understand why you are different.
2. Find that energy and love of what you do to behave as though this is a great day,
   if not 'the first day'.
3. Make the customer experience remarkable and memorable.

And even if banking is essential it doesn’t have to be tedious. Keep your eyes open to parallel sectors for inspiration. Think about what can you learn from using Netflix or Spotify for example and apply ideas to your banking app?

These ideas will help your offer to be different. For the right reasons. Drawing insight from outside can help shift your thinking outside of the norm of your sector.

But. And it’s a big but. Do it slowly at first. Fools rush in. It takes time to change the direction and course of a super-tanker. But a series of small changes can make for huge changes over time. Take time to bring everyone with you. An aligned team enthused at the opportunity will go further than a half-committed reluctant group.

The upside is huge. Get started. The times they are a-changing… but at your pace.

This article is part of a series published in Global Banking and Finance Magazine.

Author: Jesse Swash, Co-Founder Design by Structure

Jesse Swash

The lessons for the future lie in the past. The same truths still hold. This time the story is the consumer, technology is the agent of change and the tale is the customer purchase journey.

The world keeps changing – we can’t change that. Online growth has accelerated, fast-tracked during the pandemic, and from now on only going to grow. Instore continues to shrink – no surprise there. But in truth, it was struggling before lockdown and is unlikely to recover to its hay day.

The truth is that customers are still shopping. The lesson is that how they shop and how they pay is and always has been changing. Learn that lesson. Be on the right side of change. That means embracing the change agent. Embracing the ‘change technology’ enables the way we all shop and, for the purpose of this story, pay.

Instore. Online. Omni-channel, multichannel or, blended. However, we want to describe it there are two key choices. Physical or virtual. Place your bets, allocate your resources, email with offers, entice in-store, catch your customers however you can. That race is on and has been for some time.

But there is another race happening too: behind the scenes; in the pocket; in the wallets and smartphones of your customers and prospects. This race is, with whom will they will pay?

For the customer, the method of payment is becoming increasingly important. There are traditional credit cards. There are the disruptors such as Revolut and Monzo. There are the new(ish) arrivals of PayPal, Apple Pay and Google, who in turn are being challenged by the even newer and free-thinking Klarna.

So, the big question is, as a payment brand how to make sure you’re chosen by and loved by consumers and which brands do retailers lean on and learn to embrace. Decisions. Decisions.

Payments as an industry continue to grow (global payments revenues totalled $1.9 trillion in 2018 alone (McKinsey)). A market that big, no wonder non-banks and non-traditional players are entering to grab their share. The opportunity to disrupt and carve out market share lies in joining the dots in the customer journey. It used to be a channel choice to connect to the retailer. Now it’s a channel choice to the retailer then a wallet choice at the terminal.

The ability of consumers to opt for a brand at the point-of-purchase, to pay with a brand they choose or even love, changes the connection to the bank or financial service provider in a way many fail to grasp. The ties that connect the customer to the brand and weaker and weaker.

The Retail Disconnect
So, imagine you’re at the checkout page or in the store at the till. For a bank or payment provider, its name on the screen or the payment terminal is the key point of connection with you, their shared customer.

Don’t assume you’ll be the chosen one. When the customer can choose the payment provider that offers the best vouchers and rewards, will they choose you? When they can simply wave their phone or ‘Smile-to-pay’, when they never see your logo or brand, how do you build that relationship that keeps them by your side?

The answer always lies in the lessons of the successful brands and businesses from the past and focussing on the customer needs. Stores used to make you queue. The agile and customer focussed introduced self-checkout. The free-thinking added roving assistants that come with their own till. And the really clever took advantage of online to shift or blend their offer and drive huge fortunes.

Now take an extra step, instore or onscreen, work hard to re-invent and re-position your brand so you’re on the terminal or by the confirm purchase button.  Think what message this sends the customer. We’ve thought of you. We’re on your side. We’re your friend. We’re changing to suit your needs. Choose us. Stay with us.

Becoming ‘The Chosen One’
Some brands will be leaders, some innovators, but not all will survive. They never do. But none of those that seek to succeed can afford to avoid the cracking landscape of payments that is happening within banking.

The winners in the transactional world of retail and consumption need to be customer-focused, more responsive, and deliver the services their customers actually want. This is always the start of our advice to every FinTech we work with and help.

Make sure what you offer keeps adapting. Make sure your offer is driven by customer demands. Be relevant. Keep up with Apple and Google. Have a view on Klarna. In short, make sure you’re the chosen one, however, your customers want to pay.

Because the lesson the past teaches us this time. Only the chosen will survive.

This article is part of a series published in Global Banking and Finance Magazine.

Author: Jesse Swash, Co-Founder Design by Structure

Jesse Swash

Challenges and challengers. There have always been pressures and change forced upon banking as an industry and retail banking specifically. In just the last few years think of the heavier financial regulation, government-backed customer switching and ever-diminishing customer-trust. Add to this the threats of new entrants from outside the sector, with giants such as Apple and Amazon dancing around banking services and the emergence of digital-first disruptors such as Monzo and Starling – the secure world of banking, is looking ever more vulnerable.

The disruptors are the change agents. With brand new business models that place customer experience and engagement at the core of their thinking, they are eroding the loyalty (the cornerstone of any bank’s ability to retain and charge its customers) customers felt to established banks.

Fortunately, or unfortunately, depending on where you stand, every SaaS success story has to have a loser too. And that SaaS success also tends to accelerate towards a point of no return, a tipping point where change moves out of the reach of an incumbent.

In banking it’s the ease-of-use where the transformation really lies. It’s no longer enough to have different kinds of accounts or interest rates and account charges. Now, sky-high consumer expectations built on experiences from other sectors are the driving change. Managing your money at your fingertips, facial recognition and payment without contact are just some of the new battlegrounds where damage is being inflicted.

It doesn’t stop there, traditional banks are being attacked from other angles too. Their very structure and set-up make it hard for them to compete with the agile service providers that are built around making life easier for consumers. There is concrete evidence of this change already happening. The ‘big five’s’ share of personal current accounts was 80% in 2016 and has dropped to 63% in 2019 (Centre for Economics and Business Research). Following decades of slow change, customers have voted with their accounts by switching to new banks that seem to better understand and serve their needs.

Taking all this into account, it is clear to everyone (who wants to see it) that the winners of the next round of banking will be those with services specifically around customer expectation and need. Now more than ever it is 'experience' that counts the most. It’s a harsh lesson that the retail and transport sectors have been forced to learn and the music industry before them. And as a sector which has a retail face, it’s something the established banks should embrace, quickly, genuinely and wholeheartedly if they are to continue and to prosper again.

But all is not lost and there is still much to play for. There are ways the banks can design and build their way to a more stable future. Here are the three pillars of experience as we see it.

Experience counts - listen and learn from the legendary.
Transforming an industry means collaborating with experienced people who understand and have a deep-rooted passion for the opportunity in the sector.

Disruptors will always come to market with newness and energy as their currency. They can see an industry differently and do things in a newer and sometimes better and more agile way. But even they can’t do it alone. The legendary innovators, from Gates to Jobs all surrounded themselves with people who had talents they could absorb and learn from, that would help them not to just continue to ‘think different’ but also to continue delivering and growing and building. This works both ways. The established players can just as easily listen and learn. The shortcut is advice.

Experience counts - borrow great ideas from other sectors.
The second lesson is to take and adapt the best customer experiences from other sectors and replicate their successes in your sector.

If you’re in ‘retail banking’ bring ideas and innovations from successful retailers, digital and physical to your operation. Why not be the first to have an advisory ‘style council’ like
Mr Porter or the stylist experience at Selfridges but for your banking needs. Or an Apple Genius Bar, which provides concierge-style support for Apple customers if you still have to have branches. Put the customer experience at the core of your business activity and their success can be yours too if you’re open to it.

Experience counts – live in data, it never lies.
Banks sit on a vast vault of customer spending data. What does it tell you, what can you learn, what can you do better?

Banks can leverage that data to make more informed decisions to build better experiences and products for their customers. Look at rewards programmes run by retailers with the vast amounts of product consumption data, which is used to provide seasonal rewards or preferred brand vouchers. So, have an idea, a theory, build the test, try it. Trust in the data. It will tell you what to do, what colour to change the button too, which page needs the most work on your new website. Success comes from hard work, analysis, and lots more hard work. But with data on your side, it will work.

Show them you know them.
So, how do you bring all these elements and ideas together to create a better experience for your customers, which keeps you in the game? It all distils to the same idea. Show your customers that you know them. Show your customers that you understand them. And most importantly, treat them as if they are your most important possession.

Experience counts. Experience and expertise will take you far. Learn from the legends of your industry and the SaaS successes around you. Learn how they are shaping customer expectations and experiences. And learn from what you already know, the data you have within your organisation.

Harness all these elements in the right way and you can win the experience battle. Because for your future to be a success, experience counts in large amounts.

This article is part of a series published in Global Banking and Finance Magazine.

Author: Jesse Swash, Co-Founder Design by Structure

Jesse Swash

In the time of great change we’re living through, this ‘new normal’, where every service we used to visit physically can now be accessed with a swipe, a tap, a click or smile, it’s easy to think that something as established as banking could and should have changed far more than it already has.

Yes, there has been change but as with much of the disruption around us, whether food delivery or taxi-hailing, the reality is that the future of banking will still be banking. What will be different is it will not be banking as we know it and it will not be with who we thought it would be with. All the angles and services, where we borrow money from, where we deposit it, whom we pay via, and transact with are all areas ripe for change.

The very concept of banking, at its most basic, a safe place to hold your hard-earned cash and a means by which to make financial transactions, feels like it’s been around largely unchanged for an extremely long time. In reality, there has always been ‘change’ as people moved cash from their pay packet into bank accounts and on to cash machines and credit cards. Banks rode these kinds of change well, it suited them as they still had a grip on the source and the distribution. They grew into big companies and became significant, trusted brands, a dependable cornerstone of modern society.

In this way, technology has been a friend to these landmarks of our high street. But this time technology and its disruptive twin, customer experience, are back and this time it’s different. This time change is going further and right to the core.

The cracks in the foundations.
Disruptor brands have been picking away at the foundations of the commercial offers to customers, carving out successful niches with narrow service offers on our screens and our phones. This is what the first stage of disruption looks like, a niche player like Monzo promising to not just look after your money but also to ‘make life easier’. And it works. The millennials voted with their feet, well with their smartphones, with 4,544,716 of them (to date) signing up. Think early Virgin Atlantic, Tesla with only the model S, or even earlier Apple with a shiny new iPhone but no app store and you can see the parallels. Now comes the flood.

The difference this time around with this second wave is how we, as consumers, want to engage with and ‘consume’ the products the banks offer. Digital transformation of the existing banks up until now has been about replicating a service in a new channel. This time the driver is in rethinking the service offer completely. The winners in this space are B2C brands like Monzo, Atom, and Starling. B2B brands like iBanFirst and HiPay are already starting the process, fulfilling customer needs with new innovative products and service offers and ever more meaningful and user experience led ways that make the incumbents look like, well just that, incumbents.

Multiple choice.
Now for the future-gazing. What comes next is a seemingly sudden shift, that in reality has been seeded by the change in other industries, away from the idea of your financial needs and products all in one place, delivered by just one or two banks or building societies. Let’s call this the multiple-choice phase. It’s an important moment. The next generation has been conditioned to want more, better, faster and easier in all their services. Money is no different. It’s their money and they want to access it and use it in ways that suit them. And worryingly for the banks, they don’t care where they get it from and they’re happy to have it stored in multiple places. If you’re shaking your head, just remind yourself that a TV from John Lewis and a TV from Amazon is the same, but one is cheaper and will be delivered faster. And we all know who is winning that battle.

Once the idea of having some money here, some money there or an investment here and an investment there takes hold, the doors are open for new entrants to arrive and offer alternative destinations. At this point, we pass a tipping point where new feels exciting, and it gets harder for the established brands to respond.

New entrants, old friends.
Next to go are the sector lines. Businesses you already know and trust start to dip their toes into finance and payment with new products and offers, building on the loyalty their customers feel to them. It’s already started to happen, our friend or foe (depending on how you see it) Amazon has launched its credit card with rewards and benefits for use on its retail platform, and tech giant Apple’s card is expected to launch in the UK this year with a promise to re-think how we use credit cards. And we haven’t even brought up Google, Tesla, or even Nike. All these brands approach this market in the same way they transformed how we use and engage with their products. The effect of their presence will be profound, fundamentally changing the way we interact, think about, and access and use our money. The not so secret ingredients are trust, loyalty, and creating that feeling of belonging to a better tribe. Mixed and served correctly they will go a long, long way. For Apple, it’s even created the world’s most valuable company.

The smart money won’t be betting on the incumbents to win this competition. After all, how can you compete with an offer that doesn’t look or behave anything like yours? This won’t be a level playing field.

Power to the people
The final shift is in the power of the customer. This is where the acceleration happens. Once the idea of security and trust in established banking names is gone. Once the drivers are firmly established as a convenience, ease of use, and expectations around experience – ‘If I have a good experience financing my car, why not get a home loan from the same company?’ Once it’s clear that what matters is the quality of the product and the ease of experience in usage the doors are wide open. And once the doors are open and the reviews, posts, and ‘refer a friend’ tactics kick in, it’s very hard to see how anyone can compete with that...

After all, you can bet that the Apple credit card won’t be posted in a letter with a glue dab, that with a swipe or a smile you’ll be able to do things banks haven’t even thought of and that it will lead to multiple additional services with rewards and offers the established players can’t get close to.

Out-thought, out-imagined, and outmanoeuvred. That is what this change looks like.

All change
So, where does that leave banking? It will be a fragmented arena with accelerated change with the winners pivoting toward rich, meaningful customer experiences. Competitors are not likely to be traditional institutions, but brands from other sectors, such as retail, with a vested interest in owning consumer financial transactions. We are already seeing global giants, such as Amazon, making inroads into finance. It is comfortably fully immersing itself in people’s lives – shopping, home entertainment – and now the means of payment. With an experienced toe in the water, the opportunity to offer more financial products is an easy transition and an open invitation for others to follow.

Banking brands will have to raise their game and fight to remain relevant when customer loyalty is eroded, rich user experience is rewarded, and innovation and new service offers are expected. In times of great change, only the bold survive. The evidence of what can happen if incumbents don’t respond fast enough is all around us and the competition is experienced and motivated.

The future of banking will be banking, but not as we know it now and unless the established act quickly, not with who we use now.

This article is part of a series published in Global Banking and Finance Magazine.

–The new health chatbot, which puts people at its heart–

A new healthtech chatbot, Ask Ave, has been making a meaningful impact during the pandemic. While it was originally created to assist those with Cancer and their families, due to its flexible design it has been adapted quickly for use to tackle people’s concerns about Covid 19.

The health chatbot, which puts people at its heart, has played a huge role in NHS Scotland, supporting over 110,000 Covid-19 messages from concerned people during its soft launch alone.

Connecting during Covid
The power of talking is encouraged, especially right now during Covid-times. However, for some people, talking face-to-face or over the phone about illness can be difficult. Not only in terms of discussing their symptoms but getting the words out to describe how they feel. It’s about Human Equity, connecting with people is part of being human, but so too is the need to help those people who can’t.  It was on this basis that a new piece of health tech has been created and built– a platform that breaks down the barriers by allowing anonymity.

The chatbot has been so successful in engaging with those that would otherwise not want to discuss the situation that it is now being rolled out to deal with Flu immunisation and vaccine queries on the NHS Inform platform in Scotland.

The tech has revealed some interesting successes. It has been able to extend its reach to those that the NHS has struggled to engage with previously  These are people who are often usually lost in the system or would not engage and they are now better informed and able to protect themselves by simply have the ability to ask questions on their terms day or night.

Speaking about the new application Avril Chester said, ‘We’re so pleased that we’ve been able to support our NHS colleagues at this difficult time, using concepts from our cancer chatbot to help people affected by Covid-19. Working with our technical partner Amido we have applied our joint learnings from working with Cancer Central and NHS Inform to drive growth, efficiency and innovation to Ask Ave to provide  people with a new way to quickly access reliable medical information.’

Rooted in support
Ask Ave is the brainchild of Avril Chester, who founded Cancer Central in 2018 following her battle with the disease. Avril noted the disparate channels to find support for practical issues and services such as local societies or taxi hire to deeply personal ones such as financial, hats or wigs. She founded Cancer Central, which won the Digital Leaders HealthTech innovation ward 2019, as a ‘cominovation’ platform: a hub where community and innovation gather to help cancer patients and their carer’s. To support this initiative, Ask Ave was created as a conversational search – a virtual assistant, which learns as it interacts with people.

Founder Chester said, ‘At conception stage of Cancer Central we ran a ‘hackathon’ with lots of bright minds in the technology industry asking: where shall we start and how best do we achieve the vision? A number of teams recommended to build a solution with a conversational search as people wish to ask questions during a time of need – the Cancer Central chatbot Ask Ave was born.

 Why Ask Ave? Ave is my nickname. I still feel very uncomfortable naming our chatbot after myself, but my board and advisory panel encouraged me to do so.’

Ask Ave is launching in December 2020 under its own brand which was created by Design By Structure. The agency was briefed to evolve the brand’s visual identity, modernising its aesthetic, making the logo so it’s more readable. Provide a clear proposition/ high level messaging so that people can understand what the service is about and an endorsement mechanic, ‘powered by’ lockup when it is licensed to a 3^rd party. The chatbot was created with pro-bono support, engineered by Amido, hosted by Microsoft, and supported with SMS texts by Twilio.

This story first appeared in Health Tech World.