Monzo: A Bank For Humans.
Even if you’re not familiar with the challenger bank, you’ll have likely seen their hot coral cards in the hands of busy commuters. Such is the strength of the Monzo brand if you Google the word ‘hot coral’ the first result you’ll get for the color is an article on the now infamous payment card.
Their neon card matters, because it’s a marker of the brand's approach to bringing a human touch to the world of banking.
Our new tube ads are up in London! 👀 pic.twitter.com/1WQaQ0EUoP
— Monzo (@monzo) October 22, 2018
Back in the early days of Mondo, the bank's original name at launch in 2015, hot coral wasn’t on the product roadmap - it was a prototype, a beta card for their first round of customers. Speaking to Wired magazine, then Head of Design, Hugo Cornejo, says; ‘we mostly wanted it so when we went to a restaurant or something, people would ask about the card… then when we realized people really liked it, we kept it.”
And that’s been the whole gig from Monzo, involving their community in everything from branding ideas and tone of voice, to product offers and owning a slice of the business through crowdfunding.
Monzo first set the Fintech world alight waaay back in the good old days of 2016 , inviting investment from their community and raising £1m in just 96 seconds. To date the unicorn has raised £20m from 36,006 community investors and now has a valuation of $4.5 billion, which is nothing short of staggering in just seven years.
Though Monzo has stiff competition in London, home to 37 of the ‘Fintech 50’, Monzo is streaks ahead when it comes to brand mentions and positive sentiment. In a nutshell, when you can own it, you talk about it, when you talk about it, you invite others into it.
It’s simple human dynamics. It works.
And it’s clearly an inspiration to the bigger brands, with occasionally embarrassing results.
With brand guardians like Harry Ashbridge, Monzo’s Head of Writing & Customer Experience, standing guard, you’ll find the human touch that customers experience extends through the business - we’re talking mental health advice adorning the walls, meeting rooms with great stories to tell, excellent employee reviews, three month paid sabbaticals for staff with four years service, and an avalanche of internal merch.
It even extends to Monzo’s approach to ‘Ts&Cs’ (or T&C, but never T&Cs - according to the brand), accepting that people tend to overlook them. At the last count Monzo’s Ts&Cs clock in at around 4,000 words, compared with the average of 20,000 wheeled out by their industry peers.
Monzo shows up like a stick of rock, you can break it anywhere and the message is the same.
Which makes it more than a bank, it’s a collaboration. It’s a masterclass in testing, learning, and building the product people want instead of the one you think they need. We love that, and that’s why Monzo wears the crown, our #BrandIcon for March ‘22.
*Even negative consumer feedback is positive consumer feedback.
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