THE CO-OPERATIVE - THE TALE OF THE UNDERDOG

In our last blog, we looked at the achievements of Costa Enterprises and saw just how a former ‘competitor brand’ used customer research to become the UK’s best selling coffee brand.

Costa boosted its market presence from beginning as an underdog in its sector. We are now beginning to hear of similar growth from the Co-operative Bank who has recently bought buy 632 Lloyds TSB and Cheltenham and Gloucester branches.

According to the Guardian, the bank’s numbers grew from about 340 to almost 1000 – about 10% of the UK’s branch network. This move will significantly boost the bank’s share of the current account market from 2% to 7% – totalling to about 11 million customers.

Like Costa, the Co-op Bank also appears to achieving in customer service: both Which? and JD Power ranked the bank second; it was also voted the best current account provider by Money Supermarket in 2011.

This growth comes as a reward for the bank that stuck to its guns – refusing to invest in companies participating in the arms trade, animal testing, climate change and sweated labour. Sticking to their ethical policy has caused the bank to withhold over 1.2 billion of funding to unethical business activities.

Peter Marks, group chief executive of the bank’s owner The Co-operative Group told Marketing Week that the growth of a “member-owned, customer-led, ethically-driven” bank provides consumers with an alternative to the small number of high-street banks that dominate the market share.

The Co-op has shown that companies need not necessarily re-brand or even change their function to grow with in their market.

At Thread we know that brands must persevere to grow from a small name to a trusted public brand. But, we have all the expertise to help the underdog unveil its true potential in no time at all.

We can help reposition your brand so that the aims of your business can be more focused, we can also assist in plotting out the future of your company, so you can be assured that your brand will grow.

Our award-winning service has been achieved through more than 25 years experience and through our method of learning the function of each brand inside and out.

So if you would like advice on aspect of branding, why not give us a call today on 0207 226 0099, or contact us to find out more.