Corporate brand image of financial institutions: a consumer approach

In the banking sector, the importance of consumer's perceptions for business success has been underestimated. For this reason, the present work aims to focus on the corporate brand image construct, analysing how the associations of financial brands are generated and the way such associations influence consumer behaviour.

A model is proposed that shows which are the main antecedents and consequences of corporate image of financial institutions. This model was validated through structural equation modelling. Data were collected by means of personal questionnaires addressed to 450 respondents.

Results indicate that consumer perceptions depend on brand familiarity, non‐firm communications and, to a lesser extent, on advertising. The resulting image will be an antecedent of the global attitude to the firm and, directly and indirectly, of the intention to use the branded service.

This study has been aimed at consumers in a specific region of Spain. Moreover, it only analyses well‐known institutions and the most important variables. For this reason, it would be interesting to broaden the analysis to cover different contexts.

Both corporate image and familiarity can be developed by applying thoughtful communication strategies that neutralize the effect of negative non‐firm information. Companies that develop a powerful corporate image should be more appealing to customers.

This study validates a comprehensive model that explains both the antecedents and consequences of corporate image of banks. It also proposes an up‐to‐date corporate image scale and considers the effects of firm versus non‐firm communications.