Corporate Brand Positioning on the Homepages of American Investment Banks: A Critical Assessment

Abstract

Purpose – B2B branding has become evermore important in the online environment during the 21st century. However, there has not been unified normative guidelines for brand positioning best practices. This critical assessment aims to provide a coherent and exploratory study of the leading brand research within the homepage realm. Methodology – The research is based on the content analysis and binary coding of the five major American investment banks’ homepages. Normative guidelines for brand positioning were developed based on extensive literature review. Customer benefits were identified for the comparison of B2B points-of-parity and points-of-differentiation. Findings – The research findings suggest that the American investment banks have very similar positioning and a lack of differentiation. Two of the banks focused on emphasizing Reputation and three of the banks Sustainability. Most banks provided medium level of additional information on customer benefits and some possibilities to search for more information. One of the banks did not provide any evidence for their customer benefits, which was a significant weakness in points-of-parity compared to the competition. These B2B companies should provide even more central focus on the actual customer needs. Limitations – The research is focused on a specific sector in financial services, which can entail a risk for the generalizability of the results to other B2B sectors. Application of the Normative guidelines by future research to other B2B industries would be pivotal for developing this research stream. Managerial Implications – Business practitioners should be more cognizant of the Normative guidelines for brand positioning and align their brands towards central customer benefits. Creating a strong brand differentiation is something that should be focused more on, as the points-of-parity seem to dominate in the American investment banking industry.