As we roll out our new consumer brand MoneyHelper, chief marketing officer Paul Taylor shares the background on the brand, and how to get ready for the change.

In March, I was delighted to take part in a webinar outlining the new MaPS consumer brand strategy. At the heart of this was our plan for a single consumer destination to drive financial wellbeing in the UK – MoneyHelper. 

Since then, we have been busily preparing to begin the brand rollout, and this week launched the MoneyHelper Beta website. As we proceed towards the full launch, I wanted to provide a bit more background on MoneyHelper and the journey to this point. 

Why change brand? 

The Money and Pensions Service (MaPS) was created in 2018 to bring together the three organisations of the Money Advice Service, The Pensions Advisory Service and Pension Wise and provide one destination for people to find and access our services. 

Since then, MaPS has acted as our corporate brand – it’s how we speak with our employees, partners and stakeholders – and the three legacy organisations have continued to act as three distinct consumer-facing brands. 

We know that in an already confusing landscape, MaPS having three distinct consumer brands doesn’t provide the seamless offering consumers want and need to help them make the most of their money and pensions. We therefore set out a clear ambition to improve how we present ourselves and our services to consumers. 

In short, we want to make it easier for more people to find, navigate and use the vital services we provide. 

Why a single brand? 

We undertook extensive consumer research to explore the different brand options and architectures available to us. This research concluded that the most effective way of bringing our services together was under a new, single consumer brand.  

Consolidating our three brands into one offers a number of benefits.  

Better consumer experience 

One destination makes it easier for consumers to access, navigate and move seamlessly between our services, allowing us to provide more holistic guidance under a simplified offering. MoneyHelper will provide an all-encompassing source of information and guidance that can be easily found in one place. 

Easier for our partners 

A single consumer brand gives us a simpler narrative and single destination, making it easier for the many partners we work with to signpost their audiences to our services – be they employees, residents or consumers. 

Greater efficiency 

Currently all three legacy brands operate different websites, brands and printed materials. Moving forwards we will be able to reduce duplication in our content, simplify our offering and build greater awareness of our services under MoneyHelper. 

Why MoneyHelper? 

 

We do this directly through MoneyHelper and by pointing people to partner services. 

Knowing the number of partners we work with and consumers we help, we didn’t take this decision lightly. Through our research we tested a multitude of different brands along the way. 

In research, we evaluated the different brand options through the mind’s eye of our consumers. Through three rounds of research, we spoke to around 80 consumers, examining the level of: 

• understanding about the brand, what it offered and the useful guidance they receive 
• assurance on how the brand understood and empathised with their situation 
• confidence that the brand provided expert and relevant information to them 
• certainty that the brand would provide support and help, to help themselves 

We tested the brands across the UK, with a variety of consumers from different backgrounds and age ranges. Across all this testing, MoneyHelper was the only brand that was universally well received – perceived as knowledgeable, personable and welcoming while offering a name that’s specific and straightforward to understand. 

What have we done?

In the process of bringing the three consumer websites into one MoneyHelper website, we’ve reviewed, updated, user tested and developed a range of online money guidance, including:

• 1300 new webpages
• 35 tools
• 300 blogs
• 45 videos
• 146 documents
• 45 templates.

What happens next?

The MoneyHelper website is now live in Beta form – an important step that means we can continue testing and gathering vital feedback ahead of the full launch. Once we have completed this next stage and are confident MoneyHelper is ready and fit-for-purpose to serve our customers, we will proceed to the full launch. For this, we have a working date of 30 June 2021.

To help our stakeholders and partners prepare, we launched a toolkit with all the MoneyHelper information and assets needed to both make the necessary changes and help us communicate the new brand further.  

We look forward to working with you all to ensure MoneyHelper’s success in helping everyone to make the most of their money and pensions. 

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Find out more about MoneyHelper, including the brand toolkit, at www.maps.org.uk/moneyhelper.
Explore the Beta website at www.moneyhelper.org.uk