Profinans
Making the
professional more
personal
Profinans, a small Oslo based company specializing in loan and insurance for housing associations, had a base of very satisfied clients. They just needed more of them.
In recent years, their competitors have made some significant investments to attract clients, and Profinans needed to step up their game to stay relevant and continue to challenge the big guys. To improve efficiency in their daily routines and communication in all channels, Profinans approached Int, ready to do some changes that turned out quite comprehensive.
Before we create, we must understand
The first step in developing solution for Profinans, was to understand their business, their market, and their customers. The insights from this process become the foundation for developing the new brand and its applications. We analyzed Profinans’ strategy and vision, internal values, goals, target audience, marketing, competitors, the current identity and tone of voice, as well as the online and social presence.
Their competitors are huge, well known, companies using their long experiences as a big part of their communication.
The starting point. All their communication had a very generic feel to it, making it difficult for Profinans to differentiate and to obtain a position in the market.
Getting to know Profinans
Together with Profinans we did several workshops and a SWOT analysis, mapping out their strengths and weaknesses, opportunities and threats, combining our research, interviews with their customers and, internal surveys.
Profinans operates in a market where price usually is the driver of of communication although this is only one of the factors for selecting a vendor. Our analysis shows that customers are looking for trustworthy, efficient and flexible vendors. As a small, niche player Profinans scored high on all of these as well offering excellent and personal service, but they where not able to efficiently convey this message to the market. In other words, Profinans have the opportunity to offer a unique customer experience because of their small size combined with their expertise in the area, and this was something we wanted to convey to new customers.
Delivering on the promise
We start by sketching directions based on the strategic foundation, a direction is set, and the work of making the brand comes to life through development of crucial brand applications. The new logo gives a stronger, more trustworthy impression than the previous logo. The plus sign tells the customers what business Profinans is in, as well as it conveys their positive attitude. The colors are communicating a proactive company, ready to challenge all the big blue finance players.
For the first phase of the website we did a full redesign, both interaction and content, to ensure the identity, the tone of voice and imagery matched all other channels and applications. Furthermore, we helped Profinans plan and prioritize the next phases in the continuous development of the site, based on how their business would grow in size, markets and complexity (with features such as digital help desks, ticketing systems, CRM integration and fully digitizing their applications and approval process using bank id verification). We also made sure the site was optimised for search engines and developed a strategy for search engine marketing.
As a centerpiece for the website, we made a detailed illustration of a house filled with insurance and loan incidents in the different apartments. Together with the caption, it tells the chairman that it’s difficult to have control over everything and that you should get help to find the best solutions for loans and insurance. Because the illustration is build up from rooms and scenarios that easily can be disconnected from each other, it’s very flexible regarding different use and media. The colors are true to the business category, but simultaneously playful, conveying Profinans’ values as positive and proactive.
Profinans’ previous photography was characterized by poor stock photography and mobile photos of the employees. We got photographer Sigrid Bjorbekkmo to capture some nice shots of the employees, to communicate a small, professional and personal company.
We created a set of friendly icons that are used throughout all channels, and communicate everything from the different insurance areas to description the housing associations.
To make their offer more professional and inviting, we made a folder for documents and business card. The logo is embossed in the front page to keep a clean look, while the plus sign is cut from the corners for a more playful touch.
The insurance business and bank business are associated with complex documents, which most people wish they didn’t have to read. For many, the documents can seem intimidating. As the target group is ordinary people doing this in their valuable spare time, we made the documents more available and user-friendly. Profinans’ new documents have more of an inviting approachare more inviting, making the content
We designed new content to emphasize that this is not an ordinary insurance, but developed with housing associations needs in mind, and that the offer is tailored to you and your association. It consists of friendly icons, photos, statistics and fun facts about the association and its neighborhood.
Profinans told us that they often have to send the signing papers in return to their customers, as they are not signed on all the necessary pages. As the pages to sign are from external sources, we were not allowed to redesign these. Instead, we made a new front page with emphasized tasks in the body text, a checklist, and stamps to show where in the document signatures is required.
Lars Etternavn
CEO, Profinans
“There has been a big change in the attitude and self esteem of the company and employees. We are proud and secure of what we present and sell. Our new process is also more efficient and fluid. The feedback we have received from our partners and customer has been great. Clients tell us that we’re in the forefront of our competitors, and I’m pretty sure we've got customers we would not get without the job Int. has done for us.”
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