Making personal investment something for the masses

Selftrade, an online shares and trading engine owned by Boursorama, were looking to widen their service and product offer from share dealing into more general financial savings and investments products. They wanted to create a new point of difference that would help attract less trading savvy customers, into what was becoming an increasingly generic, and stagnant market. With over 250,000 online customers and over £400,000,000 in deposit, the business was doing well and had established a trusted and respected position in the market. Future growth however would not come from the existing customer base. It would come from attracting a new type of customer.

Finding the perfect balance

In widening their offer Selftrade ran the risk of losing their traditional audience; the assured investor that used their products and platform to simply trade shares. Dragon Rouge developed a positioning built around the idea of ‘financial mastery’. The idea that whatever your starting point, knowledge or confidence, Selftrade could help you learn more about investments and take greater control of your finances and future prosperity. The ‘mastery’ positioning appealed to those keen to learn and those who considered themselves as confident investors. The financial mastery idea also helped us reposition Selftrade as being in the business of ‘personal prosperity’, empowering new customers to do more with their money. 

Making an impact in investments

The repositioning was followed by an intense period of employee and team engagement in order to prepare and prime the business for rollout. The new brand positioning, and site design launched in December 2009 and within six months of the launch Selftrade has recruited an additional 20,000 new customers through both their SIPP and General insurance products. The conversion of these new customers into core trading business was one in four, marking a significant rise in new business. Over the following two-year period we have continued to work with the Selftrade board of directors and marketing team to build a clear and distinctive brand positioning, identity and new product pipeline.