Expert UK Insight Agency

Financial Services Market Research

The financial services sector is one of the most competitive, fast-moving and highly regulated in the world, and success requires more than a market-leading product. It demands trust, relevance and a seamless end-to-end customer experience, all built on genuine customer understanding.

Financial Services Market Research?

What Is Financial Services Market Research?

Financial services market research includes qualitative, quantitative, behavioural, and neuroscience methods to provide clear, evidence-based insight that supports strategic decision-making across brands, products, customers, competitors, communications, and experiences.

Brandspeak partners with UK and international financial services organisations across B2B and B2C markets, bringing specialist expertise across retail and commercial banking, fintech and challenger banks, investment and asset management, insurance and protection, commercial lending, payments, and accountancy and tax advisory.

The Benefits of Financial Services Market Research

Financial services market research gives you the clarity and evidence needed to make confident decisions that will:

Maximise Brand Potential

Maximise Brand Potential

In a crowded sector where many brands look and sound alike, mental availability is critical to growth. Brandspeak uncovers the insights needed to build brand relevance, differentiation - and recall.

Derisk New Product Development

Derisk New Product Development

New propositions and market entry always carry risk. The right insights, delivered at the right time, reduce risk, prevent costly missteps and maximise commercial potential.

Optimise Sales And Marketing Effectiveness

Optimise Sales And Marketing Effectiveness

If you don’t know who your priority audiences are, or how to target them, you could be wasting a significant proportion of your marketing budget. Research identifies who to target, how to target them and what to say to maximise return.

Deliver Sector-Leading Experiences

Deliver Sector-Leading Experiences

Even the strongest proposition can be undermined if the customer experience introduces friction at key touchpoints. Research identifies where the experience needs to work harder, and how to fix it.

Brandspeak’s Financial Services Research Methods

No two financial services research projects are the same, which is why we design every programme from the ground up. We blend proven and advanced research techniques to uncover what customers feel, think and do.

Workshopping and Co-creation

Workshopping and Co-creation

A collaborative forum bringing customers and internal stakeholders together to stress-test existing propositions and co-create new products, journeys or communications.

Secondary Research & Market Intelligence

Secondary Research & Market Intelligence

Track regulatory change, competitor activity and category trends across banking, insurance, investment and fintech using desk research.

Ethnography & Observational Research

Ethnography & Observational Research

Observe real financial decisions and money management as they happen, uncovering the anxieties and trade-offs customers rarely raise unprompted.

Focus Groups & Depth Interviews

Focus Groups & Depth Interviews

Explore how customers think and feel about money, risk and trust, in rich qualitative detail.

Statistical Modelling & Data Analytics

Statistical Modelling & Data Analytics

Turn transaction, survey and behavioural data into clear insight, revealing what really drives product choice, switching and loyalty.

Online Communities

Online Communities

Gather deeper insight over several days as customers complete tasks and discussions around real financial decisions and products.

Brandspeak’s Financial Services Market Research Services

The following are the project types most frequently commissioned by our financial services clients:

Rather than just monitoring your brand in isolation, our market-leading GrowthTrack solution identifies and measures all the factors that determine brand health and commercial performance across key touchpoints. It also quantifies where the biggest opportunities for brand growth exist.

We analyse how your brand, products, and customer experience compare to competitors to identify where you are winning, where you are exposed, and where the next opportunity lies.

We use a range of customer segmentation techniques to divide your customer base into smaller, targetable segments, each with distinct characteristics and personas that bring them to life for internal stakeholders. A segmentation model will tell you who to target, how and with what.

Whether launching a current account, insurance solution, or investment product, our research will first identify the target customer, their needs, expectations and behaviours, before establishing the optimal proposition to address them. We then test that proposition's appeal against competitor offerings to determine its overall commercial potential.

We evaluate creative at any stage, from early idea through to final execution, to ensure it cuts through, lands your message and will have commercial impact.

Our research identifiea the strength of the creative (clarity, relevance, recall), what drives or limits its effectiveness, how it performs versus competitors and its commercial potential.

The outcome? Confidence that your campaign will meet marketing and commercial objectives before you invest media spend.

How to Get Your Insights

As a full service market research agency we support research in 40+ global markets, working with native-speaking moderators and trusted in-market partners to ensure cultural accuracy and insight quality. Wherever your audience is, we can reach them and deliver insight that drives better decisions.

Step One

Fill in the form and click submit.

Step Two

Our team will contact you within 24 hours.

Step Three

We learn about your needs and goals and how to achieve them.

Upload a Briefing Document or RFP

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Frequently Asked Questions

Find answers to common questions about our financial services research.

We work across retail and commercial banking, fintech, insurance, investment management, payments and more.
Yes — our GrowthTrack solution provides continuous brand health and commercial performance monitoring.
Yes — focus groups, depth interviews and ethnography are all available for consumer and B2B audiences.
Yes — we deliver research across 40+ global markets.

Brandspeak in Numbers

As one of the UK's most experienced market research agencies, Brandspeak brings scale, consistency, and depth to every project.

3,000+

Focus Groups

25

Years

750+

Quantitative Studies

40

International Markets

1 Million+

Survey Participants

45

Languages Covered in Global Research

5,000+

Depth Interviews

Association for Qualitative Research (AQR)MRS Evidence Matters

Brandspeak is proud to be a member of both The Association for Qualitative Research (AQR) and The Market Research Society (MRS) — demonstrating our commitment to quality, ethical practice and industry-leading research standards.

Brandspeak Blogs

Read the latest trends, insights and best practices from the world of Market Research. Choose a topic below to read more.

Client Feedback

Lauren Williams

We worked with Brandspeak on a brand awareness project and we were extremely pleased with the quality of service and the process. They understood the complexity of the briefs and asked plenty of questions to make sure they fully understand the objectives. They interacted with all levels of people in our business and understood the differences within the market and suggested ways to tie the research together so it was still comparable. The results were delivered with easy to digest summaries that could be used across the business. We would highly recommend using them.

Lauren Williams

Sarah Twist – Marketing Manager

Very informative, easy to work with and a really friendly team. I would recommend Brandspeak to help any business grow. They are great quality for money, help niche sectors and present their findings in an understanding manner. They have provided a brand review, market review post-covid to ensure we are still up to date, along with two very valuable website reviews. Working with them for qualitative and quantities research has a been fantastic for us. Thank you for all your help!

Sarah Twist – Marketing Manager

Zanya Fahy

It's been an absolute pleasure to work with Brandspeak on our qualitative assessment of different ads across 5 EU markets. Throughout this project, Brandspeak have been expert, professional and so flexible with our requirements and timings. The research analysis that they provided us with was extremely valuable and insightful. I look forward to working with them again – highly recommend!

Zanya Fahy

Georgie Burks, Brand Marketing Lead

Great service from Brandspeak – highly recommend for thoughtful and detailed brand measurement and tracking.

Georgie Burks, Brand Marketing Lead

Brandspeak have been fantastic to work with. They are a very professional agency who really understand the importance of quality research. Their team were very responsive, knowledgeable and easy to work with and provided us with excellent insights.

Mark Wilson

Animal Friends Insurance

We wanted to understand how elements of our brand were perceived by consumers and identify opportunities where we could make improvements. Brandspeak clearly understood the brief and worked closely with us to develop a research approach that would answer our questions. The insight has been used to inform the development of our creative and also applied to other areas of our marketing communications. It was a pleasure to work with Brandspeak.

Strategy & Insight Manager | Animal Friends Insurance

Tönnjes

Brandspeak helped us with getting invaluable market insights! They showed great flexibility and professionalism throughout the entire process and provided us exactly with the results we needed. I would recommend working with Brandspeak to anyone and anytime.

Tom Suberg

From the moment I contacted Brandspeak I can't thank Jeremy and his team enough. Offering a professional approach they took the time and effort to make the whole process easy and effortless. I highly recommend Brandspeak and look forward to working with them again in the future.

Verity Kimber

From their initial proposal they displayed an understanding of financial services and a clarity of thinking that made them stand out. Since then they have consistently delivered to demanding timescales. But what really sets them apart are their actionable and business focused recommendations which give them the credibility to influence senior internal stakeholders. I have really enjoyed working with them and look forward to doing so again.

Leading life and pensions provider

It is always a pleasure – and a relief! – to work with researchers who get the whole thing – effortlessly... a heartfelt thanks.

DLKW

Work with Brandspeak

With offices in London, Bristol, and Birmingham – and partners across the world – we provide global reach with local expertise. Our team is ready to discuss your business challenge and show you what's possible with the right insights.

Get in Touch

London

+44 (0) 203 858 0052

1st Floor, 239 Kensington High St, London W8 6SN

Bristol

+44 (0) 1174 07 0187

2430 / 2440 The Quadrant, Aztec W, Bristol BS32 4AQ

Birmingham

+44 (0) 121 314 4647

The Lewis Building, Bull St, Birmingham B4 6AF