How trust is won and lost in financial technology
The brief
A creative agency was building a global campaign for one of the world’s leading banks, showing how it uses digital technology to make banking simpler, better and faster. The campaign rested on trust, so the research had to be academically robust: what it takes to build trust, keep it and break it, and how technology can earn it. We ran the China part of the global study.
Why it was hard
Trust is abstract, and people answer abstract questions with hypotheticals. Two recruitment problems made it harder. First, the study needed “tech-savvy” consumers, a term everyone uses and nobody defines. Second, it needed people who use only one financial product, rare in China, where most people spread their money across several for security and convenience.
How we did it
An online survey through a partner panel mapped the drivers of and barriers to trust in technology. We then interviewed experts, in sessions of up to two hours, including fintech specialists and academics, and held an analysis session to turn their views into the questions we would put to consumers. The experts also showed us where China differs from the rest of the world.
Next came an online community of consumers and SME owners. Instead of asking about trust in the abstract, we set tasks that grounded it in their own lives: who they trust and why, how trust works with technology products, how they see banks as gatekeepers for new technology, and where technology and trust are heading.
We solved the recruitment problems with the client. We defined tech-savvy as people already using cutting-edge products such as drones and robot cleaners. For single-product users, we turned to articulate older consumers with a good grasp of technology, who still tend to keep to one bank and one product.
What the client got
A robust view of trust in China, with consumer case studies and expert opinion that brought the campaign to life for several audiences.
What it shows
We can deliver the China part of a global study to the same standard as the rest, solve the recruitment problems on the way, and add the local nuance a global view misses.
Services: online research · in-depth interviews · quantitative fieldwork
