EXCLUSIVE: 'You Want To Create More Brand Ambassadors, Not Less' — How Employees And Customers Can 'Build Durable Fintech Brands That Last'

Building trust and reputation for brands can take years. This was the common thrust from representatives from trading-focused tools and platforms who spoke about “Building Durable Fintech Brands That Last” at the 2022 Benzinga Global Fintech Deal Day.

Concerns Facing Brands: Despite being around for 10 years, TradingView faced a challenge with its reputation not being established.

“A lot of the challenge has been making TradingView a household name,” TradingView General Manager Pierce Crosby said.

Crosby said it was a significant issue getting the brand into the hands of investors and something like that takes time.

“You can’t fast track it, you can’t ramp it up inorganically,” he said.

Stocktwits CEO Rishi Khanna echoed the statements about reputation and building trust took a long time.

Tips for Growing and Protecting Brands: Interactive Brokers Group, Inc. IBKR Executive Vice President of Marketing and Product Development Steve Sanders said his company used competitive advantages to build out the brand.

“I think it’s most important to know who your target audience is and what they want,” Sanders said.

Being consistent and predictable could help build trust, Sterling Trading Tech CEO Jen Nayar added.

“Another important part of owning your brand is own it when it goes wrong,” Nayar said.

Nayar said another important part of a company is the culture: “Every member of your team is a brand ambassador.”

Nayar added that it was important to poll users and ask for feedback before they used their feet to do the feedback and leave.

Khanna agreed with the brand ambassador sentiment and said it was important to build strong employee culture for when people left the company so they could still support or talk positively about it.

“You want to create more brand ambassadors, not less,” Khanna said.

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Making Things Right With Customers: Khanna said the low-hanging fruit right now is not committing fraud, likely in reference to the bankruptcy of FTX.

Stocktwits was a partner with FTX and helped drive new accounts to the cryptocurrency exchange.

Khanna said Stocktwits made the decision to make all users whole and work with legal to pay out losses suffered from the collapse of FTX to anyone who created accounts through the Stocktwits partnership.

Crosby said it’s important to show how you respond during times of crisis.

“If you have a bad customer interaction, no matter how small, it can kill your reputation,” Crosby said.

TradingView reversed course in recent years to offer refunds to customers after previously providing a bit of back and forth with customers, Crosby added.

As an investment platform where users can have losses, Sanders said Interactive Brokers tries to have a balance.

“Lots of people take losses and they’re angry, but can’t just refund everyone or you’d be out of money,” Sanders said.

The Impact of Meme Stocks, Retail Traders: A trending topic over the last few years was the rise of the retail trader and the role that meme stocks such as GameStop Corp GME and AMC Entertainment Holdings Inc AMC may have played in this.

Khanna said there had been a rise in influencers in the fintwit world, which could be a double-edged sword as they were paid to promote brands.

Sanders said Interactive Brokers leaned more into tools and education during the growth of retail traders.

“It wasn’t something we pushed, other brokers may have pushed,” Sanders said of meme stocks.

Crosby said using moments such as meme stocks can be important to raise brand awareness, but cautioned getting too deeply involved.

“There’s a lot of risks in these manias,” Crosby said.

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Photo: Joseph Parks for Benzinga