The word ‘fintech’ may have been around since the early 90s, but in many ways the fintech revolution is only just hitting its stride. Financial services, for so long controlled by big banks and even bigger barriers to entry, are experiencing disruption and progress at an unprecedented pace.

There’s been an acceleration in digital innovation and a proliferation in the number of products coming to market, B2B and B2C, and that has led to complexity and confusion. But whether you’re a retiree looking to invest savings or a CFO who needs a pension plan for hundreds of employees, it shouldn’t be that difficult, or dull.

At the moment, there’s a lack of clarity at all levels of the financial food chain. As a result, we have a complicated landscape that many people find unclear and overwhelming. A CEO won’t necessarily have deep-dived into every product on the market, so selling can be a difficult, complex process. A brand strategy that offers clarity where there’s confusion and reassurance where there’s scepticism can help overcome these obstacles.

Part of the problem is that there’s so much out there, so disrupters need brand strategies that separate them out from the competition. But another part of the problem is that these products are so often marketed in a traditional, dry, corporate and tech-first way.

Why not replace stills of city skylines and boardroom scenes with engaging podcasts and grabby graphics? Or complex corporate prose, designed to demonstrate ‘expertise’, with content that does what it says on the tin?

To cut through and connect with the people that matter, a financial service’s brand strategy should put humans at the heart of things and create an emotive bridge between person and product.

But financial services providers are struggling with this. Whether it’s start-ups or legacy brands. Whether it’s B2B or B2C. Wherever it is in the world. Too many are focusing on product features, not enough on how they make people’s lives better.

It’s important because brands have mere seconds to make themselves known and loved, which is why businesses need the right brand strategy to take them from pre-awareness to adoption and then loyalty by conveying benefit through storytelling. People don’t want to spend hours, days and weeks fretting over making the right decision.

Look at 11:FS, which created Mettle for NatWest and is behind user journeys for the likes of Monzo and Barclays. It sells ‘digital FS without the BS’, and it talks to a business audience about a very complex portfolio of niche products. It could rely on corporate-style comms, but instead it uses video, graphics, podcasts and events to demystify and make itself 100% approachable. There’s nothing intimidating about the methodology – everyone is invited to get excited and energised by the offer.

There’s sound thinking behind these more illuminating and multi-faceted tactics. A straight, fact-based approach to communications employs the language-processing and comprehension parts of the brain. But when we’re engaged more creatively, our neural activity increases fivefold, pulling in our emotion- and image-processing centres, too. All that good stuff helps with cut-through and with ensuring that your message is received, understood and, most importantly, acted upon.

The key is to focus on delivery as well as content. So often, the passion and creativity that is invested in research and development doesn’t make it as far as the final, outward push. There’s no hook, build and pay-off. Scant attention is paid to scene-setting and context, to holding the potential consumer’s attention.

Payment systems platform i2C is another good example of a business that cuts through complexity to offer simple solutions for businesses wanting to keep up with rapidly evolving payment processes. The brand strategy presents i2C as a safe pair of hands in a changing environment, reassuring its customers that they won’t get left behind when it comes to innovation and technology evolution. Most of all, it’s easy. People are reassured that they’ll have control, that everything can be adapted to suit their needs. And there’s ‘no coding required’.

What these two operators have done is put sentient people firmly in their crosshairs. Rather than focus solely on product, the brand strategies and design solutions in both cases communicate safety, speed, clarity and simplicity – and they make an emotional connection. They’re aiming for that ‘ah, I get it’ moment in the mind of the potential consumer.

By taking a more progressive, human-centric approach, financial service providers can stand out from the crowd, fully engage with target consumers and make a more potent impact. Without it, they risk disappearing into a sea of corporate jargon. Simply put, strategic-led brand design has the power to clarify how financial services can make life better.