How to build a brand

Wise

Wise is a financial technology company that enables seamless international money transfers, with a focus on transparency, low fees, and real exchange rates. It offers a borderless, multi-currency account, allowing individuals and businesses to hold and exchange multiple currencies globally.

Product/Service

International multi-currency money transfers

Industry

Finance (FinTech)

Financing

Public

Sales

N/A

Revenue

$850M

Challenge

Target

Wise primarily targets individuals and businesses that frequently engage in international transactions. This includes expats, freelancers, digital nomads, small businesses, and enterprises seeking cost-efficient, transparent, and fast solutions for sending money globally.

The Idea

The idea behind Wise is to create a transparent, low-cost alternative to traditional banks for international money transfers. By offering real-time exchange rates with no hidden fees, Wise aims to simplify cross-border payments and make global banking accessible to everyone.

Strategy

Product Offerings

Wise offers a streamlined, cost-effective platform for international money transfers. They also provide multi-currency accounts, debit cards, and tools for businesses to manage international payments. Wise emphasizes transparency, aiming to remove hidden fees and simplify the global banking process for everyone.

Brand Messaging

Wise’s messaging focuses on transparency, efficiency, and fairness. It highlights their commitment to providing real exchange rates, low fees, and a user-friendly experience for anyone who needs to send or receive money globally.

Visual Identity

Wise’s visual identity is sleek, modern, and professional, utilizing a bright green on a dark green color palette, with white accents where necessary. The design emphasizes trust, transparency, and simplicity, reflecting the company’s approach to making financial transactions more accessible and efficient.

Social Media

Wise maintains an active presence on social media platforms like Twitter, Instagram, and LinkedIn under the handle @Wise. Their content includes updates on product features, educational posts on international money transfers, customer success stories, and global financial trends.

Marketing

Wise’s marketing strategy is focused on building trust through transparency and customer satisfaction. It leverages digital channels and content marketing to educate users about the benefits of using Wise for international transfers over traditional banking methods.

This strategy revolves around four key pillars: Transparency and Low Fees, Customer Education, Global Accessibility, and Word of Mouth. These pillars have helped Wise carve out a unique space in the financial technology industry, resonating with customers who value transparency, and affordability.

Social Media

Instagram

330K

TikTok

15K

Facebook

718K

Twitter (X)

164K

YouTube

55K

LinkedIn

385K

Transparency in fees and rates

Wise prides itself on providing customers with real exchange rates and no hidden fees. Their marketing consistently emphasizes the idea of fairness and honesty in international transfers, setting them apart from traditional financial institutions.

Customer empowerment through education

Wise invests heavily in educating its users about how international transfers work. Through blogs, videos, and FAQs, they demystify the process of sending money abroad, highlighting how users can save on fees and exchange rates.

Global accessibility and inclusivity

Wise’s campaigns focus on how their services make global banking accessible to everyone, from individuals to small businesses. They position themselves as a financial ally for freelancers, remote workers, and global citizens.

Word-of-mouth and customer advocacy

Wise encourages customer advocacy through referral programs and testimonials. Many of their marketing initiatives revolve around word-of-mouth, using real customer experiences to showcase their value proposition.

Website

Wise’s website is designed to minimize friction in the user experience, allowing users to quickly compare transfer fees, sign up for services, and access multi-currency tools. Like girlfriend.com wise has a very high-impact domain (wise.com), which is consistently used across most of their social media as @wise.

The clean interface reflects the company’s commitment to transparency, with upfront costs displayed clearly and no hidden details. The consistency of their branding across their domain name and social handles helps strengthen their presence globally.

Brand Profile GPT

The Brand Profile Creator is a public GPT i created that lets you generate brand summaries in the same format I use in my How to Build a Brand series. Simply input a Brand Name and you’ll get a professional, well-structured summary that consistently returns the required data.