The story

John Lewis Money exists to take the hard work out of everyday finance, with thoughtfully-designed financial products co-created with carefully selected partners. Think: All the expertise, honesty and warmth you expect from a John Lewis shop assistant, applied to the financial products that keep our lives running smoothly. 

Drawing on John Lewis Partnership’s deep understanding of their customers’ real lives, and their laser focus on making money easier and simpler, we created a tone of voice defined as Warm & Simple. Warm meant empathic, inclusive, human and generous. Simple meant full clarity, ease, energy and taking a stand against small print. This was not a high concept tone of voice, but one that engaged then got out of the way, letting products built for real life shine through.  

With the Warm & Simple tone of voice as our guide, we created the core copy, key messages, product descriptors and campaign language that would form the building blocks for any writing for the brand, online, on social, in print and in comms. We also evolved the brand name from John Lewis Finance to John Lewis Money. A set of simple, repeatable phrases gave it ownability and personality, without shouting or fuss: ‘Think outside the bank’, ‘Money, the John Lewis way’ ‘Help with the big money moments’, ‘Yes, we do pet insurance too’, ‘Not just the travel snacks, but holiday money too’.  

The new tone of voice landed alongside a bright, energised and engaging new visual identity created by Harry Pearce’s team at Pentagram. Together the brand delivers a clear, engaging, cohesive and refreshingly straightforward experience for customers across all channels and platforms. Human-centric photography and copy put customers as the centre of the brand, showing that this is finance that fits around you. 

Partnered on: Naming, verbal identity, core brand language. 

Collaborated with: Harry Pearce’s team and the Brand Narrative team at Pentagram, Ashley Johnson, Hyo Lee, Tiffany Fenner and Ishaan PamnanI.