March 19, 2026
Are You Speaking to Your Customers or Past Them?
The words a brand chooses to describe its products say as much about its assumptions as they do about the products themselves. Those assumptions may be badly misaligned for financial companies, according to new research from Reach3 Insights, which finds that 58% of consumers aged 18 to 34 say financial brand language does not reflect how they actually think or talk about money.
The study found that 42% of respondents consider the language used by financial companies out of step with their everyday reality, while 30% say it sounds aimed at an older generation. Many described financial messaging as overly technical and disconnected from the tools and platforms they actually use to manage their finances day to day.
Money as an App
Younger consumers do not think about money the way financial institutions have traditionally organised it. When asked where their money “lives,” respondents most often pointed to checking or savings accounts (41%) or specific apps, like banking or payment platforms (24%), rather than to financial institutions as entities. A large portion of this age group experiences money through interfaces and transactions, not through a relationship with a brand or institution.
What they want, above all else, are tools they can trust and put to use, and that preference extends to the messaging around those tools, too.
Leigh Admirand, Executive Vice President at Reach3 Insights, said: “For many younger consumers, money shows up through apps, transactions and everyday financial decisions rather than formal categories like banking or payments. When messaging relies heavily on institutional language, brands risk not resonating with younger consumers.”
What Drives Their Financial Decisions
Despite the communication disconnect, the study found that decision-making criteria among 18 to 34-year-olds are practical and consistent. Low fees or competitive rates came first, cited by 37% of respondents, followed by security and fraud protection (34%) and brand reputation and trust (31%). Transparency and clarity of terms ranked at 24%, while the ability to manage finances from a phone was cited by 23%.
Respondents clearly value reliability and transparency, yet do not respond to the vocabulary traditionally used to communicate those very qualities. The priorities are there, it is the vocabulary around them that fails to connect.
Younger consumers prefer the communication on their own terms because when it misses the mark, they disengage quickly, and hard to earn back.
After all, it could be a much deeper issue than a messaging tweak. The language problem shows a serious misalignment between how institutions describe their products and how customers under 35 experience financial life. The starting point for how brands listen to and learn from this demographic needs to change as well.
