Larsen, who founded Larsen Energy Branding, told Utility Week: “Today we have, for example, the service brand, the low cost brand, the green brand and the local brand. There is an opening in the market for some abstract terms like fun, exciting etc.”
He added: “When the market was newly liberalised it was easy to stand out from the big six by just being new to the market. Now the big six have started to become more brand-oriented.
“Green was once an abstract term before renewable energy was branded as green, and now there is an opportunity for brands to be open to some creative thinking.”
Remaining positive for the future of energy companies as brands, Larsen reminds supplier’s that great brands own a set of feelings in the minds of consumers. He highlighted that people “display their personalities with the phones they own”, but that “you don‘t see many people define themselves as an Npower person rather than an Ovo person yet”.
In February, branding expert at strategic brand agency Tribe, Chris Duffey, urged energy brands to listen to consumers and “shake the negative cloud”.