If you can’t view the YouTube video, you can read the entire transcript here.

Quite simply, your brand is your reputation. It represents people’s gut feelings about your organization. Everything you do and say influences how people think about you, both positively and negatively.

Consumers are exposed to an average of 3,500 brands every day, including yours. We live in a brand saturated world. That’s why it’s so important for your brand to stand out.

This article © 2012 by The Financial Brand and may not be reproduced.

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When Australian banking giant Westpac took over the Bank of Melbourne, they did what many banks do: They kept the old brand in place for a few years before replacing it with their own brand. But Westpac is doing something almost no one ever does: A mere seven years after pulling the plug on Bank of Melbourne, Westpac reversed course and reintroduced the regional brand.

Christopher Stewart founded Bank of Melbourne in 1989. Stewart sold out to Westpac back in 1997 in a deal worth $1.4 billion. Westpac kept the brand alive for seven years, but in 2004, decided to slowly phase out the Bank of Melbourne out over a two-year period, replacing it instead with another brand in the Westpac portfolio.

Back then, Stewart said, “It’s a pity the name has to go, but I think it was inevitable.”

Today, Mr. Stewart is probably quietly smiling to himself. The “one, big national brand” strategy didn’t work so well for Westpac, or so it would seem based on their turnaround.

Reality Check: Sometimes the brand that gets acquired in a merger is stronger than the one initiating the takeover. That’s how Bank of America came to be.

Admitting Mistakes Were Made

Bank of Melbourne CEO Scott Tanner said market research had revealed “deep affection” for the brand Westpac dumped in 2004.

Work on relaunching the Bank of Melbourne began in 2009. That means it didn’t take Westpac more than five years to realize its mistake.

Michael Hughes, Director of Brand Strategy with Truly Deeply describes Westpac’s move to kill the popular Melbourne regional subbrand as “one of the worst brand architecture decisions in the industry.”

“This highlights an issue that often occurs in M&As where short-term cost savings drive decisions rather than considering the real impact of forcing brands to merge,” Hughes wrote on his company blog.

“You have to wonder whether they did a proper analysis of their brand architecture and had a real understanding of the value of each of their brands in the portfolio,” Hughes continued.

“But after so long, bringing the Bank of Melbourne brand back is a big gamble,” Hughes cautioned.

Nevertheless, Westpac will be spending $90 million reintroducing the Bank of Melbourne.

Westpac says it’s “serious about providing a truly local alternative” to Australia’s four biggest banks (NAB, Commonwealth, ANZ and somewhat ironically, Westpac).

Westpac hopes the resurrected Bank of Melbourne brand will gain 9% of the lending market in Victoria. Ironically, this is just short of the old brand’s share before it was retired.

City of Melbourne vs. Bank of Melbourne

Designworks, the agency behind the relaunched Bank of Melbourne brand, says Westpac’s strategy called for “a bank focused on what regional customers value, a bank built and designed by Melbournians for Melbournians… with products and services tailored to the people of Melbourne and Victoria.”

Victoria, where Bank of Melbourne is based, is the second most populous state in Australia. 75% of Victorians live in Melbourne, the state capital and largest city.

Bank of Melbourne aims to exploit “a super local preference.”

Perhaps that helps explain why the bank’s identity draws on the back of the City of Melbourne’s own brand. There look-and-feel for the Bank of Melbourne clearly borrows shades and flavors from its namesake city’s image.

“It seems to take a conservative cue from the excellent Melbourne City identity created by Landor a year or so ago,” noted Demi Hawkins, Creative Director at Carnival Studio.

It’s a bit unusual — perhaps even controversial — for one agency to lean so heavily on another agency’s design.

Designworks obliquely acknowledges the city of Melbourne as a source of inspiration. “The shapes reflect the architecture of Melbourne — the Arts Centre and Federation Square,” the agency says on its website. “They also symbolize the elements that together make Melbourne great.”

For as ultra-local as Bank of Melbourne aspires to be, much of the copy in the new brand’s marketing materials has the familiar, bankerspeak phrases. For instance, the TV launch commercial makes implausible promises about the bank’s empathetic abilities:

“Your beginning will be our beginning. Your thrills will be our thrills. Your priorities will be our priorities. Your win will be our win. So make your bank your bank.”

Go ahead, it’s okay to roll your eyes. As hard as they are trying to say the bank is “your local friend who knows and cares about you,”  the hollow pandering just undermines the effort. It’s the kind of saccharine white noise people tune out when watching TV.

Key Questions: Couldn’t just about any bank say what Bank of Melbourne is saying in its marketing materials? What makes the messages unique to them? How do the messages reflect or support a hyper-local strategy?

Hughes at Truly Deeply is also worried the bank’s brand is too generic. “The launch campaign promises ‘mutual prosperity,’” he says. “It doesn’t really differentiate other than show plenty of clichéd shots of Melbourne.”

BANK OF MELBOURNE – YOUR BEGINNING IS OUR BEGINNING
A 30-second TV commercial used to relaunch the Bank of Melbourne brand.

This article © 2012 by The Financial Brand and may not be reproduced.

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First Cherokee State Bank, like many retail financial institutions, is worried about its future. The banking industry in Georgia, where First Cherokee is based, was hit hard by fallout from the financial meltdown, with 57 bank closures between 2008 and 2011 — more than any other state in the U.S.

As a modest community bank with only three branches, First Cherokee wondered how they could survive in a such highly commoditized industry, one where giants reign supreme. Is the traditional branch model outmoded? What will financial services look like 5-10 years down the road? How can the organization radically reposition its brand and change consumer perceptions, but without all the turmoil involved with renaming?

First Cherokee’s answer: Acru, the bank’s new sub-brand created around its wealth-management division, described as “a revolutionary new retail concept where wealth strategists give away financial wisdom at no charge.”

It’s not the café inside Acru’s prototype location that makes First Cherokee’s strategy so noteworthy. Nor the absence of tellers. There’s no cash, no transactions, and not customer service desks. Nay. What is interesting about First Cherokee’s approach is that the bank plans to grow into the Acru brand over time. They plan to patiently, methodically increase Acru’s visibility and expand its focus beyond its wealth-management beginnings. Meanwhile, the First Cherokee State brand will edge quietly towards retirement.

THE STORY OF ACRU BY FIRST CHEROKEE STATE BANK

The interior of the initial Acru location looks and feels like a classy cigar and wine bar. Indeed the space is two bars. Situated in the front half of the store is the Wisdom Bar, home to Acru’s wealth management advisors. The second half of the location is a full-service retail coffee bar. The location boasts free WiFi, an open community meeting space and a conference room available to anyone who makes a reservation.

“The design evolved from a low-barrier interaction environment — similar to the Apple Genius Bar — to a more intimate setting akin to the comforts of home,” said Matt Hames, CEO/Acru.

“Our community space design is intended to be as comfortable as your own living room — great coffee included,” it says on the Acru website. “We want you to come in and stay for a while.”

The team at Cherokee State/Acru created their own Copper Coin Coffee brand for the Acru café experience. Ten percent of coffee operation’s gross revenues are put towards philanthropic community projects.

The coffee bar is open from 6:30 am to 11 pm, seven days a week. Wealth management advisors are available Monday through Friday, 9 am to 5 pm.

“Everything Acru does starts with a conversation,” bank spokesman Rob Kremer explained. “We believe coffee houses facilitate conversation.”

“The goal at Acru is to remove the transactional element from financial services and create a more interactive, relational environment,” added Hames.

Financial Quarterbacks & Switch Teams

Acru is staffed by five “Wealth Strategists” who use a CRM solution from Salesforce to manage customer relationships.

“Our job is to ask questions, shut up and listen,” Hames said. “Listening is the most important part.”

Each Acru representative serves as a single point of contact for clients, offering them a plan with a 360-degree holistic view. A Wealth Strategist will manage a client’s entire portfolio of financial needs, regardless of their socioeconomic status.

Hames likens the role to that of a “financial quarterback.”

“Acru helps people and businesses with anything related to their money, including banking, investments, insurance, tax and estate planning, regardless of their net worth, beginning with the area of greatest need as agreed upon by the client and Wealth Strategist,” Kremer explained.

“Acru’s front line employees — the Wealth Strategists — do not sell anything,” Kremer added.

“Our wealth strategists are free from having to sell products and push transactions,” Hames said. “Rather, their sole focus is to provide clarity and wisdom across multiple disciplines utilizing specialists that will best serve the client’s needs.”

Acru also has “Subject Matter Experts” who can provide detailed expertise in specific areas. Kremer said Subject Matter Experts are “brought to the table to deliver products when a need has been identified by the Wealth Strategist and/or consumer.”

Adding to the Acru difference are the services of the Switch Team, a team dedicated to handling the logistical and administrative nightmare associated with switching banks. They handle all the details, including moving online banking and bill pay relationships. This is offered as a free service.

“Our Switch Team takes the pain out of moving checking accounts,” Hames promised.

First Cherokee knew it wanted a radical new retail concept to reinvent itself, but couldn’t see how remodeling its existing three locations would have much impact. Everyone in the community knew First Cherokee was a bank, and management didn’t feel a new coat of paint would change that.

“We believe it’s impossible to create something truly new and different by redecorating something old,” Kremer said. “The bank’s brand is one that is known for offering a commodity like all other banks with locations designed for transactions.”

“To expect the Acru brand promise to be effectively delivered through the banks physical locations and current brand position in the marketplace did not seem reasonable to us,” Hames said.

They also didn’t think people weren’t likely to come into a coffee-style retail environment simply to have a conversation about checking accounts. Investments, insurance, trusts…? Yes, perhaps. But basic banking? Probably not. So they looked outward for inspiration.

In creating a new experience, First Cherokee studied the latest ideas within the industry, as well as service leaders in venues such as boutique coffee shops, the Apple Store and the Ritz-Carlton.

The Acru prototype incorporates shades and flavors of things seen previously in the financial industry, including Umpqua’s community branch locations, ING DIRECT’s cafes and UNCB’s failed attempt at creating a coffeehouse brand. In fact, First Cherokee executives including CEO Hames spent a couple days visiting with Umpqua Bank’s team in Portland, Oregon.

To assist with the design and development of Acru, First Cherokee partnered with the branding experts at Leader Enterprises, and ai3, an architectural firm based in Atlanta.

“We looked at it like a hospitality project,” a spokesperson with ai3 said. “There is nothing in there that says ‘bank.’”

First Cherokee feels its Acru retail space is the model for the future of financial services. “Acru provides product-agnostic wisdom at no charge from a trusted, single advisor and team of experts to clarify your financial life today and help you prepare for tomorrow,” Hames explained.

“Acru is how we believe the next generation of community based financial services should look and feel to the local community,” he continued. “A trusted advisor that, in addition to First Cherokee State’s banking products and services, also offers single source access to Investment, insurance, tax and estate planning.

“This is what community banking needs to be,” Hames added. “We have to do this to not only survive, but thrive.”

This article © 2012 by The Financial Brand and may not be reproduced.

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Back in July 2010, Metro Bank opened its doors in the UK to much fanfare. It was the first new bank to grace London’s fabled high street financial market in over 150 years. As a scrappy new contender, Metro was looking to shake things up. Media outlets in the UK heaped coverage on the startup promising to ignite a “banking revolution.”

Metro Bank’s strategy? To “surprise and delight every customer” and “eliminate stupid bank rules.” They promise to stand out from their stuffy competitors by providing “unparalleled service, convenience and value for money.”

Among the many ways in which Metro differentiates itself, the bank hands out free lollipops to kids. There are dog treats, and bowls of water placed out for the four-legged friends Metro welcomes into its branches (what Metro prefers to call “stores”). The bank boasts instant account opening, with debit and credit cards issued on the spot. They have a 24/7 telephone call center where a human voice will always answer, never a machine. The bank only closes four days a year, and is open 76 hours every week: 8 to 8 Monday through Friday, 8 to 6 Saturday, and 11 to 5 Sunday. They also have a free coin counting machine open to the general public, not just customers.

Vernon Hill, Metro Bank’s founder, says, “Great customer service comes through a business model focused on building fans not customers.”

Hill is a man who knows what he’s talking about. He achieved fame with his Metro banking model back in the U.S., where he is originally from. Hill opened his first branch in 1973 at the age of 26, selling the bank 34 years later for $8.5 billion, pocketing a cool $400 million for himself.

METRO BANK’S MAGIC MONEY MACHINE
A free coin counter. Dogs are welcome inside Metro’s branches.

Hill lists Steve Jobs as one of his heroes, and says he’s trying to fashion a brand in Apple’s image — one that people feel passionate about. This sentiment is clearly reflected in Metro Bank’s slogan: “Love Your Bank At Last.”

The bank currently has eight locations, with plans to have 200 branches by 2020. Branches will clearly play a significant role in Metro’s strategy for years to come. “The internet is important, but the branch is the cornerstone of the bank,” says Hill.

Hill recruited his wife Shirley and her interior design firm InterArch to design Metro Bank’s British brand and branches.

“My secret weapon is my wife,” Hill told the UK Marketing Society. “Her architecture and design teams have been responsible for the success of Metro Bank in the US and in the UK.”

“Design is a competitive weapon,” Hill adds.

Very true. But in Metro’s case, many critics wonder if their image and identity is as sharp as it should be.

METRO MAN MASCOT

“The blue and red looks a bit dated,” says Chris Skinner, author of The Financial Services Blog. “I would have expected something far more Apple-ish for Metro Bank. Instead, from a branding viewpoint, we have WalMart rather than Apple.”

“The amateurish design doesn’t do much to convey trust in their brand,” wrote Money Watch UK on its website.

“The bright blue and red bank branch feels as if it has been plucked from a cartoon,” notes Simon Watkins, another financial writer in the UK. “The dog biscuits and lollipops on the counter seem a touch gimmicky.”

“It’s far too cluttered, and stylistically a bit all over the place,” adds Geoff Whitehouse, a communications expert in the financial industry. “If they wanted to be seen as different, then a move away from traditional colors and a typeface straight from the 80s might have been a good idea.”

James Wrighton, a bank marketing consultant, feels the brand identity is “a touch clumsy,” and says “their website certainly doesn’t feel like that of an aspiring national bank.”

Another observer summed it up this way: “A customer-centric proposition but a cheesy brochure.”

“Metro had an opportunity to change the approach to banking, but has missed it with this communications approach.”

Tom Weaver, a customer experience designer, was not impressed when he toured one of Metro’s branches. “The very first impression I had when walking into the store was that it felt more like a casino than a bank. And not the grand Las Vegas type of casino either, but the small-town, beachfront mega-arcade.”

“This leads me to wonder whether the retail space was designed around the desires of the founder and his interior designer wife as opposed to those of the customers,” he continues.

“Will a bank — aimed at keeping your money safe — that feels like a casino — aimed at taking all your money — give consumers the feeling of safety and security they are looking for in austere times?” he asks skeptically.

“The interior design of a physical environment should always embody your brand, culture and the type of experience you want to create,” advises Weaver.

Key Question: So how does the use of type, color, copy/message, tone, style and imagery complement, support and reflect the bank’s brand strategy?

This article © 2012 by The Financial Brand and may not be reproduced.

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What makes Bankinter special? The folks at Saffron says it boils down to the bank’s “exceptional thinking.”

“This became the basis for a brand idea that’s aspirational as well as pragmatic: ‘a bank that thinks, for people who think,’” Saffron explains. “Bankinter attracts thinking customers; thoughtful, skeptical and capable of making their own decisions.”

As a “thinking bank,” Bankinter lays claim to a number of innovations. They were the first Internet Bank in Spain, the first mobile phone bank and the first bank to use text messaging.

What all that has to do with the resulting tangy orange brand identity is anyone’s guess. But the new look is certainly smart, fresh and contemporary.

“Bankinter’s personality emerges in the way it communicates,” says Saffron of the new image. “Sophisticated, intelligent, informed — even opinionated and outspoken. It is authoritative, thoughtful and direct. Everything about the visual style including the specially designed typeface emphasizes this.”

You could throw in youthful, warm and vibrant. Whatever words you might use to describe the brand identity, it safe to say it isn’t stale, cold and impersonal.

Bankinter clearly isn’t the first brand in history to wrap itself in orange. There is the European telecom giant Orange, and, of course, ING in the financial industry. What makes Bankinter so noteworthy is the extent to which they’ve bathed themselves in a single color. The brand is drenched in orange everywhere. While many organizations cringe at the idea of limiting themselves to only one hue (“It’s so boring!”), Bankinter deserves recognition for its bold and courageous use of color as a tool to differentiate its image.

BRANCH INTERIOR

EXTERIOR BRANDING & FASCIA DESIGN
Even the windows are tinted orange. The text translates:
“If you think all banks are equal, we know.”

BRAND BOOK
A handy guidelines manual designed to be more practical and easier to digest.

DEBIT CARD
The text on the card translates to “I like to think differently.”

BRAND VIDEO

This article © 2012 by The Financial Brand and may not be reproduced.

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Here’s the first question you need to tackle:

1. What makes our financial institution better than others?

You could change the question around a bit and ask, “How are we different than everyone else?” Or, “What makes us unique?”

Seems easy enough, right? Here comes the hard part. You can’t use the words “friendly,” “people,” “personal” or “service” as part of your answer. Why? Well, for starters, nearly every bank and credit union in the world thinks its service or people is what differentiates them. It probably doesn’t. Second, banking is a service business, so saying “service is what differentiates us” is like Chiquita saying its bananas are what makes their brand special. You have to dig deeper. “Friendly” doesn’t get you anywhere because if you’re anything but friendly you’ll go out of business. And words like “personal” are just feel-good corporate clichés that will continually prevent you from finding the true heart of your brand.

The second fundamental question of branding — a fill-in-the-blank — seems as equally simple and straightforward as the first:

2. We are the only ones who _________ .

At first, the two questions might seem similar. But the first question is more subjective than the second. In the first question, you’re exploring subjective territory — why do you think you are better? — whereas the second question attacks the issue of differentiation from a more concrete and objective perspective. Answers to the first question may be debatable. Answers to question #2 are not.

If you aren’t the only source of something — anything – then you are replaceable. Dispensable. Interchangeable. Consumers can easily swap you for another brand — any brand.

If you’re really interested in learning the brutal truth, go out and ask consumers these same questions. Do some market research and see what they think of you, your competitors, plus one or two big banks.

As these two questions illustrate, the process of branding presents difficult challenges. Your organization could spend month’s meeting just over these two questions. And you still might wind up with nothing. Then what? As Tyler Durden might ask, what will you do when you find out you are not “a beautiful and unique snowflake?”

That’s when it’s time to roll up your sleeves and get ready for some hard work. So you don’t do anything that’s mcuh better or different than your competitors today? What things might you be able to do and deliver tomorrow? How might your products and services need to change? Your branches? Your core data system? Your staff? Your internal culture? Even the heart of your business model?

You may be wondering why differentiation is so important in the first place. Good question. Because if consumers can’t recognize any relevant points of distinction between you and your competition, they’ll fall back on the one objective measure they can always use to evaluate any company: price. If you and your team struggle to identify the ways in which you are different from other financial institutions, how much luck do you think consumers are going to have.

Until you deliver a differentiated brand, don’t be surprised or disappointed when consumers continue telling you the only things that matter are “rates,” “fees” and “branch convenience.” Financial institutions haven’t really given them any other basis of comparison. Why should they expect anything else?

This article © 2012 by The Financial Brand and may not be reproduced.

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Ready to get started?

Step 1 – Make your list

Make a list of everything you can say about your organization. Be sure to include everything you actually have said in your marketing and advertising materials. Comb through your website, brochures, ads and press releases. Look for statements you make about your brand, what it offers and what it represents. For example, a start to your list might look something like this:

• friendly, personal service
• FDIC insured
• top 100 local employer
• free checking
• free online bill pay
• mobile banking
• iPad app
• innovative
• wer’re on Facebook
• etc., etc., etc.

If you get others involved (employees and managers), you can get a lot of different ideas for your list. The more raw material you have to work with, the more likely you’ll find gold.

Step 2 – Evaluate each statement

For each item on your list, ask how different it is from what your competitors offer. Take each statement and rate it on a scale ranging from “identical to the competition” to “no one else in the world does it.” Then determine how important each item on your list is to your target audience. At the bottom of the scale is “no one cares at all” on up to a “vital issue of utmost importance” at the top.

Step 3 – Map it out

For each statement in your list, figure out in which quadrant it belongs on the grid below.

This grid has four quadrants, each representing one of four different types of messages you can use in your marketing and advertising — the statements you can/do make about yourself. The more important a message is to your target audience, the higher up the vertical axis it goes (relevancy). Similarly, you plot the message further out on the horizontal axis as fewer and fewer competitors can also lay claim to it (differentiation).

Neutrals (lower-left quadrant)
Things you can say about your organization that are neither important to your target audience, nor different from what anyone else has to offer. With Neutrals, every competitor could make the same claim about something that doesn’t matter to consumers anyway.

You’re on Facebook? So what? Isn’t everybody these days? Who cares? It’s not something that will drive consumer decisions and doesn’t differentiate you very much. It’s a Neutral.

Antes (upper-left quadrant)
Things that are very important to consumers but do nothing to set you apart from the competition.

An Ante is the minimum price of entry — any expectation that must be met. These things are so essential to your target audience that almost everyone provider offers them. Antes are the chips you must throw into the pot just to play in the retail banking space, and there’s a lot of them. Consumers expect financial institutions to be trustworthy. To have integrity. To be accurate. They expect these things 100% of the time. Fall short, and you’ve got a big branding challenge. FDIC and NCUA insurance are other good examples of Antes.

Points of Distinction (lower-right quadrant)
Any aspect of your organization that differentiates you from competitors but doesn’t drive consumer decisions. These are aspects of your organization that may be unique to you, but have little relevance to your target audience.

You may be one of the top 100 employers in the area, but that’s not really important to most consumers. They aren’t going to chose you because of it. You may be innovative, unlike many other financial institutions. But consumers don’t care how creative you can be; they only care if your innovations make their lives easier.

Drivers (upper-right quadrant)
Things that are of high importance to your audience that you can say about your brand that the competition can’t. These are very important to your target audience — their hot buttons — that only you (and maybe a handful of others) can deliver. This is the stuff that really drives people’s decisions and fuel strong financial brands. Some things that may fall under the category of drivers include:

• A credit union that pays annual member dividends
• A relationship pricing/rewards structure
• Offering a courier for document pickup and deliveries

The trick is identifying the Drivers behind your financial institution’s brand. Don’t feel bad if you can’t come up with a long list of Drivers. Few organizations have that many…if any. It can take a lot of work just to identify two or three, and those may be aspirational at that.

Conclusion & Key Takeaways

All too often, financial institutions build their brands around the other stuff – the Antes, the Neutrals and Distinctions. You hear them talking about things consumers don’t really care about, and things most financial institutions offer.

The most powerful messages you can use to build your brand are both highly relevant to your target audience and very distinct from your competitors. These are your brand Drivers. Identify them and focus your brand around those. If you can’t find anything you deliver today, then you’ve got some work to do if you want to have anything to talk about tomorrow.

Editor’s Note: An older version of this article originally appeared on the CUES Nexus blog in August 2008.


This article © 2012 by The Financial Brand and may not be reproduced.

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“There is no such thing as a branding ‘project.’ Branding is an ongoing process of renewal to make the organizations’ people, products, locations, hours, services, design, etc. both distinctive and desirable to your audience.”
– Tom Asaker,
“A Clear Eye for Branding”

When thinking of successful brands, Starbucks often comes to mind. Yet in a recent Inc. Magazine article, Starbucks CEO Howard Schultz confessed that he has had to lead the company through a process of reinvention over the past several years. “I  knew that just going back in time and embracing the status quo of the past would not produce success,” Schultz said. “I had to restore the company’s heritage but at the same time push for reinvention.”

If Starbucks — one of the most successful brands going today — has to reinvent itself, then some financial institutions probably need to do so as well. But how do you know when it’s time to rebrand your bank or credit union?

Here are three warning signs to consider.

1. Staff don’t know your mission or what you’re all about

Brands often fail at the staff level. In fact, you can’t have a strong brand without a strong staff and buy-in around your strategy. As Nicholas Ind says in Living the Brand, “It is the collective power of individuals in an organization that provides and sustains a competitive advantage.”

One quick exercise you can do with your staff is ask them, “What it our organization really all about?” Then compare their answers with your board and executive team. If the answers are all fairly different or don’t match, you have a weak brand and it’s time to rebrand.

You can also ask staff if they can recall your mission statement. Ask them what is really means to them. If you get a lot of blank stares or wildly disparate answers, then it’s time to rebrand.

Any successful rebranding effort will include training your staff and energizing them on the new brand. Remember, the biggest threat to your brand almost always comes from within.

2. Blurry vision, no focus

When I conducted a planning session for a large financial institution recently, I posed a simple question to their board and management: “Who are you trying to reach?” There was a long pause, after which someone from the board bravely declared, “Yes, we do!” Wrong answer. For that financial institution, we had to start their planning session off with a fundamental  discussion about their target markets.

Your financial institution cannot be all things to all people. It’s nice in theory, but terrible in reality. You must refine your focus.

Every bank or credit union needs a brand plan, some sort of a formal document that defines the organization’s mission, values, messages, etc. One of the most important items to include in any brand plan is your target audience — the specific people or groups you want your brand to resonate with most. Examples might include teachers, blue collar workers, residents who live within three miles of your branches, etc. The more focused your brand targets are, the more successful your brand will be.

Over time, brand targets can become diluted, so every now and then you need to recalibrate in order to keep them clear. If your bank or credit union is all over the place with its target audience (or doesn’t really have a clue), then it’s time to rebrand.

Do you know who you are really trying to reach?

3. You fail the 3C test

The smart folks at marketingprofs.com say there are three Cs to a strong brand: clarity, consistency and constancy. You must be clear about what you are and what you are not. Then you must be consistent with that brand over all delivery channels. Once the message is clear and consistent, then you constantly communicate those messages.

How is your financial institution doing with these three Cs?  Is your brand clear? Is everyone singing from the same song sheet or is everyone all on a different page? What makes your bank or credit union different? And please don’t use words like “service, community or people”; everyone uses those same words, and that doesn’t make you different.

Do your customers receive the same consistent service from branch to branch? How does the call staff greet them, and how does that compare to their branch experience? How do your branches look, and what image does your website project?

Are you constantly investing in- and working to build your brand? Or is it just here and there, every now and then, hit and miss?

Brands are constantly evolving. Financial institutions will not succeed in this difficult economy without a strong brand. Taking the 3C text and examining these warning signs can help you decide whether or not it’s time to rebrand.

About The Author

Mark Arnold is an acclaimed speaker, brand expert and strategic planner. He is also president of On the Mark Strategies, a consulting firm specializing in branding and strategic planning. Some of the services Mark provides include strategic planning, brand planning, leadership/management training, marketing planning and staff training. His web address is www.markarnold.com and his blog is blog.markarnold.com. You can also contact him at 214-538-4147 or mark@markarnold.com.

This article © 2012 by The Financial Brand and may not be reproduced.

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That’s the trendy new phrase traveling around the marketing circuit these days. Speakers at conferences and consultants on blogs take pleasure is repeating this for its paradoxical shock value. “You don’t control your brand.” Sounds scary. Brrrr!

Social media zealots like to use this expression to illustrate the idea that new online channels have democratized marketing. New media marketing is, they say, more egalitarian, more social. While true in many ways, what they really mean is that customers just have a bigger voice than they had before, mostly thanks to social media.

But to say “you don’t control your brand, someone else does” is nonsense. While on the surface this kind of expression may seem like a pithy insight regarding the state of marketing today, it reflects a fundamental misunderstanding about what a brand really is and how brands are built.

First off, you never controlled your brand.

Actually, no one did.

You see a brand isn’t something that can be “controlled.” Why? Because brands are all about people’s emotions and perceptions. Your brand is how people feel about your organization. It’s their gut reaction. No matter what you do and no matter how hard you try, you simply cannot control what someone else feels or believes. You can try to shape people’s perceptions in specific directions. You can influence people’s reaction to something. But no one has the ability to control anyone’s feelings about anything. Unless you’re a fascist or have some sort of mind control device, it’s pretty much out of the question.

Back to what a brand is. For consumers, a brand represents a form of mental shorthand. Consumers create brands for everything: for companies they see advertised, for products they use, for celebrities they admire (or despise), for places they vacation, etc. Consumers can — and do! — create brands for basically every noun in the English language, whether that be people, places or things. Consumers create these brands to summarize their emotions, their feelings. It’s a mental scorecard for their overall impressions. Do they like the brand? What kind of experience can they trust the brand to deliver?

Some people like Nike shoes. Other people think Nike is the embodiment of corporate evil. Can Nike control what people think? No. But can Nike influence how people feel about them? Yes, absolutely. There is a myriad of things Nike can — and does — to help consumers form positive impressions. They can make high-quality shoes, for starters. They can choose to manufacture their products in ethical ways that meet fair-trade standards. They can use social media to build online communities for runners. They can run ads starring celebrity spokespeople like Kobe Bryant and Tiger Woods to draw brand analogies about competitive empowerment. Of course, there are plenty of people who think Kobe is (at best) a homophobic misogynist, and that Tiger is a no-good philanderer. Which illustrates another definition of “brand”:

Your brand is your reputation.

Almost everywhere you hear the word “brand” — in articles, speeches and in conversation — you can swap in the word “reputation.” Simply put, your brand is “what you’re known for.” And a reputation is something one earns through their actions — not their words, promises and good intentions. Ultimately, it boils down to what you do and deliver, which is something you are very much in control of.

So if your brand is your reputation, then “branding” is the act of creating and managing your reputation. You can’t control who likes you and why, but you can certainly make an effort to steer the right people in the right direction.

For instance, if Nike doesn’t want its reputation associated with greed and exploitation, then they should avoid manufacturing their gear in sweatshops. If they don’t want to be perceived negatively, then they probably shouldn’t screw people. (Tiger and Kobe get the same advice, but in a different context.)

If you want to be seen as fun and easy-going, there are things you can do to encourage those perceptions. For starters, you could stop being dull and stuffy. If you want to position yourself as hip, cool and technologically savvy, you can do that too. You may not be able to control your brand, but between your people, products, promotions, internal culture, touchpoints, staff, locations, size/style of branches, etc., you certainly have no shortage of tools at your disposal.

Key Takeaways

“Branding” is what you want people to think about your organization (your intent). The “brand” is how people actually feel about it (their reaction to what you do).

A healthy way to view brand development is to see it as an on-going, two-way, often invisible dialogue between companies and consumers. A company can introduce products and launch ad campaigns as they try to build a specific image with a certain audience. These consumers respond and react — sometimes very vocally, sometimes more quietly. The company then refines and adapts its strategy, products and messages. This process of branding should be a continual feedback loop.

There is another popular branding expression, similar to the one that started this article:

“The brand isn’t what you say it is. It’s what they say it is.”

That’s true, because your brand is based on their feelings. That doesn’t mean they “control” the brand though.

But this too is also true: You control your brand’s strategy, and have many weapons in your marketing arsenal you can use to shape, guide and influence people’s perceptions. The tools of branding may have changed, but not the general rules.

A small handful of organizations approach branding with deliberate conviction. They know who they are and what they stand for. They use a combination of focus, discipline and execution to create differentiated experiences that shape consumer feelings in positive, proactive and strategic ways. These are the brands we all know and love.

Most organizations, however, have a scattered, inconsistent, willy-nilly approach to their brand. Others don’t have a clue at all. These are the weak brands no one cares about.

Which one are you?

Further Reading: The Financial Brand’s Guide to Branding Terminology and Ron Shevlin’s Brand Control to Major Tom.

This article © 2012 by The Financial Brand and may not be reproduced.

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Cambridge Building Society is an independent, local mutual financial institution founded in western England in 1850. While having 161 years of history has its upsides — people view the brand as a stable fixture in their community — there are downsides too.

When we did customer research, we were surprised at how few people knew about us,” Stephen Mitcham, CEO of Cambridge Building Society, told a local paper. “If they did, they had such an old fashioned view of how we were.”

Mitcham he didn’t want consumers to perceive his organization as a small, insignificant building society. It had, after all, grown to a respectable 56,000 members and £900m in assets (USD$1.5 billion). In order to expand their reach and build membership, Mitcham chose to rebrand.

(The building society’s problems will sound very familiar to many US credit unions. England had more than 3,000 building societies at the start of the 20th century, but now has only 48.)

Following a five-way agency pitch in March 2010, Cambridge Building Society appointed Mobas as its integrated marketing partner. By June later that year, Mobas was underway.

The brand identity project started with a series of workshops and included market research and focus groups.

“We did a vox pop on the streets, had a day at Duxford Air Museum with the staff to find out their aspirations,” said Mark Easy with Mobas.

“At that point in time we had no idea what the final brand identity would look like,” added Sonia Lawrence, Client Development Director for Mobas.

Mobas said it took a team of 10 staffers around three months to complete the first phase of the job. The agency estimates that 50% of the work involved was research.

What Mobas found was that people wanted a fresh, new, confident look. The strategy zeroed in on words like “vibrant,” “optimism,” “positive,” “welcoming” — something more friendly than a faceless bank.

Mobas pulled three ideas together ranging from safe to radical, then tested them with the client. The Cambridge team pushed back, asking for something brighter and more eye-catching.

“Testing was really key,” Mr. Easy at Mobas said. “It was not just a matter of taking the client’s word for it, so we tested it all out with members and with strangers.”

So what’s out? Bandit barriers in branches, the name “Cambridge Building Society” and the logo, among other things.

What’s in? Comfy chairs, coffee tables, music. And the building society will no longer be calling itself a “building society.” The new moniker will simply be “The Cambridge.” The brand is wrapped with the tagline “Building a brighter future, together,” something echoed in new products like the “Brighter Savings Bond.”

« OLD LOGO || NEW LOGO »

CEO Mitcham said he was wary at first about making such big changes. But research proved the building society was seen as boring, so he pushed ahead.

They launched the new brand at a live event held in Cambridge’s city center. Dignitaries including the mayor and high sheriff were in attendance as The Cambridge pulled a shroud of black sheets off a branch to reveal its bold, bright identity.

A new website went live in March.

THE CAMBRIDGE – NEW WEBSITE

The last line at the bottom of the screen reads, “Your home may be repossessed if you do not keep up repayments on your mortgage.” Not quite the “friendly,” “welcoming” message you’d expect from a financial institution with an “optimistic” and “positive” brand strategy.

The total price tag: £750,000 (around USD$1.2 million).

When a local business reporter asked Mitcham how long he thought it would take to see a return on the £750,000: “Three to five years,” he said. “Which is the same as we expect when we open a new branch.”

What’s the reaction been so far?

“Very positive,” Mitcham said. “It has got us back on the map, and I’ve had only one letter against, from a member who said she liked it the way it was.”

The Cambridge recently held a promotion to find real people to star in its marketing materials. As part of the campaign, a giant cardboard cut out toured local branches and other public places where people could take their picture and submit by text or email.

 

This article © 2012 by The Financial Brand and may not be reproduced.

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Deutsche Bank has been using its signature logo — a blue slash in a blue box — since 1974. The bank chose the design in a contest, paying the winner a sum equivalent to $120,000 in today’s money (today this would be called “crowdsourcing”). Believe it or not, the bank’s logo is more popular today (in Germany) than those of branding giants Apple and Nike.

Deutsche has spent the last two years working on its brand, both its strategy and identity. In 2010, the German financial giant dropped the words “Deutsche Bank” from its logo, opting to go with the blue block symbol only. The tagline: “Passion to Perform.”

With its rebranding project now complete, the bank has spent millions memorializing its work in two projects: a graphics standards manual and a unique interactive museum (both shown in detail below).

Deutsche Bank Brand Strategy at-a-Glance

This summary of Deutsche’s brand strategy comes from the bank’s Code of Business Conduct and Ethics (PDF). There’s nothing wrong with the general structure and mechanics of the strategy, however Deutsche opts for common business clichés in a few places — “leading global provider,” “lasting value,” “measured approach” — where powerful, more instructive language belongs. Something might have been lost in the translation from German, but probably not much.

Mission: We compete to be the leading global provider of financial solutions, creating lasting value for our clients, our shareholders, our people and the communities in which we operate.

Brand: Deutsche is clear: we are here to perform — in business and beyond.
We do this with a unique mix of passion and precision. This measured approach gives us the confidence to enable agile minds to look beyond the obvious, gaining advantage for everyone we work with.

Personality: passionate, precise, confident, agile-minded.

Values: The principles that guide our behavior to deliver our brand include “performance,” “trust,” “teamwork,” “innovation” and “client focus.”

Promise: (1) Excellence in idea origination and execution — in advice, product and service, delivering one bank with all its resources and capabilities. (2) Relevant client solutions understanding diverse client needs — adding value, building trust and commitments that endure. (3) Responsibility acting today — thinking about tomorrow, demonstrating transparency and leadership.

BrandSpace

In April 2011, Deutsche Bank opened a truly unique public forum for its brand inside its modernized Frankfurt HQ. The ultra-contemporary BrandSpace is a museum gallery of displays celebrating the bank’s logo, framed with angular architecture and cast in moody, urban lighting. You can watch a short video about Deutsche’s HQ towers in Frankfurt — including the BrandSpace — on YouTube.

In one display, visitors become part of an interactive Deutsche logo, using their silhouette to control how information is displayed.

Another interactive display chronicles Deutsche’s history — 650 short stories spanning 141 years packed into six chapters. A separate, freestanding 20-foot interactive table allows visitors to learn more about the bank.

There is a “kinetic logo,” a ten-foot tall display that choreographs colors, sounds, light and little white triangles around the bank’s blue block symbol. It involves two tons of technology, including 288 motors controlling 48 individual pieces.

DEUTSCHE BANK – BRANDSPACE INTERACTIVE GUIDE
First the bank created a interactive brick-and-mortar museum for its brand,
then they created an interactive online guide to the museum.

DEUTSCHE BANK – INTERACTIVE VIDEO ART WALL

Brand Standards Books

Deutsche Bank’s brand books come in at least two formats: fancy and fancier. The fancy one is an 80-page graphics standards guide, outlining the brand’s typography, colors, photography and logo usage. The fancier book is a sleek flat-black tome sporting an embossed hardbound cover.

Deutsche also has a digital version of its standards manual available online. The bank’s eStyle Guide is accessible through a password-protected “brand portal” subsite at db.com.

Deutsche worked with Studio 2br over a 12-month period to complete the research and design of the new identity system.

Unless your financial institution has at least a billion in assets, you probably don’t need to worry about making a graphics standards manual — certainly not one this advanced — anytime soon. But a guide to your brand for all employees is an entirely different matter.

This article © 2012 by The Financial Brand and may not be reproduced.

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Let’s face facts. The image of banks and financial institutions is in the toilet. When consumers perceive the industry as negatively as they do big tobacco, it’s safe to say banking’s reputation sucks.

There may be plenty of blame to spread around for the current financial crisis — ratings agencies, regulators, consumers themselves — but the truth is that people hold banks largely responsible for crippling the global economy. A 2009 survey found that half of all consumers laid the blame for the recession at the door of banks. Respondents in another similar study, when asked who was most responsible for the crisis, put banks and financial institutions at 63%. When the Associated Press conducted its poll in 2011, those blaming banks and lenders for our economic problems had climbed to 79%.

Data measuring consumers’ distrust of financial companies paints a gloomy picture. According to a 2010 study, two-thirds of US consumers don’t trust banks. Another study in 2010 revealed that 38% think statements made by banks are “not at all believable.” 60% of consumers don’t believe that their bank is looking after their best interests. Four in five people (83%) believe President Barack Obama was right to describe bankers as “fat cats.” And 49% think “greedy” is the word that best describes banks.

People are pissed off — at you, dear reader, and your peers — and continue to carry a chip on their shoulders.

How banks got into this mess… and how to get out of it

These days, banks are served a buffet of suggestions for how they might go about restoring consumer trust: improved communication, listening, social media, focusing on engagement or the customer experience. All good ideas, but the fundamental recipe for building — and losing — trust is actually much more straightforward.

The financial industry destroyed people’s trust by doing things like deliberately designing overdraft systems that triggered $385 in fees for $3 coffees. Credit cards came with punitive and unfair universal default clauses. Banks made $500,000 home loans to people with credit scores under 600 and annual income under $50,000.

Want to rebuild trust? Stop doing that kind of stuff. It’s that simple.

If banks want to rebuild trust, they don’t need to hop on Twitter. They just need to stop looking for ways to stick it to their customers. Quit being deliberately deceptive and misleading. Stop engineering sneaky traps that ensnare and punish consumers. Don’t dupe consumers with tricks. Don’t take advantage of people.

Want to rebuild trust? Forget Facebook. Consumers would simply settle for financial institutions not acting like reckless, greedy, diabolical, sneaky, self-serving bastards.

You may be tempted to say, “That’s not us! We aren’t the bad guys!” So you didn’t make any subprime loans? What was your overdraft policy? Were your credit card terms fair?

Banks don’t need sophisticated image strategies loaded with intricate trust engagement metrics. Banks need to go back to the basics. They need simple guidelines, like “Don’t do or say anything you wouldn’t do or say to your mother, kids, spouse or pastor.” Remember The Golden Rule?

What bankers could use to improve their image are the exact same things they learned as kids: don’t lie, don’t cheat, don’t be greedy, be fair, be nice, think of others and treat them right. There are probably other lessons bankers could take to heart from Robert Fulghum’s 1988 classic, “All I Really Need to Know I Learned in Kindergarten”: Clean up your own mess. Don’t take things that aren’t yours. Say you’re sorry when you hurt somebody.

What about now? Have things changed? Consumers don’t think so. A majority of Americans (61%) feel banks and financial institutions have not learned their lesson. Perhaps that’s because banks seem obsessed with finding any and every opportunity to slip new fees on customers (while trying to blame it on Congress). Regulators may have changed the rules, but the game — “How much can we get away with?” — seems to remain pretty much the same.

When financial institutions misbehave, increased regulations are just one more symptom of a much bigger issue: blown trust. The industry, as a whole, needs to hold itself more accountable, because the actions of every bank and credit union can have a direct and immediate — and painful — impact on your brand as well.

This article © 2012 by The Financial Brand and may not be reproduced.

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1. Differentiate

Any financial institution that looks like, acts like, or sounds like other banks and credit unions can’t complain when they are forced to compete on rates, fees and price. Differentiation is the key to a strong brand.

2. Personal communications

You hear financial institutions bragging about how personal they are all the time, but Tim McAlpine, President of Currency, wonders how often they send handwritten thank you cards for loans, mortgages and renewals. How often do your employees make phone calls to customers thanking them for their business? Imagine how much love you could buy with a simple expression of appreciation. How many direct marketing messages do you send that start with “Dear Valued Customer…?”

3. Mobile solutions

If your financial institution isn’t offering some form of mobile banking service currently, there had better be plans underway or you risk falling behind competitively. Demand for services like remote deposit, SMS, and apps for smart phones and iPads is growing rapidly, and are quickly becoming common consumer expectations. (See also, The Very Mobile Future of Retail Banking.)

4. Identify profitable customers

How can you focus on cultivating profitable relationships if you don’t first understand who profitable customers are, why they are profitable and how they got that way.

For credit unions, Paul Stull, SVP/Arizona State Credit Union, says that “if you look at your most unprofitable members, you will find that they have as many or more services per household as your most profitable.”

“Most don’t know which members are profitable, which are not and why,” he adds. “This knowledge can drive great strategy.”

5. Email marketing

It’s simply stunning how many financial institutions still don’t utilize email marketing tools. Even today, you still hear bankers say things like, “No, we don’t really collect people’s email addresses.”

6. Create emotional appeal

Financial institutions act as if they are immune to the principles of consumer psychology. People make all decisions (not just purchase decisions) for two reasons: the real reason and the “good reason” (emotional motives vs. logical justifications).

“At almost all credit unions, I see branding that goes no further than generic stock photography,” notes Ben Rogers, Director of Research at Filene Research Institute. “In most consumers’ eyes, bland images and photography are good proxies for a bland institution.”

7. Stop doing things that aren’t working

As obvious as this sounds, there are a number of inefficient and unprofitable bad habits financial institutions have a hard time shaking — some are even counter-productive.

“It’s easy to become comfortable with routines and change is difficult,” notes Brady Walen, Director of Marketing at Market Insights. “Success in today’s marketplace requires the ability to recognize where resources are being wasted, and the willingness to make necessary changes.”

8. Calculate ROI

How can you decide whether or not to continue or abandon certain initiatives if you don’t know what works and what doesn’t? Whether you’re talking about e-Statements, social media, newsletters or community giving — What’s the impact on the bottom line?

Mark Arnold, a credit union branding consultant, wonders how financial institutions measure their marketing success. When was the last time you ran the math on your promotions? Do you know if online ads are more effective than radio?

“With product lifecycles, financial institutions tend to bring on products, set them and then forget them,” says Paul Stull, SVP/Arizona State Credit Union. “Doing a product review and striking a product P&L could identify some things that need to get thrown over the side.”

9. Utilize website analytics and intelligence

Banks and credit unions seem to design their websites based more on what other financial institutions are doing than how consumers actually use the sites. There is a wealth of information that often goes ignored during the redesign process for banking websites. What are visitors looking for most often? How many clicks does it take to find? What navigation paths do people take? What are the most common landing pages? What are people searching for that they can’t find? How can exit pages be improved?

10. Reward loyal customers

How many customers have been with you for five years? Ten years? Twenty? These are people that have stood by you. Ron Shevlin, Senior Analyst with Aite, says you should acknowledge their tenure. (See item 2.)

11. Pay more attention

It’s disturbing how many bank and credit union teams don’t spend much — if any — time learning, discussing and evaluating topics vital to their organizations’ success (readers of The Financial Brand excluded, of course). Serge Millman, CEO of Optirate, is concerned that financial institutions aren’t paying enough attention to emerging trends. What new technologies are being adopted? What is the competition doing? What are consumers saying?

12. Measure what matters

According to Mike Bartoo, Regional Manager at Marquis Software Solutions, financial institutions measure what’s easy instead of what’s really important. (See items 4, 7 and 8.) They may look at things like new customers and loan volume, but are they looking at other metrics like products-per-household and wallet share?

13. Integrating branding into HR

Do your employees know how to live your brand, or is your branding strategy little more than lip service? If you aren’t using your brand to screen, train and evaluate employees, you still have some work to do.

“Internal marketing is critical to the success of any brand,” observes Brady Walen of Market Insights. “Employees must not only be held accountable for providing accurate transactions and good customer service, but also for delivering on their institution’s brand promise. Employees’ behaviors either help or hurt you brand and the position your brand holds in the hearts and minds of the consumer.”

“I believe banks should train employees on strategically important skills, not just systems/compliance,” recommends banking consultant Jeff Marsico. “I think they should hire as if that person was going to be the next CEO. They settle, in my opinion.”

14. Onboarding program

What does the new customer acquisition process frequently look like in retail banking? Like this: Someone walks in, opens a new account and leaves. That’s it…

Jim Marous, Senior Director of Marketing Services at Harland Clarke and bank marketing blogger, surveyed a group of bank marketing executives asking them how many had an on-boarding program. Half. Who reaches out more than once? Half of those. How many usually contact new customers at least four times? How many use more than one channel? By the time Jim was done, he was left with only one bank that had a truly robust onboarding program… out of 200.

15. Act like a retailer

“Banks have brick-and-mortar, multiple locations, products to sell, display areas to merchandise, staff to train, promotions to run — all basic fundamental tasks of effective retailing — yet banks seldom approach their business with this mindset,” observes John Mathes, a director at Bancography. “Ask a bank or credit union CMO what they’re doing to drive traffic in key promotional periods, and you’ll usually get a blank stare.”

Mathes says its unlikely that your typical retail financial institution has a strategic marketing gameplan, lobby engagement strategy or even a promotional calendar.

16. Close unprofitable branches

The choice to close a branch can be difficult. However, once a location has been identified as unprofitable, action must be taken.

“If other options are exhausted and a branch remains unprofitable, you’ve got to do something different,” says Brady Walen at Market Insights.

“Alternatives can be offered or created for customers,” Walen notes. “Other delivery channels like online banking, mobile banking, ATM kiosks, a nearby branch, or even the introduction of a smaller branch may be a viable alternative for customers of a branch facing closure.”

17. Marketing inside the firewall

Some financial institutions say they feel trapped by uncooperative third-party online banking service providers, but in this day and age, you can’t tolerate any excuses. When you don’t cross-sell to your most captive and engaged audience — online customers — you are leaving money on the table.

You could create a super-savvy system that pushes the products/services each customer is most likely to adopt, but you don’t need to go this far. At the very least, deploy a “dumb system” that shotguns your most profitable products and services to all users.

18. Integrate systems

Whether you’re talking about core data processing, online banking, marketing, CRM, email, etc., the integration of most financial institutions’ systems ranges between poor to horrible. Data gets scattered across multiple systems, fracturing the customer experience with a maze of service channels and contact points. Banking consultant Jeff Marsico is concerned about how difficult it can become to quantify the profitability of relationships with such messy systems. How can you create a holistic view?

19. PR

PR is an oft neglected practice at retail financial institutions. When you get free press, it gives your messages credibility — much more effective than advertising. But there’s a lot more to PR than pumping out announcements about earnings, new branches and employee promotions. The value of PR isn’t measured by how much you pound out, it’s measured by how much press you get. The hitch? The only way to get coverage is to do truly newsworthy things.

20. Non-traditional (guerrilla) marketing

When it’s time to run your promotions, do you use the same old marketing tools you always use? Is it a check list of traditional marketing tactics: “We need a print ad, radio spot, item in the newsletter, in-branch screens, a press release and three tweets.” Unless you have a truckload of money for ads, this is not how you get consumers’ attention today. You have to be creative, clever and often controversial. For some ideas, check out the guerilla marketing category here at The Financial Brand, and this article with 15 non-traditional marketing examples.

21. What do you think?

What would you add to this list? Please keep in mind that this isn’t a list of things some banks and credit unions could do, which is a much different and considerably longer list than what everyone should do.

This article © 2012 by The Financial Brand and may not be reproduced.

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According to Edelman’s research, trust in US banks plummeted steadily since 2007. A similar study from Forrester in early 2010, concluded that roughly 70% of big bank customers don’t trust their banks. And a Harris poll found that bank reputations have suffered, as few Americans find statements by financial institutions believable.

Edelman’s 2011 study revealed that among the 46% whose trust levels declined, most (57%) cited financial services companies “acting in a greedy manner,” while another 18% asserted that the “industry itself has made the problems worse.”

“The way people perceive companies has changed significantly since the pre-crisis era,” said Matt Harrington, CEO/Edelman US. “The decline in trust in these institutions — even as financial markets were recovering — underscores the long road back they must travel to re-earn the lost trust.”

“While content-rich websites and fast and responsive customer service are important no doubt, but they are table stakes,” said Jeff Zilka/GM Financial Communications at Edelman. “What consumers are hungry for — and what financial services companies must deliver if they are to restore customers’ trust — is honest communication and the reality of open and transparent business practices.”

The 2011 Edelman Trust in US Financial Services Survey included 503 participants with an income of $50,000+ and investments of $10,000+.

Community and regional banks trusted most

Only 49% of respondents said they trust financial institutions in general. Community or regional banks scored highest in the survey (67%), with mutual fund companies second at 55 percent. Life insurance companies (42%) and property/casualty insurers (37%) ranked in the middle of the pack but well below the 50 percent level, and investment banks (35%) and private equity firms (32%) were least trusted.

Open, honest and transparent rank highest

When considering the factors most important to the overall reputation of a financial services company, those surveyed ranked “honest communication” (91%) and “open and transparent business practices” (84%) at the top.

Insights and strategic takeaways

Financial institutions are suffering from an enormous trust deficit. Transparency and honest communications will drive corporate reputation.

“What this means,” said Edelman’s Zilka, “is that C-Suite executives must dig in and externally communicate the values of their institutions while internally setting high standards for honest communication and transparent business practices.”

You have to mean what you say, say what you mean, do what you say and live up to your promises. As long as people think financial institutions are acting in their own interests, bank brands will continue to suffer. Trust is the bedrock of every brand.

This article © 2012 by The Financial Brand and may not be reproduced.

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The brand identity for Danversbank shuns the ubiquitous photos of smiley, happy, shiny people in exchange for a unique two-dimensional illustrated character affectionately named “Noggin.”

Noggin has grown to become the centerpiece of the bank’s brand, which features ironic and humorous Venn diagrams, pie charts and quirky messages — things not typically found in bank marketing.

Work on the Danversbank brand got underway in January 2009, and Noggin made his first debut a few months later.

“What we tried to do once we came up with the brand position was to integrate it into everything,” said Dave Munroe, SVP/Director of Marketing at Danversbank. “It really does reflect the personality of the people who work here.”

How’s that?

“We’re quirky, offbeat,” Munroe explained.

Munroe said Danversbank didn’t want the predictability of stuffy lifestage photos with standard, staid messages.

“We saw an opportunity to create something that really set us apart,” he said.

Noggin acts as the bank’s alter ego, spouting expressions that make sense, a deliberate attempt to reinforce Danversbank’s slogan, “Makes Sense.

“Now our employees channel the Noggin character,” Munroe said. “They wonder, ‘What would Noggin say?’”

The agency behind the Noggin concept, Fort Franklin, was showered with advertising awards for its work on the Danversbank brand. Fort Franklin has since been acquired by Connelly Partners.

Danversbank itself has also merged. In January 2011, People’s United announced it was buying the Boston bank as part of an on-going effort to expand its presence there.

The bank has nearly doubled its assets in the last few years. At the time it was acquired, Danversbank had around $2.7 billion in assets, 28 branches and 375 employees.

“Fort Franklin’s creativity and nontraditional approach is what attracted us to them. We wanted our advertising to better portray the bank’s personality, and there is no doubt that Fort Franklin has helped us do that—and to really stand out

It is unclear whether People’s United, whose brand is decidedly more traditional and subdued than Danversbank, will adopt the Noggin identity or phase it out. Hopefully this won’t be the swan song for Danversbank’s fresh brand image.

Danversbank placed branded seat cushions on park benches,
in bus shelters and on trains around Boston. Street teams also
handed out cushions before every Red Sox game.

Sensors trigger a “cha-ching” sound effect whenever a person walks by the posters.

This article © 2012 by The Financial Brand and may not be reproduced.

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