brand a bank

8/14/2019 Brand a Bank

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the new brand heaviesGlobal monoliths such as Santander and Aviva are bringing local brandsunder the banner. But at what cost to goodwill? By GeorGina Wilson-PoWell

“is it a bus company?”

“Do they make eminine hygiene

health products?”

These were the responses given to a

recent Guardian newspaper journalist

who asked the great British public who

Aviva are. This is despite a six-month

advertising campaign costing £20m

eaturing a whole rat o amous actors,

that was supposed to promote theinsurance giant as a household name in

the UK. Fair to say, then, not the most

successul rebrand o recent times.

As with most things this year, people

are questioning the cost, the commercial

(and common) sense o a change and,

annoyingly or the nancial institutions,

rebranding has become a fashpoint or

media-fogging. But rebrands continue

apace. Next year, Abbey, Alliance &

Lester and Bradord & Bingley become

Santander; there are tough times ahead

and rebranding can be a risky move, so

how do you make it a success?

2009 has seen the nancial market

become more concentrated in general,

not just through global insurers ensuring

all their ducks are wearing the same

colour suit in a row, but within the UK,

major banks have ‘rescued’ slightly

smaller and much worse-o banks, like

some giant game o Pacman, except the

recession ghosts keep on coming and it’s

not 50p o the taxpayer’s money every

time someone wants a go.

“Banks have to work bloody hard to

win back the hearts and minds o their

customers and do everything they can torestore some aith,” says Neil Svenson,

CEO o Ruus Leonard, the agency which

has acted as brand guardians or Lloyds

TSB since the two banks merged 12 years

ago. “Banks have to move rom a product

sell into trying to build relationships

with their customers and oering them

a service. You are looking or someone

to manage your money, they know more

than you do and should be looking ater

your interests. These are hard promises

to keep at the moment but that’s where

they have to go. Is that rebranding, or

repositioning or reevaluating?”

There is some agreement that nancial

services shouldn’t rebrand just because

the economy is in recession. It is not the

quick x o a sharp U-turn, but a long

term reassessment, a new route plottedand planned out and once the course is

set, it is unstoppable.

“It’s only the right time t o undertake

a rebrand when it’s the right time to do

it. Not because the economy has gone

tits up but because the organisation has

culturally changed,” continues Svenson.

David Airey agrees. Airey’s a graphic

designer responsible or the book Logo

Design Love: A Guide to Creating Iconic

Brand Identities, and he runs a popular

design blog o the same name. “Banks

shouldn’t be changing logos or identities

because condence is low. Knee-jerk

brand spending is not a good remedy.

I you take the visual identity o a bank

in isolation and it gives the impression

o a solid, trustworthy brand then top-

level management should ocus on more

important business decisions.”

“There are other actors besides

design and communications,” says

Stephen Cheliotis, chairman o the

Superbrands Council. His organisation

compiles an annual list o the top 500

‘superbrands’ that the public then rates

and ranks. It uses existing market data,

expert and media opinion, as well as

commissioning resh research each year.

“Other actors include how

compelling its oering is, its ability to

deliver promises, its prole and heritage

and there are outside actors depending

on the context. For instance the trust andsecurity o a nancial brand is more vital

today than it was.”

Heritage is a drum that has been

banged pretty loudly lately. Abbey will

lose a name 130 years old, while Bradord

& Bingley has 60 years’ worth o trading,

but heritage is only worth something

when the brand perorms well. And with

Santander’s case it is a case o swapping

British heritage or Spanish – the banking

group has been trading since 1857.

But rebrands, as the result o

acquisitions or mergers, are not new.

Today’s nancial institutions acing a

potential backlash, should remember

that change might not be appreciated

but is soon orgotten. Remember

Midland Bank? It was only ten years ago

that perceived ‘outsider’ brand HSBC

acquired it, modernised it and shoved it

out into the wide world with a shiny new

name and logo, and it has remained a

suitable success story.

Think back to The Woolwich (with 160

years’ trading and 3.8 million customers),

which was bought by Barclays in 2000.

It saw nearly 200 branches close in what

was a slight PR disaster or the largerbank nine years ago, but now, how oten

does this keep you awake at night? Do

you even remember The Woolwich,

despite Barclays promising “Woolwich

will be to Barclays what iPod is to Apple”?

High-street bank Lloyds TSB will be

looking at these precedents (and its own

merger o blue and green in 1998) with

hope. The above move by Barclays cost ▶

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▶ over 1,000 jobs, but in t hese uncertain

times, redundancies are even less

appreciated. The HBOS buyout has cost

the brand 13,000 jobs and a rat o bad

press it had so ar avoided. High street

banks have made 42,000 sta redundant

in the past 12 months, 33,000 o those

have between Lloyds TSB and RBS. That

means there is a lot more to moan over

rebranding now, than whether we like

the new ad campaign or not. Rebranding

costs jobs as well as money.

Lloyds TSB, previously o course,

had been a successul rebranding story,

much like HSBC. The amous Lloyds

black horse was replaced with a world o

quirky, inormal animation and concept

advertising, ‘For the journey,’ taglines anda soundtrack that became a No1 selling

single. “What more could you want rom

an ad campaign?” says Svenson.

“A whole amily o advertising

has ollowed Lloyds TSB’s lead. The

communication since the merger has

been that the bank is there or lie and all

your ups and downs, something they’ve

achieved very successully.”

However, the bank’s acquisition o

HBOS has been dierent. It’s happened

ar more quickly and not much trace o

the HBOS identity remains. Svenson

admits, “Mergers can take a generation o

people to ully take eect. It was only our

or ve years ago that Lloyds TSB started

to think and act like one company.”

Alongside this warning, banks, like

any other brand, meddle with their

existing communications at their peril,

says Cheliotis. Even the perception o a

bad rebrand can spell disaster.

“A strong brand shits the demand

curve, increasing either the volume o the

value o products and services sold, while

also reducing risk, or example, through

encouraging brand loyalty. I the brand

is damaged in any way, then that has thepotential to serious aect its business

reputation and its bottom line.

“I’d advocate rebranding only when

it’s vital, such as when a brand has lost

all its equity or when using a monolithic

global brand outweighs perceptual and

nancial benets o local brands.”

An example o this is Santander, which

has 90 million customers globally; most o

whom will never have hea

& Bingley. I it is looking t

bringing all its regional br

umbrella makes good bus“Santander is clearly a

move and it’s created som

awareness and goodwill i

o time. It will, however, n

to invest considerable sum

marketing and sure that i

products and services to i

base i it is to establish lo

credentials in the UK,” say

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▶ Part o its success can be down to a

clear marketing strategy and a long term

game plan. Santander has invested in

British sport by sponsoring Formula 1

circuits and Lewis Hamilton (a British

sports person who actually wins

occasionally), making itsel, at least in the

UK, synonymous with something visible.

It’s only next year, six years ater

buying Abbey and two ater it bought

A&L and B&B that everything will come

under the Santander banner, with 1,300

Santander branches to be open by the end

o 2010, serving 25 million customers. It

has been advertising Abbey as ‘part o the

Santander Group’ or the past couple o

years, and the Abbey logo was recreated

in Santander’s house style in 2005.

“Bradord & Bingley or Alliance

& Leicester are not particularly well-

regarded brands, though I’m sure

they had close connection with some

customers,” says Cheliotis. “And while

Abbey is a brand that has improved in our

ranking considerably over the last year,

it remains well behind, say, Barclays and

HSBC. These brands had some heritage

and goodwill but I’m sure they won’t be

too sorely missed in the medium term.”

Aviva, the world’s th largest insurer,

was Aviva in 20 o the 27 o the countries

it operates in (60 per cent o its business

is non-UK). But the rebrand has not been

an unmitigated success. Part o this might

be down to timing, costs (said to be up to

£80m) and there are reports o the insurer

cutting the value o about-to-mature

policies, which isn’t going to endear

it to anyone, let alone its customers.

One o the problems here is that,

Norwich Union became Aviva overnight

(1 June 2009) and no amount o airtime

eaturing Bruce Willis can gloss over

the act that the brand and logo are

meaningless to the average consumer.

Aviva means ‘spring’ in Hebrew –

obviously o great relevance to someone

who has had insured their Volvo with

Norwich Union since 1994.

“In an economic downturn, a well-

regarded, well known and trusted name

can be extremely important. A strong

brand is a guarantee o a certain level

o service or product quality. Oten in a

downturn there is a fight to quality and

people eel more secure turning to those

organisations that are well respected

and that have previously lived up to their

promises,” explains Cheliotis.

“It has also been proven that those

organisations that continue to invest in

their brand and marketing suer less

in an economic downturn and recover

aster than those that do not invest in their

brand, or who have a weaker brand.”

Aviva can be accused o misjudging

the current market, not necessarily

through undertaking a name change but

by not backing it up (so ar) with anything

that eels condent enough to replace the

Norwich Union identity. Santander has

stuck to its original 150-year-old-name,

with regional acquisitions being required

to all into line as policy, while Aviva has

imposed a rather grey and dull, ‘thought

up in a ocus group’ style o moniker,

almost as an aterthought.

It makes global marketing a damn sight

easier. The trouble is, the public and the

media are going to be slow to love them. ■

how to...

Six StepS to SucceSSfully

branding a bank from

SuperbrandS’ Stephen cheliotiS

Deliver on your promises•

Be honest, open and fair•

Offer exceptional customer service•

and treat your customers as peoplenot numbers

Stand out without being wacky•

Communicate with the customers•

in a way they understand

Continue to innovate in terms of •

product, service and delivery

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