Branding is a relatively new challenge for twenty-first century banks, which have not historically viewed brand management as relevant to the industry. The thinking was that branding practices only made sense for consumer goods and didn’t quite fit into the financial world.
Today, banks recognize that practicing active brand management is necessary in an increasingly competitive environment. The thinking has gone beyond products, which don’t vary greatly between institutions from the average customer’s point of view, to other aspects of doing business such as customer experience.
Really, what branding for banks is all about is attempting to define the character of the institution. It is run by actual human beings, not calculators. What do you on the inside believe you can help customers accomplish? Who do you most want to help?
It is no simple exercise to take these ideas and translate them into artwork … but that’s exactly what we love helping our financial industry clients do. Here are some key questions we ask when engaging with banks to learn about signage and vehicle/structure wrapping needs.
1. Where are you in the branding process?
Answers range from, “We’ve been farming out our marketing and haven’t taken ownership of our brand yet,” to “It’s well-defined and these are the parameters we need you to follow.” The answer to this question gives us a starting point.
2. What is your target service area?
Once you’ve defined the character you want to communicate and to whom (target audience), we can help create a strategy for impressions (views). This starts with wraps/signs at your branch and ATM locations, but may also include strategic use of wrapped company vehicles.
3. What design specifications do you have?
Yes, we’ve heard the word “compliance” before! It’s of the upmost importance that we maintain brand continuity by remaining consistent in the use of design elements, such as the official company pantone colors, in all artwork. Inconsistent art implies inconsistent character.
4. How long until the next rebrand?
We usually hope the answer to this question is, “A very long time.” Customers expect banks to keep up with the times, but it’s more important for banks to appear unshakeable. That’s why we generally use the best of materials to make signage last for years to come.
What we’re trying to say is, we love a good challenge and are looking forward to our next bank job! (Please don’t take that out of context.)
