A reconfigured brand allows Mississippi bank to market with new, unified voice.

• Position: Marketing News

The Hancock Bank, based in Gulfport, Miss., was able to strengthen its overall marketing as a result of lessons learned during a branch merchandising program.

The bank figured out how to reinforce its brand and market with a more unified voice after participating in a "brand translation exercise" that was intended to help the bank develop a brand blueprint for all the verbal and visual elements of its marketing materials, branch interiors training programs and signage. The exercise was created and run by Willey Brothers, a merchandising and brand consulting company in Rochester, N.H.

The Hancock Bank defined its lighthouse symbol, used in its logo since the early 1930s, as a unique unifying symbol for the company. Modeled on the original Ship island Light Station #2 (located 12 miles south of the Mississippi Gulf Coast), this visual brand beacon became an "illuminating theme" replicated on all of the bank's merchandising, collateral materials and other brand-building communications.

Just as lighthouses served as beacons for sea-going commerce, Hancock used the lighthouse to convey a message that it has "illuminated the right financial solutions" for generations of families and business owners for all the stages of their lives.

The bank has $4 billion in...