Discover your bank's personality: all bank brands possess at least one of five traits: sincerity, competence, excitement, ruggedness or sophistication.

• Author: Gibbons, James
• Position: Branding

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In good times and bad, the banks that survive and thrive are the ones that know who they are and behave accordingly. To "know who you are" requires an understanding of the history and preferences of the organization itself. To "behave accordingly" can be harder than it sounds, especially when trends and market forces put your bank under stress. That's where the rubber meets the road, so to speak.

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To discover who you are and how to behave accordingly your bank needs to identify its brand personality. Research shows that every brand falls primarily into one of five personality characteristics: sincerity, competence, excitement, ruggedness or sophistication. When formulating a brand, it is useful to measure the organization--through interviews, questionnaires and examinations of key documents--to discover the brand personality. The best brands are built on traits inherent in the organization, and the least successful brands are those in which creative elements are imposed on the organization.

Usually a brand will have some characteristics of a secondary personality, and occasionally, a third. Banks are assumed to be competent, so many banks have competence as a secondary personality. Only a category leader, such as Bank of America, can own competence as its primary personality. But that leaves plenty of room for everyone else to differentiate.

Once you've identified your brand personality, it will help you with all sorts of decisions in marketing and beyond: executive hiring, staff development, site selection, product development, community work, partnerships and joint ventures, media policies ... even interior decor and architecture.

A sincerity brand

"I have found it very helpful in reviewing possible promotional strategies," says Andrew Rosen, chief marketing officer at Hawaii's Central Pacific Bank (assets: $5.7 billion). This more than 50-year-old bank is a sincerity brand, founded in a grass-roots effort by Japanese Americans, including members of the famous World War II Japanese-American 442nd Combat Team. They have a unique heritage that points toward brand expressions--the sensory and behavior elements of a brand.

When Japanese Anmricans returned from World War II, some of whom were highly decorated for their valor, their desire was to start businesses and raise families--making the most of their GI Bill benefits. But they found it difficult to get loans. So, they began planning meetings in a public park, over "plate lunch." Out of the grass-roots effort came one of the strongest banks in Hawaii, now the state's fourth largest.

This heritage continues to drive many of the bank's choices. The bank is known for its work in small, underserved communities and with small-, mid-sized and family-owned businesses. These characteristics, combined with the unique Hawaii culture makes for a brand that is casual, intimate and very sincere. The brand expresses the personality through the use of Hawaii elements such as aloha and palake fabric, indigenous flowers and the "pot-luck" theme.

Just as brand personality can be influenced by cultural components, past choices can...