Your Bank's Image: Keeping it Consistent.

• Author: Alvarez, Eduardo J.

These days, banks are challenged to 'stretch' their identities to accommodate a diversity of media, from direct mail to the Internet. A mutating, out-of-control image can weaken the brand and undercut marketing effectiveness.

Here are some ideas about how to keep your institution's identity constant--no matter what the channel.

Caution! Your bank may be streeeeeeeeetching its brand identity out of shape. This distortion can happen as banks--responding to rapid change in the financial service industry--reach out to consumers through a variety of new channels. Extended communication creates a special challenge: how to maintain a consistent corporate image and identity across all customer touch points--direct mail, stationary, signage, collateral materials, the Internet, as well as print and broadcast advertisements.

An inconsistently used corporate identity weakens the brand and diminishes the bank's competitiveness.

Several banks have responded to this challenge by developing programs designed to reinforce the strength of brand image across a variety of channels, both traditional and new.

Before looking at these programs, however, let's review the importance of a brand to an effective marketing program. A brand should be more than a mere name identifying an institution, or a class of products or services. A successful brand will invoke an association, an emotion and an expectation in the consumer's mind. Campbell's Soup, with its heritage of quality that is good for you, (Mom always said so) is comfort food recognized the world over. Examples of other brands that create positive emotional associations include McDonald's, Nike and Coca-Cola.

Each of these brands succeeds in leading its category because it has been inoculated with intangible characteristics that favorably affect consumer perceptions. The brand's corporate parents manage the brand artfully and strategically. These parents 'recognize that the value of their franchise is embedded more deeply in this consumer perception than in any secret ingredient, distribution strategy or specific marketing campaign.

Financial institutions, as a category, have rarely succeeded in winning consumer loyalty as a result of a branding strategy (Citibank and Lloyd's of London being notable exceptions). This results from the fact that consumer loyalty to a bank or other financial institutions historically evolved out of personal relationships with local financiers, who competed in a far smaller and less competitive marketplace than exists today.

Creating consumer preference

Technology, globalization, new entrants and consumer mobility have changed the competitive situation significantly.

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