Our second topic in follow-up to last week’s ABA Bank Marketing conference is “branding beyond graphic design.” As we mentioned last time, keep your eye on the Grow Your Bank blog by Market Insights for additional insights on this discussion topic, as well.
So here’s my take, not just for bank branding but for any corporate branding. It’s not so much “parts of bank branding go beyond financial graphic design” as much as it is “financial graphic design is just a small occasional part of bank branding.”
As I mentioned before, bank branding is about experience creation through management of touch points. So take a look at your list of touch points: it includes, yes, brochures, websites and ads. But that’s just a small portion of all your touch points. It also includes your choice of carpet, the way your employees shake hands, the way you hand your customers receipts, the choice of lighting in your branch and approximately 345,932,317 other items, at my last count.
When you look at your list of touch points–the little experiences that form your brand–relatively few of them are based on graphic design. In fact, a good chunk of your touch points are created by your people, your operational processes and your spaces. Only a few of them are created by your bank marketing department.
To put it in CBC-speak, branding is about proving the story (see previous post). In most cases, graphic design simply tells the story.
{ 2 comments… read them below or add one }
Jeff, I agree with your assessment that graphic design is a small portion of the brand experience, and love that you’re challenging readers to consider all customer touchpoints. But I think what financial institutions (and companies in other industries) often don’t consider is the third level of branding–integrated branding. How is your brand driving the decisions you make every day in the work you do? How does it affect the strategies you pursue in areas beyond marketing? How does your brand shape partnerships and sales channels? These are the questions that must be considered in order to achieve a strong brand–otherwise you won’t be organized internally to deliver the experience you’re trying to achieve in each of your touchpoints. –Briana, Parker LePla
Briana, I couldn’t agree more. In CBC-speak, we call integrated branding “proving the story,” and our definition is very similar to yours. You’re totally right–the brand is built by infusing the brand story into those every day decisions, operations, practices, etc.
–Jeff