The banking industry has been through what marketing experts call brand image turmoil in the aftermath of the financial meltdown two years ago. Now those that have made it through the crisis are working hard to differentiate themselves from the pack. “Part of what we’re seeing now is branding rehab and firms trying to regain customer confidence,” said Brian Hemsworth, president of Newman Grace Inc., a marketing and brand communications firm based in Woodland Hills. “In essence banks are coming out with the message, ‘we’re here for you, we made it through, we were here before, we’re here now, we’re good at what we do’,” said Hemsworth whose company has provided services for local financial institutions. Locally, community banks are more actively soliciting new business with targeted marketing campaigns that convey messages of trust and stability. Bank of Santa Clarita launched its new campaign consisting of targeted billboards and print ads last month with the tag line ‘Banking the way it used to be’, centered around the organization’s core values of trust, tradition and respect. “It’s basically geared to what’s going on in the industry right now and the anxiety that’s going on with banks today,” said Kimberly A. Altobello, executive vice president and chief administrative officer for Bank of Santa Clarita. The campaign, which was the brain child of the bank’s president and CEO James D. Hicken, Vice Chairman Frank Di Tomaso and Altobello, aims to take customers back to what banking used to be 20 years ago, building on the banks identity as a very traditional bank. The idea is that amid all the financial turmoil customers understand that Bank of Santa Clarita has remained “solid as a rock”. “We’re not a thrift. We don’t do subprime loans. We don’t own stock in Fannie Mae or Freddie Mac. We don’t play with “creative” schemes that put your assets at risk. We’re a traditional bank, committed to keeping your deposits safe and protected,” reads a letter to the community posted on their website. Strength and reliability Similarly, at the heart of Community Bank’s most recent radio campaign is a message of strength and reliability in the midst of the negativity surrounding the banking world. “We’ve been very active in soliciting business through print advertising, radio and billboards stressing the bank’s strength and the fact that we’re here to lend money, so our radio campaign is designed to let people know, ‘don’t listen to all the bad news that you hear, we would like to speak with you directly about your business and tell you how we can help,” said Dave Malone, Community Bank president and CEO. Many community banks that have remained strong through the recession and are now actively communicating that strength, have the advantage of having largely dodged the banking areas, such as commercial real estate and construction lending, that got many banks into trouble, according to Hemsworth. Others who have re-invented themselves as a result of the crisis are busy letting customers know what they’ve become. First Private Bank and Trust in Encino, which found itself burdened by troubled construction loans two years ago, will soon be launching an extensive marketing plan involving television, radio and print advertising, as a way to build name recognition and let people know that the bank has changed. No longer the purely commercial bank it was two years ago, First Private Bank & Trust is now a private bank offering wealth management, jumbo mortgages as well as commercial lending. Worst is over The timing of these marketing campaigns coincides with a sense that the worst is over and banks are trying to lure customers who are re-evaluating their current banking relationships. “Last year at this time people were still wondering where things were going, now a lot of people have settled into this groove,” said Hemsworth. “Consumers have become more particular about where they put their money so competition for financial services has gotten stronger. It’s quite a dynamic time for consumers and banks.” According to Sara Barrington, a consultant to small and medium size businesses in the greater Los Angeles area and nationally, the discussion that’s taking place in the boardrooms is concerned with safety of funds, as businesses re-evaluate their banking relationships. “There’s a real discussion about where the money should reside, do you stay with a bank, do you hedge the risk, do you spread that money around?” she said. “Right now it’s not so much about getting a good return on your money, it’s about the safety of the bank.” Big banks Big banks are also launching marketing campaigns in a battle against public perception, and are continuing to engage in corporate giving as a way to build a sense of community around their brand. JP Morgan Chase, which has aggressively grown its brand in California over the last two years since acquiring Washington Mutual, kicked off its Chase Community Giving Summer 2010 program on Facebook June 8. The program allows Facebook fans to vote to decide which, of more than 500,000 charities, should receive a share of $5 million. Additionally, the company launched an innovative incentive June 30, which rewards businesses for each new employee they hire this year. Company spokesperson Eileen Leveckis said Chase will lower its interest rate on a new Chase Business Line of Credit by 0.5 percentage point for each new hire, up to three, for the life of the loan. Counting the discount for a new business checking account, a small business owner could save about $4,000 over three years on an outstanding balance of about $65,000, she estimated. A New Way of Connecting As part of a marketing strategy that complements their grassroots approach to business development, California United Bank will soon be rolling out a new interactive website that hopes to further communicate the bank’s strengths and culture to both customers and prospects. The website, which will feature social media elements and a monthly blog from President David Rainer, is an effort to give the bank a more modern look that coincides with the bank’s growth, according to Sam Kunianski, senior vice president at CUB, who is in charge of new business development. The website will make CUB the first commercial bank in the greater San Fernando Valley area to share information with customers via Facebook and LinkedIn, said Kunianski. The bank hired a banking media specialist from Massachusetts to lead the social media endeavor and hired marketing firm Reason Media in Woodland Hills to design the website “Community banks often lack a personality let alone a branding,” said David Navana, CEO and founder of Reason Media. “This gave us an amazing blank canvas to heighten that personal feel of the bank and allow customers to feel like they are a part of a banking network.” Reason Media specializes in consumer goods sites that require building a culture around a product and has also worked extensively with local non profits. This is the first website the company has developed for a bank, Navana said, and the idea is to incorporate Reason Media’s experience in both the non-profit world and the consumer goods side. The website will engage in an open dialogue with the community, promoting a sense of transparency very valued in the non-profit sector, said Navana, and will also employ elements that make their consumer goods sites successful at promoting “personality products”. “What we’re doing is building a brand culture around the bank and giving it personality,” he said. In a dramatic departure from the gray and stale colors of a typical bank website, Navana said CUB will now post slideshows of popular events, such as the bank’s annual golf tournament, as well as videos and testimonials with clients, on its new site. At a time where distrust of financial institutions still lingers, the website will give prospects a more personal look into the bank’s executive management team and allow customers to feel that they are part of a network where they can establish and build relationships, which could ultimately give the bank an edge when luring new customers, Navana said. — Andrea Alegria
Marketing Blitz: Banks Try to Boost Trust With Campaigns
