Here’s a harsh truth; historically, the financial industry had been a homogenous market and this is what financial marketers had been contending with since marketing carved a niche in the banking industry. After all, almost every bank has the same offerings; loans, checking, savings, and a few trivial side products added for good measure. However, are all the banks essentially the same? If you just nodded your head in approval, your bank might be in the throes of a brand identity crisis! Take a moment and ask yourself the following questions:
When bared of all facades, all banks are technically the same, yet why is one favored over the other? In the past, rates have had precedency as the chief value of any financial proposition, while branding had no seat at all. However, the market of today has been impacted by an explosive change that has left the stick-in-the-mud marketers in conundrum.
Even a few years ago, no one would have believed the touch points customers have with banks. A contemporary realization has suddenly dawned upon the traditional banking sector; if you fail to build your bank logo right, or even worse, if your brand loses its relevance and meaning to your customers, there will be nowhere to hide. Times are ruthless and customers are unforgiving!
What financial marketers need to do to is to start denying the fact that all banks are essentially the same because it’s far from the truth. Banks can also differentiate themselves and impinge their brands upon the minds of the customers, albeit not at the product level necessarily. In all honesty, banks do offer services along the same lines, maybe with some inventive variations thrown in, but in the end they are all selling a debit card and a checking account. How gorgeously designed the debit card is, is a moot point.
Where banks CAN differentiate themselves is when it comes to the question of WHO the bank is. It is becoming indispensable for marketers to treat the banking brand as a breathing, living being, which is how people are going to connect with it. It’s not necessarily the cute puppy debit card or the checking account people like. It’s the connection that your brand fosters in the minds of the consumers and the loyalty it breeds.
Here are the 4 quintessential branding elements that marketers can leverage to aid in the process of identifying the brand of the bank and carving out a unique identity that sticks in the minds of the customers for years to come:
An industry that thrives on other people’s money should exude commitment, trust, professionalism, and establish a level of confidence and expertise in their capabilities to manage money. It takes a lot of persuasion to convince people to entrust you their hard earned money. Since people are inherently suspicious of financial institutions, it makes it all the more imperative for banks to project a potent identity.
A viable banking logo is the surrogate voice of your brand and should ideally communicate with an audience and reflect the trusting personality and the business division of the bank. Tiniest details, such as the color of your logo, the typography used, images and icons incorporated, and the shape and size of your logo can be leveraged to articulate your bank message.
This is why banks need to garner a well-designed identity before they become e a faceless entity in the vast sea. In fact, logos are so vital for your banking brand that a bad logo can actually drive customers away and make them distrustful of you! However, since most bank logos incorporate similar elements such as colors and icons, finding an original bank logo that perfectly conveys your business message across to your audience and embodies the true essence of your bank is what sets your bank apart.
Popular Color Palettes For Bank Logos: Explore in detail here.
If you are wondering how banks communicate with their audience effectively through their logos, this is because baking and financial institutions advertise everywhere. You’ll stumble upon banking identities on retail branch signs on every bumper stickers, TV commercials, street corners, and the writing stationery the bank employs. By capitalizing on the prowess of logos as their primary marketing tools, banks glean the power to captivate potential customers and retain the old ones.
Here are some powerful bank logos that deliver the true essence and meaning of banking sector:
The logo offers a promise of security. By incorporating the red arc over the lowercase “t” in Citibank, the logo appears to be a powerful umbrella taking care of and sheltering its trustworthy patrons.
The revamped logo of the Sun Trust bank is a beacon that reflects the diverse range, energy, and the warmth of the organization. The logo is donned up in warm hues to instill a feeling of internal warmth for the SunTrust brand and it’s tight-knit, local community.
While JPMorgan bank has merged with the Chase Manhattan Bank, The latter has still retained its original abstract symbol. The logo reinforced the element of trust by repeating the shape over and over again. The repetitive symbol is designed to nurture a sense of familiarity which makes patrons feel comfortable with entrusting their assets to the organization.
The use of the blue color alone suffices to depict loyalty, trust, and confidence. The typeface Serrano, with its welcoming italicized font, has been specifically designed for the Bank. The logo appears trustworthy, friendly, and modern all at once; all the things you look for in a bank.
The icon used for the Bank of America logo refers to the USA Flag, which is synonymous with patriotism. They say that the best things in life come in 3’s, and this is what you see here. The double-lined pattern repeats thrice to portray familiarity and reinforcement. In addition, we are accustomed to associate blue and red duo with trust, power, strength, and excitement.
All these successful banks have employed ingenious branding designs that communicate crucial information about their strengths and values in a subconsciously effective and non-verbal way. Since the banking industry is a cutthroat arena, logo design may be a significant factor that can make or break an organization. By choosing the face of your bank wisely, you give yourself a clear advantage.
If your banking logo is the face of the brand, a business card is the initial customary greetings one usher to a potential contact. Even in the digital age, a diligently designed business card is a road map to success and opportunity. It could help your bank make money or glean a great business partnership. Despite being a small tool in your bank’s marketing arsenal, business cards can have a significant bearing on your brand recognition and the success of your bank.
Here’s a familiar situation that most banking employees are acquainted with: You have got your networking pants on, and are aspiring to market your bank by making contacts. You stumble across someone who looks like a potential client, perhaps at an airport lounge, happy hour, industry conference, or a tradeshow. So you walk over, introduce yourself, and brief them on what you do, but most importantly, you need to find a way to hand off your contact information. In this regard, a business card makes you look professional and saves plenty of time in small talk, in addition to helping you nurture valuable business connections.
According to John Williams of Entrepreneur magazine, “Business cards, along with your manners and dress, form a client’s first impression of you.” Using business cards depicts the passion and pride you take in your banking services. In addition, business cards imprint your image in the minds of the clients when they get back to their office and find your card stacked in their pockets. Though they may not need your services today, but when they do, they are more likely to pull out your business card and give you a call than scour the web endlessly trying to remember your bank information. Make sure your employees keep a few in their laptop bags, money clip, wallets, or pockets, so the next time they encounter a prospect, they are all set to impress. These paper handshakes provide all the vital information that your contacts need to stay in touch with you.
Here are few pointers to keep in mind when designing a business card for banks:
Every time a bank sends a letter to its customers or prospective clients, it’s akin to sending over an ambassador from your bank to woo them over. The letterhead appearing at the top of the page is the only official representation of your business in your absence. Since your bank letterhead may be the first encounter a client has with your bank, it’s indispensable to leave a great impression that lasts.
Even when you are sending a letter to a customer who has done business with you before, the look and feel of your stationery has a powerful, yet subtle, impact on their attitudes towards your bank. Meticulous letterhead designs can help stimulate a referral or retain a customer. Thus, as with banking business cards, letterheads make for an astoundingly noteworthy marketing investment. Make sure to garner an impressive and clean design that rubs customers favorably.
A letterhead is much more than a blurb you stumble across at the top of each corporate letter. It incorporates vital pieces of information, akin to a business card, that a customer might like to know to get in touch with you. An articulate design approach, imbued with the potent combination of the bank name, logo, and contact information helps establish the message your bank is aspiring to get across and allows for easy recognition and credibility by the recipient. Banks can easily convey and capture their personality in business cards and letterheads.
Something as seemingly unpretentious as a letterhead could give away much about your business at a glance. This is why a carefully designed letterhead communicates a sense of integrity and reliability to your customers and clients, lets them know that you are passionate about what you do and have invested care into the services you tout, and exudes an air of professionalism. On the contrary, an unkempt letterhead reflects bad banking practices and makes clients less eager to associate with your bank.
A smart and professional letterhead should be aligned with your overall marketing plan, as the design you project will appear on all your business communications. Keep all modes of communication, such as banking website, business cards, social media accounts, letterheads, and envelops consistent by using the company logo, similar contact information, the same color palette and typology, and other aesthetic elements.
Designing a letterhead does not need to be complicated. Here are few simple tips to help you design stellar banking letterheads.
When your customers land on your bank’s social media accounts, social media covers act like the gracious smiling hosts who open the gates and usher them in! In a world where more than 40% people claim better response to visual information than plain text, Its prudent to optimize your bank’s social media channels with stunning visuals. Social media cover photos, siting right at the top of your bank’s profiles, are one of the most viable ways of capitalizing on visual content. Banking industry is perhaps construed as boring, dull, and uninventive, but your social media cover photos might say otherwise. These banner sized cover photos allow banks to reflect their established branding or express their online persona.
Your bank’s social media cover photos are great for conveying what your bank has to offer, highlighting a current campaign or a stellar marketing gimmick, and conveying brand values. To optimize your bank’s social media presence, you have to ensure that the images you are using as your social media covers are of top-notch quality, and fit the social network they are used for. Social media covers should not only draw in users but also be enticing enough to compel the customers to spread them across social networks.
Need more engagement? Wonder how to create cover photos that inspire more interactions and page likes? Follow these tips:
Defining the face of your bank is the first steps towards standing out from your competitors. A plethora of banks may offer the same services in the same niche, but how they brand themselves and make an impression set them apart. However, keeping abreast of the latest developments and trends in the logo design industry, keeping up with the essentials of designing a letterhead, wrecking your brains to come up with a business card design that woos your customers, and splurging a fortune on hiring graphic designers to design your social media covers can prove to be too bothersome, exasperating, and time consuming for financial institutions, and like most others, they give up and maintain a low profile.
On the Other hand, DesignMantic offers a complete branding package that allows banks to define their entire marketing strategy using viable tools available at affordable costs. Be it banking logo design, business cards, letterheads, business envelopes, and social media covers, DesignMantic software takes care of all. Since you are designing all your branding elements on the same platform, you can rest assured that consistency and integrity will receive a paramount position, which is what the banking sector stands for.
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