Presentation on branding for community banks.

1. School of Marketing
Part III: Marketing
Identity & Branding
December 16, 2008

2. Marketing Identity & Branding, Niki Voyatzis
What is Corporate Identity
and Branding?
 The first use of a brand was just that –
a mark of ownership on cattle.
 Branding has evolved to become the name, term, design,
symbol or other feature that distinguishes products and
services from competitive offerings.

3. Marketing Identity & Branding, Niki Voyatzis
Why is Branding Important?
 Managing your brand using consistent names, logos, messaging,
slogans, and design schemes for your products and services will help
differentiate you from the rest and increase your perceived value.
 Beyond that, your corporate identity and branding defines the
“personality” of your business and includes your consumers’
experience with your service and products.
 In community banking, you cannot always differentiate yourself on
the basis of banking products and technology - many of these factors
may be similar among your competitors.

4. Marketing Identity & Branding, Niki Voyatzis
Why is Branding Important?
Fundamentally a brand is created to
establish and increase customer
loyalty with products and services.

5. Marketing Identity & Branding, Niki Voyatzis
Why is Branding Important?
 Managing your brand is the difference between:
a cup of coffee and Starbucks.
an mp3 player and an iPod.

6. Marketing Identity & Branding, Niki Voyatzis
Why is Branding Important?
a community bank and your community bank.

7. Marketing Identity & Branding, Niki Voyatzis
A Good Brand Should…
 be legally protectable
 be attention-grabbing
 be easy to remember
 be easy to recognize
 suggest benefits to consumer
 distinguish positioning
 suggest an image
Can you identify these logos?
What other ideas do you
associate with these brands?
Do these brands fulfill the
criteria of being a good brand?

8. Marketing Identity & Branding, Niki Voyatzis
Types of Brands
 Premium Brand
better quality, better service, exclusive
 Economy Brand
competitive prices
 Fighting Brand
competitive product or market
 Family Brand
niche divisions of a large national brands
Which Brand Type best
describes your community bank?

9. Marketing Identity & Branding, Niki Voyatzis
Challenges in Creating Your Identity
 Creating financial objectives
How does developing your brand fit into your budget?
 Focusing on short-term goals vs. long-term branding
Special offers and short term solutions may yield profits, but how
do they develop your bank’s image?
 Lack of information
How can you learn the most about your competitors, the market,
and marketing in general?

10. Marketing Identity & Branding, Niki Voyatzis
Challenges in Creating Your Identity
 Conflicts with corporate objectives
How can you develop a brand that emphasizes CBC’s Core Values
and benefits investors?
 Too narrow focus (products vs. bank)
Are your banking products the only thing that defines what you
have to offer as a community bank?
 Collaboration/execution with corporate and creative
How can you best develop your identity while collaborating with
the legal, compliance, marketing, web, and IT departments?

11. Marketing Identity & Branding, Niki Voyatzis
Who Are You?
 Before you can develop and protect your brand, you need to
determine what image you want to portray to your customers.
 Some key questions to consider:
a) Who are you? b) What do you do? c) Why does that matter?
 Not only do you have to answer these questions about your bank,
but your customers should equally be able to answer these
questions through their experience with you. If they cannot
verbalize what you stand for, your bank will not be memorable.
 Your message should stay consistent over time to reinforce its
place in your customers’ minds and thus develop a lasting
relationship.

12. Marketing Identity & Branding, Niki Voyatzis
How to Develop Your Brand
 Make specific claims - Simply saying “you can trust us” makes you
suspect. Choose your words carefully and try using specific words
to match your claims of how you can benefit your customer.
 Back up those claims – show detailed product features and how
they provide your customer a benefit.
 Commit to your niche – If you want to portray your bank as a
Quality Brand, then you would not want to brand yourself as the
“value option.”
 Hone Your Message and Look – Your collateral should support
your brand image. Show that your bank is confident and
consistent. A scattered look and message shows panic. Stick to
your strategic and advertising plans.

13. Marketing Identity & Branding, Niki Voyatzis
How to Develop Your Brand
 Every detail plays a role – In addition to your website and
marketing collateral, your branding is communicated through your
surroundings and furniture, telephone greetings, even your
wardrobe or email signatures. Pay attention to the details.
 The quality of your collateral is important – Collateral that is
unprofessional conveys a low quality and low service image. Even
on small marketing budgets, taking the time and effort to create
clean and professional collateral can go a long way.

14. Marketing Identity & Branding, Niki Voyatzis
How to Protect Your Brand
 Work with CBC’s Communications and Legal
Departments to learn more on trademarks and
protecting your brand
 A trademark allows the seller to protect use and misuse by
competitors and helps to prevent confusion in the market.
 Examples of what can be trademarked: logos, names, tag
lines
 Be on top of logo, url, and tagline usage. Do not dilute
logo with alternate versions. Approve and control all
uses of logo by third-party vendors.

15. Marketing Identity & Branding, Niki Voyatzis
Developing Your Image
Answering these questions can help start determine the direction of
what kind of brand image you want to portray to your customers.
ARE YOU:
a) Progressive
b) Reliable
c) Friendly
DO YOU PLAN TO:
a) Charge more than your competitor, but add value in a different way
b) Charge less than your competitor
c) Charge the same, but add value in a different way

16. Marketing Identity & Branding, Niki Voyatzis
Developing Your Image
WHY ARE YOU IN THIS BUSINESS?
a) You see a valuable market opportunity
b) You know the industry like the back of your hand
c) You love what you do and you’re good at it
WHAT BEST DESCRIBES THE HEAD OF YOUR BANK?
a) Progressive/Risk-taker
b) Reliable/Organized
c) Friendly and open-minded
WHAT KIND OF CUSTOMERS DO YOU WANT?
a) Want the newest technology
b) Risk averse/conservative
c) Value customer service above all

17. Marketing Identity & Branding, Niki Voyatzis
Developing Your Image
Please note: Below are some example results, but should not be considered
the complete process of developing your brand image
If you answered mostly A - INNOVATIVE
You may consider that your bank portray a risk-taking image, with
cutting edge technology and innovative products. Your messaging and
collateral would be fast-paced, trendy, colorful, and would show
movement.
Visual Examples of Innovative:

18. Marketing Identity & Branding, Niki Voyatzis
Developing Your Image
If you answered mostly B - TRADITIONAL
You may prefer to convey an image of stability. By providing
conservative, yet reliable products and services, your image shows
customers you are trustworthy and dependable. Your messaging and
collateral would consist of darker colors, sharp lines, formal writing
and a clean, professional layout.
Visual Examples of Traditional:

19. Marketing Identity & Branding, Niki Voyatzis
Developing Your Image
If you answered mostly C - APPROACHABLE
Your community bank most portrays the image of the friendly,
neighborhood bank. Customers can expect service from potential
friends and neighbors and every question will be handled with a warm
smile. Your messaging and collateral would consist of earthy colors,
curves, less formal script, and photos depicting everyday people.
Visual Examples of Approachable:

20. Marketing Identity & Branding, Niki Voyatzis
Developing Your Image
No matter what the brand image you feel best suits your
bank, it is important to stay consistent!
CBC Marketing 2009 Goals
The Marketing Department, in collaboration with the Web
Team, is working diligently to create fresh, ready-to-use
marketing collateral in 2009 that will accommodate the
different branding options for your bank.

21. Marketing Identity & Branding, Niki Voyatzis
Keeping Your Marketing
Collateral Consistent
Once you have determined your brand position and image, here are some
helpful suggestions for keeping your message consistent and memorable.
 Color – Color plays a large role in memory retrieval. Not everything
needs to match exactly, but marketing materials should be
coordinated and should evoke similar emotional responses.
 Key Graphics – repetition of graphic elements helps customers
recall your brand faster. Reusing the same image in multiple ads and
collateral is not bad! Remember, just because you see the same
image over and over does not mean your customers do.
 Fonts – To avoid a cluttered document, avoid using more than two
different fonts.

22. Marketing Identity & Branding, Niki Voyatzis
Keeping Your Marketing
Collateral Consistent
 Messaging – Use the same voice on your materials. Be consistent
whether you choose to use an informal or formal messaging style.
Use your tagline consistently.
 Logo usage – Use your logo on all communications. Never alter
your logo! In advertising and marketing collateral, logos are most
effective when placed in the same location at the same size. Try to
maintain control of logo usage.
 Stay the Course –Branding is about building trust and it takes time
and consistency. From a customers’ perspective, it takes a lot of
repetition before they begin to recognize your branding efforts.

23. Marketing Identity & Branding, Niki Voyatzis
Marketing Collateral Blunders
 Choosing low-quality paper stock – Economy paper may save
money, but it feels cheap. Touch is an important sense in memory
recall. Work with your printer in determining what paper you should
use for your collateral and request paper samples.
 Using too much color and graphics – Your collateral shouldn’t
scream to get attention. Avoid scaring customers with busy and
unprofessional imagery

24. Marketing Identity & Branding, Niki Voyatzis
Marketing Collateral Blunders
 Making your logo gigantic – You may notice in advertisements the
bigger the company, the smaller the logo. While the logo features
your name, it should not be the main focus in collateral – your
customers are more interested in what you can provide for them.
Instead of enlarging your logo for emphasis, employ white space
around it to bring attention to it.
 Filling up white space –
White space brings focus to what’s
important and gives the eye a rest.
Too much text is overwhelming
and chaotic, and will not be retained
by your customer. Less is more!

25. Marketing Identity & Branding, Niki Voyatzis
Marketing Collateral Blunders
 Focusing only on product details – Customers are not concerned
with only product details, but rather how the product benefits them.
 Copying competitors in the market – Your goal is to differentiate
yourself in the market, not to blend in with everyone else.
 Changing design styles with every piece – Clean, compelling and
consistent makes you memorable.
 Making decisions solely on personal preference – Just because you
don’t like the color green doesn’t always mean it won’t be effective
for your customers. Balancing personal preferences with objective
strategy – your brand should reflect your personality, but it’s
important to weigh in proven marketing suggestions and customer
feedback.

26. Marketing Identity & Branding, Niki Voyatzis
Before & After Case Study
Challenge:
Marketing collateral and
website for Sunrise Bank of
Arizona were not consistent,
outdated and did not
accurately reflect the
personality and desired brand
message of the bank.
Sunrise Bank of Arizona felt
that their branding and
marketing materials should be
vibrant, progressive, and
modern to best attract their
target market.

27. Marketing Identity & Branding, Niki Voyatzis
Before & After Case Study
Establishing Color
and Layout:
The marketing team provided a
few color options that would
reflect the bright and vibrant
approach requested by the
bank.
The bank was also provided
with rough sketches of a
possible layout. With further
discussion and content
development, the layout drafts
would eventually be refined.

28. Marketing Identity & Branding, Niki Voyatzis
Before & After Case Study
Results:
Sunrise Bank of Arizona now has consistent collateral that speaks to
their customers and is a refreshing change from local competitors.

29. Marketing Identity & Branding, Niki Voyatzis
Before & After Case Study

30. Marketing Identity & Branding, Niki Voyatzis
Before & After Case Study
POWERPOINT PRESENTATION VINYL BANNER
WEBSITE

31. Marketing Identity & Branding, Niki Voyatzis
Strong Brand = Loyal Customers
 Building a strong image will facilitate you in introducing
additional products and services at a lower risk while
enhancing your core brand.
 You continue to build on your customer’s relationship
and the attitude toward your brand. Attitude strength is
built by the experiences they have with you and your
products. This consumer’s awareness and associations
lead to perceived quality and eventually brand loyalty.

32. Marketing Identity & Branding, Niki Voyatzis
CBC Communications & Marketing
Muriel Neddermeyer
Marketing Manager (West)
Amy Ungar
Marketing Manager (East)
Angela Kimber
Director of Communications
Niki Voyatzis
Graphic Designer

33. Marketing Identity & Branding, Niki Voyatzis
Thank you for attending the School of
Marketing and Communications.
Upon completing the last remaining class,
you will receive a
Capitol University Marketing Certificate.