Say What You Mean

A bank brand is a difficult thing to manage at the best of times; for example, you have to attach it to a big idea – the type of idea that is simple enough or strong enough to occupy a place in the minds of customers.

Simple ideas are things like; low cost, high service or luxurious – something all of the banks struggle with, but more about that some other time.

Part of the struggle is that a bank can’t be all things to all people – the needs of business customers are different to the needs of the rich, which are different to the needs of the mass affluent market.

What we have noticed at burningpants lately is that banks are moving away from the traditional methods of advertising (or at least supplementing it) and looking for ways to position differently and the results are, well, patchy.

In the past week we have seen ANZ staffers driving small smartcars around Sydney to promote the fact they are in partnership with the trans-Tasman Netball Championship - handing out recyclable shopping bags (after admittedly saying they had run out of mini netballs).

All in all, a slim connection to the bank, but there you go…

Meanwhile another, and slightly more frightening example, was an electric three wheeled scooter chugging around Sydney’s Warringah Mall last weekend promoting a new Bankwest branch in the shopping centre.

The branch looks fantastic, brightly lit, welcoming and fresh – but the mobility scooter performing slow circles and Austin Powers-styled three-point-turns in the downstairs food court? 

In a place where such scooters are the preserve of the disabled, what is it exactly that Bankwest is trying to say?