Clear Corporate Profile for Greater Sales Success

How come the regional market leader in the sector for private and medium-sized corporate clients has a „bad“ image with its non-clients and own employees, even though its marketing expenses are rising constantly? The current clients seem to be the only ones for whom the bank has a good image. Where does this discrepancy come from?

One of the top 5 regional banks in Germany – with a distinct focus on private clients and medium-sized companies, as well as over 150 years of tradition and clear market leadership in the region – assigned Arkwright to sharpen its corporate profile and develop a communication strategy.

The project aims were defined together with the executive committee:

• Improving the image and sharpening the corporate profile towards clients, employees and non-clients
• Developing and embedding a clear customer advantage as a differentiation from competitors
• Developing a communication strategy to support the sales team in reaching its goals
• Increasing communication efficiency, thus lowering the overall marketing budget

Comparing the corporate strategy with competition and market analyses as well as a number of interviews at all levels of the bank showed that the path chosen by management was correct. But so far, leading all employees along that road as well as showing the distinct customer advantage of the bank towards clients, employees and non-clients was not succeeding.

Based on the results of the analysis, a common understanding of the present situation was clarified in a brand workshop with the bank’s management. Based on the corporate strategy, market analysis as well as the bank’s strengths, the target positioning was developed. Part of this target positioning are the brand’s core values, which clearly sets it apart from the competitors in the market and promises customers a considerable advantage.

Based on the workshop results, a brand bible was developed, defining these core brand values for all client groups and divisions. Thus, the brand bible represents an action guideline for all employees (advisors, marketing, public relations, etc.) and all processes (branch organization, basic and advanced training, pricing structures, etc.).

At the same time, Arkwright analyzed the bank’s past communication. It was found that the number of messages was too high and the communication as a whole was not adapted to the target group. By summarizing single topics into fields of need and focusing the topics onto the relevant channels, the efficiency of the individual measures was increased considerably and the marketing budget was lowered. By linking communication planning with the sales process, it was possible to support the employees in reaching their sales goals.