Brand to Branch®

By Image4 Marketing, posted on February 14, 2022

Brand to Branch® by Image 4

Our 35 years of financial marketing experience – guiding institutions in discovering Your Authentic Brand® through successful deployment of the Brand across branch networks – has enabled us to hone our approach into a well-defined process that delivers results. 

Imagine if your Brand had a loyal group of customers, friends and advocates eager to share their positive Brand Experiences with their friends. What would that do for your financial institution? How can you get there? Image 4 has the answer.

We call it “Brand to Branch®“.

We know that today’s branch traffic is less about transactions than valued interactions and the focus of all financial institutions has to be on creating a customer or member experience that makes an emotional connection.

Authenticity Matters

Authentic Brands enjoy substantial competitive advantage through the passionate support and advocacy of their customers, employees, board members and communities. Why does it matter?

Authenticity is personal. Banking should be personal.

This makes the journey from Brand to Branch® your institution’s road map for a successful face-to-face platform. When you discover Your Authentic Brand®, you create powerful face-to-face relationships. The reward for this journey is devoted, loyal customers some of whom become that most important of sales assets – Brand Advocates. These are the people who sing your praises to friends, physical and virtual.

The Brand to Branch® Program

“Banking” is a commodity, “Financial Service” is not.

What is it that takes your institution from a commodity to a truly service-oriented organization? Find “it” and you remove friction, not only for attracting customers, but also for attracting employees and supporters.

Milepost 1: Brand Discovery

Who are you? Why are you? What is your Unique Value? Why do your customers resonate with your Brand?

Image 4 helps your financial institution discover Your Authentic Brand®, the place where only Your Brand comes from and the voice in which it most powerfully speaks to prospects and customers. We consider your past, present and future. We look at your competition – not just obvious competition, but future trends, technologies and societal shifts. Using regional and local data, interviews with customers, employees and management, we take the time to discover the real you, where the Brand aligns with constituents and where it falls short. We package this into a rich report including analytics and narrative.

Milepost 2: Brand Distillation

Every Brand has a story. Engagement and affinity comes from distilling your Brand aspects into a tight, simple and powerful story.

In an industry where so many banks use positioning such as “community connected” and “great service”, how does Your Authentic Brand® differentiate you? Where does Your Authentic Brand® align with your customers’ and prospects’ needs for their financial service and growth? Image 4’s strategists, writers and editors work to align the discovered aspects of your Brand with your customers and prospects – by market segment, region, age/lifestyle demographic and more. What resonates in Fall River may not connect in Stamford. Boomers may want different products and services from Gen Y. Brand Distillation hones Your Authentic Brand® to resonate.

Milepost 3: Brand Presentation

Where do we tell your story? To Whom? For how long? With what media?

Image 4 builds a storyline for whatever communication platform is being used, from social media and digital interactive to a physical building or campus. And just like “in the movies”, we plot the storyline with visuals – moving the reader and viewer from where they are now, to where you want them to be when they engage with your Brand. Presentation strategy is part of the magic of Brand building – it’s the plan to immerse constituents in your Brand, creating the feelings and memories you want. Once the storyline is roughed, Image 4 designers work with your team to develop assets – content, images, artifacts, video, Brand icons – and design how these assets will be woven together into your Brand presentation.

Milepost 4: Customer Experience Design

After doing the hard work of uncovering Your Authentic Brand® and defining it on paper, it’s time to bring Your Authentic Brand® to life! Color, imagery, shape, sound, texture, words, and more go into creating a unified, omni-channel Brand experience. We absorb and integrate all style and design standards into one reference manual to ensure uniform deployment of the Brand across all levels of the organization.

Milepost 5: Deployment

We now take a deeper dive into CX Design based on our decades of experience design across industries. Each touchpoint matters and Image 4 strategists work closely with your team to ensure a memorable customer experience every time they walk through the door.

Creating enthusiastic Brand Advocates and loyal customers that span generations is what we do. Our proprietary Brand to Branch® Program takes your institution from a commodity provider to a sought-after destination for personal banking.

The Proven Roadmap

We work closely with you to move through the five mileposts to achieve your goals.

Image 4 designs and specifies all interior and exterior 3D logo and brand elements, glass markings and films, images and graphics, signs and wayfinding, millwork and more, according to the Brand Presentation Program. We focus on Brand Optimization to ensure your Brand is being presented in a way that is useful, relevant and authentic to effectively communicate your message, products, and culture.

We use your new Style Guide and Brand Design Standards Manual during the Deployment phase to help your team through all of the MarCom challenges associated with a Brand identity launch; in-branch, website, social, and digital.

 

Where to start?

Contact us today to discuss the exciting possibilities for Your Authentic Brand®We will meet you where you are. Each institution’s team has strengths: tell us about yours and let us know where we can best help.  

View our portfolio to see a selection of successful Brand to Branch® projects.


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