Look forward to a new era of high street banking

It's been a busy old month. Following January's gradual start, we've come out of the traps like a greyhound, and we're now busy right across the board. A venerable Scottish bank (with more than 300 years of heritage) has just celebrated its brand relaunch as it seeks to reconnect with its heartland audience. The low-key launch event got me thinking about the bigger picture.

Last month, I reflected on the issue of trust. And it's been nowhere more relevant (and painful) than in financial services. As they emerge from the chaos of the credit crunch, the most important thing for banks to do is re-establish trust with their customers, much of which has been eroded in the stream of negative PR during the past 18 months. This isn't big news, I agree. But how they're going about it is.

Take, for example, the market-wide shift to focusing on existing customers, rather than clinging to the old mantra of "new customers only", which has been lampooned by challenger banking brands over the past few years. It's a trend we're seeing in markets internationally. Consider how some big global banks now offer better deals to existing clients, instead offering competitively pushing headline-grabbing deals for the so-called "new-to-bank" customers before the credit crunch.

Rewarding your existing customers makes perfect sense, because a fundamental element of rebuilding trust is establishing stronger relationships with the people who currently connect with your brand. And I think that you can only rebuild these relationships if your front-line colleagues are well-trained, knowledgeable and able to genuinely empathise with customers. And it doesn't matter whether you sell pensions, or Audis, or trainers.

So we've started to help our clients rebuild the "relationship ethos" among their customer-facing teams. We've looked not only at how staff can become more engaged with their own ad campaigns, but the materials they use with customers, ensuring they receive product information that really feels like it's from a leadership brand.

Banks are also building trust by emphasising their traditional strengths – their size, expertise and long-established heritage in the market. And the bank manager has returned. The role that seemed outdated only a few years ago is now back in favour as personal relationships have come to mean more than anonymous voices in call centres. In the case of the Scottish banks, which have suffered severe reputational damage after hundreds of years of careful prudence, we've also seen a move to rebuild national pride and bolster local identity. New work for Bank of Scotland, which has undergone significant brand realignment as part of Lloyds Banking Group, now emphasises its relationship approach.

This is a significant shift from the rate-driven messaging that worked well a few years ago when credit was widely available, but now seems out-of-place in leaner times. There's a lesson in this for all of us. Be relevant. Focus on the longer game. And look after the people who'll look after you and deliver the greatest long-term value.

Where British banks have been taken into state ownership, we've seen much greater scrutiny of their high-profile marketing expenditure and a clear expectation that they should be wary of luxury or "vanity" projects. This has led to a review of the once widespread sponsorship portfolio of RBS, which has ended some of its deals (such as its association with the Williams Formula 1 team) and renegotiated others (with tennis ace Andy Murray). But the need to cut costs has to be balanced against the need to maintain a viable business. And it doesn't matter whether you're in Edinburgh or Abu Dhabi. So RBS has decided to extend its Six Nations rugby sponsorship until 2013.

And among banks that weren't forced to take public money, we've noticed an element of confidence starting to return to their marketing. With customers visibly upset and banks bolstering their brands to stem attrition, the future is far from predictable. And the real unknown is the impact that potential new banks and new market entrants will have. In the UK, Spanish banking behemoth Santander is busy re-branding its newly-acquired branches, whilst Metrobank and others – potentially including mass consumer brands such as Virgin and Tesco – are likely to take an "anti-category" stance. They'll sound refreshing and squeaky clean. So we can look forward to a new era of high street banking from brands that don't look or sound like banks at all?

- The writer is chief executive of brand and digital agency Rufus Leonard, Dubai and London. The views expressed are his own (neil.svensen@rufusleonard.com)

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