Sixty years ago, locally sourced kale and organic butter instead of iceberg lettuce and margarine weren’t typically on the menu at your favorite cafe. Taking an established recipe and modifying it can be a remarkable success — or it can turn out flatter than a half-baked cake.
Perhaps you are old enough to remember when “New Coke” debuted in the mid-80s? While it only lasted a few months (it was widely considered a failure by most), the resurgence of interest in the Coke® brand was also regarded as a public relations success. For many industries, the lesson can be simple — if it ain’t broke, don’t fix it; but don’t be afraid to tweak a proven recipe either.
In today’s marketplace, brand awareness is critical to the growth of any organization. Modernizing a brand is far different than altering a popular recipe entirely. With the advent of various technologies, consumers have become inundated with numerous marketing channels ranging from traditional OOH (out of home) such as billboards, to the latest geofencing techniques designed to capture live consumers during their purchasing cycles. Success is often measured if the outcome truly achieves the desired goals.
The end goal
For North Dallas Bank & Trust Co., our mission in the past five years has been the reintroduction of our brand in the form of a full-scale brand refresh versus a true rebranding. Our initial goal was simple in theory, but complex in logistics. We wanted to refresh our brand without taking the bank into a totally new direction and risk losing aspects that made us successful from the beginning.
This refresh was a large-scale effort to reintroduce our brand promise and standards to the customers we serve in the greater North Texas market. During the start of this campaign in 2018, NDBT had proudly served our communities for more than 56 loyal and profitable years.
The strategy behind reintroducing our brand considered the extent to which consumers were already familiar with our styling of community banking coupled with the need to gain familiarity from a newer generation, possibly outside of the geographical namesake of North Dallas.
Consistency
The initial focus was a rework of our logomark and a color study which resulted in the unique contrast of orange and blue for our revised brand image. Special attention was placed on the findings of color theory research to produce a modernized logo with sharp tones that convey trust, loyalty, confidence, joy, creativity and encouragement, to highlight a few.
Our goal for the logo revision was about consistency and brand impressions to regain the attention of existing clients while helping to drive new awareness. Unwavering attention to your brand standards remains paramount for successful resonance with audiences.
NDBT ensures that our brand colors are only released as PMS (Pantone Matching System) which allows colors to be replicated with maximum visual consistency in applications such as print, promotional items and digital display. Simply put, if it’s not correct we don’t release it. Think for a moment the color tones of certain leading brand’s logos such as Starbucks®, Target®, Southwest Airlines® and Home Depot®. Likely, you can easily describe these colors from repetitive brand awareness as there is minimal deviation of their brand standards.
Execution
Another success of the brand refresh involved timing of revising our branded customer touch points. Updating all customer-facing logos is not an easy undertaking for any business, especially one that has been in operation since 1961. From ATM screens to every document within the enterprise, the punch list can quickly grow. Attention to detail and tracking changes is vital for completing such a time-intensive project.
NDBT invested in team workflow software to maximize efficiencies while tackling nearly 500 items that required a refresh — all while balancing the budget and the challenge of avoiding customer confusion. If your organization is planning a refresh or full-scale rebrand, it is recommended to build systems that can track the real-time completion of every touch point. Resources are available online to help with this daunting task.
Evolving the brand
In 2022 the brand evolved further, adopting the tagline — Texas Banking Original — which boldly proclaims the bank’s position in relation to our market location, industry and prominent history. Response to this refreshed brand and tagline has been positive. Clients appreciate the fact that our bank is merely modernizing a proven recipe for success with “locally sourced” ingredients.
NDBT aims to provide banking for smarter choices in business and life. This means engaging with our customers and communities through personalized and excellent service, returning a fair and reasonable profit to our shareholders, acting at all times with dignity, honor and respect and providing an environment in which each of our employees can excel in the spirit of mutual respect, accountability, creativity and teamwork.
Daniel Cahill is a SVP, business development for North Dallas Bank & Trust Co. He has more than 26 years of experience as a bank leader in the Dallas-Fort Worth market.