Investing in a Bank’s Internal Branding

Situation

Credit Suisse, a Swiss-based global financial services provider, approached Vivaldi a year after its private banking and wealth management branch had joined forces with its investment banking group to form a unified Credit Suisse company under one master brand. The strategic vision was to be recognized as a consistent and reliable long-term partner focusing on clients with complex and multi-product needs, but this required significant internal branding.

The company recognized the need for internal branding and wanted to ensure successful internal communication of the new brand strategy. To this end, Credit Suisse’s brand strategy and research team had formulated a first draft for an internal communication plan and a list of possible implementation projects and initiatives to be presented to the company’s brand board later in the year. Vivaldi was hired to challenge and improve the existing ideas with an external view and help develop an aspiring, convincing, and sound internal branding strategy.

Vivaldi’s strategic consulting team, Vivaldi Partners, set out to clarify the strategic intent of the internal brand communication, develop an implementation plan, and identify and prioritize brand activation initiatives for Credit Suisse.

Action

We reviewed the existing documentation and the first draft of the internal communication presentation provided by Credit Suisse’s brand strategy and research team. Based on this audit, our team created a new draft of the presentation for the brand board, and designed a multi-year roadmap for internal brand communications. Collaborative work sessions with the Credit Suisse brand team led to the formulation of three pragmatic and relevant initiatives that were subsequently laid out into implementation plans. The resulting program was shared with key stakeholders throughout the organization to incorporate feedback and ensure that all departments’ needs were being met.

Results

Our work supplied Credit Suisse’s brand strategy and research team with a clearly defined internal brand communication plan. The approach taken when conducting the project ensured the fusion of not only an internal and external perspective, but also the satisfaction of the needs of both the brand board and key stakeholders. The brand team presented the results of our project to the brand board at the end of the year and their plans were approved. The new Credit Suisse brand was successfully implemented both internally and externally and is still in use to this day.

• Topics:
• Branding & Marketing
• Organization & Culture