Citizens Financial Group
chief executive, Ellen Alemany, has asserted the bank is a
trustworthy place for savings. The bank’s latest marketing campaign
goes back to its heritage to highlight its community-focused
outlook in the drive to boost the customer base and distribution
network. Farah Halime reports.
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Citizens Financial Group, owned by UK bank Royal Bank of
Scotland (RBS), is rolling out a marketing campaign to promote the
bank’s “core values” and regain trust in the aftermath of the
financial crisis.
The campaign, ‘Good Banking is Good
Citizenship’ replaces the old tagline ‘Not your typical bank’, and
will focus on the bank’s credo, put simply as ‘customers,
colleagues and community’.
The bank, one of the top 10 in the
US with core retail deposits of $67.4bn at the end of June 2009,
has developed the advertising campaign with media consultancy
Ogilvy & Mather to reflect the bank’s community heritage.
Ellen Alemany, chief executive of
the bank, said the new initiative reinforced Citizens as “a place
neighbours trust to safeguard and grow their savings”.
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By GlobalDataThe main premise of the campaign is
to get actively involved in communities by “giving back, investing
locally and encouraging others to contribute to the heath and
stability of neighbourhoods”.
Theresa McLaughlin, chief marketing
officer at the bank reiterated the bank’s back-to-roots
approach.
“The credo is at our core and is
something we truly believe in that goes back to the origins of
banking in the US,” McLaughlin said.
She made reference to Alexander
Hamilton, one of the founding fathers of the US who originally
articulated the idea of ‘citizenship’ and added the bank “wanted to
do something to remind people a good bank succeeds by helping
communities and customers prosper”.
The bank is targeting all
distribution channels through print, online, televised and outdoor
ads. Some of the television adverts feature Citizens employees
talking about their roles in the community to highlight they are
also part of the community Citizens serves.
Bank staff are also on hand through
an “internal interactive website… to pledge their individual
commitment to customers and communities”, while print ads follow
the same community-focused theme with taglines such as: “We treat
our customers like neighbours [sic], because they usually are.”
Although the campaign itself is not
unusual in its strategy, it underpins the bank’s targets to grow
its network.
With more than $500m pumped into
“technological improvements”, the bank has stressed the “community
investment” it has made to boost overall customer service and speed
up the loan process for customers.
Plans to boost the 3,500-strong ATM
network by 30% were also unveiled.
It has already expanded
accessibility by adding nearly 500 ATMs at Sunoco Aplus convenience
stores, with plans to add nearly 600 more ATMs through a
partnership with a separate chain, although details were not
disclosed.
In addition, the bank conducted
more than 5.7m free one-on-one customer consultations, or ‘Fit
Check-ups’ during 2009, providing customers with tailored banking
solutions.
The campaign also promotes the
success of its products, with more than 15,000 College Saver
accounts opened since the launch of the product in April 2009.
The bank also cited the success of
GreenSense, a rewards scheme that pays customers 10 cents for each
electronic payment made, with more than $6.5m awarded to customers
in the last year.
RBS’ US arm, comprising a network of more 1,500 branches,
currently provides seven day banking and extended weekday hours at
nearly 500 supermarket and retail locations.
