Mutual, simultaneous mimicry
PKO BP and PEKAO SA announce rebranding
Two of Poland’s biggest banks announced within a week the forthcoming rebranding. There would be nothing unusual in the fact considering the amount of rebranding processes that happen every day. But the details of the announcements might make it a rare example of — nonexistent in Nature — mutual mimicry.
The story goes like this:
Both banks history goes back to the 1920s, when they were established as a single, state-owned institution (detailed historical outline: pko bp, pekao sa). Until the reform of the Polish banking system in 1989, the banks state-monopolized the financial industry, PKO being mainly a savings and lending bank for retail customers and PeKaO specializing in foreign currency services to the public (which became feasible in 1970s, with foreign exchange regulations liberalisation).
During the post-communist transformations, the bank split into the present duo. Both retained the name, spelled differently but pronounced the same (PKO BP and PeKaO SA respectively), and unfortunately — navy blue & white colour scheme. PKO BP retained its old logo (known as “piggy bank”) designed by Karol Śliwka, whereas PeKaO introduced a new aurochs symbol (apparently designed by Semafor).
As a consequence, for years to follow, the banks became literally indistinguishable to the public, reciprocally failing all top of mind awareness researches (“is it pekao with the piggy bank or the one with aurochs?“). As both of them were struggling with post-socialist identity, the similarity got even more painful with a series of flops on each side, each affecting both brands.
And now the news:
In June Pekao SA announces its rebranding to Unicredit Pekao, as it’s earlier become a member of the Unicredit Group. As a result, its corporate identity is said to change so as to relate to the Unicredit’s (including its “1″ symbol and red&white corporate colours).
There’s not much to discuss here. Although the bank is run separately from the rest of the group’s Central and Eastern Europe franchise (at the request of local authorities), the integration has to keep pace with overall brand consistency strategy. The unified approach to the market will give Unicredit Croup a clear visibility throughout the region.
On the other side of the mirror, PKO BP has just announced its rebranding into Bank Polski. They are reported to retain the piggy bank symbol, but emphasize the national character (it’s a joint-stock company still wholly owned by the State Treasury) by using, surprisingly, red&white colour scheme.
The opinions about the announced rebranding are diversified. Some warn of abandoning a brand known since 1919. Some agree, that it might be a smart contrivance directed at aggravated brand image (or constant customer outflow).
Then again, in an industry where security is of great significance, a strategy to highlight national roots might prove risky (especially when the levels of trust toward the government and national institutions have been low for years). Up till now, only Polbank (which actually is of Greek origins) decided to follow the path. Other polish banks (eurobank or Getin Bank) rather avoid underlining their origins.
In conclusion: both banks retain almost identical name. The piggy bank symbol is composed of PKO initials, which makes it somewhat hard to omit, even with “Bank Polski” as the complementary part. The less known part of the name is usually skipped in informal speech, which leaves us with Pekao rather than Unicredit). Both change simultaneously corporate colors into similar scheme.
Time will tell whether the two brands will be able to effectively distinguish between each other or rather come full circle to the verge of undesired unification.
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