Carlo Tassara International, an Italian financial group, is setting up a new bank. The Alior Bank is planning to launch with a total of 200 outlets across all voivodships, targeting at 2-4 percent of the market share. The scope of the enterprise makes it one of largest FDI projects in Poland. With the initial capital of of 400 mln euro, it is the biggest financial venture Europe has seen in the last 25 years.

The new brand is presumed to stress innovation, simplicity and the high speed of its services. As Wojciech Sobieraj, the bank’s CEO, states it: “We’re certain, that our logotype thoroughly demonstrates our values: passion, professional approach, innovation and respect. At the same time it relates to tradition, confidence and trust.“

The logo, based on cropped, baroque-like angel symbolizes safety and security, whereas yellow/gold-burgundy color scheme represents, well, gold, sun and prosperity (for gold), and experience and quality (for burgundy). The illustration itself was crafted to resemble copperplate and guilloche patterns usually featured on banknotes to add the brand some credibility. The typeface is classically roman in proportion, yet contemporary. The visual identity was designed by the White Cat Studio. As for the name, Alior is said to connote the classics and or means gold in french.

So much for official press releases.

The logo certainly is elegant and resembles banknotes and such, successfully balancing between being friendly and having the authority, which is a good thing for a retail bank. The illustration is direct and confident, easily delivered on newsprint or any other applications. Additionally, it won’t lose its appeal when rendered in black and white (although I can hardly imagine it on a pen).

I’m not particularly struck by typography though. The A serif supposedly was designed as a fine touch, but it brings additional clutter to already unstable wordmark composition. Setting bank in a lighter typeface and darker colour makes the alior part wavering somewhere between the middle and the bottom.

The mark risks being broken into two separate parts, the angel side being treated as an imagery rather than a logo per se. Implementation design will be definitely important as the burgundy square wordmark itself will not ensure strong visual presence.

In spite of minor flaws, the overall effect is quite impressive and undoubtedly stands out in the conservative financial brandscape.

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.

Ray Oldenburg coined the term The Third Place in his 1990 book: The Great Good Place. He described it as “nothing more than informal public gathering places“; the name itself derived from considering our homes to be the ‘first’ places in our lives, and our work places the ‘second.’

“The character of a third place is determined most of all by its regular clientele and is marked by a playful mood, which contrasts with people’s more serious involvement in other spheres. Though a radically different kind of setting for a home, the third place is remarkably similar to a good home in the psychological comfort and support that it extends. (…) They are the heart of a community’s social vitality, the grassroots of democracy, but sadly, they constitute a diminishing aspect of the American social landscape.”

With as much as 30 millions Americans being a part of Kinko’s generation (spending significant time working outside of a traditional office), more and more businesses and organizations try to encourage people to hang out. For some of them it comes naturally; the most obvious: cafés, coffee shops, bookstores, bars, and hair salons are listed in the subtitle of Oldenburg’s book.

The Third Place characteristics: regular clientele, psychological comfort and playful mood make it a marketer dream-come-true, so sooner or later the concept had to expand beyond its natural hosts.

ING Direct entered the US market in 2000. Operating electronically without traditional offices (unlike some of its European branches), the bank has since opened cafés in major cities to make its brand known.

Banking and coffee might not be the usual connotation, however this experimental marketing effort has proven to be a huge success, with a single “branch” yielding more than $200 million in new accounts and mortgages within a year of opening (source).

The cafes look nothing like a traditional bank branch: no tellers, no personal banking desks or any of the usual bank stuff. Instead there are typical café surroundings: barristas (who double as personal bankers), tables, lounge chairs, financial newspapers and internet kiosks. Although the ING propaganda in the café might be overwhelming (its a branded brand space with every sandwich bearing the ING Direct logo), they do stop at the point of bringing the customers in and avoid the banking products pitch (available upon request, so to speak).

Undoubtedly, the cafés are a part of brand spaces trend, yet they outclass the omnipresent flagship store in several ways:

1. They easily drive traffic into the branches and get customers to stay a while.
2. They help to build face-to-face relationships with customers.
3. The customers may conduct banking transactions in a place they potentially actually like to be in, not necessarily just to buy stuff and leave.
4. Most probably they will not have much trouble holding customers interest and loyalty.
5. They might change the way people think about going to the bank.
6. Last but not least: they serve a social need.