Bendigo Bank reaches for younger demographic with rebrand

An increasingly younger demographic of new customers has led Bendigo Bank to communicate in a more modern way.

There is no doubt banking is a tough business to be in right now, thanks to a recession looming and trust at an all-time low. However, Bendigo Bank has always strived to position itself as an alternative to the big four, and now, thanks to a rebrand, hopes to do so even more. 

The new look ‘double B’ aims to represent the brand’s care and capability with a modern identity, the company said. Backed by research and customer consultation, and in collaboration with agency partner, AJF GrowthOps, the brand’s visual elements such as the B logo, font, colour palette, imagery, and tone of voice have been refreshed to better reflect a contemporary expression of the brand and an evolving customer demographic, where it has experienced significant growth.

Bendigo and Adelaide Bank executive partnerships, marketing and corporate affairs, Alexandra Gartmann, told CMO the average age of new customers joining the bank continues to be more than 10 years younger than the average age of the customer base. 

“The strong uplift in new and younger customers joining our bank, and our strategy to tell our story in a new and modern way, is another key reason behind this change,” she explained. “Through extensive research, the bank has refreshed its brand to better reflect a modern expression of the brand for its customers and Australian communities. It’s about making sure our iconic B logo, font, colour palette, imagery, and tone of voice are in step with who we are and who we aspire to be.”

Additionally, she said equity in the brand is a key differentiator from the big four banks, built on 161 years of feeding into prosperity, not off it, and helping customers and communities to create prosperous futures. 

Bendigo Bank is consistently ranked as one of Australia’s top 10 most trusted brands, according to Roy Morgan research and is also a consistent customer experience leader across all industries, according to Forrester’s Customer Experience Index. 

“We also have a net promoter score that is 27.2 higher than the average of the major banks.

"The Bank reported in its February interim results announcement a 4.9 percent uplift in customers numbers in the last half year to more than 1.8 million customers and we plan to continue our customer growth trajectory,” Gartmann said. 

She explained the bank conducted extensive research to gain feedback from customers and non-customers aged between 18-45, and the results were strongly in support the new look Bendigo Bank brand across all areas, including logo, font, colour palette, imagery, and tone of voice, and confirmed the new identity resonated with the market and improved brand metrics.  

“The research showed our refreshed brand had the greatest impact on the desired brand cues - with modern and professionalism brand cues scoring the highest - and had the greatest impact on their likelihood to consider Bendigo Bank," Gartmann said. “Furthermore, the research showed the new look performed best for those under 29 years old and was generally the stronger concept across all age groups.” 

The refresh of the Bendigo Bank brand will be implemented in phases. From this week, customers will see the new-look brand represented in the website, eBanking and social channels. Later this year, customers will see other changes, such as card designs, bank statements, customer letters and ATM refreshes, among other updates.

"In time, branch fit outs and other larger physical representations of the new look brand will evolve. Our Coffs Harbour branch will be the first branch nationally to showcase our new look," Gartmann said.

In February 2019, the bank launched the 'Better Big Bank' campaign, where a mixture of free-to-air TV, radio, outdoor, Broadcast Video on Demand (BVOD), display, search and social marketing channels were used. 

“The public will see the new look Bendigo Bank brand as part of a phased approach to the rollout and as required for upcoming campaigns," Gartmann continued. “We will continue to assess the appropriateness of our channel mix and new channels as future campaigns and our research evolve.” 

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Given the process is data-driven and science-informed so the refresh will resonate and articulate focus on care and capability to existing and new customers, Gartmann said Bendigo will continue to measure the impact of the brand on consideration, awareness, non-customer perception, customer acquisition and product growth. 

“The Bank’s Better Big Bank campaign asks Australians to consider Bendigo Bank as the alternative banking partner that offers care, capability and scale," she said. "The campaign attracted strong growth in new to bank customers – now with more than 1.8 million customers – while consideration, awareness and non-customer perception increased."

Success for this campaign will be increased customer acquisition and brand consideration metrics and improved Net Promotor Score (NPS), which currently sits 27.2 points higher than the average of major banks’ NPS scores.   

“We continue to evolve how we engage with existing and new target segments, using data, to ensure we can identify emerging segments and engage them, and our customers at the right time, on the right channel, with the right message in a relevant and useful way," Gartmann said.

“Our banking is already very personal, with our deep connection locally and our very individual small business and agribusiness approaches, building on the relationship model which, with a modern twist and complemented with digital enablers, ensures we deliver banking in a personal way. 

“Brand strategy, executed with precision and purpose, gets results. The brand refresh is a critical component of the story we will be telling both our existing and potential customers about what they can expect from our bank – a commitment to care and capability. Bendigo Bank’s new look B now means twice as much.” 

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