New selling points

The economic-banking-credit crisis has spawned some new advertising selling points and language for financial institutions. These seek to reassure current and potential customers that their money-investments-assets are safe.  For instance, SunTrust Bank is using a new tagline: “Live Solid. Bank Solid.” Obviously, solid is a good word to describe a bank, especially in light of recent bank failures. Bank of America, one of the largest banks in the US, is still going with the “Keep the Change” campaign, and a headline to their newest ad is “If you’re going to spend, spend smart.”

I have seen lots of ads featuring words like secure, safe, solid,  smart, trust and so on. It is not about high returns or great investments any more, it is about keeping what you have in an increasingly turbulent marketplace.

Meanwhile, Commerce Bank, which was a bank operating mainly in the Northeast, got “rebranded” into TD Bank due to a merger with TD BankFinancial Group of Canada.  Commerce, who used red as its color, is now green. The change was quite sudden and confusing. I am sure that current customers were aware of an impending change, but others must have been taken by surprise.