Once again, thanks to CityA.M. for telling us that the Chairman of HSBC, Stephen Green, said that “the banking industry has not covered itself in glory to say the least, and indeed the industry collectively owes the real world an apology for what has happened”.

Surely this an example of the leadership humility that has been much written about.

As John Baldoni, leadership coach, says: “A sense of humility is essential to leadership because it authenticates a person’s humanity. We humans are frail creatures; we have our faults. Recognizing what we do well, as well as what we do not do so well, is vital to self-awareness and paramount to humility.”

But Stephen Green has probably not just applied recent leadership theory. As a Church of England priest he might well be already imbued with the age-old wisdom  of humility and its benefits.

Stephen Green has more form to back up the authenticity of his remark. As CityA.M. says: “In 2001 and 2002, when Green was head of HSBC’s investment banking and markets operations, he cancelled all bonuses during the slump saying he could not justify them. While bankers protested, Green was later promoted for his bold move.”

We’ve commented before on HSBC’s socially-progressive impact. With a leader like Stephen Green, it seems that the civil aspects of the HSBC brand are indeed authentic. Hopefully this is an inspiration to other aspiring civil brands.

HSBC has launched two new spots to support the appreciation of different values and perspectives. They have this to say on their site:

Since last year, HSBC has been communicating its understanding of its customers and the world they live in by recognising their different values. From courage to status and trust, HSBC strives to celebrate the diversity of these values.

HSBC has now created two new TV spots which explore the crucial role that people’s values play in their financial decisions. In ‘Integrity’ and ‘Responsibility’, we go from the celebrity-obsessed arena of the paparazzo to the daily struggle of the fisherman – two worlds which are more alike than you might think.

The ad opens with the line “Responsibility is as important as money”. Through these spots, HSBC is exploring the role of money and values through moral dilemmas. The spots demonstrate that money follows values, not the other way around.

Both ads convey sympathy for the protagonist and this sentiment remains true to the HSBC positioning established years ago (see HSBC retrospective post). These ads still try to broaden our perspectives by letting us into the lives of rare and often misunderstood people, namely the small-scale fisherman and the Paparazzi.

From a Civil Branding perspective, these spots raise an interesting question about the role of money in our lives. Through ads like these, HSBC is moving the conversation away from a Gordon Gekko ‘Greed is Good’ image to one that presents a more balanced world view. Through the propagation of positive moral tales, we can create interesting dialogue and re-frame the narratives of the conventional banks (see previous post). The HSBC brand continues to benefit from deepening the meaning around its brand and making it a brand that speaks about issues which society feels are important.

Read more on the HSBC advertising site.

Now that Barclays and HSBC have posted significant profits, it appears that the financial crisis is ending and confidence is returning to the markets. We at Brandinstinct think it’s a good time to reassess where retail banks stand with customers and the brand narratives that they can adopt in this new age of ’social’. Consider these three observations of the current situation:

A. The success of socially-focused banks Socially-minded finance companies like cooperatives, building societies and Islamic banks have been successful during the recession. These companies are successful because they are more conservative with their investments thanks to their policies toward risk and ethics. These responsible ethics engender greater trust from customers during the crisis – a safe harbour in the storm. The recession will end but the caring, giving zeitgeist will remain for quite a while, enabling the more socially-focused banks to benefit further.

B. The wider trend toward socially-minded companies The widening of people’s area of concern beyond themselves and their immediate social groups has been an ongoing for more than a decade. It could be the internet and social media, it could be a kick-back against the ‘greed is good’ selfish era, it could be pending environmental doom, but we have observed a growing trend of people caring more about societal issues. We do expect this trend to continue as these contributing factors grow and build. Social media is still young, but is already an accepted way of connecting different communities, widening their areas of concern and encouraging this phenomenon. Companies are investing more and more in managing their social impact, as well as their environmental impact.

C. The current negative discourse The current accusation/defend pattern that retail banks now find themselves in with governments, the press and various customer advocate groups is not productive now. The recession and its cause are going to be remembered for some time. It’s not just retail banks that need to be concerned. Many large corporations feel maligned since they perceive the drastic reduction of credit as the single catalyst for suffering in their own businesses. Businesses with otherwise strong balance sheets were forced to contract when the crisis hit – despite only a small drop in consumer demand across many industries.

OK, now what? Moving beyond the crisis

If you agree that these observations hold some weight, then we can start thinking about the benefits of increased attention, referral and trust that financial brands could enjoy if they communicate the new perspective they have gained from this crisis. They need to reframe their brand narratives according to the new social context and the position they hold in it. We are not saying spin the old ways of working. We are are saying generate a dialog with the public that moves them out of the blame position and into a constructive way of working together.

Here are three different options:

Number 1. Identify a socially-focused vision

Arguably, the best way to reframe a brand narrative is with an authentic reframing of the company vision. During the past year, we at Brandinstinct have been helping pull together a coalition of twelve banks to form the largest Islamic bank brand by geographical coverage: Al Baraka. We worked with their leadership to identify a vision that has a civil idea at its core, defining money as the means to improving the fabric of communities and the bank as taking a custodial role in the development and growth of the resources for the community.

Here’s an excerpt from Al Baraka’s values statement:

We believe society needs a fair and equitable financial system: one which rewards effort and contributes to the development of the community.

We believe that banking has, or ought to have, a crucial role to play in society, one in which as bankers we have an incredible responsibility of stewardship for the resources placed in our hands. To meet this responsibility and use the resources wisely, we rely on Shari’a principles to guide us as we participate in our customers’ successes, sharing in the social development of families, businesses and society at large.

Of course, this is a path best suited toward organisations that are ready to make this shift. A social mandate will redefine the approach to the market and will not be useful over the long term purely as a communications strategy. One needs to ask how does this new vision affect the way we approach the customer, how does it alter our product and investment strategy?

At their best, civil brands address a fundamental shortcoming of an industry. Dove addressed the image anxieties with its ‘Campaign for Real Beauty’ and Citibank addressed the need to keep money in perspective with its ‘Live Richly’ campaign. While the Citibank campaign was popular, it did not transform the vision of the company internally or seem to affect public opinion and policy. So, its effectiveness was limited and has since been replaced.

When contrasting brands like Citibank and HSBC, one can see it is better to define a vision that can only be reached over the next five-to-ten years rather than to develop a new communications narrative that will not affect change internally and will not have a long-term affect on the market.

Number 2. Talk about what you learned

If a new vision is not realistic, not on the agenda, or if people would not believe how much the brand vision has changed right away, a good way to move forward is to talk about what has been learned. No doubt the leadership at the banks have learned a tremendous amount about themselves, the business they are running, and the needs, desires and opinions of their customers. Acknowledgement of a new perspective can go along way in changing the conversation.

These experiences shape the future of company cultures and go beyond short-term shifts in operating. It can be incredibly useful to create a narrative that addresses this experience in a positive and compelling light. Framing a new story based on learnings can help end the accusation/defence pattern that many banks find themselves in. The crisis has put many banks in a defensive mode, where ‘duck and cover’ wins out over strategy.

Lending Tree provides a good example for reframing the way banks are perceived.

This second option is useful as an intermediary stage or as a starting off point toward a new brand vision. Defining a new story based around what was learned does not commit a company to a particular position, but does provide an opening to begin a new conversation.

Number 3. Extend an already civil brand into financial services

Everyone recognises that recessions are incubators for innovation and opportunities for new and challenger brands to extend themselves. With this in mind, brands that already have a civil vision at their core can take this opportunity to extend into financial services.

It is possible that Virgin will purchase Northern Rock, closing the loop on the first banking collapse of the recession (see previous post). Consistent with their cultivated position of being the people’s hero, the Virgin brand would have enormous potential to captivate interest in this post trust climate.

As the ‘get social’ trend grows, socially-progressive territory can be a useful source of financial service innovation as well as brand narratives. New solutions like Zopa, a ’social lending’ site that puts together lenders and borrowers using social media tools, has done better during the recession than any other time. In an interview with the Guardian the MD of Zopa, Giles Andrews, comments on how the trust relationship used to be what kept credit alternatives minimalised: “Banks were never liked, but they were trusted. That is changing”. Andrews adds that “We want our users to feel that getting involved with Zopa means more than the financial transaction”.

So you could say that Zopa is appealing to people’s need for greater social meaning in their lives. These days people are receptive to narratives that carry social meaning, and this route to increased attention is by no means closed to the established retail banks; they just have to do some work on changing the conversation

Banks don’t have a history of engaging with the public and customer base in reciprocol dialogue and participation. Now is the time to make that change. It could be the only way some brands can remain relevant in a dramatically shifting market.

HSBC provides an excellent example of how to both begin the process of entering into a more civil conversation and then how to protect this narrative territory by adding more and more complex meaning to the conversation.

In 2002, HSBC began promoting the slogan ‘The world’s local bank’. The creative effort centred on examining the misunderstanding that can occur when using the same rituals and symbols delivered in different countries. While the creative work was well received, the central ‘Glocal’ message is an old and much trod-upon theme. However, this initial positioning was designed to begin the journey into a far more interesting and meaningful narrative celebrating tolerance among the world’s culture and peoples.

Without this initial campaign, the secondary message would probably not have been accepted by customers.  As a result of careful planning, HSBC is at least two steps ahead of the competition with their latest promotions.  Any other global bank would struggle to occupy the same narrative space as HSBC does now. With further evolution, HSBC can shore up their differentiation further.

This evolution ultimately makes sense for the brand and, handled properly, will deliver real value to shareholders, staff and customers. The messages that HSBC continue to deploy not only encourage a more civil society, they build real value in the market, increase staff retention and customer loyalty.

Humble beginnings clearing the slate with an authentic but simple claim.

Going glocal The next simple step in proclaiming that they are present in many countries.

Adding meaning Beginning to demonstrate appreciation for context.

Brand elevation Tapping into valuing different perspectives

Sustain Expanding meaning and staying relevant

Given the credit crunch, it’s interesting to review how Citibank’s ‘Live Richly’ campaign still rings true. The campaign was a real first, as no global bank had ever used narratives promoting notions of  ‘contentment’ before.

Traditionally, financial services brands have depended on a stable of achievement-oriented narratives for their promotions. Citibank was the first global bank to take a more sensitive tack to how we think about ourselves, our money and what achievement means to us.

The campaign launched in 2003, the same year that HSBC launched their ‘Different Perspectives’ campaign. Citibank moved their messages on into different territory while HSBC  continues to plug away at their successful campaign and bring in greater relevance to their service territory.

The paper that outlines our civil branding effort and explains a technique for creating more civil brands is now ready for download. Inside, you will find the following:

[1] Synopsis of the civil branding idea and its importance to marketers and society.
[2] Step-by-step process for creating more differentiated, more civil brands.
[3] Case studies from Citibank, Dove, Benetton, HSBC and others.

+ Download here