Citizens Bank
Identity
Environment
Not your typical bank
Citizens Bank had developed a strong differentiated brand position and implemented it across many of their touchpoints including advertising, customer service, and product offerings. The challenge was to align the branch environment with their brand positioning and further deliver on the customer experience.
Challenges
Reflect the Citizens brand personality
Deliver on the brand credo (a commitment to customers, colleagues and community)
Facilitate easy, self-directed banking with a personal touch
Actions
Conducted extensive branch audits and management interviews to understand Citizens brand personality
Developed detailed design criteria and Customer Experience MappingSM
Created an impactful storefront appearance with bold graphics, 3D merchandising and other techniques customarily employed by fashion retailers
Used illuminated “Hello” pylons to greet the customer in the entryway, with chocolates and special Citizens offers
Created large-scale graphic interior “billboards”—uncharacteristic for a financial institution—to give an emotional tone to the environment
Placed an oversized check desk in the center of the branch to also serve as a central community table
Used unexpected, up-tempo music in the ATM vestibule and lobby
Represented local citizens in the branch with a ticker of local facts, a bulletin board for posting notices and local events and specially focused community merchandising