THE REVIVAL
Brand Situation
CEC is the oldest Romanian bank. Established in 1864, twenty years before the National Bank, CEC (initially the acronym for The Savings House) is one of the few Romanian historical institutions having survived Communism, and even gaining in awareness since it was the only reliable bank people could go to during this period.
Nevertheless, after 1990, the competitiveness of CEC on the banking market steadily eroded and in 2006 the sole proprietor (Romanian state) made an unsuccessful attempt to sell the bank. The external brand context was worsened by the perception that CEC “is not a bank” but only a Savings House. Internally, the succession of no less than 11 presidents over the past 17 years did not allow the building of a competitive organization while benchmarks such as technology and efficiency were below the level of the competition.
After having been appointed as President of CEC in 2007, Radu Gratian Ghetea, a prominent banker and President of the Romanian Bankers’ Association, made a priority out of corporate revitalization on his agenda. In this situation, CEC commissioned Brandient to rebrand the corporation.
Brandient’s Approach & Solutions
Brandient worked alongside CEC teams for a year, going through brand audit and positioning, verbal and visual identity, retail design, literature design, external communication platform, website design and brand engagement sessions. The initial analysis revealed that a major reason for CEC’s eroding competitive position was the denial of its own history and reputation, its own true identity, and that its huge hidden value must be brought to light and must become an engine of corporate revival.
The huge awareness of CEC imposed keeping the name, while adding Bank was a strategic decision in order to counteract the wrongly perceived non-bank position.
The new graphic identity places CEC Bank simultaneously in tradition and revival, conveying the reliability required by the category at the same time. A national symbol, the oak leaf, stands out through design in the new shield icon of the bank that seems to have been there for ages. The whole brand is organic, defined by familiarity, honesty and perseverance and it is above all a Romanian brand.
The credits for the new identity go to Brandient designer team, Alin Tamasan, Cristian “Kit” Paul, Eugen Erhan, Bogdan Dumitrache, Cristian Petre, Iancu Barbarasa, under the creative direction of Cristian “Kit” Paul.
«This redesign takes the bank leap years forward in sophistication, yet at the same time back to its 1864 foundation. Virtually overnight, CEC Bank is credibly a global competitor (at least in image), yet retains the home-field advantage. To quote the Prime Minister again, “It is a well-done thing.”» Tony Spaeth, Identityworks.
“CEC Bank is probably the most complex project of Brandient so far and a reason to be proud of for those involved in the revitalization of this historical brand. The brand engagement sessions aimed to acquaint the organization with the new brand—a premiere for Romanian companies—have attracted an amazing response from the internal stakeholders. The new identity became a cohesion factor in the organization and an agent of change even before the public launch. I hereby applaud the bank’s brave management for this step.” Aneta Bogdan, Managing Partner Brandient.
The launching of the new identity opens a new way for CEC Bank but also marks a giant step for state-owned institutions and sets a salient example for similar post-communist institutions in Eastern European space.
