The challenge was to establish the new business on the local market, through the creation of a unique brand DNA, rooted in the existing brand elements, that would secure local differentiation and relevance and would ensure organisational engagement with the brand.

While market differentiation was an important matter to begin with, the project’s main challenge was to create the internal support that would engage two different groups of employees and organizational cultures — a culture of bankers (enlisting newly-recruited industry “stars”) and one of salesmen, belonging to an established player, undergoing rebranding. Therefore, internal communication and brand engagement were the paramount aspects in shaping the brand strategy.

The first strategic solution was to seize the meaningful generosity of the “Idea” name, identified as a potential source of positioning, capable of creating positive brand associations. It was transformed into the core concept, rooting the brand and design strategy, building on a promise of simple, fresh, flexible products and services — sustainable for both banking and leasing entities.

The decision of capitalising on the brand’s name imposed smart, minimalist and daring brand manifestations, and as such, the design strategy fully led the brand development, acting as an instrument of consultancy.
The original Polish logo has undergone a subtle facelift, with the purpose of sustaining a cohesive brand architecture and of enhancing the role of the “Four Dots” symbol.

Consequently, the symbol was given an unusual but very important function, clarifying the masterbrand architecture and inviting a flexible but always branded product development. Furthermore, the symbol acquired additional internal and external communication meaning, as well as the functional ability to recreate the brand or product visual identity in headlines and body text, either as a double colon or personalised hashtag.
The identity even takes the role of inflating the brand’s street presence (otherwise sparse compared to competition), by extending fresh and unconventional communication to every conceivable ‘own’ media: cars, locations, and even stationery. This highly consistent breadth of the identity facilitates the double strategic aim of differentiation and internal brand engagement.

RECOGNITIONS
• Costa Rican design website “El Poder de las Ideas” acknowledges Brandient’s facelift for Idea Bank’s logo among the worldwide landmark design works for the financial industry in 2015.

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