UniCredit Group to Introduce New International Branding Strategy

UniCredit Group continues building a powerful European banking brand by introducing a new master brand strategy around the UniCredit Group brand device.

UniCredit Group is adopting a "master brand strategy" for its brands. Under this strategy, the "UniCredit Group" master brand and/or its distinctive brand device will be leveraged as an umbrella brand across all business divisions and countries - leveraging, however, the local brand heritage where it is valuable.

"We are a leading European bank - in fact the first truly European bank, and we want to be perceived as such," says Alessandro Profumo, CEO of UniCredit Group. "We are convinced that all divisions of the Group will benefit significantly from building a strong brand around our UniCredit Group master brand. We believe that we will benefit significantly from making clearly visible to our stakeholders - ranging from employees to customers - that we all belong to a strong international banking group, while continuing to actively promote cultural diversity and build on existing local brand value".

Earlier this year, the Group began aligning its brands in Central and Eastern Europe (CEE), bringing them close to the master brand. Most banks have changed their names to "UniCredit Bank", those with a highly recognized brand - such as "UniCredit Bulbank" or "Zagrebačka banka" - have kept their existing local names but adopted the master brand visual identity, including colours, logotype and brand icon. Now, UniCredit Group has decided to align its brands with the master brand also in its core markets Italy, Germany and Austria.
The roll-out of all these changes have begun in the fourth quarter of 2007 and will be achieved by the end of the first quarter of 2008. The existing UniCredit Banca retail network in Italy will see its visual identity migrate to the color red in early 2009.

"Our aligned look and feel will make our customers and the public at large more easily recognize the banks of UniCredit Group in all 23 countries we operate in. it will implicitly demonstrate the international power and standing of our Group locally in each of these markets. A more direct benefit will be evident for our internationally oriented corporate customers, who will feel at home no matter in which country they use our services", says Marc Beckers, Head of Identity & Communications for UniCredit Group.

The Group expects to benefit from further advantages of the new market strategy: the impact of marketing and communications investments will increase significantly as the uniform visual appearance in all markets will lead to significant spillover effects. Moreover, all divisions and local banks will benefit from investments in the UniCredit Group master brand made at international level. Sponsorships, for example, can now be considered from an international perspective, having a much wider reach and impact.

"Alongside this harmonization of the brand architecture, we are also working to define and roll out a unified brand positioning across all business divisions and countries, which will provide a common thread for all marketing and communications activities, and further increase the efficiency and effectiveness of communications", Beckers says.