I've had an account with the Abbey for 30 years. Before it was a bank, and before it dropped the word 'National' from its name. I have a relationship with it.
As its former self, elements of the brand - The Abbey Habit, couples under the security of 'roof-umbrellas' - appealed enough to convince me to invest a modest amount with it, then borrow loads from it.
Now it is well on its way to removing the word 'Abbey' and replacing it with the name of a Spanish port. I doubt that I am the only customer who is now feeling a distinct lack of engagement with what was once a very trusted British institution.
But it's not daft. It must know this. So how is it addressing such a funda-mental issue? In its latest TV spot, it is promoting its sponsorship of Lewis Hamilton and the McLaren Formula One team.
The commercial features a mini-Lewis driving a heavily branded car around a Scalextric track, while a voiceover delivers a heady strategic cocktail guaranteed to answer any questions its loyal customers might have.
We are informed that Santander is one of the world's strongest and safest banks, that it has 90m cust-omers, that Abbey is part of it, that you can get 6% interest fixed for 12 months on a new account, and that you can get similar great accounts at Alliance & Leicester (which is now also part of Santander).
But the phrase that really stood out in this execution was that it has 'a prudent approach to banking'.
Now, I like F1. What's not to like? Cars that sound like furious, 80ft mosquitoes blasting around a track so fast it makes your eyes bleed, occasion-ally sliding around a bit, giving the audience some-thing to go 'whoaaaah' about.
One thing that doesn't occur to me when watching multimillion-pound cars being driven by multi-millionaires is financial prudence. Financial profligacy? Certainly. Financial irregularity? Possibly. But being careful with cash? Not really.
Sponsoring F1 demonstrates scale - of wallet, certainly. And when that sponsorship has an added depth in the form of a relevant connection between the sponsor and sponsored, it can be a powerful tool. In this case, it is not the massive investment in motorsport that concerns me, but the apparent attempt to build an entire brand strategy around it, the creative execution of which aims to be a metaphor for prudence.
The bigger point, though, is this: Santander means nothing in the UK (unless you want to sail to Spain from Portsmouth). To retain customers like me, it will need to stand for more than Lewis Hamilton (with a smattering of Vodafone, McLaren, Mercedes and F1 chucked in).