±±¾©Èü³µpk10

Last month, a spoof edition of the Financial Times, set in the year 2020, was handed out to commuters at railway stations in London, to coincide with the G20 protests. It featured satirical stories deni­grating the world's political and financial systems, as well as similarly sardonic ads.

The latter included one carrying the Royal Bank of Scotland logo and the following text: ‘What would you do with a trillion pounds of public money? Bail out your mates and mop up the mess you all made? Or squander the lot on pipe dreams like renewable energy?'

This scornful attack represents the sharp end of a wider swathe of discontent­ment with the UK's high-street banks following the emergence of toxic debts, reckless lending and mismanagement.

With their reputations in tatters, banks are having to fight to convince consumers of their trustworthiness, their dependability and solidity. So it is that in a world of decentralised, contact centre-driven customer service, the high-street branch and face-to-face communication have again become the focus of many banks' invest­ments in branding and design.

Over the past few years, banks have been attempting to operate more like retailers. This has resulted in some genuin­ely innova­tive environments, such as the branch format for Italy's CheBanca!, designed by Crea International.

CheBanca!'s ‘Natural Tech' design looks more like a set from 2001: A Space Odyssey than a high-street bank branch. According to Crea International managing partner Massimo Fabbro, the light and minimal design brings together ‘innovation and reassurance', placing the customer at the centre of the experience.

Barclays, too, is in the process of rolling out a fresh design concept, created by interiors consultancy Aukett Tytherleigh, ¬ across its 1700 branches. ‘Branches are important to our custom­ers,' says Erin Biertzer, UK retail banking director at Barclays. ‘We have made a long-term commitment to refurbishing our network.'

The bank's flagship branch, nestled under the neon lights of Piccadilly Circus in London, is undeniably striking. Touted as the first ‘brand concept' branch in the UK, it features a host of technology and high-end design touches (see case study, above).

However, having been conceived before the crisis hit the financial sector, how comfortably do such design-led interiors sit now that the recession has taken hold?

‘When times were good and money was easy to borrow, everyone wanted retail cues,' explains Sam D'Lacey, director at design agency Hart D'Lacey, which has worked with RBS, NatWest and Arab Bank.

‘These banks tried to link their branches with other leisure activities, such as coffee shops, to drive footfall. But retail is very disposable, so people started to see money as disposable too. However, we've gone back to reliability. The flippancy and the humour are gone,' he adds.

As part of this shift toward the ‘retailing' of personal finance, services and advice have become ‘products'. In some cases, these have been physically embodied in the form of a box that could be taken to the counter for purchase.

‘Customers want to talk to people and get reassurance, so some of these things that seemed progressive at the time now seem inappropriate,' says D'Lacey. ‘The redesigned Barclays branches, for example, have a queue rail - which is beautiful and sculptural, but does it really instil confidence?'

Howard Milton, founder of branding agency Smith & Milton, puts it more strongly. ‘The "Eureka" moment, when banks decided to strive to become retailers, was where they lost their perspective and, ultimately, our trust,' he says. ‘When your core product is cash, serious consideration should be given to how you handle it. Banks man­oeuvred our thinking away from this custom. The cash­less society has been suborned into losing touch with the value of money.' ¬

The result of years of easy credit and bad debt has been much discussed, but bank design and branding must begin to reflect the climate and rebuild consumer trust. Experts are divided on whether the retail format branch remains the right option.

However, Roderick Logan, financial-services analyst for Datamonitor, believes it is. ‘Banks can use the less formal environment that a "store" provides to make the consumer feel more at ease. They can also win back customer trust by showing concern and offering advice,' he says.

‘There is plenty of room for innovation in the banking sphere. Communicating with consumers in the language of retail may make some of the more complicated financial products easier to understand.'

Logan also notes that retailers themselves are competing in the personal finance market. Tesco, for example, is looking to establish a retail banking environment through its store network.

‘The traditional banks will have to maintain some degree of innovation to stave off this threat,' he adds. ‘More flexible opening times offer greater convenience to customers and innovative branch features, like those at the Barclays Piccadilly branch, can entice inquisitive customers.'

With innovation comes technology, already a huge enabler of convenience in transactions and financial services research.

For First Direct, which operates only online, technology and digital design are especially important. The bank has been working with design agency Splendid on a Micro­soft Surface table for display at the Grand Designs Live exhibition at London Excel from 25 April to 4 May. The device has a touch screen that allows consumers to interact with its mortgage products.

‘The brand stands for innovation, so we have to be design-led in what we do,' says First Direct head of brand Lisa Wood. ‘We don't physically have a product, so you can't try before you buy. However, it is creating an interactive way to draw people into talking about these mortga­ges.'

She adds: ‘We will use Surface at the exhibition to show how our offset mortgages could link to home-improvement projects. You can have up to six people using the table simultaneously and, because we don't have branches, this is a great way to have personal interaction.'

This interaction, along with the trust­worthy advice and personal reassurance that appear to have been lacking lately in banks' relationships with their consumers, is what many in the industry are lauding as the necessary next step.

‘The big banks don't communicate on a personal level,' says Nick Ramshaw, mana­ging director of design group Elm­wood Leeds. ‘My local Lloyds TSB branch has no private room, for example. They need to think about the customer's point of view.'

There are other threats, too: the rise of community lending schemes such as Zopa has put even greater pressure on the big banks to deliver the goods. ‘In order to remain relevant and compete with these new breeds, the incumbents must adapt or die,' warns Terry Tyrrell, worldwide chair­man of design agency The Brand Union.

It seems there is a fine line to tread in adapting to the current climate, while remaining competitive in a busy market­place. Bank brands need to be seen as innovative while simultaneously empha­sising tradi­tional values and a service-led mentality.

All this has to be communicated through staff training, strategic branding and branch design, not simply through advertising - the quick fix route to shifting perceptions. As Richard Newland, global head of retail design for HSBC, concludes: ‘Branches are our most valuable source of advertising and they have to live up to that. But balancing confidence and reassurance is difficult. If it were easy, everyone would be doing it.' N

Barclays   the conceptual approach

Design Aukett Tytherleigh (branch design) / The One Off (concept design) / Infusion (Microsoft Surface application)

At the end of last year, Barclays un­veiled its ‘brand concept' branch design at a flagship unit in London's Piccadilly Circus. The 8000 ft2 ‘retail space' features interactive technolo­gies, such as Microsoft Surface tables, that allow users to navigate informa­tion on Barclays' Premier services through touch, and an interactive Being:London video wall, which displays graphics of information drawn from blogs and customers.

The three-floor branch, which also offers specialist areas and private rooms for Personal, Premier, Mortgage and Local Business customers, is the bank's first to feature cashier counters without glass screens.

‘We looked at how customers want­ed to use their branches and played off what they need. For design inspi­ration we looked at more than just retailers to get the best of the best. For example, we drew on hotel­iers and airliners,' says Barclays UK retail banking director Erin Biertzer.

HSBC customer focus                             

Design in-house

HSBC is embarking on a global redes­ign of its retail branches, with its UK locations leading the way. In the past four years, these have been reconfig­ured, so that the traditional ratio of 20% customer space to 80% admin­istration space has been inverted.

Automation has increased, as has the use of express banking, which moves customers away from cashiers. There is also a greater degree of branch segmentation.

‘Branches are now friendlier and less austere, but we have to make sure the design is sober,' says Richard Newland, HSBC's head of retail design. ‘We don't want a fun palace of a bank. Previously, banks were there to protect your money and be impressive. Now, people come in to talk about options and get advice.'

Almost 350 of HSBC's 1500 UK branches have been redesigned to date; some have been given a full over­haul, others a more modest and less expensive refresh.