As the cliche goes, hindsight is a wonderful thing; nonetheless, there have been some rather unfortunate taglines for financial brands over the years. Given the current overriding lack of trust in the sector, quite a few may want to have a long, hard think about how they position themselves.
Can anyone name the institution that uses the rather curiously worded brand promise "Trust Thy Name is.."? Don't worry if you can't, the brand in question (Life Insurance Corporation of India) is not entirely relevant to this market. Still, how well would that line work over here we ask ourselves.
For its sheer energetic brazenness, Marketing's favourite is 'Whoo Hoo!', the now defunct motto of the Washington Mutual (WaMu), which spectacularly went under in September. It has since been rescued by JP Morgan Chase, and in the blink of an eye it introduced a somewhat crass replacement: 'We Love Chase. And not just because they have a trillion dollars'.
At the Marketing Forum in Chepstow last week, financial advertising expert Ian Henderson from The Engine Group named his top nine financial brand howlers. They are listed below, but we have also added a few more to his list with our reasons. We want to expand this list to 20; are there any gems we have missed?
Lehman Brothers: Where Vision gets built.
AIG: The strength to be there.
Abbey: Turning banking on its head.
Dexia: Because the short term has no future.
Capital One: What's in your wallet?
Fortis: Here today. Where tomorrow?
IndymacBank: You can count on us...
Life Insurance Corporation Of India: Trust They Name is...
WaMu: Whoo Hoo!
Axa: Be life confident. (Can anyone be?)
Barclays Bank: A big bank for a big world. (It promptly announced a programme to close hundreds of branches)
Icesave (owned by Landsbanki): Clear difference. (Is the difference that you can't get your money back?)
Northern Rock: As solid as a Rock. (No, it wasn't really, but in the absence of recalling the real one, it amused us. Can anyone recall what it was?)