Branch Banking and Trust Company (BB&T) is another bank that confuses expansion and growth with brand success. BB&T has not differentiated itself from any of its competitors and instead has satisfied itself by building more branches and locating them across the street of its many competitors. What this says is that they fundamentally understand that they have developed no brand preference and, if they are located more than 300 yards up the road from a competitor, they will lose business.
But, to an even greater degree than others, BB&T has decided to differentiate itself by hanging their hat on one of the most generic values of all… TRUST.
In one example, BB&T spent 60% of its commercial air time informing us that a veterinarian needs the “trust of her customers” and that, at BB&T, they do the very same thing. After all… “You can tell we want your business.”
And they go after your business by offering free checking, many ATM machines, competitive rates and convenient locations.
Demonstrating how things can change quickly (and, possibly, how desperate banks have become), BB&T just added a new tag line to their logo so it now reads — "There's Opportunity Here." This is not a joke, which to those of us who know that BB&T has its headquarters in North Carolina (as does Bank Of America), it almost seems to be. There is opportunity. Right down the road at Bank of America, who has already laid claim to being The Bank of Opportunity.
Remember the key questions to grow market share:
What constitutes the prospects’ belief systems and how can your brand best reflect the values and precepts of that target audience?
What is the highest emotional intensity in the category, often represented by a key switching trigger?
To what does the customer aspire and what are they most fearful of?
BB&T wants us to believe that the beliefs of the target audience can be summed up in how much we care about BB&T. After all, we can tell they want our business.
As far as key switching triggers, BB&T believes they are trust and contact with human beings. The problem with this thinking is that most everyone we have surveyed already believes that their bank is trustworthy.
We have a rule for this: Don’t ever believe your own internal press. All that really matters is what the customer believes to be true and what you believe to be true does not matter. What is believed controls preference, even if the belief is false.
Stealing Share is a brand development firm that arms its clients with the tools they need to drive competitive advantages. We conduct research and provide corporate strategy, positioning, training and brand design with one goal in mind: To steal market share for our clients.
Our experts are all about the science of persuasion, and have proven it with brands and companies all across the world. We uncover the fears and belief systems of your target audiences so your brand can align itself with them and create preference. It’s how we steal market share.
BB&T "Vet"
BB&T "Sam"
BB&T "Maddie"
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