Mad Bank

Banks and other financial institutions have had a rough time of it recently - some wrongly, some rightly. Most have a pressing need to maintain or rebuild their customers' trust but I'm not sure that all are going about it the right way.

I've already blogged about one company that is taking the approach of changing its name and branding to sound less like a solid, reliable kind of place that you'd be happy to let handle your money and more like an entry for the Eurovision Song Contest (yes, that's you, "Aviva"). And now, maybe because "bank" is such a dirty word, the Deutsche Bank is adopting an even more radical approach.

It has been announced that the Deutsche Bank is going to remove its name from its branding, leaving just the logo and the tagline "Passion to Perform" in a hand-written style.

Now, I have lived in Germany for fourteen years and I have to admit that seeing a dark blue box with "Passion to Perform" scrawled underneath it conjures up High School Musical or The Kids from Fame. But not Deutsche Bank - or any other sort of bank.

So, why? Well, firstly, to emulate "other exclusive and premium global brands". And secondly, apparently "...everyone looks for personality in business...it helps us decide who we trust..."

I don't know about you but if asked who I'd rather trust with my money, a "personality" or a bank, even in these days of mad, bad and dangerous-to-know banks, I'd probably go for that option.