How important is branding to the management of your company?
The Bankhaus Spängler brand has developed and established itself over many years: Bankhaus Spängler is Austria's oldest private bank (since 1828) and is still family-owned. This has become ingrained in the minds of people (customers and employees). To ensure that the bank remains well positioned in the future, we have a clear brand orientation that is part of our strategic planning. Our motto is: Best in Family Banking. This has given us a strong unique selling point. Brand management is a "top priority." It is crucial that managers and employees know and internalize our performance promise and carry it throughout the entire company as multipliers. After all, they are ultimately and above all the brand ambassadors.
How does the brand help you to manage your company and make decisions?
Our brand is the foundation of our strategic orientation. Personal contact with customers, independence, risk awareness, and a forward-looking approach are central elements of the Bankhaus Spängler brand, and form the basis for our decisions. We work with strategic tools so that both managers and employees know where we are headed, can identify with the brand, and can exemplify it. This helps us to continue to position the bank strongly and distinctively in the market, strengthen our integrated advisory approach, and successfully implement our digitalization strategy.
In your opinion, what are some brand management mistakes that should be avoided?
Brand management is not the responsibility of the marketing department, but must be supported by the CEO and should never be reduced to the logo and good advertising – these are only part of the picture. Rather, the entire company is an expression of the brand and contributes to the implementation of the value proposition. In the banking sector in particular, there are many points of contact with customers via employees. If the performance promise has been communicated incorrectly or inadequately to employees, the brand message cannot be conveyed to customers.
What advice would you give other companies for brand management?
A strong brand forms the foundation of a company. If the brand understanding is clearly anchored in the organization and the employees "live" the brand, the company will be perceived as authentic by customers. This creates trust. This is particularly important in the financial sector. Active brand management leads to a "perpetual motion machine" of trust between companies and customers, so to speak.
Which company do you admire for its brand management?
Red Bull, Apple, and Google, for example, are brands that have now achieved cult status – among customers and employees alike. The identity of the brand shapes the thinking and actions of the company. If employees identify with the brand and enthusiastically promote it to the outside world, a company has done a lot right in terms of brand management. The size of the company is irrelevant. It's not just global corporations that can have a strong brand; every company can differentiate itself through a clear brand strategy.
