Bank Muscat. Rebrand

The bank for the every day that is now anything but everyday.

Bank Muscat is one of the GCC’s oldest and most iconic financial brands, with a network of 100 branches, it is also one of the largest.

Brand had experienced recent, significant growth, now it needed an identity to reflect who they were today and the new challenges faced
Need to convey change of focus – from growth to greater customer satisfaction
Relevance was being reduced due to existing, ‘old fashioned’ brand design using well-aged visual forms and Islamic pattern making
How to modernize brand but not dislocate customers or lose its essential nature.

To achieve a clear and engaging migration, the brand team:

Presented benchmark brand evolution case studies – inside and out of the sector.
Set a frame work to navigate through potential identity outcomes
Helped key stakeholders visualize an evolution into a modern financial brand
Drafted a new slogan supporting ambition to enhance customer satisfaction
Researched icon cognition with TA (100% recall on black & white icon), built stakeholder confidence to become ‘symbol-only’, set framework for future identity
Set up a simple dual-language type system using SST Arabic, enabling singular font applications across both languages
Retained signature red
Reduced branding element usage within layouts, providing greater space for marketing to attract attention
Simplified graphic language, from signage system to digital UI.

The Bank Muscat rebrand eventuated a sympathetic brand evolution:

Core equity is retained, brand belief is enhanced amongst key stakeholders
Contemporary financial services is conveyed through brand design
Visual devices echo the brand mark, legacy iconic form is represented thoughout the graphic language and typographic form
Brand rolled out across over 100 branches and met with incredibly positive reaction.