Bank Muscat. Rebrand

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

Industry Setting

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.

Challenges

• 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.

Strategy

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.

Result

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.

Services Delivered

Strategy, Graphic Design, Copywriting and Print Management.

Want to see more?

See Bank Muscat’s website here and their social feed here.