Yesterday was the 31st annual running of the Chicago Marathon. Formerly known as the LaSalle Bank Chicago Marathon, it is now the Bank of America Chicago Marathon as the latter bank bought the former. Drawing over 45,000 runners, it is a major event winding through the Windy City.
With the name change came a brand change. This was not surprising, as Bank of America owns the marathon. This is the former branding for the marathon:
As you can see, the LaSalle Bank name is right on top, and the colors represent the green and gold of LaSalle and its former parent company ABN Amro. But the name is subtle, and the artwork pays homage to the Chicago skyline. When the marathon was rebranded, the following was originally used as the marathon, including on the marathon Web site:
However come race day, the remnants of the old artwork were no where to be found on TV or along the course, and just the following was used:
With bank acquisitions occurring at such a rapid pace, people are almost oblivious to it. Where protests still occur to this day over the elimination of the Marshall Field’s name by Macy’s, nobody is complaining about the loss of bank names. And my guess is I am one of the few griping about the elimination of this event's unique branding, only to be replaced with the rubber stamp of another brand. I am not a branding guru myself, but I would be interested in seeing how these 2 brands go head to head at
Noah Brier’s brand tags site.
For the sake of full disclosure, I am a Bank of America shareholder, though I never purchased the stock. I originally purchased stock in BayBanks, which was acquired by Bank of Boston, which was acquired by Fleet, which was acquired by Bank of America. Where their tag line is “bank of opportunity” to me it should almost be “bank of mediocrity?”
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As far as branding goes, BoA is always very imperialist. In the effort of building and maintaining a brand, marketing types (like me) tend to fight against dillution. However there’s always a fine line between avoiding dillution (like imposing your colors and types vs. any other) and destroying somebody’s else brand (in that case the city of Chicago and its famous skyline). When that happens, backed by nothing but my very personal and empirical experience, has been that we get into endless debates, discussions… about this particular topic, during a time when real problems actually face you (like trying to keep hundreds of employees and millions of clients satisfied at a time of intense change).
And that’s too bad because BoA is a remarkable bank, extremely good at its own job of banking, as most bankers around the world will tell you.
Comment by Hugues
on 10/13/08 at 07:51 AM
Mike you do need a logo. How about one including your little baby girl? It would remind folks that supporting Dunkirk is going to help pay her tuition! BTW, have you picked out a school yet? As for the banks, try a credit union. You get a point more in interest on savings and a point less on loans.
Cheers!
Peter
Comment by Don Pedro
on 10/13/08 at 08:25 AM
The words “Bank of America” are bigger than “Chicago Marathon”!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Oh this frustrates me. What is the event here. It’s the marathon. It’s not the bank. Oh what arrogance! What are they thinking, “Oh Chicagoans want to sign up for this event because it’s Bank of America.” Surely, they don’t think that, but that’s what they are SAYING. Oh i can’t believe this.
I didn’t realize this until you made a blog post about it. Oh man. Maybe my boiling point is going over, because I was a member of LaSalle Bank, and they used to always gladfully give me my one hundred dollars of two-dollar bills. Now that they are Bank of America, I get excuses from the tellers, “oh we only have six of them behind the counter.”
Uh, no. You are a bank. You are to have these sorts of things. Besides you are the “GREAT” BANK OF AMERICA. You like to make your letters so big to make you so great, even greater than the Chicago Marathon. If you are so great, then you can certainly have a stash of two-dollar bills at your locations.
Thank you hotiron, for hosting my rant.
Comment by
spudart
on 10/13/08 at 10:57 AM
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