Union Bank undergoes makeover

Nationalised banks are gearing up to compete with privatised banks, which are making inroads into the country and to target youth by rebranding themselves. After UTI's transformation into Axis Bank, it's now Union Bank of India which has undergone a similar rebranding exercise with help from Mudra Group, Boston Analytics and Infosys.

M.V. Nair, chairman and MD, Union Bank of India explained the rationale behind the rebranding. "We realised that the population is getting younger, technology is all pervasive and the relevance for the banking industry is increasing as more and more foreign banks are coming to India."

Mudra Group conducted various studies, focused group discussions to arrive at the new design. Madhukar Kamath, MD and CEO, Mudra Group said, "The challenge was to embark on customer centric exposition to get the reason for the change. We had to reflect the dynamic face of the brand without destroying what lies at the core."

Mudra Group's new design outfit Water has designed the new logo. It comprises of two letters "U" of Union Bank of India interlocked into one another- 'Union Bank inter lock'. One is in red and the other in blue. The positioning line 'Good people to bank with' has been retained.

Nair added, "The logo signifies four new things about the brand: value for money, variety of channels, different timeline for every product that we offer and transparency in every service/product that we offer. While the blue in the logo signifies our commitment to service, red signifies the passion that we bring to our work." The advertising campaign will break in another ten days. The bank's marketing budget for the year is about Rs 85-90 crore.

The change is not just limited to the logo. Nair said, "The transformation started eighteen months back with a project named NAV NIRMAN we have harnessed the combined might of people, process and technology- building relationship through people and delivering with speed and efficiency enabled by superior application of technology."