FIRST National Bank (FNB) has launched a brand communication campaign, #TheChangeables, as it aims to boost its image and client base.
The brand campaign comes hot on the heels of a report by the Ombudsman for Banking Services (OBS) last month, which said FNB was the most complained about bank in South Africa for the second year in a row.
Last year, the OBS registered 2 197 complaints about FNB, making it the only bank to break the 2 000 mark.
The chief marketing officer at FNB, Faye Mfikwe, said yesterday that the bank’s new #TheChangeables brand positioning represented its acknowledgement of the importance of change as a catalyst of personal, business and economic growth, and highlighted its commitment to being an effective agent of change.
She described #TheChangeables as passionate, strong and resilient African people and businesses with whom the bank wanted to partner in creating even more positive change across Africa.
“Despite the many challenges Covid-19 brought, the pandemic also casts a very bright spotlight on the courageous, resilient and adaptable African spirit,” Mfikwe said, “and this spirit resonates so strongly with FNB that we felt compelled to embrace it and position it at the very core of who we are and what we do as a bank, in South Africa and across rest of Africa.”
The campaign celebrates South Africans who take challenges in their stride, transform obstacles into opportunities, and embrace change as a way of building a better future for themselves and others.
FNB is also launching a fresh design across its range of bank cards that will be made available to customers at no additional cost.
The chief excecutive of FNB Retail, Raj Makanjee, said in the spirit of #TheChangeables the bank was constantly refreshing its solutions and service models to align with the step change in customers’ needs while upping the ante on their competitive advantage.
“In support of this, we have also refreshed our bank cards across our personal banking offerings. We pride ourselves on putting customers at the centre of our financial solutions, and the changes we are implementing demonstrate our commitment to value-based banking including giving customers up to three times their monthly personal account fee back in value from eBucks, FNB Connect and the embedded value in our offerings,” said Makanjee.
Another example of #TheChangeables in action was the bank’s new FNB Aspire bank account for customers earning between R180 000 and R450 000 a year.
FNB Aspire would replace the Gold account and had a reduced account fee of R99 a month.
BUSINESS REPORT