TO strength its brand in the minds of its consumers, First City monument Bank (FCMB) has unveiled a new marketing communication campaign. It is designed to tell consumers that whatever steps the bank had taken and will continue to take in the near future is meant to serve them better. This is why the campaign is dubbed ‘Better For You’. The bank stated that all it had gone through in the last three years was aimed at providing better services to consumers.
The communication tools deployed in the campaign paint efforts geared towards making the bank offer better services to its customers. This is why Joke Silva, one of the models used in the commercial, is seen going the extra mile of spending the night rehearsing her script to get better in her acting craft.
To the marketing communication team, all the bank had been doing in the past three years – merger, developing a new IT platform, recruiting and promoting staff among other things are designed to serve the customers better.
The commercial jingle is in phases. In the first phase, which is the introduction, a letter is used to tell customers that the bank is better. The letter is authored by Group Managing Director, Mr. Ladi Balogun, and it gives background to the journey of the bank over the years including how it started out. The letter takes the customers though the journey of the bank in the last 35 years, narrating where they are coming from as a financial institution and where they are headed.
In another, the bank’s Head of Contact Centre gives the perspective of customer service now operational in the bank. And in another, a Branch Manager from the North speaks to tell the banking audience that FCMB has a diverse background.
The campaign also gives account of the bank’s milestone and its accomplishment over the years, with the newest milestone being recent acquisitions.
While holding a briefing on the new campaign, Group Head, Marketing Communication, Mr. Ikechukwu Kalu said that the ‘Better For You’ television commercial is premised on the fact that the bank wants to tell its story through people that are recognised and forthright in their callings, hence the use of Joke Silva and Naeto C.
He stated, “The way Joke Silva, for example, has carried herself as a professional shows that she has mastered her role very well”.
On the choice of featuring Naeto C, he said it was because he has good education and has moved from one step to the other in his music career, adding, “With the two artistes, we are saying success is a journey. It takes us to our core value of professionalism, ambition and excellence, which are things that will make us move forward”.
Also about the campaign, the Head, Brand Management Unit of the bank, Angella Olarewaju stated that the bank advertises to add values to its customers and not for advertising sake, noting, “We believe that advertising should add value and not just a medium to make noise. We want to communicate our value propositions and the fact that we are out to offer something good and unique. If you noticed, we were quiet while going through the acquisition process. Then we were busy working on how best to have a smooth integration and still deliver quality service.
“We are now bigger and better. The new campaign, with the theme ‘Better For You’ is about us telling the public that all what we have been doing in the last six months was meant to serve them better. We are saying that anybody that does business with us can be sure of excellent value. We are saying that what we have been doing in the last six months is for the better. We have reached a stage where we think we can now communicate the process and the gain to our customers”.