Background

GE Capital embarked on a global re-branding initiative to brand it's business outside the US as GE Money. While the name was to remain consistent, given local and regional nuances, each country was empowered to establish their product strategy and approach to the market. The Swiss GE Capital business, based in Zurich, was looking for a lead to establish a cross-functional team to drive the go-to-market strategy and introduce the GE Money brand locally. David relocated to Zurich where he led the re-branding initiative for the Swiss GE Capital business.

assess

After establishing a cross-functional team to drive the branding initiative within their functions of expertise, the team embarked in a market research initiative to evaluate different approaches to bringing the new brand to life.

• Aided and unaided brand awareness study
• Product feature/function review vs competition
• Portfolio pricing and positioning assessment
• Creative, signage and material inventory

research

GE entered the Swiss retail banking market by purchasing a sub-prime bank with strong market awareness.  The GE brand, by comparison, did not have strong brand awareness as it related to financial institutions.  The review of the marketplace encouraged the team to maintain this brand presence, while introducing the new GE Money brand to capture a new segment of the market.  

• Research identified an opportunity to win marketshare in a segment of the market that had previously not been targeted
• A fresh brand presence was going to be necessary to win market share among this new segment
• New products and a new pricing model were likely going to be needed to drive adoption among the new market segment
• The new brand approach was going to touch every aspect of the bank, from customer service, to operations, to legal, etc. A strong internal communications strategy was going to be necessary to rally the troops.  

plan

A multi-phase, cross-functional project plan was established. Functional leads were identified to drive their areas of the business and a project leadership team was created to ensure collaboration was encouraged and maintained across the business. The bank's executive team was updated regularly as the project progressed.  

• Established a co-brand approach to introducing the GE Money brand with the goal of maintaining marketshare for the incumbent brand while winning marketshare from a new segment of the market that traditionally banks with higher end retail financial institutions
• Designed cross-functional project plan, identifying internal and third party vendors to support all aspects of the re-branding initiative
• Designed the product suite and related pricing to support the new brand
• Created an internal communications operating rhythm to ensure the business was kept up to speed, trained and motivated as the launch date approached
• Country PR and marketing campaign was established to educate the marketplace on the GE brand prior to the launch date and drive adoption after the introduction of the brand

execute

The GE Money brand was successfully launched on-time and on-budget with a country-wide marketing and PR campaign, simultaneous retail branch re-branding and new product brand materials all hitting the market on the day of the launch. 

• Multi-faceted PR and marketing campaign, including radio, TV, print and digital media
• All branches completely re-branded with signage and a new, open-air design
• All in-bound channels completely re-branded and customer service teams fully versed in addressing new GE Money customers
• Internal materials and contracts updated to reflect the new brand and related legal entity

extend and refine

Executed on a post-launch marketing and sales campaign to drive new market share while looking forward to building new products to support the brand

• Maintained planned marketing campaign to drive up brand awareness
• Engaged in a promotional pricing strategy to drive business to products under the new brand
• Determined that a new credit card product would be the ideal next product under the new brand and began to turn our approach to building capability to support this

Summary Results

New co-brand strategy launched on time and on budget, establishing a foundation on which a new product suite could be built.

• Created and led and internal and external cross-functional team, encompassing every aspect of the business, to execute the launch of the GE Money brand in Switzerland, creating a new brand platform on which new products could be developed to win a new segment of the marketplace.
• 60% improvement in brand awareness and 20% increase in sales volume within the first 6-months
• New product suite, new pricing strategy and open bank branch design successfully attracted a new customer segment
• Co-brand strategy successfully ensured that original brand maintained strong market awareness and market share within its target customer segment
• Bank spun-off as Cembra Money Bank