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Case: Credit Suisse 2006


2005



1997
THE STORY

Nine years ago, Chairman Rainer Gut led what I then called "a controlled and brilliantly executed corporate-branding exercise," to establish Credit Suisse as a modern global masterbrand while retaining its valuable First Boston investment banking equity. Mission accomplished. Then last year, new Chairman Oswald Grübel approved the next and final step to monolithic branding. This could have been done simply by dropping "First Boston." Instead, advised by Enterprise IG's London team and its research, Grübel chose to rebrand again, by changing to a post-modern logo that nods to the pre-1997 First Boston ship symbol.

One could hardly ask the incumbent identity firm, Wolff Olins, to scrap its own good work; Grübel needed someone else and chose the London office of Enterprise IG. Responding to the management teams' polar range of wishes, to take pride in tradition and heritage while promoting modern dynamism, Enterprise came up with a have-your-cake positioning: "The Tradition to Innovate." Since the existing logo tilted toward "modern," a new logo would have to reverse course toward "traditional' ... in other words, post-modern. The Enterprise IG designers came up with a lightly-serif-ed, all-caps  wordmark, pulled by two foresails.
Tony Spaeth


CREDITS

Enterprise IG (UK)


CASE INFO

Submitted by: Tony Spaeth, 14/11/2006
Status: Estimated by Tony Spaeth
Category: Banks
Country (HQ): Switzerland


MATRIX DATA

DRIVERS

  

TOOLS

Strategic driver: 100%   
Change internal culture
  Refresh & redirect competitive energy
 20%  x  Identifier tactics: Logo change: Wordmark-dominant
    x  Change event : Medium visibility: Launch event
Change internal culture
  Transfer affiliation from unit to parent
 40%  x  Identifier tactics: Logo change: Wordmark-dominant
    x  Situation facts: Subcorporate facts: Defining units
    x  Change event : Medium visibility: Launch event
Change expressed personality
  Renew/refresh public image
 20%  x  Identifier tactics: Logo change: Wordmark-dominant
    x  Identity system elements: Verbal elements: Tag lines
    x  Change event : High visibility: Campaign
Change perceived composition
  Modify parental 'umbrella' presence
 20%  x  Identifier tactics: Logo change: Wordmark-dominant
    x  Identity system elements: Unit signature system: Monolithic
    x  Change event : High visibility: Campaign