First National Bank of Maryland, AIB's subsidiary in the US, has appointed consultants to advise on the renaming and rebranding of the US bank. All of AIB's US operations are to be relaunched under one corporate name early next year.
Following the £840 million acquisition of Dauphin Deposit Corporation, AIB's banking operations in the US are conducted under about 50 different names with six individual bank names and a number of other banking unit and division names for particular business areas.
As the integration of Dauphin with First Maryland proceeds, AIB wants to operate under one brand name and identity in its chosen market area of Maryland, Pennsylvania and Washington DC. International corporate identity consultant, Interbrand, has been retained to help the bank achieve a name and a market positioning which will be attractive to customers and staff and will help the bank achieve its strategic market objectives.
With the integration of the Dauphin operations expected to be completed by the end of the year, the search for a suitable new name has been intensifying. But as Ms Deborah Van Valkenberg from First Maryland explained, renaming the large banking operation which grew through a series of acquisitions of regional banks is not a simple task.
"First we have to define the brand . . . where do we want to go, how do we want to use the brand as a position platform and what does that mean for a brand name. What does our senior management at AIB and First National want the identity of the bank to be. What are our target areas for future growth. The first stage is strategic brand analysis," she said.
Extensive research with management, employee and customer groups in recent months has been carried out as well as an assessment of current names and brand positions.
Now completed, that stage resulted in a number of recommendations for pulling together the various organisations and business lines under one brand identity.
Senior management is now evaluating possible "first-stage" names and "brand architecture" that would fit with a chosen brand platform. When suitable names are chosen they will be tested with customers and staff.
Ms Van Valkenberg was unwilling to disclose any of the "first stage" possibilities, but said possible names fell into three categories. The first involves real words which represent values of the organisation and the region First Bank could be a possibility here.
The second involves names which would be a derivative of the master brand Allied Irish Banks First Irish Dauphin could be a runner. The final category involves "coined names" or derivatives of existing words or symbols tweaked to give a new meaning The Ark and Dove Bank using the AIB symbols may be considered.
