Nationwide rebranding

Bazzalona13295

Tell me I'm wrong but all that will not attract one single new customer or get existing customers to use them more, totally pointless imo.

JGB1955

I now have the problem of my NatWest and Nationwide icons sitting alongside each other on my phone.  I see me easily confusing the two!  Time to move them out of their (current) alphabetical order.

GeoffTF

Zanderman said:

GeoffTF said:

Is Flex Direct intended to be confused with First Direct?

Probably not. What would be the point? One is a specific bank account. The other is a whole bank.

It was not a serious suggestion, but First Direct is HSBC's distance banking option and Flex Direct is Nationwide's distance banking option. Of course both organisation's bricks and mortar options include distance banking, but that is besides the point.

boingy

The rebranding is not something I have a strong opinion about but I do agree that the new logo is remarkably similar to the NatWest one, especially when they are side-by-side on your phone.

Zanderman

Rob5342 said:

Zanderman said:

Rob5342 said:

They are clearly trying to imitate NatWest with the colour and especially the new logo, a bit like how Lidl design their own brand products so imitate the branded ones.

If they want to get anywhere they really need to update their hopeless app instead of fiddling with cosmetic things.

I would have thought the last thing they would want to do is imitate NatWest's branding. People get confused enough already as both can be referred to as NW. I can't see any advantage to increasing that confusion. Banks (and BSoc's) want to stand out from each other, not blend in. So any resemblance is more likely, to my mind, to be a mistake, not deliberate.

The purple background, white text and red logo are virtually identical colours to Natwest, and the shape and size of the logo is very similar (just take the bottom left swirl off the Natwest logo, reshape the other two slightly and you have the Nationwide logo). They can't have been unaware of all that.

But there is no point at all (and no advantage) in confusing customers, and they, Nwide, will would want to stand out. So any resemblance, I suggest again, is accidental.

Personally I don't see the colours as particularly similar - they're actually quite different.  As is the logo. But that's just my view. 

The designers of this new branding would be looking for colours and a logo that are distinctive. If they've chosen vaguely similar colours to another brand that's more likely to be because those colour combinations are considered to work well, not because they're similar to a rival.

Any similarity to another is perfectly possible to be a complete error. I have had, in the distant past, quite a lot of experience with marketing teams and the vagaries of corporate re-branding and new logos. A process which is, sometimes, mind-blowingly stupid so mess-up is very possible.

EarthBoy

Rob5342 said:

The purple background

I'd call it dark blue, rather than purple.

GeoffTF

I agree that a mess up is the most likely explanation. Nonetheless, it is plausible that Nationwide is a wannabe NatWest and Flex Direct is a wannabe First Direct. Trying to associate your brand with a more successful one is not unknown.

roddydogs

What was wrong with the "CoOp"?

boingy

The logos:

boingy

And as for the "Flex" thing I wish they would just drop it rather than sticking it at the beginning of most account names.

My app shows:

FlexDirect Account
FlexAccount
Flex Regular Saver Issue 2
Flex Instant Saver 2