It’s in the details really.

The little things you do in your business that are inconsistent with the overall brand’s identity.  The signals a brand sends out that hint at a tinge of schizophrenia.  They make your customer uncomfortable.  So they hightail it out of there.

Take my recent experience for instance.

I was frustrated and annoyed.

I needed to know if my replacement ATM card was ready for collection and all that stood in the way was the number to call.  I didn’t know it.

And then it came to me.

Genius!

My bank statement was in my bag!  I took it out, tore it open and sighed in relief.  Not only was there a statement in the envelope, there was also a flier announcing a reduction in the RTGS fee.  The latter of course mattered little to me so I perused the printout looking for the bank’s contact details.

There were none.

What about the flier?

Nothing.

How could this be?  That a brand with a continental presence would send me communication without a single bit of contact information.

At the very least, for a bank that is pushing its Internet banking service, there should have been a URL to the company website.

There was none.

It may be small detail but it mattered a great deal to me.  And still does.  That my bank seems to be conflicted about communicating with me worries me a bit.

I might be changing banks.

Any ideas?

‘We would like to inform you that we are currently upgrading this site…’

Those are the words prominently displayed on a local financial services firm’s website. They are a listed company with lots of money and a history of the most successful retail banking marketing campaign in recent times. This website project is probably being handled by different people all together.

That line tells me…

‘Our website sucks, we know. We really aren’t doing anything about it yet but we want you to believe we are, so hang in there while we come up with something’.

BBC redesigned their website early this year and it was a wonderful surprise. One morning I visit the site and I am delightfully surprised by a crisp clean understated interface. They didn’t precede it with a ‘We are upgrading our website…’ line. They just did it.

Technology does not operate in a vacuum. Especially in business. Technology provides the support that great business ideas need. This line is a sign that technology has taken over the organization while the Brand strategy arms of the business have gone to sleep.

If the business was to critically analyze the whole point of pasting a statement of that nature on their website, they would realize that the harm it does the brand cannot be undone by putting up a great website.  It creates the impression that the web strategy and brand management of the business (which incidentally has considerable brand equity) is run by novices.