Primum non nocere

The first rule of rebranding should be 'do no harm'.

Oct 09, 2022

As you pour a coffee then serenely settle down to read this, I’ll be swearing and sweating, hopelessly trying to cram a week’s worth of clothes into a bag small enough to take on board a short-haul flight to Sibos. More on that in a moment.

Read on to learn why:

① The digital and social age has forced brands to evolve.

② Your brand’s appearance should be revered.

③ The hurdles to CBDC adoption by traditional finance are not technical.

④ Digital assets are ready for centre stage.

⑤ Regulators are clamping down not just on crypto trading but its marketing.

⑥ Working for the world’s most admired tech brand, requires palpable passion.

⑦ The UK’s dominance in fintech depends on supporting the next generation.

What's new

I received an email from SWIFT this week announcing its new branding.

In short:

“While keeping our brand authentically Swift and true to our global vision, we’re evolving our visual identity to work better in digital environments. The changes include a refreshed logo along with updated colours and imagery that is more human and relatable.”
“We’ll be rolling out these new elements from 8 October 2022 across all applications, emails, and other touchpoints – but not all at once. For the next several months, our previous and updated branding will co-exist as we work through the changes.”
“And while our branding may be changing, our mission remains the same. We’re enabling instant, frictionless and interoperable transactions from account to account, anywhere in the world.”

Why it matters

I have to confess to a collosal conflict of interest here. You see, I worked for SWIFT at the time of the last rebrand so was closely involved in - and feel emotionally attached to - it. With that in mind, you would be perfectly entitled to dismiss what follows as the biased views of an angry old man shouting at clouds. If so, stop reading, delete this email and we’ll talk again next week. Don’t worry, I won’t blame you.

Still with me? Thank you. My friend, this rebrand matters because it’s a mistake. And I’ll tell you why in a second. First though, congratulations to SWIFT on the communications. Top marks for flagging the change in advance, explaining it concisely and without the self-referential pomposity and pretentious language that so often afflicts rebrand announcements, and for having the pragmatism not to attempt a ‘Big Bang’ approach to rolling it out. No marks whatsoever for the rest…

① In our digital and social age, companies often - rightly - feel the need to adapt how they appear. Many of today’s brands’ visual elements were designed back when what mattered most was how they would look on a brochure or an advertising billboard. Today, the most critical aspect of your logo is whether it will stand out from the confines of a small circular profile area as your target audience scrolls through their Twitter feed. Financial services brands have evolved with mixed results.

The enormous advantage SWIFT enjoyed is that its globe logo literally was a circle, it’s like it was designed to be a social media profile picture. To jettison that in favour of a completely nondescript globe and their name written out in a featureless yet inelegant font next to it is baffling to me.

Sure, the SWIFT globe always had rather unfortunate ‘The Man from Uncle’/’Mission: Impossible’ vibes (although you could argue they were apt, given its secretive nature and megalomaniacal hidden lair in the Belgian countryside) but it was distinctive and, quite literally, represented its global network.

And of course there’s the problem of the new typeface looking early similar to another Swift. Me? I would have left the name in the globe where it belongs - at the centre of things - perhaps freshened up the typeface, maybe tweaked the colours but fundamentally left well alone.

What to do about it

Take action

Although I have not attended medical school (too queasy at the sight of blood), I have watched enough pulpy TV to know that the foundation of the Hippocratic Oath is “first, do no harm.” I think we need a Hippocratic Oath for marketers.

② If you’re even contemplating a rebrand, I’d suggest you need to drum this concept into your marketing team from the offset: don’t throw the baby out with the bathwater. Don’t make changes for the sake of making changes. Brands - and their appearance - are precious, take decades to build, and should be revered. Act accordingly.

Get help

Visit InMarketing, my resource library for leaders in finance or technology who want to innovate, interact and influence.

Join my InMarketing Twitter community, where you can ask questions or comments of me but also your fellow community members of senior marketing practitioners.

Can I ask you a favour? If you found this useful or know someone who would, please share it. It would really help me to grow the community of regular IMTW readers.

Top stories

The other articles that are worthy of your time.

FINANCE

SWIFT finds role as global hub for CBDCs

③ Hurdles to CBDC adoption by traditional finance are not technical but legal.

“Financial messaging network SWIFT has released the results of a trial that allowed digital currencies and assets to flow smoothly alongside, and interact with, their traditional counterparts by bridging between different distributed ledger technology networks and existing payment systems.”
“SWIFT, in collaboration with Capgemini, achieved CBDC-to-CBDC transactions between different DLT networks as well as fiat-to-CBDC flows between these networks and a real-time gross settlement system.”
“14 central and commercial banks, including Banque de France, the Deutsche Bundesbank, HSBC, Intesa Sanpaolo, NatWest, SMBC, Standard Chartered, UBS and Wells Fargo, are now collaborating in a testing environment to accelerate the path to full scale deployment.”

TECHNOLOGY

Your guide to Sibos 2022

④ Digital assets are ready for centre stage.

It’s rare that I mention my job at Quant in these emails to you but this week it would have been disingenuous not to - since we published a guide to the Sibos conference from a technology perspective. The key takeaway is clear: digital assets are ready for mainstream adoption. There are issues to consider, of course, and our takes on the five big ones are:

Distributed ledger technology: “DLT will eventually replace much of our current infrastructure because it’s inherently more efficient, agile and secure.”
Interoperability: “New ecosystems, networks and digital assets are eagerly being deployed on blockchains, but – much like the early days of the internet – they’re being built in ‘walled gardens’. Without true interoperability, these won’t deliver on their potential. Bringing business knowledge, standards, and the right technology together is the answer.”
Institutional digital assets: “The digitisation of transactions and assets through tokenisation will deliver transformative improvements for investors and issuers alike – but it should be transparent to end users, and demand a new framework and approach.”
Tokenised money: “Private digital money – in the form of wholesale and commercial stablecoins, tokenised deposits, and e-money – is changing the world of finance. It’s compliant with regulation, fully-backed and designed from the outset for B2B use.”
Central bank digital currencies: “Where privately-issued digital money has led with great promise in specific use cases, CBDCs will follow with much broader potential. Implemented with consideration for security, privacy and proper interoperability, CBDCs will empower governments and their citizens alike.”

Download your guide to Sibos 2022

MEDIA & MARKETING

Kim Kardashian pays $1.3mn to settle crypto charges

⑤ Regulators are clamping down not just on crypto trading but its marketing.

Source: The Financial Times, 3 October 2022

“Kim Kardashian has agreed to pay $1.26mn to settle charges with the US securities regulator for promoting a cryptocurrency without revealing that she was paid to do so.”
“The case is related to the fraught debate around what constitutes a digital security and the breadth of the SEC’s jurisdiction over crypto assets. Gensler reiterated his position: ‘The law is clear. I believe based on the facts and circumstances most of these tokens are securities.’ Kardashian violated the anti-touting provisions in US securities laws, the agency said.
“As part of the settlement, for three years Kardashian may not receive compensation for publicising digital security tokens and has agreed to continue collaborating in the investigation.”

WILDCARD

Working for Apple: Five traits the company seeks

⑥ Working for the world’s most admired tech brand, demands palpable passion.

Caring
Collaboration
Creativity
Curiosity
Expertise

Off cuts

The stories that almost made this week’s newsletter.

The last word

⑦ Janine Hirt, CEO of Innovate Finance, announcing the association’s startup academy for founders and CEOs this week:

“If the UK is to continue as the global leader in fintech, we all must work together to support these early-stage founders and provide them with the tools, insight and connections necessary to thrive.”

Don’t settle for marketing.

Strive for InMarketing: innovate, interact, influence.

Wishing you a productive week,

P.S. If you’re thinking of going out for lunch today, I recommend Hereford Road, a former butcher’s shop now transformed into the perfect spot for a Sunday roast.