In 2003, we were tasked with re-launching the Alliance & Leicester Commercial Bank (ALCB) brand to the small business market.
After intense research, we found small businesses wanting to switch banks, but uncertain who to switch to. We also found ALCB hidden behind both the parent Alliance & Leicester plc brand and the legacy of Girobank. So we devised a six year challenger brand strategy with propositions that demonstrated genuine better value.
The starting point was to re-develop the entire product portfolio to simplify the offer. We challenged the status quo through a series of aggressive and hard-hitting campaigns focusing on non-traditional media channels, and on delivering free banking through remote delivery. By 2005, other banks were copying our positioning and with the momentum in the market to now consider alternative suppliers, we ran a series of 'switcher' campaigns to draw in new business.
Online account take-up and servicing rose from 25% to 85% in two years. Response to the campaign was so successful that at one point, the call centre operations had to be closed to cope with the response. All targets set by the bank were broken, and it picked up 11 national and international marketing awards (including Marketing Strategy of the Year in 2006). This was a critical factor in Santander's acquisition of Alliance & Leicester in 2009.