HSBC branch, retail interior bank design and brand communications audit. Trending financial services concepts by a leading London branding agency.
At a strategy briefing, to position HSBC as a leading UK high street retailer of financial products and mortgage services, the HSBC Marketing and Development team asked us to conduct research in retail branch design trends, analyse a number of their real branch formats and prepare creative design proposals for their retail banking division.
The proposed reception area
The existing reception area
The proposed interview rooms
The existing interview rooms
We understand banks are faced with expensive assets to maintain. However, the branch is critical to the definition of the bank's brand differentiation on the high street. The multi-channel approach to banking has simply confirmed the branch as the embodiment of the bank's core values and branding. When re-engineering branch formats we take into account, sales, technology, security, brand, marketing ambience and accessibility.
We suggest management should not focus solely on overall deposit growth, but on branding, branch design, the performance of individual offices and new digital channels designed to create “engagement” for the user, thereby capturing these channels’ full sales potential.
