From the outside at least, the offices of Voca, located in the sleepy Chilterns town of Rickmansworth just inside the M25 in Buckinghamshire, do not scream world-class financial services institution. But once past the bland-to-the-point of-almost-being-offensive exterior, and the unwelcoming concrete pedestrian staircase access (which would not be out of place in a municipal carpark) a surprising transformation takes place.
The reception is bright, contemporary and welcoming, with Voca’s new logo back-lit and glowing prominently and confidently in four-foot letters above the reception desk. Until last year, the company had been more soberly known as BACS which previously stood for Banks Automated Clearing Services a name that neatly reflected its ownership by the UK clearing banks, and its responsibility for four billion payments per year in the UK, making it one of the world’s leading payment services operations. (See B2BM Nov/Dec 04, page 5.)
On the reception walls hang framed press clippings from trade and national publications regarding the company’s respositioning, which began in 2003 with structural and organisational changes and was cemented last October with the launch of the new brand a significant statement of confidence. In as much as an organisation’s lobby can truly reflect its identity, Voca’s Rickmansworth reception communicates that it is proud of its new brand, progressive in nature, and keen to demonstrate this to the outside world. But at the same time, does not want to disregard its legacy as a trusted provider of payment services hence the underwhelming location. This is a difficult balancing act, but one which Voca appears to be achieving.
The man who must take more credit than most for the reinvention of worthy but dull BACS into progressive and forward-looking Voca (at least from a marketing perspective) is chief marketing officer David Sear. Responsible for product development, sales and marketing at Voca, Sear has been with the company since March 2003, having moved from web payment security specialist WorldPay where he played a key role in the brand building and marketing programme which saw it grow from zero to 20,000 signed-up merchants inside three years. Prior to that, he was responsible for building the now-defunct TransAx point-of-purchase brand for Equifax.
Both these experiences have obviously prepared him well for his current role: I am a serial brand builder, Sear acknowledges, with a smile. Tall and smartly dressed in collar and tie, Sear initially appears every inch the senior bank executive, but when he speaks it is clear that he thinks more like a marketer (albeit a very business-focused marketer) and his enthusiasm for the subject and his role is considerable and infectious.
Sear is determined that the rebranding be seen in the context of a wider business transformation programme that has been taking place at the clearing house over the past two years. Its aim, quite simply, is to provide a platform for expansion into new products and new geographical markets.
As a business, we are 180 degrees different to how we were two years ago, explains Sear. We have invested £100 million in technology, have a completely new executive team, a new strategy and even a new headquarters. I’m very proud of what’s been achieved.
But the biggest change and the genesis for the other developments – has been a physical split in the responsibilities of the old BACS organisation, with processing functions being taken forward on a more commercial footing under the new Voca brand, whilst responsibility for rule-setting retained under the BACS umbrella. There has been no change in ownership.
In comparison with the old BACS brand, the Voca logo and identity is unashamedly commercial, and consumer-orientated in feel. Whilst not denying this, Sear is adamant that Voca is a B2B brand, and the primary audience it was designed to communicate with is businesses. All B2B brands must have a consumer dynamic business people are consumers too, he says. Marketing people are predisposed to think that B2B brands must be dull and unexciting, but I don’t understand why.
The time and trouble taken to select the new name is a good indication of the seriousness of the company’s ambition to reinvent itself. It was a big challenge to find a four letter word which was not taken and could be legally defended. There are always some potential negatives with a rebrand Voca could be seen as hard or harsh, but the logo gives it a softer edge. We think we’ve got a great name.
Sear dismisses any implications that adopting cues from consumer marketing in terms of design and look-and-feel of the logo will undermine Voca’s perception in the market. The logo is a bit funky, but without being silly. We do a serious thing, but this logo feels new and different. The clothes have to fit the person wearing them: the balance is about accommodating the past and creating a dynamism for the future. It is a strong, simple and clean name, with a great visual identity.
The new brand was unveiled at one of the banking industry’s primary annual gatherings, the SIBOS exhibition, held in Atlanta in October the obvious place to make a major announcement to the banking community. As yet, there has been no concerted effort to communicate the change to Voca’s primary UK audience of businesses, who use its clearing services for payments. However, with a 98 per cent approval rate amongst UK business customers for BACS services, arguably there is little need to rush to change things.
Despite this, an integrated programme of activity targeting UK businesses will kick-off in the New Year, including DM and emarketing. We will be using a range of different media, but with a very strong focus on PR. This is an area that Sear feels particularly passionate about, explaining, I am an evangelist for PR. Third party endorsement is far more valuable in ROI terms than advertising. I have tested this: we did a significant above-the-line in national newspapers campaign at WorldPay. The response was practically zero. He says that communicating the value and relevance of a new product is far better through PR.
Sear believes that the marketing industry as a whole is far too obsessed with big-budget, but ultimately unresponsive media. I would like to see a time when people stopped regarding marketing success based on the amount that has been spent.
One audience which has been the focus of a concerted campaign focusing on the rebrand has been the internal one. Sear claims this has been particularly effective. Internal communications is the part of the project which I’m most proud of. This kind of activity is not normally seen, but it is like the tip of the iceberg, he explains, suggesting that the level of internal activity has been extremely intense.
Sear suggests internal marketing is important for any organisation; but particularly for an institution, and the BACS brand is equivalent to a royal institution.
The implication is that the rebranding process, as part of the overall business transformation, has sought to fundamentally shift the way in which the organisation thinks about itself, and the aims and aspirations of its employees. It is a true root-and-branch business transformation.
Besides employees and UK businesses, the key audience that the rebrand is designed to appeal to is the European banking and business community. To a great extent, the entire transformation of BACS has been designed to leverage the opportunities presented by what Sear sees as the inevitable consolidation of clearing services in the European Union. The Voca brand was designed with at the very least half an eye on the EU.
There are currently 26 clearing businesses in the euro zone. There will undoubtedly be consolidation, and those with the best technology and the greatest commercial remit will be the ones to succeed. The restructured and rebranded Voca intends to be one of the winners.
He does not believe there will be a goldrush, as the larger national clearers race to buy up the smaller operators, pointing out that organisations such as Voca must strive above all else to ensure that their infrastructure remains robust and that payment integrity remains high. But it will not be economic to run a clearing service on a national basis. The single currency will result in a smaller number of networks.
Whether desirable or not, Sear does not believe the creation of a monopoly is practical or realistic, pointing out that the credit card industry is run by three separate networks. We expect to be one of a number of highly flexible and highly innovative networks, he says. And whilst the fact that the UK is currently euro-out does present a problem, he does not regard it as insurmountable. Europe is a huge market and big challenge, but I’m happy to take it on. The irony of the potential situation wherein Voca becomes the leading facilitator of the single currency, and yet the UK remains outside the euro-zone, would not be lost on Sear.
As if the opportunities in Europe were not enough, Sear explains that Voca is currently exploring opportunities in other regions, most notably in the Far East where some of the expanding economies do not have a sophisticated payments infrastructure in place.
The emerging markets are far quicker to take on new technology, and there are lots of interest opportunities, says Sear, although he describes Europe as, the main focus.
But geographical expansion is only one of the main pillars of Voca’s development plans. The second relates to new technology. Sear is quick to boast of the capability the £100 million spent on IT as part of its business re-engineering. This is intended to develop new products and services that can help diversify the company’s reach and create new revenue streams.
The first fruit from this strategy is OneVu, a piece of technology that provides consumers with a complete view of all their bills, as well as the their account balances, via an Internet banking system. It has been developed via a joint venture company which is co-owned by US CheckFree, and has already proven successful on the other side of the Atlantic. Sear explains that the system is invisible to consumers as it resides on banks and ‘billers” (ie. utility or credit card company) systems, and adoption is therefore dependent on convincing this audience of its merits, rather than the general public. This presents an interesting communications challenge: Sear says it will be discretely marketed. But he claims that both groups are already keen, and that both Lloyds TSB and HSBC have already signed up, along with a number of billers. Further technology-based opportunities are planned.
With significant opportunities opening up in the UK, Europe and the rest of the world, the stage is set for Voca to complete its transformation from a critical, but essentially dull component of the domestic financial services industry, into a world leader in payment and clearing services. The old BACS brand simply could not have supported such ambitious plans, whereas the new identity looks likely to prove a key weapon in its assault on the global market. But whether or not its lofty goals are achieved, the rebranding project and the boldness of the new identity should be recognised as an all-too-rare example of excellence in B2B branding, and a huge achievement by David Sear and his team.
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