The Internet compounds the challenge for an industry that is still struggling with branding at its most basic level.
"Ninety percent of Web sites are failures in both usability and branding," asserted Jonathan B. Spira, senior managing director of Basex Group in New York, who is chairman of an upcoming conference on brands in cyberspace. "Creating a brand is one thing - making it work is the second part."
Corporate identity experts say strong brands might be even more important in the ephemeral, ever-changing atmosphere of cyberspace - constants amid confusion.
"Site redesign is a way of life on the Web," said James Garrity, senior vice president of corporate advertising at First Union Corp.
As part of a brand-oriented advertising campaign it started earlier this year, First Union wanted to make sure that the images projected on billboards, television, and on its World Wide Web site were all consistent.
The bank decided that ease of navigation was a top priority, Mr. Garrity said. So customer options appear high on the page - visitors need not scroll down to find connections.
Suzanne Hogan, vice president at the corporate identity consulting firm Lippincott & Margulies Inc., said First Union has it right. Not coincidentally, bankers and others who have studied Web site designs consistently rate First Union's among banking's top five.
Too many bank Web sites are cluttered, Ms. Hogan said, because designers have sacrificed branding principles to their notions of creativity.
"The greatest danger is trivializing the brand," she added. "The warning sign would be if you get up on a Web site and find a number of different expressions for that brand from different groups within the organization."
Sovereign Bancorp attracted red flags when it put an ice cream sundae on its home page under the slogan, "Banking in your favorite flavor." It was pulled in February in favor of one that shows pictures of people.
A third version will appear in June, when the Wyomissing, Pa., banking company launches a fresh brand campaign. It will have a unique typeface and be consistent across billboards, brochures, branches, advertisements, and the Web site, said marketing director Missy Orlando.
In a turnabout from earlier assumptions about the Internet and its ability to enable new, small companies to "disintermediate" established industries, many experts now say real-world brand strengths will ultimately carry the day in cyberspace.
Lynn Upshaw, a former Ketchum Advertising executive and author of "Building Brand Identity," evangelizes on that point. "Brand building will win out," said Mr. Upshaw. That gives established identities, especially those that customers relate to emotionally, a big advantage.
"I don't think customers are going to feel comfortable any time soon dealing with a name they don't see on the street," said James R. Beams, a consulting analyst at the Tower Group in Newton, Mass.
"I see a kind of David-and-Goliath battle emerging," said Eric Almquist, a director at Mercer Management Consulting in New York. "As the world gets noisier, brands will actually increase in importance."
The good news for established banks is that a computer server can identify and greet a customer right away. "We're returning to personal service," said Mr. Upshaw, principal of Upshaw & Associates, Greenbrae, Calif.
At Addison Whitney, a Charlotte, N.C., corporate image consulting firm, Brannon M. Cashion, director of the financial industry group, advises bankers to keep brand messages consistent and remember that consumers are viewing on-line media with different screens and browsers, meaning their experiences can vary.
Allan Siegel, principal at the New York brand consulting firm Siegel & Gale Inc., said the logo on a Web site is "about 1% of the issue."
The heart of the matter, he said, is to offer customers valuable information and transaction services on-line.
"The Internet is not a game for techno-freaks and propeller heads," Mr. Siegel said. "It's a serious, 24-hour way to communicate with your customers."
