After 218 years in business, Bank of New York Co. is seeking a little more brand recognition.
Joseph V. Tripodi, the former Seagrams Spirits and Wine Group marketing head hired to the new post of chief marketing officer at the banking company, said in an interview that one of his first tasks is to shepherd a project "designed to take a look at everything the brand stands for on a worldwide basis and how we can sharpen and improve our overall messaging and imagery."
He said the project has begun and that it will determine the next steps for the 60-person marketing group, which had reported to a number of people but has been consolidated under him.
The group "will support all units of the bank, but the focus will be on the institutional side" of the business, said Mr. Tripodi, who reports to president Gerald L. Hassell. His hiring was announced last week but he joined Bank of New York on Dec. 2.
Mr. Hassell and chief executive Tom Reyni "really realized that what's going to be increasingly important for the Bank of New York is how it defines itself in the marketplace, through its brand," Mr. Tripodi said in the Thursday interview. "Tom and Gerald had this in their minds to do for a long time and they just recognized that the timing was right to do it now."
Bank of New York is perhaps most famous for its founder, Alexander Hamilton, who died in July 1804 after a duel with Aaron Burr (the long-standing joke has been that Mr. Hamilton instructed his board of directors not to do anything until his return).
In the past decade the $80 billion-asset company has become one of the big three in providing custody and processing services, but that side of the securities business tends to get overlooked by the general public. Moreover, its physical presence is concentrated in the suburbs - in the city it is dwarfed by Citigroup Inc. and J.P. Morgan Chase & Co.
The "messaging and imagery" project will include an examination of how those competitors and others handle marketing as well as the role brand plays in customer decision-making, Mr. Tripodi said.
Bank of New York would not say so, but others suggested that it was the heightened competition in its home turf - from entrenched players as well as from such emerging companies as Commerce Bancorp of Cherry Hill, N.J., Washington Mutual Inc. of Seattle, and North Fork Bancorp of Melville, N.Y. - that moved Bank of New York to create the position that Mr. Tripodi has filled.
James M. McCormick, the president of First Manhattan Consulting Group in New York, said the move shows that Bank of New York is "being progressive and realizing that growing faster than the general market is essential in enjoying a high stock price, which they have historically."
In 30 states, banks outside the top five captured 100% of the growth in core retail banking in the seven years through 2001, Mr. McCormick said. Larger banks (notable exceptions aside) have been losing share, when measured on an acquisition-adjusted basis, he said. "That's a pretty dramatic call for an upgrade to marketing skills," he said.
Bank of New York is behind the pack in hiring a marketing chief, said Peter Carroll, a managing director at Oliver, Wyman & Co. But its decision to emphasize marketing for institutional clients makes is sound, given that most of its competitors focus on retail clients, he said.
On the institutional side of its business, Bank of New York competes with Morgan Chase as well as two companies that have shed the last vestiges of their retail banks, State Street Corp. and Mellon Financial Corp.
