• by Tanya Gazdik , July 9, 2007

The Bank of New York Mellon Corp. will launch a branding campaign Oct. 1 to introduce the company formed by the merger of The Bank of New York and Mellon Financial Corp.

The program is being developed by Lippincott Mercer, a New York-based corporate design consultancy, which has previously worked on branding campaigns for each of the companies that make up the merger, says company spokesman Kevin Heine.

"Now that the merger is complete, we can move forward in earnest [on the re-branding]," Heine says.

Lippincott previously completed global brand positioning and corporate identity work for The Bank of New York in February 2006. Mellon's logo, a simple green "M," has not changed in 26 years. The Bank of New York's multi-hued logo, designed by Lippincott and launched in January 2005, was said to be inspired by the intricate patterns of currencies, stocks and bonds.

Robert Kelly, CEO of the new company, has said he finds the green "M" dated, confirms Heine.

The Bank of New York Mellon announced the merger's completion July 2 after originally announcing plans to merge in December 2006. Shareholders of each company overwhelmingly approved the transaction in May. The company is headquartered in New York and has 40,000 employees around the world, operating in 37 countries and serving more than 100 markets.

Heine would not reveal the facets of the new branding campaign, but confirmed it would be multi-faceted.

Lippincott's previous work for Mellon included a branding campaign when Mellon acquired branches from Meritor Savings Bank. Similarly to the current merger between The Bank of New York and Mellon, that acquisition brought together two entities with very different internal cultures, as well as varying customer needs and perceptions, according to Lippincott's web site.

In response, Lippincott determined the most appropriate positioning and identity strategy for the merged bank, developed a communications strategy to contain customer attrition. (A previous acquisition had resulted in a 50% attrition of customers) and designed a visual system and rollout plan.

Along with the current logo, previous work by Lippincott for The Bank of New York included developing positioning, image attributes, key message themes and streamlining the company's brand architecture.