Abstract:

At present there are 35 wholly independent Spaarbanken in the Netherlands. "Spaarbanken" mean savings banks, but in this case the stress is laid upon the name "Spaarbanken" and therefore we will keep using this name in our paper.) In spite of several desperate efforts in the past, it took a long time before the Spaarbanken were convinced that a joint corporate image is of utmost importance to the continuance of their enterprises. Marketing re- search has contributed much to this awareness process. It became evident that despite a long and famous tradition, the Spaarbanken seem to be the Great Unknown in the banking world. The joint approach of our appearance to the public, which became reality at the end of the seventies, covers three features: - a corporate style; - collective national TV and radio commercials; - individual local advertising. Today, a good five years after the introduction of our joint approach, it is obvious that the corporate image of the Spaarbanken is slowly and surely gaining ground. We have applied the following four measuring instruments: - spontaneous name recall; - vignette recall; - identity awareness; - image measurements.