The No. 1 brand in American Banker's 2011 survey of bank reputation has thrown down the gauntlet, not just to the 29 other banks it will face off against on next year's list, but to itself.
Can Harris Bank, which led the overall ranking as well as key categories of consumer brand perceptions, maintain momentum as it prepares to merge with Marshall & Ilsley Corp.?
To do so, Harris' parent, BMO Financial Group of Toronto, will have to woo Wisconsinites who might resent the takeover of their state's largest bank simply on the basis of civic pride. It will have to make sure that consumers see at least as much value in BMO Harris Bank, the proposed new brand name for the Harris Bank and M&I Bank franchises, as they see in M&I, which placed sixth in this year's bank reputation survey.
Mergers and acquisitions can be minefields for bank reputations, or at least an occasion for corporate soul-searching at banks that recognize the power of brands.
Ellen Costello, president and chief executive of Harris Financial and a member of the BMO management committee, said the issue of reputation prominently figures into the evaluation of potential acquisitions by her company, and that BMO was "thoughtful about the strong reputation that M&I has" with customers and communities. But it is forging ahead without the M&I name, and perhaps expecting to get mileage from the stability of the Canadian financial system, which is broadly admired for having sidestepped the sand traps that left the U.S. system so vulnerable to crisis. "We did quite a bit of customer-focused research in the markets that M&I and Harris operate in," Costello said. "The feedback was that Harris was a good brand, and that linking BMO with it would be welcome, given the strength of BMO as a strong Canadian-based bank."
Even without yet having the BMO name tied in directly with its own in the mind of consumers, Harris Bank in this year's survey garnered top scores for governance, citizenship, leadership and financial performance, the perceptions of which help to make up the major components of reputation.
