The Voice Episode 113

The Voice

Sherrilynne Starkie, host of The Voice, chats with Annie Marsolais, BDC’s marcoms vice president following her recent presentation to IABC Ottawa. In this episode, we learn how BDC – Canada’s only bank devoted exclusively to entrepreneurs – is transforming perceptions about its brand.

Annie walks us through the why, who, what and how of BDC’s complete brand overhaul, which began in October 2015.

The nine-month rebrand process was rigorous and intensive, and involved the following key elements, among others:

• A collection of all the brand assets and evidence of how the brand is demonstrated in the marketplace;
• Close to 200 hours of employee interviews across the country’s various offices; and
• An industry analysis to understand how comparative organizations were conveying brand messages.

A number of key findings were identified, but among the most important was that BDC is the only bank exclusively devoted to entrepreneurs, a fact that is central to BDC’s roots and identity.

Annie said, “A cultural transformation is frightening for most people, so the rebranding exercise that we undertook was a way to help our people to understand what we wanted to stand for in the marketplace and how we could act differently, take bolder steps, be out there. The rebrand was a driver of cultural change.”