After the announcement of the merger of two French banking networks, Management unveils the name of its new brand. Employees and customers have been waiting for this moment for many weeks.
In 2020, when Sébastien PROTO, number 2 of Société Générale announced the merger of the Crédit du Nord branch networks with those of Société Générale, he explained that the group was going to create a new brand.
Very quickly, the bank explains that it will be divided into 11 French regions. During the year 2021, the contours of these regions are revealed. Employees wait many weeks before discovering the names of new regional brands and logos. Will management maintain the name “Société Générale” which has suffered from a poor image? Are we going to keep the historic brands of the Crédit du Nord group, such as Banque Courtois or Banque Tarneaud in particular? Will we keep the red and black colors of Société Générale or take the blue of the brands with the Crédit du Nord star?
These identity questions seem trivial but are important for employees who identify with their company and wear its colors.
In April 2022, the bank with 10 million customers finally announced the name of the new brand which will carry the ambition to create a new bank.
The new national brand will be SG associated with ten regional brands: SG CREDIT DU NORD, SG GRAND EST, SG LAYDERNIER, SG AUVERGNE RHÔNE ALPES, SG SMC, SG COURTOIS, SG SUD OUEST, SG TARNEAUD, SG GRAND OUEST and SG SOCIETE GENERALE in Ile-de-France and Corsica.
Regarding the logo, it evolves with the emblematic red and black colors of Société Générale, and the membership of the banks regions whose identity is retained for some. This demonstrates a real desire on the part of management to maintain the territorial proximity that the regional banks of Crédit du Nord had in order to transpose them to the New Bank. The shape of the logo also evolves, changing to an open square, a symbol of balance and symmetry between the national brand and the regional brands.
For the employees and customers concerned, keeping the emblematic brands: Crédit du Nord, Laydernier, Courtois Tarneaud and SMC is a relief. For others it will take some getting used to the new name. The only regret on the part of all employees from Crédit du Nord is that the new logo does not include the blue star that made so many employees proud.
A few years ago Crédit Lyonnais renamed its brand LCL. Let’s hope that for this new SG bank the story is written differently.
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