9th March 2020

Spuerkeess in 2020

Lisa Wells, Head of Marketing, talks about the “Spuerkeess” brand in 2020: As part of the internal renewing process in recent years, we have worked on repositioning the Spuerkeess brand, strengthening the brand name, slightly adapting the logo and the refinement of our Corporate Identity. A brand new image campaign is also the highlight of our work.

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What motivated Spuerkeess to update its Corporate Identity and launch a new branding campaign?

We needed to revise our Corporate Identity (CI) for a number of reasons. Firstly, the most recent CI goes back to 1989 when we changed our status and name to “Banque et Caisse d’Epargne de l’Etat, Luxembourg” and introduced our red square logo. Our last branding campaign was in 2006, when Spuerkeess celebrated its 150^th anniversary. Since then, the world has changed considerably.

Revised logo

The last 30 years have seen huge changes in the banking market, the Luxembourg demographics and the needs, expectations and behaviours of customers. We have also been witnessing the emergence of new communication technologies and digitalisation.

As for the market, major competitors have been forced to rework their identities since 1989, for example due to name changes following crises, mergers and other external factors.

For us, our various names - Banque et Caisse d’Epargne de l’Etat, Luxembourg, BCEE, Spuerkeess… - have resulted in a lack of clarity for customers, as if we had a double personality. Our legal name remains “Banque et Caisse d’Epargne de l’Etat, Luxembourg”, but we will use our trade name “Spuerkeess” in our communications, in order to strengthen the brand and avoid any confusion.

Did you know that Spuerkeess is not only the most loved banking brand[1] in Luxembourg, but also the most popular brand across all sectors?

This is the case regardless of the study you read! Our brand inspires trust, stability, security and, more recently, innovation.

We are lucky to have such a healthy brand. Therefore, the changes to the logo and our visual identity had to be minimal and designed to build on our strengths. The old saying still applies: “never change a winning team”. Red and blue will remain our main colours, recalling our national heritage and local roots. We purposely chose not to reinvent our logo and to build on the high brand awareness and the red square that, according to studies, exceeds 95%.

At the same time, we are going to maximise the identification of all our business lines, products and services with the mother brand Spuerkeess.

The old saying still applies: “never change a winning team”.

So why 2020 and not earlier?

2020 marks the end of our 5-year strategic plan “Spuerkeess 2020”. By choosing to launch our new Corporate Identity in the same year, clearly marks the end of a stage, and invites our customers to discover the “new” Spuerkeess.

Adolphe Bridge and the Bank's headquarters tower

Our customers notice the investments we have made in customer experience and digitalisation when interacting with the Bank. We want to be present where our customers are and make it easier for them to interact with us using the channels they prefer.

We have invested heavily in innovation, in new communication and distribution channels, in modernising the branch network and employee development.

We have increased our presence on the social networks, offer new remote channels and have extended our products and services that can be subscribed via S-Net.

That doesn’t mean that we are giving up our traditional communication and distribution channels.

A “brand-image"-focussed advertising campaign for a prolonged period will also allow us to maximise the impact of our advertising plan which, since the last branding campaign in 2006, exclusively involved product campaigns.

What are the fundamental aspects of the new Corporate Identity?

To develop the fundamental aspects of the new Corporate Identity, we started with a brand strategy exercise to rediscover the Bank’s DNA and identify our attributes and strengths.

The most important thing was to identify what sets us apart, our unique personality and our values.
Lisa Wells

This allowed us to adopt a clear position towards our customers and to define an internal "Leitmotif" which is an essential part of our corporate culture.

As a result of this brand strategy exercise, we were able to clearly identify our attributes, i.e. what makes us unique and sets us apart from our competitors. Our head office on the Bourbon Plateau is one of our symbols. The Adolphe bridge, a Luxembourg landmark, is part of our new signature. The bridge represents who we are, an enabler between customers and their dreams.

Our new signature, “Your Bridge to Life” , has evolved in the continuity of “Äert Liewen. Är Bank.” It highlights our role as an enabler between our customers and their projects. It also demonstrates that we are open to newcomers and have taken into account the changes within the country’s demographics.

What is the message of the new branding campaign?

The new image campaign appeals to the emotions. Our campaign therefore focuses on customers and their projects. The story is about customers who’s dreams have come true with the help of their Spuerkeess advisers. The latter, played by real employees, appear in the various scenes and share their customers’ happiness.

Curious? Watch the video for our new image campaign at www.spuerkeess.lu/yourbridgetolife. Maybe you’ll recognise one of our advisers. The production is 100% Made in Luxembourg.

Discover the new campaign

[1] The “Favourite Brand Score” Study carried out by BetoCee branding agency