Rabobank's Brand Architecture: A Marketing Strategy and Digital Role

This report delves into Rabobank's brand strategy, starting with an examination of its brand architecture, which emphasizes uniqueness, commitment, and trend-setting within the Dutch food and agri sector. It identifies core target market segments by assessing commercial attractiveness and growth potential, considering factors like segment size, real differences, profitability, and accessibility. The report also explores Rabobank's brand equity, focusing on brand awareness, association, loyalty, and the creation of a clear positioning statement. A competitor analysis highlights ING and Citi bank, assessing their strategies and market positioning. The digital landscape section discusses Rabobank's cohesive digital strategy, including mobile banking apps, website redevelopment, and cross-functional communication. It further explains the bank's collaboration with Signicat to launch a digital identity service, Rabo eBusiness, and its efforts to maintain an up-to-date corporate identity and strategic projects. Desklib offers students access to this and similar solved assignments, providing valuable study resources and tools.

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Rabobank
Marketing

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Contents
Introduction...........................................................................................................................................2
Brand architecture.................................................................................................................................2
Identification of the core target market segments..................................................................................4
Digital landscape and the role of social media in the context of brand..................................................6
Conclusion.............................................................................................................................................9
References...........................................................................................................................................11

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Introduction
The brand strategy is a plan for the development of a successful brand to attain specific goals.
It affects various aspects of a business and is associated with the customer needs, emotions
along with the competitive environments. The brand strategy makes possible to accomplish
long term goals. It defines what the company stands for. It conveys the image of the
company, the way employees interact with each other and the messages delivered on the
portal and websites. The branding is critical for the products and services sold by the
company. It brings competitive positioning and operates to position something in the mind of
the consumers. The successful branding leads to the brand equity which is the amount of
money customers are willing to pay. It is more than the logo and name of the company. The
components of the branding are the company’s purpose, consistency, emotional connections,
employee empowerment, and employee advocacy. The brand strategy relies on the ability to
focus. Defining the target market helps to strengthen the effectiveness of the brand. The
brand strategy reinforces the position in the market. This report comprises the branding of
Rabobank. The report includes the brand architecture of Rabobank. Rabobank is a co-
operative bank having roots in Dutch food and agri sector. The strategic framework of 2016-
2020 enables the bank to strengthen its cooperative mission. The brand architecture is
accompanied by the core target market segments. The brand positioning of the Rabobank is
reviewed along with the competitors of the bank. It also comprises the extent of brand
positioning. The report also includes the digital landscape along with the role of social media.
The ways are defined in which digital era impacts branding and brand management. Finally,
the implications for the brand’s marketing team are described.
Brand architecture
Rabobank is a uniqueness driven bank. The bank has been successful in fostering a distinct
culture and customer profile. The brand values of Rabobank are associated with the
commitment and trends settings. The bank has attained a presence in the local market. The
bank began its brand identity in 1995 with the introduction of the new brand identity of
Rabobank. The brand architecture states to the structure which exists within the portfolio of
the brand. The clear designed framework within the portfolio ensures that the bank works
effectively and efficiently within the complete portfolio. It enables Rabobank to recognize the
contribution each brand is making towards the portfolio. The brand architecture assists in

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ensuring effective allocation of resources to the brands. It helps in ensuring that the
customers clearly understand the ranges of brands from the portfolio. The brand architecture
of Rabobank clearly relates to the strategic objectives in terms of positioning and
dissemination across one or more product categories. There are some aspects which are
considered while formulating a strategy for the brand architecture. The bank considers size,
scope, and range of brands within the portfolio. Afterward the role of each brand is reviewed
in the portfolio of the bank in the same way it is building the company’s offerings in the
framework of the product category.
The brand identification led to the increased customer orientation along with better visibility.
From 2005, Rabobank is involved in the modification of a new visual identity in response to
international growth. A differentiated brand architecture is introduced over the years.
Rabobank model is similar to the BIAN’s business capability model. It is helpful in
visualizing the desired transactions. It is the first time that an organization has invested in
visualizing IT landscape in this manner. Everyone can identify a lot of things from the model.
It offers great awareness of the problems and issues of IT. Rabobank has developed two
models, one for the current situation and the other one for the future. These models appeal to
the whole organization, preferably visually and permanently. The model has helped in
becoming more global and the customers find that they are served contrarily. The bank has

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also changed the way in which regulators work. It has managed a different team necessitated
to link all the data. It will lead to the savings for the bank (Balmer, et al. 2016).
Identification of the core target market segments
Rabobank targets the customers by dividing them into the smaller groups with homogenous
characteristics. The bank wisely chooses the target segment whose needs and expectations
match the resources and capabilities of the organization. The targeting is done by assessing
the commercial attractiveness and growth potential of the recognized segments. The bank can
choose one or more segments reliant on the characteristics of the segments along with the
resources, capabilities and growth objectives (Backhaus, 2016). The commercial
attractiveness and growth prospective of every segment is evaluated by following specific
indicators:
 The identified segment should have the proper size.
 The segment should have real differences.
 The profits estimated by the bank should surpass the additional marketing costs.
 The segments should be simply accessible.
The brand equity has a role in targeting the market segments. Both customer’s experiences
and perceptions define brand value. Rabobank constantly assesses its brand equity to ensure
long term survival in the intricate and competitive customer market. Brand equity comprises
brand awareness. The high brand awareness signifies that customers comprehend about the
existence of Rabobank brand and recall the significant brand concerning information
(Deckers and Lacy, 2017). Rabobank measures its brand awareness by directing brand recall
surveys. Along with brand awareness, the brand association also reflects customers
associations with the brand base plan d on their previous experiences and interaction with the
employees of the bank. The bank carefully plans each interaction with the internal and
external environmental actors like employees, government, shareholders, and media.
Rabobank even carefully assess the perception of customers regarding product quality
because it has a role in influencing the price decisions. The brand loyalty has the most
important role in the brand equity of Rabobank (Bilgihan, 2016). The higher brand loyalty
automatically reduces the market expenditure and increases the ability of the bank to launch
new products effectively. It has strengthen the bargaining power of the company against the
competitors. Further, also the company aims to enhance customer loyalty by rewarding the

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customers who often repeat the purchases. The loyalty programmes cost more to the bank but
can be balanced by earning more revenues. Rabobank sets a clear positioning statement in
order to create a positive image of the products offered. It equally helps in choosing the right
target market. In the positioning statement, the bank takes care of need and wants of the
target market, the way the brand serves the needs along with the differentiation of the
offerings from the competitors (Gandini, 2016).
Rabobank is currently expanding into the rest parts of Europe. The bank is initially targeting
Dutch insurers, medical care providers, telcos, energy firms along with the financial service
providers. The businesses wanting to introduce more automated digital services to the end
users could install it (Van den Bergh and Behrer, 2016). Rabobank has claimed that the
platform is easy to incorporate into the existing business process by making use of
application programming interface (API) technology. The bank has even claimed that new
functions and services can be added easily in the future as digital footprints continue to grow.
The new launch corresponds with the launch of iDIN. It is a bank id service developed by
Dutch Payment Association (Biswas and Suar, 2016). It is envisioned to enable the market
for DISPs like Rabo eBusiness service.
Rabobank is one of the biggest banks and is growing in a better world. The competitor
analysis is highly important for the positioning of the company. The bank first identifies its
competitors; evaluate strategies on the basis of the strengths and weaknesses of the product
offerings. Rabobank has several competitors when it comes to attaining position (Pike, 2017).
Rabobank itself targets to the individuals, corporate businesses and agriculture businesses.
ING is one of the competitors of Rabobank. ING uses “forward banking” positioning to stand
out from other banks. It has replaced the “save your money” positioning. The bank empowers
customers by leveraging technology and through the introduction of several banking channels
(Gao and Feng, 2016). ING mainly targets to the corporates, individuals and retail investors.
Citi bank is also one of the competitors of Rabobank. The bank has allowed modernization by
allowing technology as the backbone in all of the operations. Citi bank uses international
practices in the local framework (Wheeler, 2017). The bank targets to the households,
individuals along with the professionals. The bank is capable of maximizing output through
cross selling and up-selling. It makes use of the pricing based positioning to generate
perception in the consumer’s mind-set. If the performance is compared on the basis of

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coverage, Rabobank has attained a maximum number of the customers in the domestic
market. Rabo stands out in the market. The brand positioning of the bank is appropriate. But
no single positioning strategy works in the competitive market; it requires being update time
on time (Govers and Go, 2016). It is needed to consider the market trends. The digital
marketing is also making banks conscious when it comes to customer service.
Digital landscape and the role of social media in the context of brand
The digital landscape in the context of brand includes cohesive strategy which comprises
digital in all facets. The company has twofold responsibility, first is to drive and support
digital strategy and another one to take accountability of everything digital from customer
experience to product development. It comprises social media, mobile, digital media from the
customer experience and product development (Papadopoulos, Hamzaoui-Essoussi and El
Banna, 2016). The role of the digital landscape is changing quite rapidly. The bank has
started focusing more on improving mobile and banking apps along with redeveloping
website of the bank. Rabo has also initiated to work on cross-functional communication. It
makes everyone in the organization to take some ownership and responsibility for applying
digital thinking (Cawsey and Rowley, 2016). The bank puts the customers first in the
innovation programs. It comprises cross-functional teams working collaboratively and
communicates to the customers on the regular basis. The unifying ingredient is used by the
bank to interconnect digital and analog experiences of the bank. The organization is even
looking on the number of methods by which the digital ecosystem can work hand-in-hand. It
can enable the success of the company through the digital and non-digital channels. It results
in creating seamless experiences. The digital platform of Rabobank works effortlessly to
discover customers along with the opportunities (Alalwan, et al. 2017). It has more focus on
the innovations. It even embeds the digital ecosystem. The organisation has even started
putting behavioural targeting into the digital concepts across the digital channels. It largely
concentrates on the improved dataflow. The company always believe in removing friction in
the interaction with the customers. There is always a scope of improving and optimising
processes (Okonkwo, 2016).
Rabobank has contracted with the Signicat in the Netherlands in order to launch a new digital
identity service termed as Rabo eBusiness aiming customers and businesses to be more
digitalize in their operations, invoicing and supply chains. The new digital identity service
provider will offer a choice of log-in, identity, e-signature and archiving services. Signicat is

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a financial technology has desired out a niche for itself in Norway (Mumby, 2016). The bank
is now looking for expanding digital identity protection along with the processing solutions in
the new markets. Rabobank is not limited to maintaining corporate identity up to date but is
also involved in the strategic projects which push the brand forward like mobile interface
design framework and brand experience vision for the online channels of the bank. In the
various projects, Rabo works closely with the other design agencies such as Pingpong design
from Rotterdam. Add on, the bank offers a subscription with the mobile phone which is
capable of surfing the internet to do banking on mobile phones. The advantages of calling
with the subscription are profitable with the fixed tariff (Hankinson, 2015). A huge selection
of the newest and free cell phones, mobile banking and free alerts related to the balance of the
account is offered in the subscription. The customers are also given the use of their own
mobiles capable of internet surfing to get prepaid. The cost of prepaid decided by the bank is
€0,20 per minute for the phone calls and €0,10 for SMS.
The digital background in the context of the brand makes possible various modern banking
utilities. Rabobank provides different services with internet banking. The customers are
capable of paying and saving money, availing loans, mortgaging and look into their own
accounts. Add on, Rabo offers standard applications along with the ideal and online service
which speeds up the paying capacity on the online web shops (Ashley and Tuten, 2015). The
customers can pay an article when they are transferred to the website of the bank and they
can use their cash card and pin code to create a code in order to confirm payment. Rabobank
also makes available the option to choose MiniTix. It is a small virtual wallet for payments
ranging from €0,10 to €100. It makes possible fast payment by using user name and
password. Rabobank is also the first bank in Dutch offering TV banking. A device capable of
windows media center is connected with the internet to TV. The customers can do banking at
home through the TV (Holt, 2016). The TV banking is next to the banking services and
creates an opportunity to watch the bank’s investor TV along with the sport television. The
TV banking also has some interactive videos containing information regarding insurances,
mortgages, launching a company along with the stock price information. The customers can
recharge their phone credit by selecting a telecom provider and choosing an amount,
customers want to charge their phone credit. The custoemrs can even make use of the Rabo
alerts (Moser, et al. 2016). This service can be enjoyed by getting messages as soon as the
salary is deposited in the bank account or when any payment is made. The customers having
Rabo mobile app receives twelve messages in a year. If the customers do not have a Rabo

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mobile then it costs €0,20 per message. Add on, the e-mail service is provided by Rabo to the
customers regarding investment orders, mortgage and about the team performance. This
service is sponsored by the bank (Kamboj, et al. 2018).
The social media strategy helps the bank to build followers and interaction with the clients,
prospects, and influencers. The social media helps to bank in:
 Targeting top tier business media channels
 Building long term relationships with key food and agriculture trade publications.
 The social media even assists the brand in staying on the top of the industry trends
and proposing commentary from the bank experts (Lipiäinen and Karjaluoto, 2015).
The social media has grown audiences through the targeted content. It has increased
interactions with the clients and prospects. The social media even connect with the key
influencers in the industry. The social media plays an important role in the bank in
discovering customers and sharing information about the products and services of the brand
(Kedzior, Allen and Schroeder, 2016). It has been realized that 60% of the customer's
research products through multiple social platforms about the specific brand. The active users
are likely to view product reviews online. The social media has become favourable for the
brand as customers express loyalty regarding products and services. Rabobank has reap
benefits by promoting the products over social media. The brand uses social media to engage
with the brands for the corporate services. Rabobank can establish connections with the right
people through social media. It also leads to the reach a wider audience (Kaur, et al. 2015). It
has expanded the talent pool all over the world. The bank uses social media for updating its
customers and stakeholders on the latest news concerning the organization. The users are
welcomed on the social media platforms like Twitter, You Tube, Instagram and LinkedIn.
The persons who follow Rabobank on Twitter obtain regular tweets on the range of subjects
comprising recent development taking place at the bank, product information, economic
research, campaigns and apps. The individuals can submit questions directly to the online
customer service team (Lievens and Slaughter, 2016). The customers can even ask questions
through their Twitter account to the local branch. The customers, employees and other
individuals of the Rabobank network can communicate with each other on LinkedIn. It is
considered a perfect example to exchange professional information with others. The bank
also post information on LinkedIn regarding new job recruitments at the group (Khamis, Ang
and Welling, 2017). Rabobank also comprises sections on the specific concerns like ‘banking

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for food’. The bank has own You Tube channel where visitors can view items like campaign
videos, TV advertisements, historical images, footage and video galleries of meetings. The
videos are available by the bank in Dutch and English.
The marketing team of Rabobank has to keep itself updated with the latest trends. The TV
and print ads are not sufficient to reach target markets but the marketing team has to make
use of social media as people are more active on the social media platforms. To keep up with
the changes taking place, the marketing team has to stay in step with the emerging tech
trends. The team works effortlessly to research customers and what makes customers to
engage with the brands (Lee, O’Cass and Sok, 2016). The marketing team at Rabobank tries
to find the best solution which can cater to the need of the users in an efficient way. It is also
possible by adopting new trends and developing innovative technology. The marketing team
faces 24*7 burden of interacting with the customers in the least time possible. The marketing
team of the bank has to take note of the latest digital technologies and trends will be the
driving force for success (Kohli, Suri, and Kapoor, 2015).
Conclusion
The branding has been the efficient tool of Rabobank for the promotions. It helped Rabobank
to attain loyalty from the customers. it is a means of identification for the customers. It helped
the bank in identifying what is expected by the customers form the company. it helped in
differentiation to the bank from the competitors. It is the most powerful marketing aspect for
the company. The brand architecture of Rabobank set up the framework for the organization.
It is the base on which the organization works. The core target market segments of the brand
are identified. The bank is able to target its customers appropriately. The customers identified
are individuals, corporates, agriculture businesses and more. The bank is capable of fulfilling
the demand of the target segment by providing finance. Rabobank has leading positioning in
the market. The bank has attained major and better position compared to the competitors. The
bank has appropriate brand positioning which is made possible due to the efficient brand
strategy. The bank does not require repositioning as long as it follows the branding strategy.
Rabo keeps on updating its positioning strategy in order to remain competitive in the
industry. The digital landscape has changed the perception of the customers. It has changed
the working of the organization. The customers can enjoy banking services at home. They
can login by using banking id and password and can avail the supplementary services
provided by the bank. The applications of the bank also have enabled and simplified the

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services. They do not need to visit the branch. The role of social media has increased the
brand awareness and allowed international financial leaders to establish expertise operations
in the finance industry. The website of the bank provides updates on the regular basis along
with the social media platforms. The customers can put query and ask a number of questions
on the social media platforms like YouTube, Instagram, Linked In and Facebook. It creates a
connection between the bank and the customers. The customers get the immediate response.

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