Marketing tactics change, but branding is a constant.

Q: How important is branding and how can my bank assess our brand's strength?

A: Although experts don't always agree on how to brand, marketing tactics may--and do--evolve. Human psychology, on the other hand, remains a relative constant. Study after study shows that our minds are practically hardwired to prefer the familiar to the unknown, which means that a fundamental understanding of the brand is as important as ever. The following provides a framework for evaluation.

1. Does your bank distinguish between brand identity and brand positioning? Marketers are often tempted to blur the line between identity and positioning, and consequently over-communicate. David Aaker, author of Building Strong Brands, describes brand identity as the sum total of what your organization, product or service stands for--both inside and outside of a marketing context. Identity can include a variety of attributes, values, benefits, aspirations, imagery, uses, personality traits and more. But positioning is only a small part of the brand identity--the part that gets actively communicated and gives a bank leverage to influence customer decisions.

2. Do you sell your attributes or your benefits? Attributes may bolster claims of a benefit, but marketers must distinguish between them. Consequently, Provident Bank, a Hudson Valley, N.Y., commercial lender, doesn't sell the fact that it has become a bigger market player after three recent acquisitions. Rather, with its "Connecting People with Opportunities" campaign, Provident sells the benefits of proximity and familiarity as an independent community bank.

3. Does your positioning focus on competitive advantages? The first critical step is to identify points of leverage with your target audience, but the second, equally critical step is to emphasize those particular points in which your bank surpasses its competition.

4. Do you own the market or a segment thereof? In The 22 Immutable Laws of Branding, Al Reis, a national brand strategist, postulates that successful brand positioning results from category leadership. In other words, if you don't lead the category, create one.

5. Does your brand co-opt irrationality? The sad truth is that when it comes to marketing, actual quality isn't as important as perceived quality. But branding can flip that equation and create perceptions. To do so, bank advertisers often turn to the realm of the irrational, such as the development of brand personalities (Citibank's "Live Richly" campaign) or relationships (Raymond James' slogan, "Individual solutions from independent advisors"). And regardless of the great, perfectly sensible reasons for prospects to choose your bank over your competition, it certainly won't hurt to augment your positioning with one of the aforementioned tools.

Cary Hatch is president and CEO of MDB Communications, a fuji-service advertising, marketing and public relations firm in Washington, D.C., telephone: [phone]; e-mail: [e-mail]