9, Ground Floor, Hansraj Pragji Building, 83 / C, Dr. E Moses Road, Worli, Mumbai 400018, India
India has rapidly changed in the last decade. Profound shifts in politics, our economy, public policy and the advent of digitisation can be attributed to the ever changing Indian landscape. Over the years, the Indian banking sector has evolved in their operational and customer service outlook. Banks have been under tremendous pressure to accommodate the ever-evolving customer needs and changing market dynamics. Therefore, banks have been mandated to do more than just the age-old functions of lending and deposits.
Indian Financial Technology and Allied Services (IFTAS) is a wholly owned subsidiary of The Reserve Bank of India, mandated to design, deploy & support IT-related services to The Reserve Bank of India, and all banks and financial institutions in the country.
The Challenge:
IFTAS was established in 2014 - and is only a four year old organisation. However, little attention had been paid to establishing the brand beyond the product.
After perfecting the product, the founders decided to fix the brand’s story as they increasingly found the stakeholders to be ill informed of the values, services and the overall bouquet of products and solutions offered by IFTAS.
The key was to simplify, decode, and declutter a brand that deals with numbers, technology and data.
The Approach:
We began our journey with IFTAS by gaining a detailed understanding of the brand, the organisation and the services offered. At this stage, it was important for us to also understand what the current perception of the brand was with internal as well as external stakeholders. We conducted an in depth survey with the stakeholders, which gave us interesting insights to formulate the brand strategy and identity system.
Next, we analysed the existing brand mark. Based on our research and findings, this identity was not fit for the brand.
IFTAS is an organisation with an extremely unique product-service mix. Their initial identity did not do justice, as a brand such as IFTAS must first evoke confidence, inspire trust and portray stability.
From the colour story, to the form of the letters, nothing in their old identity resonated with the brand image IFTAS had set out to build.
Based on research, discussions and brainstorming, we created a solid framework and foundation for IFTAS, their brand ethos and values. IFTAS as a brand was accessible, indispensable and transparent. Innovation, youth and approachability were an integral part of the brand ethos.
We arrived at some crucial decisions for the brand identity system.
The identity needs inspire stability and trust. We wanted to build a brand that is young and approachable. While keeping the association with the BSFI sector in India, we did not want to look like an organization within the sector.IFTAS is an enabler brand for the BFSI sector, and this needed to come through in a grade agnostic, gender neutral way.
