Experts are skeptical about the rebranding of Sberbank

German Gref and other bank leaders appeared there against the background of beautiful graphics in the most democratic way - in soft trousers and sneakers, telling “pop stars” like Boyarsky and Bilan that Sberbank is no longer a bank at all.

Meanwhile, a chain of watch stores has already filed a lawsuit against Sberbank over plagiarism after the announcement of the rebranding of the watch store, the owners of which complained about the similarity of the new Sberbank logo with the trademark, which was patented in 2018. The company demands in a lawsuit to prohibit the bank from using the new logo, and also wants to recover a million rubles as compensation for adverse consequences...

Many experts were extremely skeptical about the bank's rebranding.

Thus, economist Anton Shabanov writes in his blog:

“The main news of the past week is, of course, the deal between Yandex and Tinkov. A truly significant event for our market from which a lot can come out in the future. I will not say anything about the deal itself, for sure you have already read it.

I liked something else: information leaked to the media just a couple of days before the presentation of another mega-project: Sberbank and Mail.Ru. Please note: not a week before, not after - namely, a couple of days before the Sberbank event, which was announced very strongly and pathetically.

And it would seem: what does the discord between Sberbank and Yandex have to do with it? No connection! But if you think about it...

The very presentation of Sberbank (it's time to get used to the new brand) did not bring something radically new. In general, the rebranding project itself is rather dubious. The point here is not even the amount of costs, but the fact that the rebranding was done quite recently, when Mr. Gref came to the post of head and there was a large-scale renovation of branches throughout the country.

I don’t want to talk about it for a long time - here’s just the reaction of the Internet community to this presentation. How subtle, beautiful and multifaceted! .. All thoughts and feelings in one picture. And nothing to add! If you want - laugh, if you want - cry!.."

Political analyst Sergey Medvedev reacted extremely negatively to the event:

“The problem of Sber’s rebranding is the same as that of Facebook’s redesign: a naive and mediocre attempt to please millennials, or whatever, generation Z:“ Get your pants off, run after the Komsomol”. It’s like a bearded man, wearing a cap, shorts with tattooed legs, on a skateboard with a glass of frappuccino, a ring in his nostril and air pods in his ears, and bringing his first fee for a selection of references for a video to the bank, yo.

But there was an excellent age-old brand, trust gained by generations, and patient grandmothers in line at the window caused not only a smile, but above all respect, were a human part of capitalization. Moreover, in recent years they have expanded, illuminated and computerized departments, and the queues have practically disappeared. And even the word "savings bank" evoked instinctive nostalgia - in Germany they are in no hurry to get rid of the Sparkasse brand, and the Germans know a lot about stability.

And the new youth design causes only mild nausea, as in FB. I use my mother's Sber-online, and every day there were cute cartoon landscapes - in the morning birds on the branches, in the afternoon hardworking beavers at the dam, in the evening the windows of the night city, a little old-fashioned, but human. Now there appeared some lumpy figures in bold poses and acid colors, either heroes of urban renderings, or visitors to a nightclub: well, why should my mother need these disco dancers, what confidence can there be in banking under such pop iconography.

It seems to me that the style of the new generation is exaggerated and mythologized, and trying to keep up with it causes a feeling of awkwardness, just like the sight of a youthful Gref trying to pose as Mark Zuckerberg or Tim Cook, being, in fact, another oligarch of the Putin era - yes , progressive, not raw and not bloody - but still the faithful gear of this archaic, clumsy, smoking machine.

Tell me the application to roll back to the previous version of Sberbank, like on Facebook. And if it works out - to the previous version of Russia, at least until 2019 - I'm not talking about the versions 2013, 2011, or even 1999..."

Economist Vitaly Petrov explained what Gref was guided by, based on his own experience with him:

“Gref is haunted by the image and genius of Steve Jobs. It still started in the Ministry, when he headed it. Not right away. I remember at first he looked at the first iPhone with a grin, defiantly did not accept anything in English and American, during negotiations with Cisco he emphasized that he spoke German and asked the Americans how they were with German. They were surprised, but smiled. Although Bob Agee explained to Gref that he needed to be cool and advanced, that now they wear this way and equipped the entire Ministry with Cisco IP telephony. But then it started.

It started with Freakonomics. I read it myself, began to demand the same from my advisers and deputies, directors of departments. The damned Vanderbilikha did not give rest, and already in 2008 we are going on a big trip to California led by Medvedev, we meet with the already very sick Jobs, we receive fourth iPhones as a gift. By this time, Gref began to learn English without advertising it, almost in secret. And then sneakers, agile, yoga, brahmanas, and stage passes. But you need to walk around the stage not just like that, but with the product. Like Him. And how is he. But the mysterious Russian soul starts again from the tail - from rebranding, changing the logo and appearance. And the product will wait. The main thing is to please. Maybe He will see from where He is now next to Him..."

Alexey Soloviev saw in this event the inevitable monopolization of everything and everyone in Russia:

“The purpose of this whole event is not rebranding as such and not for young people to carry money for deposits in the bank, but for them to subscribe to a package of services worth 199 rubles per month. This is an attempt to get a piece of this huge market that will only grow. It's an eternal business to collect money from subscribers.

Considering that most of the salary projects of enterprises are Sberbank / VTB / Otkritie and people somehow get some kind of salary, then many will want to subscribe for little money and enjoy music, discounts on taxis and a number of other services.

For me, this uberization of all areas of business is sad. There are fewer and fewer opportunities for small companies to compete with giants such as Apple, Uber, Google, Facebook.

But here's the irony of fate: you and I consider it convenient to use a taxi through the application and receive a variety of content by subscription.

And these giants are killing the competition. And we seem to support the all-round development of the business.

So, here is something like this...

PS

I wonder how many people wrote their comments from the iPhone?"