Sometimes I think I see a little fear in her eyes while at other times she seems to be expressing mild uncertainty. Truthfully, it could be either.
“It’s not unreasonable to speculate that Kelly is wondering whether or not simply throwing away all of the brand awareness and brand equity created by Commerce Bank is really a good idea or not.”
Let examine the fear. Kelly’s a smart girl. She’s not one to endorse something without asking at least a few questions, like “Who are these people and what does TD stand for anyway?” When she found out she would be representing a Canadian bank, aka Toronto Dominion, she may have gotten just a tad uncomfortable.
Remember, Kelly is one of us. American yes, but also a Delaware Valley gal, born right here in the Philadelphia metropolitan region, where incidentally, I am from, and where her former benefactor, Commerce Bank, was founded. This is to say she was bred to root for the hometown team. If you’ve ever been a professional sporting event in Philadelphia, you’ll know what I mean. Or simply ask any hapless fan who had pluck to show up at a Phillies game wearing a Toronto Blue Jays jersey. You just don’t plug the visiting team without some kind of unpleasant consequence.
As for uncertainly, it’s not unreasonable to speculate that Kelly is wondering whether or not simply throwing away all of the brand awareness and brand equity created by Commerce Bank is really a good idea or not.
And on this score, she really is a smart gal. I’m sure she doesn’t spend her days thinking about intangible assets, but she is nonetheless onto something here.
After all, contained with the $8.5 billion TD paid for Commerce, there were millions and millions in goodwill. Enough that you would question the phalanx cranes that were deployed after the deal to take down the Commerce Bank signs and replace them with them emerald TD logo. One of these replacements happened in my neighborhood and I stopped to watch. In the few moments when the Commerce sign was hanging there at the end of the wire rope, I couldn’t but help see the whole thing for what I thought it was: a bit of a lynching for brand, and perhaps to some degree, shareholder value.
A little too passionate? Perhaps. But I’m passionate about banking. One reason for this is because it’s a simple business, that nonetheless can deliver truly remarkable returns to investors. But the way I see things, banking is a storefront business that has its roots – not it’s fiber mind you, but it’s roots – in customer service and consumer marketing. This is an idea that I think Commerce’s founder, Vernon Hill fully appreciated, and used to drive shareholder value for more than 20 years at Commerce.
So to watch all that brand equity disappear in one fell swoop, is a bit much for me. That’s why I may feel a little bit like Kelly, unsure if I should be a little uncertain or a little bit afraid.
