This is a CTP of initiative: FEBEA/Banca Popolare Etica (Italy)
The content of this critical turning point describes both an analysis process and the design of the communication strategy of Banca Popolare Etica. Coordinated by the Communication Department of BPE, this process aimed to involve every area within the bank in the analysis of the cooperative external communication: public discourses, messages sent through briefs, information available on the Website, etc. The respondent describes the reasons that motivated this CTP:
Between 2008 and 2012 we began to reflect on how Banca Popolare Etica communicates to the public. With such strong history behind, with so mnay people involved, communication generated some tensions and discussions. It is not the same to approach highly committed people, people who are involved in the project as members, than addressing other profile of customers, probably like-minded people but who are outside the bank. These may be people who are committed to the environment or care about other social issues but, when they join us, they need to comprehend what Banca Etica means, what Banca Etica does and how they can participate in this project.
The new strategic communication plan started in 2008 and it was implemented along four-year period, in several phases, which finalized in 2012, when the new institutional Website was released. Besides, the cooperative reviewed the most frequently questions asked by customers with the object of obtaining a clearer overview on the identity, objectives and services Banca Popolare Etica offers. The bank conducted a brief study which analysed their own reputation in social media, in particular between years 2010 and 2011, concluding “that people did not understand exactly what BPE does”:
Some people who approached the project did not understand exactly what kind of entity we were. We found everything on the web. For example, some people said that Banca Popolare Etica was not a bank, that we were a cultural association.
As result of this brief study, the initiative begins to reflect on the type of messages the bank sends to the public and what the target of these is. Thus, the bank perceives that most communications address its own partners, high committed people who have been involved in the project for a while and comprehend the dimension of the project. On the contrary, messages are not clear to the ordinary people who approach Banca Popolare Etica for many different reasons:
We did a small survey and we did a brand reputation analysis. We focused on blogs, Internet forums, message boards, social media like Facebook... It was much easier in these days to collect data on that... And we found out that we were mainly addressing the most committed people but not the wider public
The respondent describes this process as a critical turning point which produced many positive outcomes. After implementing the new strategic plan, the bank observed an increase in the number of associates and customers. For several consecutive years, the loans disbursed were up by more than 24% and many civil society organizations contacted BPE for financial support and manifested their interest to work with a value-based bank.
The process constituting this critical turning point involved a number of departments and leaders of Banca Popolare Etica directly, as well as the entire structure indirectly; since the practices changed according to the new communication plan. First, the interviewee pointed out that the process was started and coordinated by the communication department of Banca Popolare Etica, based in the branch office at Padova. Workers of such department identified errors in the communication style as well as some misunderstandings on the public perception of Banca Popolare. However, they were aware that the success of any strategic plan relied on the support they could gain across the different bodies of the bank, starting by the president’s endorsement.
As the respondent explains in the following quote, communication managers presented their concerns and the preliminary outline of the strategic plan to the Board of Directors, which shared their vision and committed them to develop a new comprehensive communication plan for the entity, improving and renewing its presence on the Internet. The endorsement of the directors was fundamental to approach the rest of the bodies of the initiative and persuade them to uniform and improve communication practices.
We first started an internal process with the Board of Directors and the bank's managers. Concerning the subject of communication there are always different sensitivities. And as everyone communicates, everybody thinks they know how to communicate, right? We started with the analysis. We made reports and observed what we have been saying to the public about the cooperative and about ethical banking. That was the first stage, which took us about a year. We talked to the bank's directors. We were very lucky that the Board of Directors understood the problem and gave us the necessary commitment to take on this challenge
The following steps given by the communication department was to talk to the different local groups the initiative had across the Italian territory, the so-called “GITts” (Territorial Initiative Groups).
We started talking to the GITs' coordinators. Although there are different sensitivities in the social base, the members of the territorial groups had already understood what was happening. We talked to them and discussed how we could develop a more effective discourse... Local partners are, in most of the cases, the people who first meet the associates or new clients and they know perfectly well the most frequent questions new clients make
In terms of the specific context, after almost 10 years of existence, Banca Popolare Etica had expanded its activity to the South of Italy, substantially enlarging the initiative by opening many offices all along the country and increasing the number of clients. The bank moved from being a bank aimed primarily at supporting third sector entities to reach out other sectors of society, including civil economy entities and individuals. Such change on the bank’s size and future aspirations also motivated the production of this CTP.
Several related events have been briefly listed by the respondent. First he mentioned the financial crisis that, since the end of 2007 and in 2008, dramatically affected the bank. In this period, Banca Popolare Etica strongly increased its popularity. It becomes a reference institution among the concerned public, those who had become aware of the bad practices that mainstream banks have been performing without the knowledge of the wider public.
All over Europe, ethical banks start to act as a real alternative to the economic disaster created by the major financial institutions. This critical turning point happens in conjunction with the crisis and the interviewee linked both events to the improvement of Banca Popolare Etica's reputation in Italy:
It is true that some people approached BPE because of the financial crisis but it is also true that people began to come more easily to Banca Etica then. They had to do less effort for becoming a partner, because they have already understood our message
A second directly related event, which can be taken as an outcome of the CTP, is the release of the new bank´s website in 2012, which offers extended information about the activities and services that Banca Popolare Etica offers to its customers. As the BPE's website explains, in 2012:
Banca Etica becomes more accessible and social: we launched a new website and the online account system
The respondent explains that the bank has simplified all the available information in order to make newcomers easier to comprehend the mission and the real scope of the bank:
By going to the new bank's website users can inform themselves. We know that people now do not walk into a local banking office to ask about our activities or services. Before, many people used to make the same question to us: "Yes, I know you but I do not fully grasp what you do”. Now people come to us asking for more technical information or insightful cultural issues, but we have made the question of what Banca Popolare Etica is disappeared, which is very important to work more effectively, isn’t it?
Concerning contestation, the interviewee did not remember critical voices against the process that this critical turning point refers to. On the contrary, the latter was positively perceived by all the layers within the organization. Notwithstanding, promoters were aware of the resistances that a process of this scope might provoke within the organization. It involved a big change, even in the freedom of people to communicate information on the entity in their own words, as the interviewee refers here:
There is always a degree of tension that must be taken into account
Consequently, all changes should be done on the one hand taking into account the variety of sensitivities within the cooperative and on the other targeting new partners and different sectors of the Italian society.
We needed to balance the demands of the committed and volunteer people involved in the project, who wanted to explain who the project was built by and also demanded the acknowledgement of their hard work. On the other hand, this demand could not be a barrier to reach new people. This had to be explained very well to all partners. We couldn't ask people to study the whole history of BPE in 10 minutes and be already convinced to use their money in more responsible ways
People on charge of the communication department made a great effort in avoiding protests and distrust. They started an internal process of both persuasion and consultation, which extended over time. They structured it in different phases, gathering the support of the leaders of the organization. Even at the lowest layer, in the local context, leaders were consulted. The plan took into account the opinion and experience of those closest to customers, who know well what questions clients make daily in their offices. Even training courses were offered for leaders and staff to improve their communication skills and learn about the new communication plan:
GIT coordinators were asked about the questions most often raised by costumers and then we started to build our communication plan from those questions, so from what was needed. We know that people like the bank to use their own language. All the members of the bank as well as employees, accepted the changes, they understood the reasons that behind them
Since 2011 Banca Etica has organized one or two training courses for the GITs people that deal with communication. It is a course we organize from time to time . That does not means that we are losing our identity, our values, but that we are facilitating people to better comprehend our message. Because, if people do not understand us, we are not going to produce the change we are looking for, right?
The respondent is not firmly convinced that this event is perceived as a turning point by the entire association. However, he considers that many of the people involved then in the management of the bank observed a radical change on the communication strategy and the outcomes produced by this CTP. Concretely, the board of directors and the management staff anticipated the need for these processes, collaborating and endorsing those leading them.
Besides, the communication department anticipated the necessity for defining a clear external communication strategy, which allowed BPE to approach the wider public, not only the most committed activists willing to participate in a radical organization, but ordinary people. Second, they designed a protocol to solve misunderstandings or errors in the bank’s communication style by involving all the different areas. This was meant to be a slow process, in which the communication managers would have to convince the different structures of the bank to introduce changes in their practices. Nevertheless, most of them joined the process and contributed to make the new communication strategy a success.
We want to keep a strong identity. We do not want anyone to approach BPE thinking that we are something different from who we really are. We had to restrict these expectations to some extent and meeting people who bet on ethical banking. We sought our clients to feel represented by our communications. We want to be able to meet the aspirations that made people choose ethical banking
Finally, some leaders anticipated a greater expectation among the public regarding the political positioning of BPE, which “for an institution like Banca Popolare Etica is not easy to elaborate”. Members and clients expected from their bank a clear institutional stance on certain social, economic or financing issues but they do not demand by asking to the bank’s personnel:
This is something that people want to know but they do not walk into the bank office and ask: what do you think about this? But we perceived this and took a position in order to make our partners and clients feel that they have done the right choice when joining Banca Popolare Etica
Several lessons linked to this critical turning point were highlighted by the interviewee. Through the above mentioned diagnosis process, the initiative learnt about some communication gaps that could become a barrier for new people to join the initiative.
The analysis showed that the bank was heading -through their communications- the more aware and committed social basis, requiring a high level of understanding of the significance of the project. Such understanding is not simple and requires time, which many citizens do not have. Besides, the initiative should maintain its identity by attracting more diverse clients and inform them effectively about the idiosyncrasy of the bank.
We can not only address very committed people. Not everyone can consider leaving their life, their work, to start doing something different, or to consume in a different way, to commit to a local cause or change banks. You cannot reach people saying that in order to change the world you have to change your whole life, because in this way people get afraid and do not start. And that was exactly what was happening with ethical banking
People require a more direct language, a simpler communication style that the bank begins to do as a result of the CTP:
So, we have begun to review the whole message we give and what our tools are so that corporate ethical banking is to speak more simply and not only for people who already know everything but for people who do not know anything about ethical banking
Most of the time people have a few minutes to start learning and in those moments we have to be clear and we have to do “communication ecology”. It can´t take us much time to explain what we really are
A third lesson drawn from the CTP relates to the insightful knowledge the initiative gains on the motivation of their customers to join the bank. As people become aware that traditional banks were supporting with their money activities they did not like “like speculating with the price of basic food products or financing the arms industry [...] a change in people’s behaviour and understanding takes place" and they start searching a value-based bank in where to put their savings or to work with.
According to this knowledge, Banca Popolare Etica starts to improve their communication products (information, brochures, reports, Website, etc.) in order to fulfil and maintain the “fidelization” of their clients.
The first basic issue is to be able to continuously inform and explain people what the bank does. And every day people need motivations to remember why they have chosen Banca Etica. This doesn't mean making commercial communication focused only on banking products but to continuously telling them exactly what we do and how we do it. For that reason we have a very extend annual report. We have also published it on the website so that people can see the environmental and social outcomes of the bank's activity. We tell them stories every day about our financial projects. People need to keep daily updated ... Banca Etica allows you to see what is built with your money
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