The ambition to reposition ourselves as “the idea bank” was done in the face of intensifying competitive pressures that were compounded by the global pandemic and accelerated changes in consumer behaviour and expectations. This confluence of forces fueled the relentless focus on evolution over historical successes, and included:

• Geopolitical shocks changing the patterns of money movement globally, including raging inflation

• Mass industry disruption from Big Tech, Neobanks (WealthSimple, QuestTrade), Platform Players (Google, Amazon) and other ancillary financial services (PayPal, Ratehub, RocketMortgage, Rakuten) who set the conditions of performance, and threatened to fragment and disintermediate RBC’s relationship with clients and prospects

• Significant digital and mobile adoption were influencing consumer choice and served to further fracture the holy grail of the client relationship

• The financial health of clients and prospects were being eroded by inflation and higher costs of borrowing

With an eye to instability on the horizon, we would not fall victim to the illusion of our success. As competitors were chipping away at our value chain and the customer relationship, we pursued an end-to-end brand repositioning to insulate the business from these rising challenges.

Through a research journey to understand our highest potential equity position, we discovered our brand equity profile was almost identical to the traditional banking category overall. In light of the dynamic forces of change facing the category, we “the category brand”, needed to find a powerful antidote to fight the increasing threat of brand equity loss and attrition.

Tapping into our commitment to communities and our reputation for always doing the right thing; a territory emerged that housed the highest drivers of consumer choice, and the founding attributes for what would become our position in ideas: vision, conviction, inspiration, human, simplicity, ease and realness.

The mandate for change was clear: our brand must make impact not only in advertising, but through every touch point. The brand must govern how decisions are made.

Our platform needed to be wildly simple to ensure ease of implementation and to make an immediate impact with consumers. Ideas are how we create value, no matter the business, client segment, or geography. It elevated the role of our financial products, services, and programs to enable these ideas; not the other way around. Catalyzing our evolution beyond a transactions-based bank, to a human idea bank.