Tag lines, catch lines or slogans – whatever you call them – lend an identity to the companies using them. In fact, a few of these tag lines have become as famous or well known as the corporate using them! “Just do it” has an immediate recall of brand “Nike” just as “I’m lovin’ it” reminds you of McDonald’s. Some are even simpler like “The City never sleeps”, which signifies global presence of Citi Bank.
The fact that we miss out is that much before some of the Indian and global companies adopted these catch lines or slogans, Indian banks, currently under fire and in news for all the wrong reasons, had started using tag lines. These might not have caught on in view of the staid nature of the industry or rather localised and sparse presence of some of these banks. However, if you look at these catch lines closely, some of these are quite creative if not outright brilliant. Let me quote a few of these-
“Good people to bank with”- Union Bank
“Good people to grow with”- IOB
“Your faithful and friendly partner”- Syndicate Bank with a dog as mascot, who is both- friendly as well as faithful
The name you can Bank upon – PNB – most in news Bank with one of the highest reported frauds, this old and very dependable bank used this great tag line in a very innovative manner making it part of its name itself – PUNJAB NATIONAL you can BANK upon.
For years it used “Growing to serve, Serving to grow” before changing to “Together we can”- Canara Bank
There are several others using catch lines, mascots ( e.g. star for Bank of India) and colour codes but alas, the fraudsters with their con acts have pushed these old and esteemed institutions to such an extent that existence of a few of them seems to be in question! Some of these have survived extreme situations such as partition of the nation before and hopefully, they will manage this comparatively smaller exigency too!!!
Arvind Arya blog 