TSB beefs up marketing ahead of return

The banking group’s “project verde” business is recruiting for several senior marketing roles to develop branding, product and price propositions for the bank.

More than 600 Lloyds TSB and Cheltenham and Gloucester branches will be rebranded TSB by the middle of 2013. The branches will then come under the ownership of The Co-operative Bank in November when the £750m deal to buy the 632 branches is completed.

It is not yet known if the Co-op will keep the TSB brand or rebrand them to match its existing network. However, the hiring of a new team to launch the bank indicates long-term planning.

A spokeswoman for the Co-op did not rule out keeping the TSB brand once the transaction is completed but adds “there are no final decisions on branding”.

TSB is positioning itself as an ethical, community bank similar to The Co-operative Bank. A recruitment ad for the new positions describes TSB as “the new face of banking” that will focus on retail and small business customers only. “We’re going to be a business that shares our success with or local community”, it continues.

A spokeswoman for Lloyds says more marketing personnel will be drafted in to support the rebrand. An awareness campaign ahead of the name change will run next year, she adds.

Advertising agency Joint, the start-up led by former Rainey Kelly Campbell Roalfe/Y&R executives Damon Collins, will create the campaign.

The TSB brand disappeared from the high street in 1995 following the merger of the TSB Group with Lloyds.

The sale of the branches was demanded by the European Union after Lloyds Banking Group received state aid in 2009.