Grupo Bancolombia is an organisation convinced that there's no greater cause than the well-being of everyone. This is why it engages in business that generates returns and sustainable economic development while also having a positive impact on the well-being of society.
In its 145 years of history, this desire to take action has been translated into various initiatives and brands to satisfy the different needs of citizens, both in Colombia and abroad.
As a result, Grupo Bancolombia operates in four countries (Colombia, Guatemala, El Salvador and Panama), works with eighteen million clients and has thirty-three thousand employees.
Given these figures, Grupo Bancolombia is definitely much more than a bank: it's a global institution and one of the leading financial institutions in Latin America.
Grupo Bancolombia needed to organise its extensive range of brands and define a new brand identity that unites all its diversity with a three-fold purpose: to improve its ability to enter into new industries and countries; to consolidate its digital focus; and to become more accessible and recognisable to users.
How do you organise 145 years of history, initiatives, projects and brands? How do you create a recognisable and memorable image with such a variety of idiosyncrasies?
We tackled this challenge alongside the trusted strategic consulting firm Comuniza, which gave a hierarchical structure to a hybrid brand architecture that organises all the group's brands and entities at different levels.
Based on this, we unified the expression of the group's banking institutions into a new system free of regional biases, allowing them to take control of the brand locally and become integrated into the group's identity.
To achieve this, we generated a shared behaviour in terms of colour, typeface, tone of voice, graphic resources and audio branding, varying only the name of the institution sending out the message.
Initially, we transformed the isotype through a subtle change in the morphology of the previous one. This respect for the essence reflects a desire to connect the future and past of the brand. To differentiate Grupo Bancolombia from its banks and brands, its isotype was placed within a circle, the perfect geometric figure, with which we achieved distinctiveness, differentiation and —simultaneously— connection between the brands.
The brand system has its own typefaces, CIB Font Logo, CIB Font Sans, CIB Font Serif, and CIB Font Numerales which convey a voice and a personality for the brands and provides uniqueness and homogeneity so that they can express themselves cohesively and perceptibly. Each style has a particular function; logotype creation, written expression across different banking segments and an emphasis on numbers.
As for the colour palette, the main axis is black and white. The secondary palette is supported by a broader colour gamut that reflects the region's colour diversity.
Six colours that convey vitality, draw on the cultural and natural wealth of Latin America, and reflect diversity without constructing borders or focusing on segmented interests.
A brand you can hear
We created the group's audio branding from and audiologo in which the marimba, its musical cousins and a piano musicalise the three elements of the isotype and the beginning and end of the institution's name.
This memorable five note melody allows us to create musical bits in different styles for any audiovisual piece, serving as the backbone of an exclusive symphony that can be remixed and adapted to any musical style and use case.
All of these elements are the shared expression tools with which the group and its institutions communicate, regardless of the medium and the appropriate format for each moment.
Grupo Bancolombia is looking to the future with this evolution that reflects its essence and diversity, and which allows it to communicate less like a bank and more like the people it addresses.
Employees
Clients
Countries
Years of history
Comuniza