Barclays Bank Case

This case study can be found on page 23 of your core text (Cornelissen, 2008) Case Study 2.2 Barclays Bank (UK): The Importance of Coordinating Marketing Communication And Public Relations Early in 2003, Barclays, a UK-based financial services group, engaged primarily in retail banking, investment banking and investment management, appointed a new advertising agency Battle Bogle Hegarty (BBH). BBH was hired to spearhead a 'more humane' campaign, after the bank was lambasted for its `Big Bank' adverts in 2000 that featured the slogan 'a big world needs a big bank'. Barclays had spent £15million (approx. $24.6 million) on its `Big' campaign, which featured celebrities such as Sir Anthony Hopkins and Tim Roth. The adverts were slick and had received good pre-publicity, but they turned into a communications disaster when they coincided with the news that Barclays was closing about 170 branches in the UK, many in rural areas. One of the earlier adverts featured Welsh-born Sir Anthony Hopkins talking from the comfort of a palatial home about the importance of chasing `big' ideas and ambitions. The adverts provoked a national debate in the UK when a junior government minister Chris Mullin said that Barclays customers should revolt and vote with their feet. Barclays image crisis worsened when it was revealed that the new Chief Executive, Matthew Barrett had been paid £1.3 million ($US3.1 million) for just three months' work. Competitor NatWest has since capitalized on the fall-out from the Big Bank campaign. It has been running adverts which triumph the fact that it has abolished branch closures. Local customers that had lost their branch were particularly angry with the closures. The situation was further aggravated by the arrogance with which Barclays announced and justified the decision. Matthew Barrett had explained the branch closures by saying: “We are an economic enterprise, not a government agency, and therefore have obligations to conduct our business in a way...