Friday, November 22, 2013

Reputation and Branding


Last summer I interned at JP Morgan Chase (JPMC). JPMC is an American multinational banking and financial services holding company and the largest bank in the United States by assets. Brand and reputation are two huge concerns that I saw first hand at the bank in order to keep their clients and to bring in the type of clients that they want.

JPMC brands itself as a very conservative and universal bank. Because JP Morgan and Chase merged together, they are not a financial institution that serves various lines of business including investment banking, asset management, private banking, treasury & securities, commercial banking, & retail banking. This universal and global brand is very important for their reputation.

JPMC has a reputation of being very conservative and serving clients who have the same ethics and morals that JPMC has. Because of this reputation, they have to be somewhat picky with their clients so that their reputation does not change. Since JPMC is such a strong bank, regulations are crucial to maintaining their reputation. Any mistake that one employee of the bank makes can ruin the JPMC reputation they have taken years to build. The London Whale is a good example of how a mistake by one trader who worked for JPMC can cause so much damage to JPMC, which is why now more than ever their reputation is very important in managing.

Their brand and reputation is the most significant in order to keep a client’s loyalty. JPMC wants to make sure their client’s trust JPMC and that they do not lose any clients because of bad reputation. I think JPMC is very aware of their reputation and always working on different branding to modify any reputational problems they run into. 

2 comments:

  1. With the recent deal between the Justice Department and JP Morgan Chase, in the ballpark of $13 billion, one wants to know whether the reputation you speak of is really all smoke and mirrors or not. Below is a paragraph from the linked piece.

    The deal with JPMorgan, which eclipses other Wall Street settlements, is the largest sum a single company has ever paid to the government. The bank, at the Justice Department’s insistence, also admitted to a statement of facts that outlined how it failed to fully disclose the risks of buying risky mortgage securities from 2005 to 2008.

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  2. Branding for financial institutions is so important. I worked for one of the big 4 tax firms last summer and I remember hearing more about branding than I'd heard anywhere else I've ever worked. Whether it's actually "all smoke and mirrors" or not, branding is a huge way that financial institutions get the right kind of business.

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