Billionaire Banker and Founder Zenith Bank Plc, Mr. Jim Ovia
has revealed how he chose the name and logo of his Bank, Zenith Bank Plc.
In his Auto-biography, Africa Arise and Shine, which was
launched in Lagos over the week, the Agbor-born Billionaire Banker went down
memory lane on the thoughts and processes that went down before arriving at the
name and logo for the iconic and award-winning brand widely acknowledged as one
of the most recognisable logos in the banking industry.
How he came about the
name ZENITH
For Jim, the choice of name for the new bank began by
drawing a list of names that are off-limits as banks in the country are usually
not allowed to use any part of an existing financial institution as their name.
His vision was to build a brand that will not only be a
major player in the country’s banking industry but also a force to reckon with
in the international market and for him it was important to look for a name
that would have a wide and long-lasting appeal to people and not limited by way
of geography culture or language.
In his words:
“I started researching with those qualifications in mind to
find a name that was unique, one that would be memorable to Nigerians, Africans
and to the international markets”.
In his research of various dictionaries and thesauruses, Jim
stumbled on one word that has a common meaning in numerous languages, English,
French, Latin, and Spanish – ZENITH which means top or pinnacle. Eureka!!! This
is it. According to Jim, when he found this word, it was more than an “aha”
moment.
“My whole being said, Wow this is it”
The choice of the bank’s logo
After coming up with the name, attention shifted to the
designing of the logo. In Jim’s usual practice of doing a detailed and thorough
research, he studied many of the easily recognised logos of Multinationals that
have become household names across the globe this include: Nike, Exon, Mobil,
Mercedes Benz, Mc Donalds not left in the search are logos of successful banks
such as Citibank, Bank of America. One thing that struck Jim was the simplicity
in their logos. Interestingly, these logos have three features in common this
include:
Simple to read and understand.
Their names are either spelled out or Initials of the
company.
The Red colour was also a common feature in their name.
He came up with a design which was the letter Z bisected by
a top slice of white space- with the top of the letter rendered in dark gray
and bottom in red.
Few of his friends, however, expressed their reservation
with the choice of the colour. They felt the color was too strong a colour and
that red was synonymous with blood and war. They bluntly told him the colour
will scare people and may not want to associate with the brand and besides no
bank in the country then as ever used red. However, all these suggestions were
not compelling to Jim. When confronted with his choice of colour he will
respond
“Look at flags of some of the most powerful and prosperous
nations in the world, they all have the colour red in their flags besides, red
is the color of love and I believe people will fall in love with our logo”.
This later proved to be true several years after the launch
of the bank as other banks in the country took notice of how people were
attracted to the brand. The success of the brand logo later influenced many
other financial institutions to rebrand their logo with a touch of red.
It is, therefore, not surprising that some other investment
owned by Jim such VISAFONE – an IT and Telecoms company previously owned by Jim
– has red as its dominant colour.
According to ancient myth, Red is adjudged a magical and
religious colour, it also symbolises super-human heroism to the Greeks.
Findings also show that Red is one of the top favorite colours of all people
and approximately 77% of all flags of countries have red. The colour is also the
colour of good luck in Asia.
The Zenith Effect
Prior to the launch of the new logo, two of the oldest and
most established banks in Nigeria that had been using colour yellow in their
logos for more than 25 years later changed their colour to red after witnessing
the amazing colour of red in Zenith Bank.
In no time the brand became a success and it began to appeal
and inspire many other names.
In his words:
“I can recall a day when someone sent me a message to the
effect that several members of their family had started to name their newborn
babies-Zenith.”
Jim as a brand strategist
The impressive response of people to his brand was a
function of core aspects of a successful branding-Simplicity, broad-based
appeal, and a combination of something easily recognisable and unique.
Determined to raise the bar of corporate branding in the
country, Jim came up with the Zenith Cube – a three-dimensional cube with the
bank’s Z shaped red and gray color on each of the four sides.
“There was a huge response when we put those cubes, and
people on the streets would smile and stop to look at them”.
The idea was to put the cube on the highest point of each of
the branches of the bank. This is to enhance the visibility of its Z name such
that it could be seen from any direction. Nothing of this magnitude has ever
happened in the banking industry.
The Zenith Cube on
the Pinnacle of the Zenith Bank Building
The human mind is believed to be highly responsive to visual
stimuli and colour is one of the major defining factors. For Business owners
and Entrepreneurs, choosing the right logo colours can highlight business
strengths and help attract the right customers, as it conveys the personality
of the business. Today Zenith Bank has over 500 branches and business offices
in prime commercial centres in all the states across the country.
