Tangerine…is a bank?

“I’m going to open an account at Tangerine.” Right now, I cannot imagine anyone saying that. But that just might happen in the near future. According to this news article, ING Direct is going to take the namesake of a citrus fruit that I personally do enjoy eating. When Scotiabank acquired ING Direct in 2012, changing the name was part of the deal. I understand that the ING Direct lion was of an orange colour, but the question here is, why a fruit?

“Invest with Tangerine, it’ll be a sweet deal.” I’m already imagining what their new slogan would be (excuse the pun). Is ING Direct trying to become the Apple of the banking industry? I wonder how much market research went behind this name decision. The new name sounds “silly”, according to a commenter in the article. Will Tangerine achieve the brand awareness it needs to sustain a competitive advantage? Would consumers link Tangerine to forward, direct banking?

Maybe Scotiabank acquired ING Direct to eliminate competition. Some commenters in the article mentioned that ING Direct offers good customer service, and maybe Scotiabank is also trying to take advantage of that. Acquiring a competitor that excels in customer service may help Scotiabank itself increase customer loyalty. 1.8 million clients is a pretty big number, if you ask me.

Another thing that I’m curious about is the new logo. I doubt that the ING Direct orange lion would stick around after the name change. Would the logo be a tangerine? Would it stick around in consumer brains and fend off the competition? What I do know is that marketing costs may increase in order to communicate to savers and borrowers that ING Direct is now called Tangerine.

Whether Tangerine becomes the Apple of the banking industry is unknown as of now, but let’s just hope that Tangerine doesn’t end up like another fellow fruit, the Blackberry.