If you live in New England, especially Connecticut, you see ads everywhere: “Wachovia is now Wells Fargo!” The big tagline is, are you ready:
We’re With You.
Isn’t it marvelous that another mega-bank holding company merger is “With You.” In this case, Wachovia from North Carolina which, just 3 or 4 years ago took over First Union which I think took over Connecticut Bank and Trust, went bankrupt and had to be saved by an emergency sale to Wells during the financial crisis. Nobody in Connecticut for the past three years had a clue what Wachovia was or why they should switch their checking accounts over, other than it had a weird unpronounceable name. Now Wachovia has failed and is called the name of a cowboy show on TV–a bank named after a Stage Coach. I like westerns and stage coaches but this is New England. So I need to know a reason why I should switch to the bank on Bonanza, other than “We’re with you” and another remarkable gem of bank branding they’ve been touting: “Together we’ll go far.” That’s the line I gave my wife 33 years ago and she still thinks she got hosed.
For goodness sakes, Wells Fargo, how about giving me a reason to think you’re a better bank and I should go to the trouble of changing all my banking relationships, which is not fun. Otherwise, Wells Fargo in Connecticut might as well be First United Bank of Russia. I have no reason to trust, give a damn or walk in to you. You’re just the next sign on the old Connecticut Bank and Trust Building. And I can still see the marks on the brick where the old sign was.