- Image4 Marketing
- Featured Financial Services, Featured Projects & Award Winners
- January 13, 2021
Runner Up, NEFMA 2021 Best Branch Refresh Rhinebeck Bank’s Arlington, NY branch was perfect for the market when built about 30 years ago, but was far too large, inefficient and dated to appeal to today’s younger, technology-forward commercial clients. Rhinebeck Bank commissioned Image 4 to refresh the Brand presentation, update the interior, and prototype a new “digital forward” generation of branch more suited to today’s consultative and valued in-branch interactions.PROJECT: Brand Update, Branch Refresh, Digital Merchandising Display
CLIENT: Rhinebeck Bank
LOCATION: Rhinebeck, NY
Rhinebeck Bank Minimizes Footprint, Maximizes Brand Presentation in Refreshed Branch
Project Overview
Because customers are changing how they use the branch, the branch has to change to accommodate the new interactions. Michelle Barone-Lepore, SVP Marketing at Rhinebeck Bank led a program to refresh the brand presentation, as well as to optimize the Arlington branch. The project serves as a prototype for the optimization of the entire Branch network.
The goals are to reduce footprint, overhead and FTE’s, while delivering a much higher value in-branch experience to a new generation of business owners and clients. The branch had to be more technology forward while retaining an emotional feeling of security, care and excellent service.
In the process of reducing the branch from 10,000sf freestanding to 5,000sf with a sublet to a commercially-aligned business, Rhinebeck’s design-build firm created a lovely “in-the-round” floorplan featuring a wide open lobby space and immediately accessible service pods. Assigned offices are in the back of the space, yet clearly visible through expanses of glass. As their Interior Designer worked with deep blue and darker wood elements, Image 4,s design team raised the tonal range with brighter blue, white and brushed aluminum elements to create visual waypoints in the branch.
To emphasize that Rhinebeck is “technology-forward, techno-savvy”, Image 4 designed a digital feature wall. Over a blue pattered wallcovering we built a 24-foot wide, 3-monitor monitor array framed in brushed sliver structure. Content is both synchronized and independently presented via Image 4’s Open-architecture Content Management System. Rhinebeck’s marketing department can easily and simply choose to deliver Brand, product and community content remotely as desired.
Rhinebeck Bank has a very strong set of values, presented as ICARE: Integrity, Community, Accountability, Respect, Empathy. To visually connect the interior elements, Marketing and Community images that reflect these values are displayed in each office in custom-fabricated frames that allow for magnetic change-out as marketing programs develop. The round frame shape mimics the “in-the-round” building design element. Compliance displays and other elements are custom-designed and fabricated to reflect the refreshed Brand standard.
As with so many projects in 2020, Image 4’s installation team managed the project through Covid restrictions, choosing times and days carefully to avoid uncontrolled exposure of Rhinebeck’s staff, customers and our team.
Customer response has been extremely positive, and employees are excited by the new image and modern workspace features. Rhinebeck will flow into the future with a refreshed branch network.