SMFG India Credit Company unveils new brand identity
The company has appointed The Unlock Company to carry out the identity change strategy and creative communication
SMFG India Credit Company Limited (formerly Fullerton India Credit Company Limited) has unveiled its new brand identity - Pragati Ki Nayi Pehchaan (The New Face of Progress), in line with the company’s new avatar.
SMFG India Credit Company’s new brand identity has been created as a result of Fullerton India Credit Co. Ltd. having been acquired by Sumitomo Mitsui Financial Group (SMFG) in July 2021. The deal was concluded in November 2021 and effective May 11, 2023, Fullerton India Credit Company Limited was rebranded to SMFG India Credit Company Limited (SMICC).
In a hybrid event, that was beamed live to its 18,000+ employees across the country, in the presence of its top 300 leaders and the key officials of Sumitomo Mitsui Financial Group (SMFG) Tokyo office, SMFG India Credit Company Limited’s MD & CEO, Mr. Shantanu Mitra unveiled the new logo depicting the change of Fullerton India Credit Company Limited into SMFG India Credit Company Ltd. and the transition of Fullerton Grihashakti (Home Finance arm of SMFG India Credit) into SMFG Grihashakti.
Commenting on the process deployed over the last year to conceptualize the various elements of the Identity change, Ajay Pareek, Chief Business Officer, SMFG India Credit, said: “We realized that Fullerton India Credit Company Ltd had some core strengths which had to be understood well, along with the core strength of SMFG, to be able to build a bridge for the new identity.
“For this, we roped in Advertising and Branding Veteran Arijit Ray, CEO & Founder – The Unlock Company to guide us through this process. He started by having conversations with all our key stakeholders. Customers, Channel Partners & Employees. Very quickly, he was able to grasp our core essence. When he told us that our essence was “Empowering Lives. Powering Aspirations”, everything fell in place. Since this phrase captured beautifully the role, the company has been playing in the lives of its customers, employees and partners. From this he and his team built the strategic Framework of positioning. Pragati Ki Nayi Pehchan – (The New Face of Progress) the tagline for SMFG India Credit evolved out of this thinking. When people are empowered, they are set up for progress.
“And Nayi Asha Naya Vishwas (New Hopes, New Confidence) is the tagline for SMFG Grihashakti, the Home Finance arm. We are really happy with how the Team at The Unlock Company under Arijit’s guidance has built a refreshing new design language and brand identity for the new entities across all Brand Interfaces including, website, advertising, Signage, Collaterals, stationery, Digital assets and others.
“We are sure that with a distinctive identity that captures the ethos of the brand and the consumer aspiration so well, we will be able go to the next level in terms of business growth and performance with re-energized resolve.”
Commenting on the role Arijit Ray, CEO & Founder – The Unlock Company said: “We felt deeply empowered by the trust placed on us by the senior leadership Team at SMFG India Credit. We got a totally open mandate. We started from scratch to understand what lies at the core of what made the company what it was. The common refrain that was played out to us was “It has changed our lives. It has pushed us forward to seek more and do more than we would think we could.
“ From this we could arrive at the company’s core essence. “Empowering Lives. Powering Aspirations”. After that it was finding the right intersection between the earlier identity, the core visual identity of SMFG, the rising mark, the rising aspirations of the customers and employees, to embark on the propositions for the holding company, and the subsidiary companies. Pragati Ki Nayi Pehchan for SMFG India Credit and Nayi Asha Naya Vishwas for SMFG Grihashakti.
“It was a brilliant journey over the last 1 year, to work with Ajay Pareek, CBO, SMFG India Credit, and the entire marketing team to build the identity framework for the new entities. Could get a first-hand sense of the empowering culture that prevails in the company.”
