In November, Providence, R.I.-based Citizens Financial Group announced it was updating the bank’s logo.

Banking continues to be a competitive industry and financial institutions must stay ahead of their competitors in order to survive. Having a recognizable brand and an effective logo is one way to do that, and in recent few local banks have decided to freshen up their appearance and update the company’s image.

In November, Providence, R.I.-based Citizens Financial Group announced it was updating the bank’s logo. Danversbank also decided on something different, changing both the bank’s name and logo in December.

Customers bank with companies they trust, according to Peter Morrissey, president and chief executive officer of Morrissey and Co., a reputation management and public relations firm in Boston. The firm has worked with clients in the financial services industry, such as Boston Private Financial Holdings.

“It goes back to good design,” Morrissey said. “[A logo] is a shortcut to a sale. It is a shortcut to a relationship.”

Creating a recognizable brand can also help a bank occupy a particular niche in the marketplace.

“You want a well-defined position in the marketplace,” Morrissey said.

Citizens Bank executives said customers notice a bank’s logo.

“Our new logo recognizes and maintains the tremendous value of our well-known local identities of Citizens Bank and Charter One and adds a symbol reflecting our strength and size in the financial marketplace today,” said Larry Fish, chairman, president and chief executive officer of Citizens Financial Group, in a statement. “Customers frequently cite stability as an important factor in their banking relationship. This graphic redesign underscores Citizens’ ability to provide the best of both worlds – the advantages of a local focus combined with the stability, products and services of one of the world’s leading banks.”

Barbara Cottam, director of corporate communications at Citizens Bank, said commercial customers and investors will likely recognize the new bank symbol.

In November, Citizens announced their logo would be updated to combine the graphic symbol of its parent company, The Royal Bank of Scotland Group, with the Citizens and Charter One names.

The new logo will retain the Citizens Bank and Charter One names and the Citizens signature green color. The Citizens “C” will be updated with a contemporary symbol with four arrows pointing toward the center, which will be located in front of the bank name. New England customers should begin to see the new logo in March.

Morrissey said brands are almost always successful if they are applied consistently.

These changes don’t normally occur on a whim. There tends to be an impetus for banks to change their logos. When Danvers Savings Bank recently decided it was time to drop “savings” from their name to become Danversbank, the institution also decided to update their logo.

“It didn’t communicate effectively what the bank did,” Dave Munroe, director of marketing said, referring to the bank’s name.

According to Munroe, Danversbank has moved from a traditional savings bank to a full-service commercial bank. But, getting that message across was difficult with “savings” in the name. By updating its brand, Munroe said the bank hopes to communicate its mission more effectively.

“We can’t spend unlimited money on branding,” Munroe said.

The logo, which incorporates a stylized letter “D,” was meant to appear more modern.

“We wanted something that was contemporary looking, that was clean,” Munroe said.

Like Danversbank, there was also an impetus for Citizens to make a change.

In a statement released by the bank, it said the acquisition of Charter One provided an “ideal” time for Citizens to update its 20-year-old brand mark.

“As Citizens moves into the Midwest and seven new states with its latest acquisition, thousands of sign changes and merchandise collateral need to change,” the statement read. “This provided a great opportunity for Citizens to incorporate a more contemporary, relevant design into its branding.”

Cottam said it was time for “modernization.”

The Great Divide

Morrissey said changes to logos generally involve consumer research. Decisions on color and specific logo attributes have a lot to do with the “culture of the organization,” Morrissey said. There are also multiple audiences that banks must attract, including the investment community, employees and customers.

Branding evolution isn’t just happening in Massachusetts. According to a national survey of community bankers, one in two respondents say major strategic changes are occurring at their institution.

The study, conducted by Nsight, a research project funded by NewGround, found that bankers who are planning major changes said they would take the form of “re-branding,” while others said a name or logo change is planned.

“Community banking is divided right now between the past and the future,” said John Winkleman, director of brand experience at NewGround, a Chicago-based design/build and branding firm for financial institutions. “Half of the bankers we talked with are moving quickly to update some or all aspects of their business, but many others are either uncertain about which direction to go or convinced the best move is to continue business as usual.”

While updating a logo can freshen up the bank’s image, bankers agree it has to be in line with the rest of the bank’s image. In the Nsight survey, bankers listed name, employees and logo as the key components of a bank’s brand.

“A full integrated bank brand makes employees and merchandising inseparable from branch design and logo,” Winkleman said. “Everything describes the brand when a customer walks in the door: the carpet pattern; the height of the check-writing desk, the lighting, the expression on a representative’s face. Community bankers who are changing in a productive way have moved forward on all fronts. If you change the color of your logo but you don’t integrate that with the look and feel of your interior design, you’re bound to confuse customers.”

Munroe said Danversbank strives for an integrated atmosphere.

“We’ve always tried to create a homogenous banking environment,” Munroe said.

As part of the name and logo change, Munroe said, the bank is looking all the branches and making sure there are common design elements and architecture. Munroe said consistency is important.

Citizens Bank will not change any other physical attributes of its branches, Cottam said.

Morrissey said many of the typical bank logos, like sailboats and compasses, have become clichés, and in many cases updates can be beneficial. While cosmetic, a logo nevertheless has an important role in branding a bank, he said.

“It is reflective of your overall position strategy,” said Morrissey.