Chris Kersbergen & Esther Vernhout – Rabobank

For Rabobank, brand growth is not about becoming louder or simply more visible. It is about making the bank’s cooperative identity relevant in today’s world. For Chris Kersbergen, Head of Global Brand, and Esther Vernhout, Brand Strategist, that means building from Rabobank’s distinctive DNA: not just being a bank, but a cooperative bank with a role in society. With “Onze Bank” (Our Bank), Rabobank has found a platform that makes this idea simple, recognisable and flexible enough to speak to very different audiences, from young consumers to entrepreneurs, members and international business clients.

MAKING THE COOPERATIVE RELEVANT

Rabobank serves a broad customer base, from retail banking in the Netherlands to international Food & Agri and wholesale markets. That makes brand building complex: the brand needs to feel consistent, while still being relevant to people with very different needs. For Esther, the starting point is Rabobank’s cooperative mentality. “I think the number one thing by far is the cooperative mentality we have, making that stand out in today’s world.”

That relevance is especially important among younger audiences, where digital banks and specialised financial players are competing for attention. “Rejuvenation is very important as a bank, especially with emerging neobanks that focus a lot on the technology side.” Rather than moving away from Rabobank’s cooperative identity, “Onze Bank” helps translate it into something simple, recognisable and useful.

The platform also prevents Rabobank from becoming too generic. Instead of claiming to be the bank for everyone in the same way, it allows the brand to provide specific solutions for specific audiences.

“Rejuvenation is very important as a bank, especially with emerging neobanks that focus much more on the technology side.’’

ONE PLATFORM, MANY STORIES

The strength of “Onze Bank” is that it creates coherence without limiting the brand. Rabobank can use the same overarching idea for homeowners, entrepreneurs, young people, members and international business clients, while still making each message feel specific. “On the one hand, it creates a lot of coherence between those different elements,” Chris says. “But it also gives a lot of flexibility to tell very specific stories for those specialised target groups.”

Esther sees that the different messages add up over time. A mortgage campaign may not be directly relevant to everyone, but it still contributes to the broader understanding of Rabobank’s role. “The sum of all those specific messages makes ‘our bank’ into: yes, that is Rabobank. So it is both the specific and the total sum that come together, and we are now also seeing the effect of that in the strength of the brand.” Since the launch of the platform, Rabobank has seen relevance and other brand metrics improve. “Since we started with the 'Onze Bank’ campaign, we see relevance increasing.”

For Chris, relevance is the most important and most difficult lever in banking. Large banks are often seen as part of the same category, and true differentiation is hard to achieve. Salience can be bought to some extent, but relevance needs to be earned through understanding and emotional connection. “Being relevant is really the most difficult. Especially if you also want people to have an emotional connection with us. This requires a deep understanding of each of your customer audiences. So consistently enhancing relevance in an emotional way across multiple audiences has been our core focus all along.”

“Being relevant is really the most difficult. Especially if you also want people to have an emotional connection with us. This requires a deep understanding of each of your customer audiences. So consistently enhancing relevance in an emotional way across multiple audiences has been our core focus all along.”

BUILDING FROM THE INSIDE OUT

Because Rabobank is a cooperation, the brand is carried by more than campaigns alone. Employees, members and member representatives all play a role in how the story is told. That made the internal launch of “Onze Bank” just as important as the external one. Esther explains that Rabobank first focused on getting people inside the organisation behind the idea: “How do we get all colleagues, all member representatives, on board as well, so that they also really start to embody that ‘our bank’ idea, that internal pride is built?”

This matters because Rabobank has many voices speaking for and about the brand. “Because we are a cooperation, we also have many voices that speak for us and about us,” Esther says. “The challenge was: how do we funnel that as much as possible towards the same story so that everything adds up even more.” In that sense, “Onze Bank” gives the organisation shared language. It helps employees and members explain the cooperative idea through concrete examples rather than abstract definitions.

As Chris puts it: “It helps to give your own support base words with which they can say much more simply: how cool that we are going to do this too, because that is what ‘our bank’ is.” The platform now goes beyond advertising and appears in corporate communication, social content, impact reporting, employer branding and product campaigns. It gives teams a shared starting point without forcing every expression into the same template.

LISTENING TO STAY RELEVANT

For Rabobank, staying relevant starts with listening. This is especially true for younger audiences, where the brand is not always as naturally strong as in other parts of the market. Rabobank therefore went beyond the quantitative data, by spending time with young people in key cities to understand what they watch, what appears in their feeds and what keeps them awake at night. “We went into the homes of 25 young people in Amsterdam and Rotterdam for four hours,” Chris says, “just looking at what they do, what is on their minds and on their feed, what they watch, what keeps them awake at night. Really getting under their skin.”

Those insights also shape Rabobank’s social approach. Through Rabo Next, the bank listens to what is happening among different groups and tests what resonates. Esther notes that honest, peer-led formats work better than content that feels too scripted. Street interviews, for example, give young people a glimpse into how others deal with money, making financial topics more accessible and recognisable.

Chris summarises the lesson clearly: “Simple, honest things work best. And anything that comes across as somewhat scripted or overthought, they do not buy it.” This approach is also visible in Rabobank’s work with creators and ambassadors. Rather than only looking outside, the bank also looks for people who already have a relationship with Rabobank or its cooperative structure, making the content feel more connected to the brand.

“Simple, honest things work best. And anything that comes across as somewhat scripted or overthought, they do not buy it.”

CURIOSITY, CONFIDENCE AND UNCERTAINTY

Rabobank’s approach to brand growth is built on the idea that relevance is never finished. Customer needs change, competitors move, and new technologies create new expectations. “Being relevant is never something static,” Chris says. “Being relevant to you today, I may no longer be tomorrow because another offer comes along or because something happens in the world.”

That requires a combination of curiosity, confidence and uncertainty. Curiosity means continuously listening and gathering insights. Confidence means knowing what the brand stands for, especially the cooperative DNA and collective power Rabobank wants to show. Uncertainty means staying open to improvement and asking whether the brand can do things better or differently.

For other marketers, that may be the most important lesson from Rabobank’s recent growth. The brand has not grown by changing its essence, but by making that essence easier to understand, easier to use and more meaningful to different audiences. “Onze Bank” works because it connects many stories to one shared idea, while keeping the organisation focused on what Rabobank has always been built on: the belief that a bank can be more than just a bank.

“Being relevant is never something static.”