Banks have long since realized that a recognizable logo is almost as important as a sound investment strategy. After all, nothing says success like your company’s name in a simple but unique font, possibly with a little picture of a bird or something next to it.
This is not just for the clients’ benefit. The more often a bank’s employees see the logo, the more important they feel. Especially if it’s written somewhere unusual. At a recent Lehman Brothers conference at a top London hotel, it wasn’t just the walls that were bedecked with the bank’s logo. “We don’t do half measures but for the big boys we do double measures,” said a source from the hotel. “After the final session on the last day of the conference, we wanted to do something special. Unfortunately not everyone at the hotel has a broad knowledge of the investment banking industry, or even necessarily the English language.”
So it was that a couple of hundred Lehman bigwigs filed into the break room to enjoy a glass of champagne under the watchful eye of a four-foot ice sculpture, the base of which had been hastily wrapped in ribbons. The reason for this could be understood as the ice began to melt, and the ribbons slipped down to reveal a wonderfully sculpted logo set cunningly beneath the ice, that touted the professional merits of a fictional bank/Franciscan monk known as “Brother Lehman”. Oh well.
