Truist unveils its new, purple logo to go with the new bank’s name

Truist, the merged name of BB&T and SunTrust, unveiled its logo Monday, soon to be plastered on bank branches and stadiums across the U.S.

The logo, which features two sideways “T”s inside of a square, will soon become one of the more ubiquitous in the South, as BB&T and SunTrust change over to it from their old brands. The logo itself is in a purple that the company calls “Truist purple.”

“You take the BB&T burgundy and the SunTrust blue and you put those together — the merger of those color palettes brings out the Truist purple,” said Donta’ Wilson, Truist’s chief digital and client experience officer.

The two T’s inside the square are supposed to represent touch and technology, while the square itself is meant to symbolize trust, according to a company presentation on the logo.

Monday night, Truist plans to light Hearst Tower, which it recently bought for nearly half a billion dollars, in the new colors of the bank. On Tuesday, the bank will formally announce the re-branding of the Atlanta Braves’ home stadium, which was previously known as SunTrust Park.

There’s still no word on when the name and signage of BB&T Ballpark in Charlotte will change over. The uptown baseball stadium is home to the minor league Charlotte Knights.

No big surprises

Outside of some initial public push-back against the firm’s new name, the merger — the largest U.S. bank merger since the financial crisis — has seen few hiccups so far. Regulatory approval came in time, Congress didn’t raise much of a fuss and few protesters paid much attention to the banks’ combination.

“Those first few weeks are a period of uncertainty because you literally are putting two companies together,” CEO Kelly King said to reporters last week in Durham. “Things have gone extraordinarily well. We’ve not had any big hiccups. We’ve not had any big surprises.”

Instead, if the average citizen knows anything about the merger, it’s because of the name.

Truist was picked out of thousands of choices with the help of New York consultants Interbrand, and upon introduction it was widely mocked on social media. “A case study in corporate stupidity and arrogance that rivals New Coke,” one critic chimed.

But according to Julie Cottineau, a former Interbrand executive who runs the consultancy BrandTwist, any new name was going to get pushback.

“Universally, new names are rejected,” Cottineau said.

Both brands needed an injection of energy, she said, and Truist, in effect, does that. “It’s really not relevant to ask people whether they like the new name. What’s most relevant to say is ‘Here’s what we’re trying to achieve and here’s why this name is going to help us get there.’ ”

Ahead of the logo announcement, Ira Kalb, a marketing professor at the University of Southern California, said the name hurt the bank far more than it helped it.

“You don’t know what it is and you don’t know why you should go there,” Kalb said. “They’re going to have to explain it and really do a really good job.”

The name, slogan and logo are the three biggest tools to create a brand, and they aren’t handled well, “people are going to scratch their heads before they do business with them,” he said.

And after the public roasting came the lawsuit.

Truliant Federal Credit Union sued Truist for trademark infringement in June, saying the new name is a “clear and intentional appropriation” of the regional credit union’s brand. Lawyers for the combined BB&T and SunTrust have rejected that accusation, pointing to the numerous other banks and credit unions that use “Tru” in some form.

More work ahead

Meanwhile, BB&T and SunTrust are tasked with navigating a monumental and expensive name change that’s just getting started.

Truist’s initial application to trademark the name with the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office was rejected in September because it was likely to confuse consumers, according to the office’s records. Truist bought the rights to the trademarks with which the name could be confused and plans to refile with the office, company spokesman Tom Crosson said.

The Twitter handle @truist is still owned by an Ohio man (he says that he would consider an offer from them for the handle, but they haven’t contacted him).

The website “truist.com” isn’t yet the host of the combined companies website, and instead redirects to “thepremierfinancialinstitution.com”. On Monday, a more-developed “truist.com” will go live.

The company is planning to aggressively market the new name and brand over the course of 2020, according to Wilson, the Truist executive, with a particular emphasis on February’s Super Bowl in Miami, where it is a sponsor of the host committee.

This story was originally published January 13, 2020 at 9:01 AM.