Case Study

Rebranding: Reverse decline, ignite engagement

Project Overview

A human-centered brand strategy to help achieve record growth at lower costs.

Varo Bank is an all-digital bank offering financial services like checking and savings accounts, a credit card, and cash advances. Varo focuses on financial inclusion and providing accessible banking to those living paycheck to paycheck.

My Role

I joined Varo in 2021 as Chief Design Officer to navigate a growth inflection point and overcome product experience challenges.

Guided the organization through a multi-year effort across identity, voice, creative, and product experience.

Unified and led internal teams to develop scalable systems and steered executive leadership to rally and support the vision.

Challenge

Varo wasn’t clicking with customers.

Following a major app replatform and brand refresh, Varo experienced a sharp decline in customer engagement and retention. Customers weren’t resonating with the new visual identity, voice, or tone. CAC was climbing, and marketing spend wasn’t converting new or previously loyal customers.

Examples of the ORIGINAL product experience and brand identity in 2021

We wanted to know why.

Data and research helped assess the root causes of churn. Prospects found the tone cold and the visuals muted, which led to weak first impressions. The website focused more on the company than on the customer, a lack of empathy that pushed people away. During the replatforming process, our product and experience also fell behind those of competitors.

“That is like a bank my dad uses, where the user interface is really bad. I would not use this bank or refer someone to it.”

-Angelo

Moving from insight to action.

Phase 1

Crafting a new identity system that feels human and commands attention.

I partnered with an external agency, serving as both Creative Director and internal liaison. I worked closely with the agency on a new vision: a bold, expressive, emotionally resonant, and scalable identity that reflected the company's DNA. We arrived at a new brand system that was vibrant, flexible, and personable.

Key elements of the new identity systems and early explorations

Phase 2

Securing buy-in through story, strategy, and testing.

2022 HYPE REEL created TO DRIVE excitement with board, investors, new hires and company employees

I empowered my team to explore fresh creative executions across product, creative, and customer support. We conducted extensive user testing, completing 81 interviews and 225 surveys with Varo customers and customers of our competitors. We tested visual expression, messaging, desirability, and usability.

This led to the development of a comprehensive brand house and strategy — encompassing company purpose, target customer profiles, voice and tone, messaging platform, brand book, style guidelines and design systems— that was adopted company-wide.