‘We think we have the nicest girls in banking,’ boasted the Toronto-Dominion Bank in print ads that featured its prettiest tellers and appeared around its centennial in 1955.

Now, as TD celebrates its 150th anniversary, that tagline seems laughably sexist. But there’s nothing objectionable in the accompanying copy. In fact, it actually expresses the genial, customer-centric stance that still serves TD as a differentiator.

How’s this for a friendly way of allaying the fear of making a mistake? ‘[Our girls] don’t expect you to know all about banking. They’re there to help [and] they’ve done a great deal toward making the Toronto-Dominion one of the best-liked banks in Canada.’

History doesn’t record whether any of TD’s competitors yowled ‘curses, foiled again’ when these ads rolled out. But odds are that the sheer brio of TD’s latter-day advertising and brand proposition are prompting a fair bit of tooth-gnashing at other banks.

There’s simply nothing that compares with the ubiquitous green armchair, or ‘inhabitable metaphor’ (see sidebar), that TD acquired when it linked with Canada Trust in 1999.

And how do you top the insouciant appeal of Ray Charles and the Raylettes crooning The Right Time in a current TV spot while a voiceover touts the luxury of TD being open earlier, later and longer than other banks?

‘That [claim] is the single most powerful piece of communication I’ve ever seen from a Canadian bank,’ says Trevor Goodgoll. Now president of Toronto agency Goodgoll & Vendramin, he was in Canada Trust’s marketing department in 1976, when

it rocked the financial community’s socks.

‘We broke all the rules at a time when every other bank closed at three and wasn’t open on Saturday,’ Goodgoll explains. ‘It was just a spectacular moment in Canadian banking history. It set up a reputation for innovation and that’s what TD inherited and has represented ever since. It’s the antithesis of the dark-blue-suit banker.’

That easy élan also characterizes the way TD is parlaying its big 150 into marketing opps. Besides an anniversary logo on all communications, the bank has a series of coast-to-coast celebratory activities all focusing on customers.

These included sending its internationally lauded collection of Inuit art on a national gallery tour. And, in partnership with the Canadian Geographic Society and Canadian Geographic magazine, launching a Web resource called Canadian Atlas Online.

To get the burgeoning American end of TD’s operations in on the action, on TD’s official birthday of March 18 bank president/CEO Edmund Clark joined Chris Armstrong for the ritual ringing of the closing bell at the NYSE.

Based in New York, Armstrong is now sales and marketing vice chair of TD Waterhouse USA, a.k.a. TD Ameritrade. But he was the accredited locomotive for many of TD’s marketing initiatives when he was at the Toronto head office between 1996 and 2004. (Armstrong’s most recent title was EVP/CMO of TD Bank Financial Group.) His comment on the anniversary? ‘The things that were important to our customers 150 years ago are the things that are important to them today, especially their relationship with their money.’

What’s now called wealth management was definitely uppermost in the minds of the Ontario squires who attempted to create TD’s earliest incarnation – the Millers, Merchants and Farmers Bank of Canada West. But legislators frowned on the proposed moniker, not to mention the ambitious diversification plan of being a flour, grain, produce and insurance agency as well as a bank.

So the gents did a rethink that ultimately produced the Bank of Toronto. It was incorporated in 1855 with capitalization of £500,000. There was no marketing equivalent of today’s green armchair back then. But ‘optimism was as plentiful as oxygen,’ according to the author of 100 Years of Banking in Canada, a tome produced to celebrate TD’s centennial.

That milestone occurred when Allen T. Lambert was GM. One of the bank’s most visionary chiefs, 10 years later he would head the creation of the revolutionary TD Centre in downtown Toronto that vaulted the bank far ahead of its competitors.

But back in ’55, telling shareholders ‘timidity can be the enemy of progress,’ Lambert signaled that the centenarian Bank of Toronto was about to pull off what was then the biggest deal in Canadian financial history – a merger with the octogenarian Dominion Bank.

Thus was begat the Toronto-Dominion Bank, which later acquired the mighty Canada Trust and morphed into TD Canada Trust in 1999. Before and since that date, the bank has extended its footprint with a blizzard of other identities and functions (see timeline).

As complicated as it may sound, SVP/CMO Dominic Mercuri says TD’s marketing always comes down to basics. ‘Our organization has always been very fact-based and very disciplined, with a strong tradition of understanding the customer and our business.

‘Our consistent approach has helped us create our brand with consumers and staff,’ he explains. ‘This isn’t something that will only be around for a few weeks. It isn’t just a campaign, it’s what differentiates us.’

How does TD pull that off? Mercuri says one key is that ‘our agency partners have as good an understanding of our brand positioning and corporate strategy as [we do.] And they know we will only execute programs consistent with the brand positioning.’

The major challenge for TD’s AOR, says John Boniface, president of FCB Toronto, is that: ‘Most Canadians feel major banks are essentially the same.’ And that’s where he says TD’s marketing professionalism enters the picture.

‘You need a client that’s committed and consistent when it comes to the brand, the strategy and the creative idea and execution. And when it comes to agency-partner relationships, TD is collaborative and it respects our thinking and our point of view.’

Stephen Forchon agrees. As president of TD’s DM agency, Toronto’s Response Innovations, he says: ‘TD’s senior management is committed to a strong, centralized marketing philosophy that provides a consistent feel and tone across the spectrum of all communications. That concept is easy in theory but very difficult in practice, especially in a financial services organization of their size.

‘Another factor in TD’s consistent marketing excellence is that they’ve been able to attract and keep key management and staff,’ Forchon adds. ‘Even with the growth of the marketing department in past years, they’ve maintained continuity, which enables their efforts to be focused on getting better in increments instead of trying to reinvent the wheel every few years.’ Mercuri, for instance has been at the company for 13 years.

Boniface says another advantage is that TD invests a lot in CRM. ‘They want to know what their customers think and how they feel about them and their competitors. And TD measures their success constantly.’

How? Mercuri says TD has ‘an excellent’ data warehouse and a strong team of analysts that help turn that data into crucial information. ‘We use customer insights to help us drive the business strategies and

the corresponding marketing tactics. So our Voice of the Customer [marketing-focused customer survey process] helps us identify what is important to our customers and

then we measure how we perform

against that.’

Mercuri adds that awareness for the TD brand is high across Canada, save for Quebec, where traditionally the bank has had fewer branches and a lower level of awareness. ‘Our focus is mainly in the urban markets. So we have supplemented our national advertising approach with additional tactics to help boost our awareness.

‘Primarily we’ve used outdoor more in Quebec than in other markets to help raise our brand profile,’ he adds. ‘Most recently, we also adapted our latest ‘longer hours’ TV spot there to ensure it was appropriate

for the francophone market,’ substituting a French hit song for the one Ray Charles

sings elsewhere.

As for TD Waterhouse, Mercuri says:

‘It’s an evolving brand because we’re extending it from the discount brokerage world to the full comprehensive lineup of products and services. So our strategy is

really one of gaining awareness in the marketplace that we are more than a discount broker.’

All of these marketing strategies are serving TD well in its ‘steady progress towards the new holy grail of a branded customer experience,’ says Susan Abbott, president of Toronto’s Abbott Consulting & Research, a marketing consultancy that specializes in the financial industry. ‘Their retail brand is in great shape with the ‘comfortable’ positioning.’

Where does Mercuri feel TD stands in its 151st year? He says being successful isn’t just about living up to 21st century challenges by, for example, giving customers iPods instead of toasters when they open new accounts.

‘We know from our research that the most important value our customers want when dealing with us is to not feel like a number, but to be treated like a good neighbour. So we don’t just [address] this feeling from a marketing perspective. We live it through how we set up our branches, how our staff interacts with customers and even the physical attributes of our branches.’

TD keeps in touch with customers throughout the year through its Customer Service Index, which surveys patrons via telephone, branches and electronic channels. (In 2004, approximately 400,000 folks were queried.) In addition, the bank sets targets linking customer service levels to employee compensation. And TD spends over $50 million on training and development, a major component of which deals with improving customer service.

Adds Mercuri: ‘Everybody says the words ‘customer focus,’ but the real differentiator is how you actually deliver on that. And I’d say we have a very strong history of delivering on the promises we make to our customers.’