A new brand strategy for Oriental Bank in 2026
ORIENTAL
2026
Brand Strategy • Brand Positioning
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I helped lead the strategic evolution from research through the final platform and brand book. I translated the research on progress into the central strategic idea, developed the audience and experience frameworks, and managed collaboration across Oriental and the wider project team.
Brand Strategy
Project Management
Cross-functional Leadership
The Scope
Research, positioning, brand platform, audience frameworks, experience principles, and brand book.
The Challenge
Oriental reinvented its brand in 2019. Six years later, the bank had changed significantly. Its products were more digital, its understanding of customers was deeper, and its business strategy had become increasingly customer-centered. The brand platform needed to reflect that evolution without discarding the equity already built.
The central question became: What does progress mean to customers today, and how can a bank help make it possible?
The insight
Research explored how Puerto Ricans experienced progress through interviews, focus groups, social listening, ethnography, and customer data.
Financial brands usually portray progress through major milestones: buying a home, growing a business, or reaching an important financial goal.
Customers described something more personal and less linear. Progress meant saving a little more, recovering from a setback, gaining control of everyday spending, or making one decision that enabled the next.
People experience progress through the accumulation of small steps.
The Strategy
This insight defined a more useful role for Oriental. Instead of asking customers to adapt to banking products and processes, the bank could understand where they were, anticipate what they needed, and make their next step easier.
The platform positioned Oriental as a knowledgeable financial coach: present throughout the journey, asking before recommending, and helping customers recognize the progress already taking shape.
Part of the work meant:
Developing five progress-based customer personas
Identifying Progress Markers, moments when the bank could help
Design experience principles for products, service, and communications
Build the voice and tone guidance built around clarity and useful next steps
Connecting changes already happening across Oriental—from Libre Plus and Elite to Oriental Biz, Smart Banking, and the bank’s service ecosystem.
Different solutions expressed one shared principle:
The bank adapts to the customer—not the other way around.