The Larky Brand: An Unlikely Origin Story

The corporate landscape is dominated by acronyms. And, unless you’re an insider who’s already familiar with the words behind one, the dreaded acronym doesn’t really say much.

Now, you might respond with, “TBH, IDC. LOL.” Besides, what does the name Google even say? Nothing on the surface, really. However, it’s a two-syllable word that’s fun to say and easy to remember. Rather than defining the company’s function, a weirdo name like “Google” says a lot about its personality and culture. It also happens to have made its way into our collective cultural conscience as a noun, verb and adjective.

While so many fintechs play it safe by being too literal or descriptive with their name, or even reducing it to a forgettable acronym, there are a few standout players. Let’s talk about Larky .

During the recent summit hosted by the Association for Financial Technology (AFT) , I sat down with founder Gregg Hammerman . I had a handful of questions ready before hitting record on my voice memo. “How about I just tell you the whole story?,” he quipped. This was going to be easier than I thought. “Go,” I replied.

“Larky didn't start out as a fintech. It started out as an app aimed at consumers to receive automatic notifications about discounts from their Alumni Association, car rental place, all those things. And so all of our branding, even our name, was this idea that it had to draw a broad, massive audience.”

In other words, there’s no way on God’s green earth that a brand like Larky would have originated out of fintech. This is where I mourn how low the bar is within fintech branding. Gregg continued.

“We found a brand designer in the San Francisco Bay Area to design The Larky Guy, as we call him. And shortly after that, we designed our trade show booth and introduced him at this huge show. And this woman comes running over. ‘I have no idea what the heck you guys do. But I liked that guy so much. I wanted to come over and talk to you.’ And in that moment, I was convinced that this actually does make a difference.”

Gregg points to companies like Twilio, whose original brand managed to survive throughout several company iterations. After narrowing their focus to community financial institutions, Gregg and his team brought The Larky Guy along for the ride.

“Today, we now exclusively sell to banks and credit unions. We have had discussions along the way asking, ‘Should we rebrand? Should we rename? Should we get rid of this guy?’ And I've always been like, 'Nope, I like it.’”

That was ballsy. My own agency is often hired to name companies, products, places, and initiatives. One thing we’ve learned along the way is that a name can only hurt you. There’s no name out there that will make you successful. So, our objective is to make sure our clients don’t have a weak name that is costing them due to length, illegibility, confusion, or especially flatness.

For Larky, their name has done far more good than harm for the company.?It has brought some fun/whimsy/lightheartedness to the brand.

“Our brand’s name, logo, and character seem to make a difference as institutions evaluate us and buy from us. But the end user who receives push notifications never sees our brand. They only see their institution’s brand through their mobile app. We’re like intel hidden inside of the machine.”

The outward-facing expression of a brand says so much about a company, its people, its culture, and the kind of experience prospects can expect. Gregg described the kind of gut-reaction he wants others to have about Larky.

“I want to be perceived as playful, yet dead serious about what we do. There’s going to be some laughter along the way.”

In wrapping up, I asked Gregg what sort of advice he would give to fintechs who aren’t fully leveraging the power of branding, knowing that the last thing we need are a bunch of funky names and furry mascots invading the fintech world.

“Yeah, it really needs to come from a genuine place. There are so many great companies here that are simply settling on what’s safe, and nobody remembers what they stand for anymore. There are three things I would suggest."

"First, if you feel like something is broken in your brand, then you're probably right. Don’t underestimate the power of branding to solve real problems.”

“Second, don't do it in-house. You have to leave it up to the experts. There are so many talented people in the world that can help guide you down that path.”

“Third, find the money to invest in it. When we were still a startup, I had a partner who wanted to spend money on branding, and I said, ‘Bullshit, we don't have any money for that. It's a waste of money, a waste of time.’ And he found us a grant from a local business accelerator, so it didn’t have to cost us a dime.”

The human language is vast, and our imaginations even more so. But when a brand is overly risk-averse, it misses out on these delightful ideas that never see the light of day; ideas that will stand out, meaningfully engage with their audience, and give permission to its team to, as Gregg put it, enjoy some laughter along the way. Now, please reach out to Gregg and insist that he invest in a Larky Guy mascot costume for their next conference.

About Larky:

Larky helps financial institutions grow sales of their products and services with tailored push notification campaigns delivered through the mobile banking app. By proactively engaging account holders long before they log in or set foot in a branch, our platform helps financial institutions grow revenue and create meaningful, lasting relationships with their account holders. To learn more, visit nudge.larky.com, follow them on Twitter (@getlarky) or email them at [email protected].

About Garrett (author):

Garrett is a Brand Strategist and CEO of Raygun Design . He has helped brand and design several banking apps and has a client portfolio of both community banks and credit unions. His agency helps scaling fintechs develop product brands capable of penetrating new markets. Garrett can be reached at [email protected].