CIBC just launched a new, much-needed, corporate identity that looks pretty good on the surface, if only perhaps a bit bland and certainly very corporate, but hey, it's a bank so they can be forgiven for being a bit boring.
The problem is not that they're bland, although other banks have successfully developed original branding and identities in the past, so there is a case to be made that they needn't be, even in the conservative Canadian market. No, the problem is that their logo is derivative of other famous corporate logos and therefore not memorable. Travel Sentry and Renault are two of the most cited sources of plagiarism, in this case as if the designers (who must have been paid handsomely for this work) didn't bother to check for precedents of lozenge-shaped logos to avoid coming with a merely derivative logo.
Not only it's blatant plagiarism, but it also makes the new branding completely and immediately forgettable as neither the shape nor the colours stand out in the viewers’ minds. Say what you want about their previous logo, but at least it was more distinctive.
Only time will tell if that was a good move or not, but I bet that it will make CIBC's marketing department's job harder, as they will have to promote a brand that will increasingly appear generic and thus indistinguishable from all the other banks.
If you're thinking about a refreshed brand, don't be a CIBC.