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If Barack Obama follows through on the promise of this speech, we may well look back and say this was the moment that the President took over the reins from the Candidate.

The Loser:

The Big Banks.

In the last year and a half, I’ve written and spoken about the Big Banks more times than I can count (here, here, here, here and here). And each time, I’ve given them a drubbing from a marketing perspective.

Alas, this time is no different.

Frankly, I don’t have too much more to add to the hyperlinks above.

Bottom line: the Big Banks need to return to what they are supposed to be doing and embrace a stodgy, prudent spirit –a spirit that responds to their customers’ needs not their Board members and their executives. Banks should be boring, dependable and supportive of real economic growth –their marketing should also be supportive of our economic recovery.

That’s why they got another earful from Obama (even as his administration gave Citigroup the greenlight to pay back the government). How’s that for some significant Presidential cover? Call them “fat cats,” give them a lecture at the White House for the media to cover, but then grant them the freedom to ignore you by freeing them from the constraints of TARP. It looks like some good came out of this meeting since a few of the banks admitted that their lobbyists have been working too hard to “gut” banking reform –talk about getting your marketing message all mixed up!

Fact is, the Big Banks fate rest with them. If they don’t start rolling up their sleeves, lending their money to the small businesses and entrepreneurs who build America, then the local and regional banks will eventually eat their lunch. Even if another crisis never rolls around, bad marketing and slipshod brand identity could doom the dinosaurs. No brand is ever “too big to fail.”

But if another crisis rolls around, you can be sure of one thing, none of these Wall Street affiliated behemoths will have enough brand equity or Target Market good will to save their skins.

In addition, to appearing old-fashioned and dependable, the big banks have to market products like small, flexible lines of credit, great savings options and checking without all the hidden fees that aim to help their customers’ wealth grow in careful, long-term, time-tested ways. They have to convince us that they don’t exist to trade or leverage for their fat cat paydays, they exist to serve the little guy the community and all of America.

My guess is that the Big Bank that repositions itself best in the traditional model for consumers and small to mid-size businesses by getting boring, assuring everyone of its dependability and, not least, overturning the old maxim “banks loan money to people who don’t need it.” The bank that genuinely puts faith in the American people and gets back to the marketing concept will find that the American people will return the favor.

And, remember, the business of business and politics is always easier when you keep marketing and branding in mind.

John Tantillo is a marketing and branding expert and president of the Marketing Department of America who markets his own services as The Marketing Doctor