6 minutes
As consumers, we are wired to love, hate and engage with brands every day of our lives. Brands (like Coca Cola, Apple, Amazon, Target, and Kia) invoke deep meaning and emotional feelings in us, both good and bad.
But successful brands don’t stand still. As the world around them changes and consumers’ attitudes, behaviors, and lifestyles change, brands evolve or die (e.g. Keds, Schwinn, Tang, Oldsmobile, Twinkies). When was the last time you reviewed the state of your credit union brand internally and externally?
In late 2014, McDonalds revamped its brand (see related blog) to try and appeal to its changing customer base and a trend toward health-conscious attitudes (plus address lagging sales). With a growing reputation of having one of the least healthy menus, McDonald’s shifted its brand to appeal to the love people have felt for McDonald’s over the years—even as consumers shift to organic, gluten-free, lower sodium, carb-free healthy lives.
Is it too late for McDonalds, or could this prove an effective brand refresh that could widen its appeal and sales?
Financial brands (like your credit union) aren’t tied to Big Macs, fast cars, or fashionable clothing. But they are tied to people’s anxiety about maintaining, safeguarding, and managing their money—and that carries a high degree of emotion. Your brand is also tied not just to technology or products, but to your people, their actions, behaviors, and the focus of your culture and beliefs.
The Changing Times
Consumers are in a massive shift in their adoption and use of new mobile, tablet, online payment and digital platforms. This shift has transformed consumer-banking patterns forever.
Where can you win in an increasingly online world if your brand is not well defined? What are you doing with your own brand to react?
Following the financial Armageddon of 2008, today’s banking brands are tied to consumer uncertainty, declining trust, and occasional frustration when service and rising fees disappoint discerning customers. This feeling has led to the lowest trust scores in U.S. history for the banking sector. A recent Gallup poll showed a -10 ranking for banks (well below lawyers at -7) and even below the troubled airline industry (-3).
What does all this mean for evaluating your own brand? It can mean opportunity to capitalize on consumer frustration and changing patterns—if you are aware, ready and focused.
First, though, you need to learn whether your brand is relevant, esteemed and executed consistently among your team. And to do that, you need a well focused and unbiased brand assessment process, research and staff engagement.
The Perfect Storm
The storm of social, trust and technological change for financial brands is requiring a new set of rules, strategies and behaviors to stay relevant. It’s a storm no credit union leader should ignore. It has reshaped how people save, borrow, deposit, spend and invest today and well into the future.
But the storm is not just about managing money. It is about our deeply held life values, and building brand distinction that attracts people and drives high word of mouth sharing.
Our research and brand work for credit unions across the country has identified several issues driving brand distinction, reputation and image perceptions among both staff and members today.
These are drivers that go beyond the products, low prices and low fees that leave most credit unions in a “me too,” non-differentiated, low-cost battle. They include such brand factors as culture, values, branch experiences, product distinction, flexibility, and trusted advice.
An Opportunity
Credit union and even community bank leaders who recognize this perfect storm are tackling the state of their brand.
Many find they need help rearticulating the core of their brand foundation. They are revisiting their core values and brand promise to ensure they are not only clear—but being lived out among staff.
Leaders are tackling cultural engagement (especially among their Millennial staff) and ultimately redefining their unique value proposition and competitive market position.
“Like other financial industry CEOs, I spent a lot of time thinking about how my credit union could succeed, and how we could gain attention and build awareness,” says CUES member Jim McCarthy, president/CEO of $100 million/7,000-member Trailhead Credit Union, Portland, Ore., which changed its name from Northwest Resource Federal Credit Union in 2013.
“After seven years of negative membership growth, I knew we needed to make a bold move in order to grow and thrive.
“We took our board, staff and management team through a six-month strategic and creative process, conducting workshops, employee surveys, focus groups, and secondary research to articulate our brand and explore name equity.
“Along the way, they discovered new opportunities where our brand could flourish. Our resulting growth in new members, loans, new accounts, Web traffic and staff engagement has been nothing short of astonishing,” adds McCarthy. (Read more about Trailhead CU’s brand transformation.)
Going all In
In our agency’s work, we see leaders of U.S. and Canadian financial institutions adopting these transformational principles of change.
They’re turning their brands toward building greater trust and alignment (internally first). We are helping them engage and mobilize their teams for collaborative change management.
This, in turn, is inspiring the innovative redesign of new user experiences and the prototyping of new branch models, responsive websites, database targeting, social media strategies and new digital content.
“It has been a 10-year, all-in brand journey,” shares CUES member Chris Catliff, CEO of $3 billion/40,000-member BlueShore Financial in Vancouver, British Columbia. “But it has been worth every effort, with the result being a five-star, choreographed brand experience for our credit union clients.
“That experience is backed by expert financial advice and personalized, proactive solutions, delivered across all channels, including our Financial Spa branches, call center, online and mobile environments all fully integrated.
“Without our incredibly engaged employees, though, our premium brand experience could never have been achieved,” adds Catliff. And that is one of the accomplishments he is most proud of.
The Rewards
Some credit unions that have completed their transformational rebranding are already seeing superior results—higher staff engagement and sustained performance—inside of one year.
Some leaders have shared they are also sleeping better at night knowing they’re doing the right thing for their employees, their members and their communities by totally focusing their brand and then rolling it out from the inside out.
The great lessons of this economic tsunami, coupled with massive shifts in technology, either present a great opportunity to evaluate the state and focus of your brand, or just another day.
Do you know how your staff’s and members’ brand perceptions and your reputation have shifted in this perfect storm? The time to examine these questions is now.
Whether McDonalds’ gamble to reposition its brand is successful or muted remains to be seen. But the opportunity is clear: greater emotional connection and relevance. Can you risk not asking the same questions about your brand?
Mark Weber is CEO of CUES Supplier member Weber Marketing Group, Seattle, and the lead faculty at CUES School of Strategic Marketing™ I and II. Weber is a marketing analyst, brand strategy consultant, and financial services industry expert. He has over 30 years of strategic marketing and brand consulting experience in high-tech and financial services. He advises some of the largest credit unions and community banks in the U.S. and Canada.
