7 Steps to Maximizing Your Rebranding

Your credit union's brand seems dated … and maybe a little tired.

You question whether it will help attract a new, younger generation of members. You wonder if it will travel as you expand your territory. And, it just doesn't appear to shine next to those bold new brands of your bank competitors.

But what's really gotten your attention is that even a casual appraisal of your brand has you joining your colleagues in saying, "That's not really who we are" or "That's not what we aspire to be."

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Time to consider rebranding.

As any credit union marketing veteran can attest, reaching that conclusion may be the easy part – there will be plenty of critical decisions to make during the rebranding process. The value of comprehensive, methodical and objective research cannot be understated; what you uncover are not just findings but rather forces that should have significant influence on your brand strategy.

Redefining – or even refining – an underperforming brand can be complicated and carry risks. It's not as simple as changing a logo or tagline – it's actually a deeper revision of how the brand reflects the organization and influences both internal and external audiences. But, creating a new brand that performs maximally, and not just looks and sounds pretty, is the key.

This is no time to shoot from the hip. Here are seven steps to maximizing your rebranding.

Define your objectives. Identifying and agreeing on your business objectives and priorities is key. Do you need to widen your appeal to attract a demographically or geographically more diverse audience? Is growing your business member base a priority? Are you competing with banks and other credit unions that have broader product offerings and member convenience features? Are you trying to underscore key attributes that have been missing from your brand? Or, simply trying to modernize a dated brand?
Establish your budget. Scaling your rebranding project to your budget is to be expected, but it places greater importance on maximizing your impact. As part of this process, calculate your upside revenue potential relative to the expense of an identity change. Remember that elevating your brand in a crowded environment where financial product and service offerings appear indistinguishable poses special budget challenges. Leveraging your new brand to increase awareness, create positive perceptions and highlight relevant differentiated benefits helps ensure that rebranding is not just a gamble.
Know all your audiences. Not just prospective members … but also current members, customers of other financial institutions, employees, your board of directors and other influencers. Each stakeholder group's response to a SWOT (strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, threats) analysis offers unique insight into your organization, how it is positioned and how it performs. A key challenge in rebranding will be to balance how you are positioned so that your brand is relevant to very different audiences. For example, one of the biggest tests is how well you appeal to both older members, who rank organizational values and personal services highly, and younger audiences, who prioritize technology, a wider array of products and convenience.
Determine the extent of the rebranding. Several factors may influence this decision, including perceived equity in the current brand. Are you pursuing a brand refresh with refined positioning or an overhaul with a full repositioning? Is it a facelift or just a nip and tuck? Again, research is an essential tool to help you evaluate the value of your current brand and its specific strengths and weaknesses. It's a given that not everyone will be enthusiastic about your rebranding; find a balance that avoids alienating current members and makes them feel that they got some value from the change. You may find that less is more.
Create a brand strategy. Begin with a clear statement of your credit union's vision: Who you are, what your chief benefits are and how you describe your value compared to your competition. Defining your value proposition combines what you find in doing your prospect audits with how you express your vision. Because a new brand identity touches literally everything – including letterhead, signage, website, collateral, advertising and others – it's important to include a master execution plan for changing over to the new identity.
Get comfortable with your timeline. Rebranding can easily take 12 to 18 months from start to finish. For one of our credit union clients, it involved three months of research, four months of creative development and refinement, six months of execution and four months for the internal rollout and teaser campaign. While there's no need to rush through the process, for obvious reasons it's important to establish and maintain momentum.
Set success measures. Before starting the rebrand, identify metrics to measure success. Is it shifts in attitudes and awareness, incremental membership investments in products and services, and/or increased membership? At the end of the process, these indicators hold everyone accountable for success or failure. Ongoing performance audits are important; one of our credit union clients conducts an annual usage and attitude study that specifically examines how consumers view them versus competitors in the market.

One of the critical lifts of audience research is to ensure that the brand is authentic so that internal audiences are motivated to live the new brand. Remember, your brand must accurately reflect who you are, present an attainable positioning of what you aspire to be and demonstrate how members will benefit. These are the elements that help ensure that the new brand is authentic, and one that internal audiences can embody and external audiences can embrace.

Eva LaMere is president of Austin & Williams. She can be reached at 631-231-6600 or [email protected].