Hello, and welcome to The Theory of Marketing Relativity Podcast. I'm Jess Burton, a marketing specialist here at epic marketing consultants Corporation. Let's talk all things marketing and merchandising with our epic team. Today, my guest is Candace Vogelsong. She's the VP of Marketing for DEXSTA Federal Credit Union. And she now teaches marketing at Cecil College. Thank you for joining me today, Candace.
Candace:Hi, there. Thanks for having me.
Jess:No problem. So today we're chatting about specifically about credit unions. And more so about finding a voice as a credit union. I know like here Epic with a lot of credit unions, we have a lot of credit union clients, I have a handful of them. And across the board, their voices are all so different. And I always just kind of wonder, how as a credit union do you use your branding to find your and I always say voices, like, you're ambiance, like how you make people feel? Um, how do you think as credit unions, you can really find your, your feel and your ambiance?
Candace:Okay, good question. So when I left DEXSTA Federal Credit Union, which was about about 15 years ago, they struggled with that there as well as most most credit union. I think we first have to acknowledge that we have very bad branding as a whole. And I say this because of the three main words that are at the end of almost every credit union, and that is federal credit and union and so the word federal, depending on who you talk to, a lot of times has a bad connotation, just in general, then you add credit, which kind of sounds a little bit about some type of maybe a group that is going to help with some type of I don't know, lending, or maybe counseling, or maybe something, and then union, I don't have to tell you sounds like some type of an employee union. So when you put it all together, Federal Credit Union, a lot of people don't understand that number one is a financial financial institution. And number two, mostly it has the products that you would find in a bank. So right away, we have that challenge. I will say, since the 08' housing crisis, we have seen much more positive. What's the word? I'm looking for? branding as far as credit unions in general. So we finally made mainstream news and media, when they're saying, hey, if your bank is not giving you the answer that you want, think to a credit union. They never said that before in, in financial institutions. I'm sorry, they never said that before and news organizations when talking about financial institutions, they would say go to your local bank. They never mentioned credit unions. Now when they'll say bank, or local credit union, but at least we're in the conversation. So I have noticed that and like I said, it's been a while since I have been at DEXSTA. Um, I dabble now in the credit union industry with small clients who I help with their marketing and branding. But basically, mostly I teach marketing for Cecil college, a local community college in my in my area. But I have seen credit unions drop the federal union or even term credit union from their name and their branding. And I'll give you an example. Del-One, they office here in Delaware, their actual name is Delaware Federal Credit Union, but they brand themselves and market themselves as Del-One. So they have taken the all three of those words out of their name. You can see that it is a financial institution by looking at the building and seeing that it looks like a bank and it has drive ins and it's got posters in the windows talking about lease and auto loans. So right away, I think we have to think about stepping outside the box and completely changing name, or even branding by dropping, definitely federal and maybe even credit union, you can drop federal and still be federally insured and not be conservative state credit union, but just do all your branding. with just the credit union.
Jess:Everything you said is stuff I like no in my head, and you just made it all click together. Um, because I think I've said on a previous podcast, but like credit unions to me, having like, never really thought about it, like we're always only for. I'm like, my dad is a member of a credit union because he's an electrical worker, like he's a member of a union. Always like the Postal Service. Like there, we have a client who, when they were founded was part of like the postal service credit unions. And now they've also one of our clients has evolved, where they really don't even use credit union or Federal Credit Union, like you said, they just go by the name, which is a phenomenal way to brand yourself so that you kind of let the rest of those connotations that people have with the words Federal Credit Union, disassociate from who you are as a brand.
Candace:Yes. And then I think we have to look at not just our core group. So let's say our core group was some type of hospital. But then over time, we merged with smaller credit unions, and maybe one was a small newspaper. And then we merged with a couple other different credit unions, but then we also brought in select employee groups, but we still have our name as an I'm going to make this up. Um, you know, Union hospital credit union. And that's how we started maybe, but certainly, it's not who we are now.
Jess:Mm hmm.
Unknown:Well, I think we have to look to that the The problem is, is number one, we have boards. And there are some credit union boards that are more aggressive than others, and they are more current than others. And they're willing to let go of some of that nostalgia, some of that old history in the name. But then there are others, that they won't budge. They won't budge with the name, and they won't budge with the logo, because it represents history and the past of the credit union for them. And I think they're starting right away with an uphill battle.
Jess:I would agree with you, I think that it is crazy to me to look at some of the timelines of some of the like local credit unions to see how it was originally found in here. And then they added, like you said, a different industry in and another one, and a lot of them now are really the only, I don't want to call it like the only requirement for membership is that you live work or worship in the stated area that makes you a member. So when you so from your experience, when you combine the different industry, industry specific credit unions, how do you kind of merge them all together and work on finding a happy medium, or where everybody's kind of represented, and it sounds good, and you can create kind of like a new brand?
Candace:Yes, it's, um, it's very challenging. So I would say, right off the bat, get with your board and make sure they are okay. And open to a possible name change. And not, you might be able to go with some type of an acronym that still has the history for them. But the acronym doesn't mean anything to the the person who the new possible and potential member. It's not ideal, but at least it would make the two groups happy. I love the idea. And I've used before a focus group, bring make it a contest, or bring in a focus group and start throwing new names. And this way, not only do you get some of the buy in, but you also get those ideas if you will like thinking outside the box that you would never, never consider. And then you have to be really careful with the name to make sure that someone else isn't using the name at the name doesn't involve another organization that is in the same area. For instance, you might come up with a name that is also a drug counseling group. And the difference between the names are the last two words, which would be credit union versus drug counseling. And then, but people refer to the name as the shorter version of it would be something like Chesapeake South. So you've named yourself Chesapeake South Credit Union, where someone else has the same Chesapeake South Drug Counseling Services. So you have to be really careful of that as well. And then you always want to make sure you consult experts, it's worth to consult experts for the logo and design and figure out what type of advertising strategy you can use with that name. And that logo.
Jess:Yes, so, so, so important. I always be like, it's worth it. To spend that extra money to have an outside set of eyes. Look at what you're doing, we went, someone in the community was rebranding and they , unveiled this new logo. And every single person on our team was like, oh my gosh, who's going to tell them that that looks inappropriate. And we all lost our brains, because we were like, We like knew that they had they hired someone to design it, like whatever. So it is definitely worth the extra to have an extra set of eyes who might not even who might be in marketing, and not necessarily your your industry look at it and say, these are my thoughts. It's just like having someone edit a paper or look over. It's just the same thing, except if you think about it on a larger scale, more people should do it more often.
Candace:Absolutely. And we get tunnel vision, because we know exactly what we want to say. And we know the history behind that. And we think that it means one thing, because we've been inside the entire time. But then when somebody is new and doesn't know the area, or the credit union, they don't understand the name at all.
Jess:Yes, it's hard. It is. And I we were talking about it today, because we don't know why we had this conversation. Um, and Nancy had prompted all of us, like, how did all of these credit unions that we have as clients, how did they get their names, so I'm like, deep digging on websites and stuff. And like trying to figure out like, where some of these names came from. And one of our clients is really big on like, global value global, Oh my god Im gonna mess that up the acronym. I'm banking on values, like that's really big for them. And their name reflects that. You might not know it, but if you look up the definition, like value important values is in the definition of the word they use as their, you know, company name. So it is one of the more like, you can get super creative with it and still stay within what you're trying to push.
Candace:Absolutely. And I think we can walk away from the, the core group name, if we have enough diversified groups in the credit union, he can name ourselves one of the best names that I like, and the area a little south from where I am, it is Freedom Federal Credit Union, and I would just drop it the Freedom Credit Union, but your toe obviously, did not come from a company that was you know, referred to as Freedom. Or at least I don't know of any company, that's Freedom Inc, or something. But I would look to two names like that, that really have a great a great branding right off the bat just with their their name.
Jess:Absolutely. And I think once you kind of come up with that name, and those values of your branding, it makes it easier for either your internal marketing department or your extra or the you know, agency of record you've hired to kind of use your name and that to give you great cohesive like ad buys and great cohesive social media, and have a presence that all kind of matches what your brand name is trying to put out there. Like he's like freedom, like the word like if you were it always reminds me of like that, like word connotation game that like your word, and you have to tell me the first couple things that come to mind. Like, one that one's like, one where everyone's like, oh, like, you know, the United States like pride, being proud of that kind of stuff. Like you want people to elicit those feelings when they hear your name. Um, I think that's a great exercise if you're trying to come up with a new name for credit.
Candace:Absolutely, I think research is key. Start with research. And then make sure you have have some type of a strategy, whether it is to dive more in the county and get more of county or state representation, then maybe you need to have the county or state in your name. And your in let's say a tri state area, and you want a community charter and several counties that are out of the state, then you might need to be a little bit more creative with the name that you are looking for, or run or run the change to. So and I don't do it fast. Take your time on this, you can always change coloring and you can always change logos, but the name is much harder. So take your time, do your due diligence and bring in your focus groups and your service or whatnot.
Jess:Yes, I think naming a business is almost as complicated as if more not more complicated than like naming a child. Because like you can give like kids nicknames. They can go by their middle names, they can go by names that you start calling them once they're born. And you think about all the time and effort that people put into naming a baby, that when it comes to a business like this business is going to could potentially outlive you and outlive your children. So you definitely want to think about putting some serious effort into brainstorming, walking away brainstorming, again, asking people for other advice. I love the idea of making it like a competition. What a great way to get people in like involved.
Candace:Absolutely and mention it at your annual meeting, and have lots of door prizes and contests with prizes, and then get them excited about that. Absolutely. I
Jess:Absolutely. I 100% agree with you. Um, Candace, thank you so much for hopping on this podcast with us. I know we ambushed you at the last minute. But I feel like I learned so much more about credit unions.
Candace:No thank you anytime. I love still dabbling in the credit union industry, even though I'm primarily in education now. But I still my heart and soul was the credit union industry in general. So this is this is great. Thanks for having me.
Jess:No problem. We will have to have you back sometime soon.
Candace:Sounds good. Thank you.
Jess:Thank you. Thank you all for tuning in this week. We hope this theory is relative to your marketing needs. Make sure you subscribe to get notified of our latest episodes.