Bob Underwood, MD (Host): For any organization, rebranding is a journey. It's identifying with and a rededication to a company's mission. Heritage Federal Credit Union recently completed this journey. And we're talking with Sami Etienne, Marketing Director for Heritage, about their rebranding's purpose, its impacts, and some valuable insights about the rebranding process.

 This is Talking Cents with Heritage. I'm your host, Dr. Bob Underwood. Sami, welcome.

Sami Etienne: Hi!

Host: Hi, it's great to have you on. Hey, I got a couple of questions in kind of your process here. So, how did you, or Heritage, decide it was time for a rebrand? I mean, when, why, and what was involved with the rebranding?

Sami Etienne: Oh gosh. So, we knew that it was time for a rebrand because we had our previous logo for over 10 years. It just felt really outdated. It was very patriotic, nothing is wrong with that. But we knew we wanted to target a younger audience. So, we felt like we needed to introduce, you know, some new colors and, you know, make it bright and fresh. So, that's what we did.

Host: And that's awesome. You know, there's something about making it bright and fresh to folks and kind of reattaches to your base. And so, you said the last rebrand was about 10 years ago. How did you decide what to keep of the old brand identity?

Sami Etienne: Yeah. So, it was about 10 years ago, and that was when we transitioned to Heritage Federal Credit Union from Warrick Federal Credit Union. So, we transitioned to Heritage. And then, you know, about 10 years later, we decided it was time for a rebrand. So, we knew that we wanted to keep the name Heritage. So, we kept that. We knew we wanted to keep versions of the colors. So, we kept versions of the red and versions of the blue. We just kind of enhanced them a little bit. And yeah, we're really happy with the new look. And it wasn't just a new logo that we did. We had new technology. We had a new website. We had new mission, vision, value. It wasn't just a new logo. We redid the whole thing.

Host: Yeah. That's why when I introduced it, it's a journey. It really is. I've been through rebrandings with other companies and it is quite a journey. So, you went through this about nine months ago. And so, what impact has the rebranding had on Heritage?

Sami Etienne: So, we feel like it's had a really positive impact, both, you know, internally with our employees and externally with our members. I mean, we've grown as a credit union. We've gained new membership. We feel like they like the new technology that we've introduced. Our new website is much easier to use. We've got a new digital banking app. So overall, it's been a very positive experience. You know, you have to realize that there is going to be a little bit of shock and change is not always a good thing. And some people, you know, do struggle with it. But for the most part, we've had really positive results and we're really happy with it.

Host: Yeah. Change can be interesting to deal with across the board, even if it's a good change. So, how long did the whole process take, from the time you started the planning until you really went through the full introduction and bringing it out?

Sami Etienne: Yeah. So ideally, a rebrand to this extent on this massive a scale, you'd want a year, right? A year to do everything. We did it in about five months. It was, you know, hit the floor running and we never stopped.

Host: Yeah. It sounds like it. Five months is really fast.

Sami Etienne: Yeah, it was a lot.

Host: Wow. All right. So if you had one piece of advice for a company that's looking into trying to rebrand themselves, what would that piece of advice be?

Sami Etienne: So if I had to give some advice, I would say to have a plan, but it doesn't have to be perfect, because you're going to run into those hiccups no matter what, so you shouldn't try to waste all of your effort and time on creating the perfect plan, and you should just go for it. But you want to make sure that you have the right team behind you, because I was very lucky. My team was great. And I mean, we were moving so fast. Anything that we would throw at them, they handled it. They never complained. I mean, we had a blast doing it and we felt like we were running on adrenaline for five months.

Host: Yeah, that's awesome. So, what was your personal favorite part of this whole rebranding journey?

Sami Etienne: My favorite part was probably picking out the logo. We decided that we wanted to work with all local vendors. So, vendors that were, you know, right here in Evansville, Indiana. And the vendor that we settled on for our logo, they were so good to work with. They gave us three options. They say, you know, what do you like about these? And they were really good about giving us what we wanted without us having to ask if that makes sense.

Host: Oh yeah, you bet. And, you know, you're really trying to pick something that really kind of makes your mission statement almost individual.

Sami Etienne: Yeah. Yeah. And something modern and fresh and they delivered.

Host: Oh, that's awesome. That's awesome. Anything else that you'd like to share about the entirety of your process?

Sami Etienne: Just that we're really happy with it. We hope everybody else is, too. It was a lot of fun going through it. And it's still funny because, you know, to this day, we still will find an old logo somewhere and we just cringe. But hey, that happens, and we just fix it and we move along.

Host: Yeah. Oh, that's awesome. For more information, visit heritagefederal.org/personal-banking/self-service. If you found this podcast to be helpful, please share it on your social channels and be sure to check out the entire podcast library for other topics that might be of interest to you.

Sami Etienne: Thanks for listening to Talking Cents with Heritage. I'm your host, Dr. Bob Underwood.

Disclaimer: Loans may be subject to credit review and approval, and property insurance may be required. Membership restrictions may apply. The views and opinions expressed in this podcast are those of the speakers and do not necessarily reflect the views or positions of Heritage Federal Credit Union.