10 best practices for a successful name change

Changing your credit union’s or community bank’s name can be as scary as {insert your preferred cuss word here}. However, fear is often the enemy of risk. While making the strategic decision to update your name is bold, it doesn’t have to be filled with apprehension, dread and anxiety.

We’ve helped multiple credit unions and community banks change their name over the years, and through our experience we’ve developed tips and techniques that make the difference between a dream project and one that can turn into a nightmare.

Here are 10 best practices every credit union and bank should employ when undertaking a name change project:

1. Remove personal biases from decisions.

“That name, color, logo, etc. reminds me of my grandmother’s nursing home.” Those are words you don’t want to hear uttered during a naming workshop. All of us are biased in one way or another—after all, we’re human. But when choosing names, logos, fonts, colors, etc. it’s critical to put on our strategy hat and the hat of the niche audiences we’re trying to reach. We must think of others and not ourselves.

 

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