MILFORD, CT (May 5, 2014) -- Looking to better define and enhance its brand, GE Credit Union (approximately $180 million in assets and formerly known as GE Employees Federal Credit Union) reached out to The BA Group, a national credit union marketing and media agency, to assist in the credit union’s branding efforts which included a new website.
The BA Group goes through a process they call “Good Old Fashion Planning” as Amy Herbig, CEO of The BA Group, believes that “Marketing is not just creative for the sake of being creative. Everything has to have a strategy, goals, and measurement capabilities.” A vital aspect of this planning is market research and disseminating surveys to the credit union’s staff and members. BA fully immersed itself into GE Credit Union’s culture to better understand its missions and values in order to move forward in evolving the brand.
The BA Group ran the credit union’s executive staff through a brand planning session in which they discussed, analyzed, and questioned subject matters that play key roles in GE Credit Union, including its culture, reputation, and vision. With these insights in mind, BA developed numerous branding ideas that captured the heart of GE Credit Union’s existing culture, as well as representing the credit union it aims to be in the future.
The outcome was a new logo, tagline, “Your Money. Your Dreams. Our Commitment,” and website. The updated brand and more user-friendly website captures GE Credit Union’s energy and genuine commitment to its members by making their money and dreams a number one priority. The BA Group refers to this process as a “brand evolution” because it brings to life that which the credit union has already built - a type of brand equity through their existing practices.
Audra Wilder, Vice President of Marketing for GE Credit Union, said, “When we decided to undertake the task of creating a new website we knew we needed outside help. We didn’t have a true ‘brand’ that we could design the site around. Although I have a background in branding, this project was particularly overwhelming since we initially had four different logos that we used within different SEGs and we needed to bring them under one umbrella before moving towards a site redesign. The BA Group actually created a brand for us – the creation of our new logo combined with the tagline really captures what we and our future is about. ‘Your money. Your dreams. Our commitment.’ To me, the tagline captures us and our goals.”
Another marketing strategy unique to BA is that all marketing efforts and campaigns must pass through various “Filter Points” to ensure that everything the agency does reflects the client’s evolved brand. These Filters become guiding principles to help lead both the agency and the credit union’s decision-making in order to guarantee that every marketing effort aligns with the credit union’s new vision and mission. Every part of a marketing effort (whether a logo, website, or tagline, for example) must pass through these Filters as a way of reflecting the personality, voice, culture, and values of the credit union.
What Wilder said she was most enthused about was “The website and seeing our vision come to life. The BA Group really honed in on what we wanted to see created. The most exciting part was bringing it to our members.” Wilder knew the credit union needed an evolved brand and help with strategic marketing so she turned to Brandon Derks, Vice President of Creative Development for SmartSource Solutions, a web development company that works exclusively in the credit union industry. SmartSource was already in partnership with GE Credit Union as its website provider and developer and had worked with BA on other credit union brands and websites. Derks thought it would be an ideal partnership and referred Wilder to The BA Group.
In regards to their partnership with SmartSource Solutions Herbig states, “They fully understand how The BA Group works with our strategic marketing and brand planning, enjoy our workflow process and collectively, a BA and SmartSource joint website encapsulates a credit union’s brand like none other. Our brands and websites are more than user friendly, they express the story of the credit union and its members – it’s an enjoyable experience to visit a BA/SmartSource website as one clicks away truly understanding the relationship they could have with that credit union, or their existing relationship with the credit union is validated.”
Derks was equally thrilled about SmartSource’s relationship with The BA Group, saying how “refreshing it is when a marketing agency actually works with and understands credit unions. The BA Group did a great job integrating GE Credit Union’s core values into their brand and we played the more technical role in conveying BA’s vision for the credit union into the layout and design of their website. Together we make a great team!”
When asked about the most exciting part of the process, Herbig admitted, “There have been so many exciting parts of this adventure with GE Credit Union thus far that it’s hard to choose just one to highlight. But I would say working with a credit union that is so willing to grow is always the best part for BA because it allows us to do what we do best with no restraints. GE Credit Union understood from the beginning that we weren’t “changing” anything, but that it was truly an evolution of the brand equity they have worked so hard to establish in their many years of service to their members. Additionally, they understood they needed to represent the future path they intend to lead the credit union. By combining these two directions, the evolved brand of GE Credit Union was born – and it fits them to a tee.”
GE Credit Union is excited about the months ahead as they continue to move toward the completion of their brand evolution. Herbig said, “We took 10 minutes to celebrate the launch of GE Credit Union’s new website and then headed directly into a Rebranding Meeting for the credit union! The BA Group will now take the brand developed and represented within the new website and incorporate it throughout all other visual, contextual and audible elements of the credit union. Additionally, as of March 3rd The BA Group will be GE Credit Union’s outsourced marketing support to the credit union’s Marketing Vice President [Audra Wilder] where we’ll help the credit union with a variety of marketing and business development efforts to include planning, project management, design, and much more. We are Audra’s marketing team now – we just sit in Minnesota while she sits in Connecticut.”
The BA Group is a national credit union marketing, project management, planning and media agency based in Northfield, Minnesota. The BA Group brings together more than 35 combined years of experience in credit union marketing, media, and creative. The BA Group supports credit unions nationwide and can be found at www.theBAgroup.com and www.facebook.com/TheBAGroup.