What Dog Represents Your Bank or Credit Union Brand?
“The dog days of summer.”
It’s a popular expression, especially as August fast approaches. It usually means the end of summer…the final hoorah before kids go back to school and the hectic fall months begin. You might even feel some joy about it as you imagine Thanksgiving and Christmas festivities.
But you don’t want your community financial institution to experience its own “dog days.” That ending would bring no joy. And luckily, you can avoid it!
Building a solid brand identity can differentiate you from the competition, attract consumers and retain your current members or customers. A brand is your distinct personality. It’s who you are and what people say about you when you’re not in the room. In other words, it’s essential to your success.
Is your bank or credit union brand well defined?
If not, have no fear! Let’s put a positive spin on your community financial institution’s “dog days” by looking at possible brand personas as represented by your favorite dog breeds.
1. The Golden Retriever
Golden Retrievers are classic family-friendly dogs. They’re great with kids and eager to please, meaning training is simpler than other dog breeds. But they are also playful and need activity to exhaust their energy.
How does this apply to your bank or credit union brand?
Many financial brands try to be family-friendly, so it’s important to go beyond that one attribute if you want to differentiate yourself. Take advantage of the Golden’s playful energy to infuse your brand personality with humor and fun. Write copy that isn’t afraid to excite and joke. Go beyond bland images of cars and houses.
And of course, you can still be family-friendly too. Just put your money where your mouth is. Develop a youth program that rewards kids and plan family events. Feature members in your marketing (Kelly Community FCU does a good job at this) and engage multi-generational member families for genuine advertising.
2. The Cardigan Welsh Corgi
Cardigan Welsh Corgis are on the smaller side, but they have a big bark. They are loyal, love people and move deceptively fast for their size. Like Goldens, Corgis are athletic and need ways to expend energy.
A small or hyper-local institution doesn’t need a tiny brand presence. Many local financial institutions have up-to-date technology, efficient operations or unique offerings…but they don’t tell people about them.
Don’t be afraid of advertising a community focus alongside your “big bark.” Develop a best-of-both-worlds-brand. Showcase the personal benefits of a community institution while simultaneously highlighting your exemplary service, technology or other area of excellence.
Stop marketing yourself like a tiny bank or credit union as well. Market with the constancy and consistency of a humungous brand, and you’re more likely to grow into a larger institution. It’s a self-fulfilling prophecy.
3. The Poodle
Poodles are the kings and queens of the dog show. It’s not hard to imagine this proud and elegant canine breed winning awards left and right, but there’s more to them than a fancy strut. Poodles are some of the most intelligent dogs and need frequent mental stimulation.
Unlike the Golden or Corgi brands, the Poodle brand comes off as more refined and less down-to-earth. This is a sleek brand appealing to younger or wealthier consumers. Streamlined copy quickly gets to the heart of the matter. Imagery is clean and minimalistic.
But nothing is done by accident.
Institutions with this brand understand their target audiences and stay informed of the latest developments. They never forget to plan, and they always pursue award winning brand recognition with clear and noticeable advertising.
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4. The Rottweiler
Rottweilers are known for their protective nature…but they are secret sweethearts too.
Even though they view the outside world with suspicion, among family they are playful and goofy. A well-trained Rottweiler is a disciplined protector of its clan, unafraid to courageously face challenges.
Many credit unions centered on employee groups could fall into the Rottweiler brand personality. As the guard dogs of the financial world, these credit union brands are ever vigilant about providing targeted service to occupational groups.
They do anything and everything for their employee groups (their “families”) despite the community charter trend. These brands stay loyal to their well-defined niches, but that doesn’t make them boring.
Serving a select group makes these credit unions specialists with firm ideas of what their members want. For example, a teachers’ credit union understands the yearly cadence of classroom cleanup and supply. This allows them to offer special loans or think of educator-specific PR opportunities.
5. The Yorkshire Terrier
Yorkshire Terriers are tiny dogs commonly seen in laps and bags rather than herding animals or playing fetch. That being said, they have a lot of personality and make good companions.
Your community financial institution doesn’t need to be bigger than the competition to forge strong relationships with consumers. As Mark Twain said: “It’s not the size of the dog in the fight, it’s the size of the fight in the dog.”
Not every brand needs to be a more than $10 billion, on-top-of-the-world goliath. Some are content with being the little guy and looking out for the little guy. Just remember to keep displaying your personality – that local flavor so many love – to consumers.
Have a Doggone Great Bank or Credit Union Brand
Stop settling for a “meh” brand. Pursue excellence. Elevate your brand. Because an elevated brand elevates everything else – your leadership, your member experience, your marketing and your growth as a whole.
On The Mark Strategies helps credit unions and banks all over the country level up their institutions. See what Dan Price from Mountain West Bank had to say about On The Mark Strategies’ branding work in the below video…
Ready to get going? Book a free consultation today.
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