Comments on: Name Change Review: Salal, Quest and 6 Others

By: Still more on mergers. « The 2020 Vision of Marketing

Still more on mergers. « The 2020 Vision of Marketing — Fri, 19 Nov 2010 12:55:46 +0000

[...] Wildfire, Red Canoe and wait for it…….Salal. [...]

By: Elaine Nelson

Elaine Nelson — Fri, 23 Jul 2010 17:58:05 +0000

I guess I’ve just been spending too much time thinking about gardens. (loving the whole Holy Grail twitter silliness, btw.)

By: Editor

Editor — Fri, 23 Jul 2010 17:36:35 +0000

Don’t take it too hard Elaine. Anyone can make fun of every name (which will always happen with every name change).

I don’t think anyone is challenging the geographical relevancy of the name, but it is pretty obscure. I grew up in Seattle and lived there for some 25 years (last time was 1998-2008). I’d never heard of Salal before the name change.

To put it in some perspective, there are more Google results for “The Financial Brand” (485,000) than there are for Salal (420,000).

By: Elaine Nelson

Elaine Nelson — Fri, 23 Jul 2010 16:26:27 +0000

I know the SHRUBBERY is a easy joke, but I’m actually inclined to say that it’s a good move, as weird/generic names go. It’s incredibly regional, very specific to western Washington state. If you garden in this part of the world, especially if you have any interest in native plant gardening, you know salal. (There’s lots of it in the landscaping at the building where I work, by the way.) And it has some historical weight as well; IIRC it was an important part of the native cultures before Europeans arrived.

By: Morriss Partee

Morriss Partee — Fri, 23 Jul 2010 15:47:25 +0000

Hahahahaha! I can see the tagline now! Salal Credit Union – We want......... A SHRUBBERY!

By: Stephen Melanson

Stephen Melanson — Thu, 22 Jul 2010 19:35:09 +0000

A wonderful conversation thread; I hope others join in to share how they feel about the balance of Positioning, identity elements (such as a name change) and how to attack the market since these all represent “moments of opportunity” that can be squandered or maximized.

Also, Nicolette, I’ll second that a name change certainly isn’t a magic bullet, and shouldn’t be seen as such.

Thanks Editor and Nicolette.

By: Christian Burke

Christian Burke — Thu, 22 Jul 2010 19:07:15 +0000

Well said. Missed opportunity is the phrase of the day. As the Creative Director for a bank I’ve had to try and embrace a banker’s view of the world — which is ruled by a low appetite for risk, and fear of having to pay the lawyer. Understandable and vital from the balance sheet side of the organization, however my experience is that too often those criteria are mis-applied to decisions of brand and image, where intention, strategy and some creative leap of faith can pay huge dividends. Having to make ice cream out of horse crap after a viable creative idea has been beaten into something safe and acceptable is how we end up with some of the head scratchers above. Thanks, this will be a great piece of required reading for our exec staff!

By: Editor

Editor — Thu, 22 Jul 2010 18:14:45 +0000

Generally speaking, you are right Stephen. Brand strategy and position should drive everything, and in many cases, strategic rebranding does not necessitate a name change.

However, credit unions in particular face a unique challenge. Most credit unions started life attached to a company. We’ll use the Acme Corporation as an example. One day, the Acme Corporation gets bought out by Global Amalgamated, so the credit union’s original name — Acme Employees Credit Union — no longer has any relevance.

Or perhaps Acme Employee Credit Union decides it wants to serve more than just the employees of Acme Corp, so it gets a community charter. It may bumble around with a name like Acme Community Credit Union for a while, believing that the word “community” now implies that “anyone can join,” but this never works. So they realize that in order to grow beyond just Acme employees, they had better remove the word “Acme” from their name.

Also, many name changes are the result of carelessness. A little due diligence on the front end would save many financial institutions from painful trademark lawsuits that ultimately result in a forced name change.

It’s worth pointing out that the bank you mentioned — TD, America’s Most Convenient Bank — is itself an example of a strategic name change. TD would not be well received in the U.S. if it had tried to retain its original name, “Toronto Dominion.” “Toronto Dominion — America’s Most Convenient Bank.” How ridiculous would that sound?

The same thing applies for HSBC, CIBC, RBC, RBS and just about every other bank using an acronym for its name. (And no, that is not an endorsement or recommendation for financial institutions to adopt acronyms, which almost always make horrible names.)

By: Nicolette Lemmon

Nicolette Lemmon — Thu, 22 Jul 2010 17:53:04 +0000

Good points. A crucial aspect is that changing your brand in the middle of these “extraordinary times” is troublesome. With the loss of the former identity, the need to get people’s attention of who you are “now” requires spending more marketing dollars above the budgeted dollars the organization was spending using the past brand. And, most organizations have trimmed their marketing budgets down to offset the impact of higher insurance premiums coupled with slow loan demand. Just hoping these name changes are successful and not considered a magic bullet.

By: Stephen Melanson

Stephen Melanson — Thu, 22 Jul 2010 16:46:48 +0000

Do these banks realize that changing their name is by-and-large totally subservient in value to whether they change their positioning for differentiation?

When new positioning concepts hit the market, like TD Bank telling us they are the most convenient bank, the branding logic becomes, “Oh, I’ve heard of them, they’re the bank that (is convenient, etc.).”

If you leave off the second part, and all a name change does (if it even accomplishes this) is have people recognize the name, less than half the branding and revenue generation work has been done.

So then, differentiated positioning using plain language, conversational logic is the way to go.

By: Randy Schultz

Randy Schultz — Thu, 22 Jul 2010 16:42:57 +0000

As always Jeffry…spot on analysis of an often touchy subject, and the same reason we love talking to credit unions about renaming. It may not be rocket science…but in many ways…it runs a close second if you’re in the financial industry looking for not only differentiations, but a solid link back to your history and heritage as well as trying to be visionary with a new name and brand.

Great article!