Comments on: It’s Official: UNCB’s ‘Gold Cafés’ Are Gone

By: Evolving for the Future: Repositioning and Repackaging a Bank Brand | The Financial Brand: Marketing Insights for Banks & Credit Unions

Wed, 24 Aug 2011 19:36:15 +0000

[...] industry, including Umpqua’s community branch locations, ING DIRECT’s cafes and UNCB’s failed attempt at creating a coffeehouse brand. In fact, First Cherokee executives including CEO Hames spent a [...]

By: The Financial Brand » Free WiFi? Yes. Cappuccino hangouts? No way.

The Financial Brand » Free WiFi? Yes. Cappuccino hangouts? No way. — Wed, 25 Aug 2010 22:58:36 +0000

[...] Reality Checks: Branches aren’t hangouts, and they never will be. Consumers generally have no interest in hanging out in banks. Almost every financial institution that has explored this strategy has found that it doesn’t work. [...]

By: The Financial Brand » Blog Archive » Passion papaya smoothies and 3-month CDs

Thu, 18 Jun 2009 11:22:29 +0000

[...] Not long ago, UNCB tried a similar approach with its Gold Cafe’s in 2006, but retrenched after realizing their design was too much like a café, something that bewildered and confused customers. Considering how Reliant has executed its smoothie strategy — only 10% of the floor plan is dedicated to the smoothie operation — it’s unlikely they’ll encounter the same issues as UNCB. [...]

By: Jeff Stephens

Jeff Stephens — Wed, 24 Dec 2008 02:10:55 +0000

I think the key point here is what you mentioned in your third key takeaway bullet: RELEVANCE. To me, this was a perfect example of gratuitous branch bling, with little if any relevance to the bank’s brand. I feel like these banks look at Umpqua Bank and ING and try to find the secret bullet…which eventually leads them to say “duh, it’s the coffee cafe!” But it’s totally irrelevant to not only their brand, but their whole business strategy. I can tell you from experience that it works at Umpqua Bank because the entire business strategy–not just the cosmetic marketing–is built around being a retail organization. Everything about the business model, the procedures, the training, the environment, etc. To use my lingo, everything is built to prove the retail story. In all fairness I have not experienced the UNCB brand and do not know them at all, but this looks to me like a very clear case of a bank trying to cosmetically imitate a perceived silver bullet with marketing, rather than changing the entire way the bank operates to fit a whole new paradigm. Surface level changes don’t work. Changing your clothes doesn’t change who you are…it just changes how you look for a while.

A similar situation can be found at First Independent Bank of Nevada’s (http://www.firstindependentnv.com) total and unbelievable hackjob of some of Umpqua Bank’s marketing. The imitation is uncanny (not to mention very poorly done), and I can barely believe there’s not an intellectual property lawsuit going on about it.

By: Roger Conant

Roger Conant — Thu, 18 Dec 2008 16:24:54 +0000

Why do we need branches anyway? One of the top CUs in the country is totally “branchless” and doing just fine, in fact, better than fine. Pennsylvania State Employees Credit Union (PSECU—350,000 members) is “basically a virtual credit union” (to quote CEO Greg Smith in a Dec. 15th article in CU Journal). And their auto loan biz is up by $70 million since January!

By: Brady Walen

Brady Walen — Thu, 18 Dec 2008 15:34:40 +0000

After my initial post about the possibility of Gold Cafes closing, I did have the opportunity to speak with Mark Gainer from UNCB. He assured me that the branch locations would not be closed – rather, the branches would be repositioned as ‘Gold Branches’ of UNCB. And to echo the point here, the look and feel of the branches will be preserved (with some modifications – namely the teller line replacing the coffee bar), and the bank will continue to offer the space as a community meeting place.

Additionally, there are a couple points we discussed that aren’t mentioned here. First, the fact that Lancaster County is rather conservative – and many people in the community were confused by the cafe concept. Some thought it was a full-service cafe, and were disappointed when they realized otherwise. Couple this with the recent economic shifts, especially with people cutting back spending (we’ve all heard about how much we could save by simply not spending $3/day on coffee), and we can see how the cafe-concept branch really wasn’t aligned with the needs and preferences of the market.

Getting back to Jim Bruene’s point about the branch serving to reinforce the brand, it will be interesting to see if the Gold Cafe branches are outfitted with signage that features the UNCB name more prominently. And with these branches continuing to serve drip coffee, to see if this will also be offered at other UNCB branches.

At the end of the day, this is a great example of a bank’s marketing and brand initiatives simply not aligning with its market opportunities. And, as we continue to see banks pursuing copy-cat tactics to mimic the likes of Umpqua Bank and ING Cafes, the UNCB Gold Cafe example really supports that point.