Glacier Hills is a $145 million credit union with 3 branches, headquartered in West Bend, Wisconsin. Their original sponsor, West Bend Company, had sold the company in 2001, and operations in the West Bend community had downsized significantly. Core members, former West Bend employees, were aging, and the credit union was having a difficult time making a successful transition to community membership from younger Millennials and Gen Z’s. We were hired initially to conduct their annual Board Strategic Planning Session in 2017. Glacier Hills then retained Raoust+Partners for extensive research to gain insights into their brand equity within the community beyond their legacy West Bend Company employees and members. We rolled up our sleeves and did what we do best: We got to work.
Focus groups revealed that while the credit union had minimal brand awareness in its FOM beyond its members, the name Glacier Hills was in no way viewed in a negative light. In fact, Glacier Hills is the geographical region, named from the ancient glacier lakes that carved through and shaped the landscape. As a community-based credit union in West Bend, it was all the more reason to lean into the Glacier Hills name.