Raoust+Partners - Case Study - Glacier Hills Credit Union

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.

Individualism is championed in that region of Wisconsin. There’s an understanding in the culture that one has ownership of one’s life—every step is yours for the taking. This insight was rich with possibility. It is the heart of the individual identity of the residents and pulsed through the region’s commonly held beliefs.

Paralleling this story with that of the credit union’s drive to help every member succeed led us to create the brand positioning, “Own your journey.” Nothing bottles the spirit of Glacier Hills Credit Union and its members more clearly or more eloquently than these three little words.

By the numbers

2018 Asset Growth

13.27%

2018 Total Loan Growth

19.42%

As “spot on” as the new brand and positioning line were, the challenge of increasing brand awareness remained. Raoust+Partners needed to find a way to shine a spotlight on what Glacier Hills Credit Union was truly about: being an integral part of the community. This DNA was a major marketable difference. After all, not only is Glacier Hills the only local credit union in the area, each town in this part of Wisconsin is its own community with vast swaths of farms and fields in between.

West Bend, Hartford and Fond du Lac are all distinct communities where Glacier Hills has a branch. As part of the rebrand, we wanted to drive their positioning home. To accomplish this, we added context to their logo—Glacier Hills: Your community credit union.