EL SEGUNDO, Calif. -
The name change follows discussions with the management team at Xerox Corp. to ensure they understood why the change is taking place, according to Teresa Freeborn, Xerox FCU CEO.
“Xerox still is 35% of our membership, and everyone who works for the credit union is a Xerox employee, which is an anomaly in the credit union industry,” said Freeborn. “Our future vision is of a multi-SEG credit union. We are in seven different states. We want to develop our relationship with every SEG, and we are expanding our offerings and introducing new product lines. It is all about the growth.”
Freeborn, who oversaw a name change while at Hughes Aircraft Employees FCU to Kinecta FCU, is also among the speakers at the Credit Union Journal’s Grow Show, April 27-29.
The official announcement of the Xceed Financial CU name will not be made to members until March 31, but the first step of the rebranding campaign was taken on Feb. 17, when an internal brand launch was held at Universal Studios in Hollywood. The launch included a Jay Leno impersonator and a Joan Rivers impersonator to simulate a red carpet event.
“We wanted to make it really ‘wow.’ It was a day-long event that was really fun, really jam-packed with information,” she said. “Our people will be our brand champions. We did a lot of work on the name, logo and tagline, but at the end of the day if our associates are not excited about it, they won’t get the members excited about it.”
Jim Delyea, VP-corporate communications, said 215 of 220 employees nationwide attended the launch event. The only ones who did not make it had pre-scheduled vacations and were unaware of the announcement.
“They showed up on their time, on Presidents’ Day Weekend, and they left even more excited than they arrived,” said Delyea.
Kathryn Davis, SVP of marketing, said one reason the CU wanted to rebrand itself is that while Xerox remains the primary sponsor, the CU has been seeking to demonstrate to the rest of its SEGs they had access, also.
“Many people felt the name implied people had to work for Xerox to join, and we serve many groups other than Xerox,” she said. “Everybody loves the ‘X’ in the logo, so we wanted to keep that. Xerox Corporation recently rebranded itself, including a lowercase, contemporary approach to the name, which fit with our rationale.”
Davis said members were not concerned with a name change–they thought of it as a sign of the times. “Our members told us as long as the service remains consistent, and there is no negative, they would be fine with it.”
The launch event included the unveiling of a four-minute “brand” video. Delyea said the video will be shown to SEGs to introduce the rebranding effort. “It tells the story of who we are.”
The tab for the event plus the video was $130,000 to $140,000, Delyea estimated. “And it was worth every penny,” he declared. “It launched the brand in grand style, and three days later the buzz has not stopped.”
Chimed in Freeborn: “Before we launch the new brand to our members, we want to make sure our associates know exactly how to talk about it, how to position it to members. And if the enthusiasm was any indicator, it will be no problem.”
