Superior Bancorp of Birmingham, Ala., is extending its own form of Southern hospitality to a large, foreign-owned competitor that recently moved into its home state.
The $2.4 billion-asset Superior is running an advertising campaign in which it uses a popular song about its state to take what it says is a good-natured swipe at RBC Centura Bank, which moved into Alabama in March by acquiring 39 former AmSouth Bancorp branches.
Though the $23 billion-asset RBC Centura is based in Raleigh, its parent company, Royal Bank of Canada, is based in Toronto.
To position itself as the local alternative, Superior has put up billboards in Decatur and Huntsville that read "Sweet Home Canada" — with the "Canada" crossed out and replaced by "Alabama."
"It didn't sound right to us, either," the billboards say.
"There are a lot of good things they can say" about RBC Centura, "but one thing they can't say that we can is that we are local," Marvin Scott, Superior Bank's president, said in an interview last week. "And this was just an interesting, hopefully amusing way to communicate that distinction."
Superior is using more than just billboards to make customers aware of RBC Centura's Canadian ties. It has spent roughly $50,000 on a marketing campaign that has included radio spots and newspaper ads primarily focused on Huntsville, where Superior and RBC Centura compete directly, Mr. Scott said.
Some business has come Superior's way as a result of the branch transition from Regions to RBC Centura, he said, though he could not provide figures.
Consumers have given the campaign a warm reception, Mr. Scott said. "They liked the humor in it."
But Scott Custer, RBC Centura's chairman and chief executive officer, called the campaign "in poor taste," and questioned its efficacy.
"I don't know if everybody really makes the whole follow-through connection from RBC Centura to RBC to Canada," Mr. Custer said. "That's kind of a three-step process."
RBC Centura's performance in Alabama "would tell me that those ads aren't doing any good, because we're well ahead of our business plan," he said.
RBC Centura obtained the 39 branches after the Justice Department ordered that they be sold as a condition of Regions Financial Corp.'s November deal to acquire AmSouth. At the time, Regions and AmSouth, both of Birmingham, had the No. 1 and No. 2 market share positions in Alabama.
Mr. Custer said that his company has retained 100% of the employees it inherited, as well as the vast majority of the branches' customers.
"I've been to every market three or four times," he said. "We've just had the warmest reception you can imagine." RBC Centura is a community bank that has roots going back more than 100 years in North Carolina and is proud to be able to leverage the resources of its Canadian parent to benefit its customers, he said.
"We are a Southeastern U.S. bank. We're headquartered in Raleigh. We do business in the six states in the Southeast, just like Huntsville, Alabama," and "we compete against banks like Superior Bank all the time," Mr. Custer said. "Being part of RBC has been an asset, not a liability."
Since acquiring Centura Bank in 2001, Royal Bank of Canada has bought community banks in Georgia and Florida and has merged them into RBC Centura. Mr. Custer said that RBC Centura's Canadian ownership has helped drum up business with Canadian-owned companies in Atlanta and with "snowbirds" in Florida. He expects the Canadian ties to be helpful as RBC Centura establishes itself in Alabama, because "there is a tremendous trade connection between Alabama and the country of Canada."
Superior, though, is betting that some former Regions customers would prefer to do business with a local bank.
James Schutz, an analyst at Sterne, Agee & Leach Inc. in Birmingham, said that Superior's marketing campaign "is being well received," from what he has seen.
"We are hearing that RBC is losing its share of deposits and customers," Mr. Schutz said. "Whether or not that's because of the ads or because of the integration … we don't know."
Mr. Scott said that Superior has been so happy with the campaign it is considering expanding it. "It seems like we've got a good thing." Superior has "got to ride it."
"Distinction": Superior says the billboards have generated some business.
