The "New SECU" Corporate Selfie?

   

Hey, move over a bit, I can't see the members anymore!

SECU New Culture - Hey, We're Rebranding - "New SECU"!

 To: SECU Board of Directors

 

Dear Chairman Ayers,

Thought I'd point out that, if you and the SECU Board, continue to neglect to survey the member-owners of SECU as to their opinion of your proposed changes such as risk-based lending, open membership, regional expansion, commercial lending - and yes it's even not too late on that tax prep mistake - that your haste will make waste and leave a bad taste! 

Speaking of bad taste, a growing number of your members and staff are pretty sure you're making a "NEW COKE MISTAKE"!

Just to refresh your memory, the Coca Cola Company in 1985 rebranded one of the top 3 corporate images in the United States - if not the world - by changing the formula for it's best selling soft drink, Coke. They then launched "New Coke" (and, of course, recruited a hoard of expensive marketeers to run an Ad Campaign!) [Here's the link if you'd like to read  all about it!] Is this starting to sound strangely familiar?

The Board and senior management at Coca-Cola were so smugly certain of their wisdom that they failed in their due diligence. The Board didn't feel it was necessary to ask consumers what they thought. Why bother, right?

 

 It took less than 90 days for the Coca Cola Board to rescind its disastrous decision - it was an avoidable, costly mistake. Don Keough, the CEO of Coke at the time, said: "When senior leadership made the decision to change the formula, they underestimated the deep psychological attachment people had to Coca-Cola. The SECU Board is making the same mistake - you should stop and ask your member-owners their opinion. Why not check before you mess up the "brand"?

 

                         In Bad Taste! 

 

“As an employee, it was an uncomfortable and almost surreal position to be in… it was sort of like we were starring in a bad movie.” 

 

With your "New SECU" branding, you will probably need a new slogan, catch-line, hook. Why not try:  

"Haste, Waste, Leaves a Bad Taste!" 

 Members will "get it"...