The Cooperative Bank in Roslindale is making a play for Millennials with a new rebranding initiative.
The three-branch, $325 million bank is hoping it can draw in younger customers with a new look, tagline, logo and technology.
“When I came on board, it was pretty apparent that we had a good bank that was popular within the communities it served, but it had a limited reach and product set,” said President and CEO Phil Bryan. “We do a great job with a certain segment of our market, but we need to be more attractive to younger consumers.”
Bryan, who joined The Cooperative Bank (TCB) about two years ago, said the first step was retooling the bank’s product set and making sure TCB offered a full complement of banking channels, including mobile check deposit, online bill pay and ApplePay.
“Coming late to the game was a benefit in terms of technology,” he said. “In my mind we were able to get best in market technology.”
After retooling its product set, he told Banker & Tradesman the next step was getting TCB’s message out. The bank enlisted 451 Marketing to help with that. Bryan said he liked the fact that the firm hadn’t previously done a whole lot of bank marketing, but did employ a lot of Millennials, that demographic he wants to target.
Part of that meant limiting the clicks a visitor would have to make when trying to find a particular product on the bank’s website and making TCB’s mobile banking app fingerprint-enabled. And he said TCB is hoping to stand out with a new color scheme, boasting various shades of purple.
He also hopes the bank’s impending social media campaign will strike a chord with socially aware and community-oriented Millennials.
“Our money is green just like any other bank, so we need to be able to offer better products and better service to really stand out in a crowded marketplace,” he said. “This is something that was overdue for us, and we’re very happy about it as we move forward.”