OCEAN CITY, Md.— One of the many lessons Kelley Parks learned ingoing through the process of rebranding Call Federal Credit Unionwas that loyalty to your founders is important in rebranding yourorganization.

When Parks, who now runs her own marketing firm gira{ph}, firststarted at Call FCU, she got a pack of cigarettes with herpaycheck. Call's original sponsor was Phillip Morris. The statement“Tobacco is money” was printed on Call-issued checks.

Fortunately, the name Call was generic enough to work withacross several demographics, yet it still harkened back to an oldad campaign by Philip Morris: “Call for Phillip Morris.” The creditunion decided to make the change in culture and brand when PhilipMorris moved its headquarters from New York to Richmond, Va., andthe credit union, with locations in Richmond and Cabarrus, N.C.,transitioned from serving a very blue collar membership to moresophisticated, white-collar members.

Parks noted in an interview after the session at the Maryland & D.C. Credit Union Associationconference that change is really emotional and buy-in andincentives are crucial for success. She said the credit union foundthe biggest challenge was with employees and not the membership.Turnover hit its highest ever in the first year after therebrand.

Parks put her audience members to the test. During the sessiongroups of attendees rolled dice to pick well-branded companies andpretend that company walked into a credit union branch and imposedits values on your credit union. For example a credit union thatrolled for Apple said its branches would be sleek and high-tech.Another group that also rolled Apple said their packaging would bebeautiful to make more of an emotional connection with the members,as Apple does with its customers.

That was a key point during Parks' presentation. Humans arepowered by emotion and not reason, which is why we don't all ownthe same car, she said.

Parks' explained that one study found people looking at a coffeemug perceived the value to be $3.12 but after owning the coffeemug, they perceived it to be worth $7.12. So, to beat thecompetition you have to cost half as much or be twice as good, shereasoned, because people value what they have.

The key to achieving this perceived value is to know why whatyou do matters. Parks gave the example of Harley-Davidson, whichrepresents freedom on the open road. And beloved brands are loyalto their founders, like Disney.

To make the point more concrete, Parks pointed out that CUsreceived expanded field of membership powers during the 1990s and2000s, yet membership growth has continued to decline. “Why hasn'tthat growth spiked? I think it's because we lost that affinity,”she concluded.