Jun 10
17
Sending a Message with your Branch Merchandise
The Coffee Question
You’ve spent months planning, building, designing, furnishing and decorating the lobby of your new branch. You’ve hired the best of the best to pore over the details of everything from traffic flow, to staffing, to messaging, to the pattern of the carpet. And now, as you’re set to open this multi-million dollar beacon of your institution’s strength and future, it all comes down to one decision:
To Serve Coffee, or not to Serve Coffee? 
Actually, the decision to offer or to withhold the most revered of adult beverages likely won’t make or break your new lobby’s success. But it does exemplify the importance of paying attention to every little detail when designing a lobby.“A lot of folks come to us and say they’d like to have a place to get and drink coffee,” says Steve Kelley, VP/branding services for building-design firm and CUES Supplier member BCI, Milwaukee. “But the problem is, unless you’re going to assign an employee to that area who checks it every 15 or 20 minutes to make sure it’s clean, what you end up with is a sticky mess and not something the members are finding attractive.”
The coffee question relates not just to lobby logistics, but also to the message you intend to send your members.“When members come to our branches we want them to feel at home,” says Tina Linquist, VP/marketing for AMOCO Federal Credit Union, Texas City, Texas. “All of our new branches have a coffee bar and couches in the waiting area, and people really like it. The coffee bar is there right when you first walk in—so members can see it. They like it, they use it and, because of it, the branch smells good.”
Fortunately, this dilemma isn’t nearly worth going to war over. As Linquist suggests, the most important decision in the design of any lobby occurs long before the specifics are hammered out, and that is what you want your lobby to say about you.
Are you a broad-based community credit union that wants to promote an “at home” experience? Maybe you serve teachers and want your lobby to be bright and colorful, or you want to appeal to your high-tech base with a more modern feel.
Whatever theme you’re working to promote, there are certain rules every CU should follow: The layout of your lobby must be functional, its decorative aspects purposeful, and its message clear and consistent. These rules are by no means easy to follow, but once you’ve set your mind to doing so, all that’s left to do is work out the details … coffee-related or otherwise.
Directing Traffic
Members walking into your lobby have already decided upon the task they need to accomplish while in your branch, so your primary job is to tell them where to go once they enter. Especially in lobbies that are more spacious, a lack of clear directions will detract from what you intended to be a lounge-type atmosphere.
You can give directions with signs, floor patterns or, better yet, staff members.
“We’re big fans of having a concierge type of service,” Kelley says, “and one of the things a lot of the credit unions we’ve worked with have tried to implement is, if nothing else, have the management out wandering the lobby asking the members if they’ve been waiting long or if they can help them find anything.”
Often, members will spend the most time in your lobby standing in line for the teller counter, so try as much as you can to guide their thoughts while they wait. Videos and posters showcasing services might spark a conversation between friends about a positive experience with one of the services, which will be overheard by others standing in line.
Video in general can provide a welcome distraction to waiting, but if you’re going to broadcast the news, be aware that competitor advertisements might appear. AMOCO FCU, for example, only uses television to broadcast its own messages.
“The last thing you want is to be talking to a member about your great loan and rate, and all of a sudden somebody’s better rate is broadcast on the television behind you,” Kelley says. “But carefully using video is one of the things that probably all credit unions out there should be doing. The prices don’t have to be prohibitive, and it gives you an opportunity to get your messages out.”
Whatever the direction in which you choose to steer your members’ minds while they wait, one thing is certain: They shouldn’t be thinking about how long they’ve been waiting.
“For instance, some credit unions want to put in as many teller stations as they can because they think they may need them someday,” Kelley says. “But if a member’s waiting in line and sees only three tellers working and four empty stations, they’re going to feel like there should be more people working so they don’t have to wait. So think about how many stations you’re actually going to staff, and that’s how many you build.”
The physical layout of your lobby is important to traffic flow as well. Kelley says most building-design firms employ equations based on transaction volume to determine lobby and line sizes.
For this reason, Elisa Rode, president of retail-merchandising firm Kearley & Co., Inc., a CUES Supplier member based in Fort Worth, Texas, says it’s important that designers, contractors, architects, and the CU’s marketing department work together from day one.
“There’s a lot more symbiosis, if you will, when we’re able to work with the architects and the contractors as part of the team,” Rode says. “Sometimes just an outsider coming in doesn’t bring that expertise in terms of traffic patterns and how work flow should happen, so when we’re able to work with contractors, it’s a lot better for the credit union.”
Of course, posters, video and other furnishings should serve as more than a distraction from waiting in line. They must broadcast, either explicitly or subtly, what you have to offer members.
Sending a Message
| “When members come to our branches we want them to feel at home.” ~Tina Linquist |
“Don’t go buy cheap art and think that’s going to suffice for decorating,” says Rode.
“Customers don’t always know what products and services you have, so use these opportunities to tell them.”
Even better: In addition to promoting a service, make clear the type of member with whom you’re trying to communicate. University Federal Credit Union, Austin, Texas, features in its advertisements community- and segment-specific art to connect with members.
“The images are tailored to the branch’s members and the product I’m trying to promote,” says Corina L. Watts, CCUE, senior manager/marketing for University FCU. “So there might be a picture of a 35-year-old Hispanic couple, or I’ll pick a Caucasian couple, or some kids, or a dad with a little boy. Then, in our new branch in Cedar Park, Texas, for example, I chose a graphic of a train that goes through the town that’s very commonly known, and another of the Cedar Park Center, where hockey games are played.”
AMOCO FCU employs a similar strategy, displaying on the walls of its lobbies “pods” of three photos grouped together, all of which are black and white, sepia, or duotone to promote the feeling of family and community. Every pod, cut in the shape of the CU’s logo, is accompanied by a branding message.
“In this three-photograph piece you have a photo about the community, one about the service, and one that reflects a different life stage in a member’s life,” says Steve Jones, president of CUES Supplier member Concepts Unlimited Advertising, a CU advertising firm based in Austin, Texas, that does work for both AMOCO FCU and University FCU.
“So AMOCO’s [photograph pod] is really on target and reflects their values as an institution: They can help you no matter what life stage you’re in, they’re tied close to the community, and they offer great service … and we’re able to tie in all three of those messages in each individual brand piece.”
A lobby’s layout and furnishings send messages, too, though those messages may relate more to the overall outlook of the credit union than to a specific product. University FCU offers things like a game area for kids, a section that can be used for member-education seminars, and computer stations where members can do online banking and even apply for loans.
In its new branch, University FCU even installed furniture made of bamboo to be more environmentally friendly.
“They really went green as much as they could,” says Jones. “The furniture was made out of recycled materials, we used soy-based inks in the printing, and we used a variety of woods, metals, Plexiglas, and 3-dimensional letters to bring it all together. It’s really pretty.”
And finally, amid all the messages you’re trying to send regarding your services, the community, and the environment, don’t be afraid to hit members over the head with the message that’s most important.
“For Pete’s sake, get your logo up inside your branch,” says Kelley. “And if you have a slogan, get that up too. Even on the walls. We’ve done that in many places, because it’s only paint. If you change your tagline you can always paint over it. But you want to really reinforce your messages at every possible opportunity.”
With every lobby design decision you make, your goal is to set the branch and your credit union apart from its competitors. However, you should take the exact opposite approach when designing a lobby in relation to your own, other branches. Every lobby under your jurisdiction should feature the same colors and promote the same culture, all in the name of presenting a strong, cohesive brand.
All of University FCU’s lobbies are painted blue and orange, the CU’s corporate colors. At AMOCO FCU the images on the walls may change from branch to branch, but they’re always grouped in pods of three and printed in sepia and duotones. The consistency grants an added bonus in this case, as familiarity is linked with the sense of community upon which the brand is built.
“If you blindfold someone and drop them in the middle of your lobby, they should be able to turn around and know exactly where they are,” Jones says. “They may not know what city or branch they’re in, but they know it’s XYZ Credit Union because of the look, feel, color, design, furniture. Everything has a familiarity to it.”
This need not be a costly principle to follow, and it doesn’t mean you can’t make modifications. Even the smallest credit unions, for example, can manage the color of their branches.
“Sometimes it’s just a matter of changing: trying to get your members excited and make them feel like there’s something new here,” Kelley says. “A coat of paint is pretty cheap.”
Where the Rubber Meets the Road
Although Concepts Unlimited Advertising has been in the advertising business for 30 years, Jones says only recently has the firm considered merchandising and lobby design as one of its main focuses. This new concentration, according to Jones, developed in part because it’s becoming more popular among credit unions to build new branches.
“It seemed for a while that everyone went to online services and stopped building branches,” he says. “Then a few years ago everyone saw the need again, so the branch-building environment got hot, and that’s gotten us more involved in it as well.”
What sparked this branch-building surge? For starters, institutions likely realized that, as convenient as Web services may be, you cannot build a brand on top of them.
More than any other medium, physical lobbies provide a foundation and extension of your identity. They hint to members that their money is being kept somewhere familiar and safe. And best of all, lobbies can be really exciting places to visit. Therefore, you should get (reasonably) excited about their design.
“It’s sort of like remodeling your house, and the idea of remodeling your house is kind of cool,” Rode says. “You think about the finished product and it’s an exciting adventure. I think sometimes people get off track in the excitement of it all and forget that retail merchandising is one of the most important places where you can leverage the power of your brand, and I really encourage people to not necessarily scale back the project, but just remember that with all your posters, carpets, paint colors—with everything—that you’re staying connected to your brand.”
Finally, as You Might Have Guessed, it all Comes Back to Coffee.
“One analogy I use a lot in my branding discussions is Starbucks,” Rode says. “Starbucks has really cool funky billboards and they do cool things for the environment and whatever, but if you walked into a Starbucks and it was just a gross place to be or it was not inviting or exciting, then you probably wouldn’t associate all that coolness with the Starbucks brand. So the lobby is really the place where the rubber meets the road, and you need to remember to carry that brand through in every decision you make.” 
Jamie McMahon
