Joseph Ficalora is much more interested in a company’s heritage and brand loyalty than making every bank in his company, New York Community Bancorp Inc., operate under the same name.
So after acquiring AmTrust, which formerly operated as Ohio Savings Bank, he had many conversations with employees and friends. And he quickly found people he didn’t even know had Ohio ties. And even quicker, he saw the pride and positive emotional connections they had to the bank’s former name.
Seeing all of these ties and emotions, he decided to rebrand AmTrust back to Ohio Savings Bank.
“Almost everyone had something good to say about Ohio Savings Bank, so I thought it was perfect to come back to a brand that had only been changed in 2007 to AmTrust,” says Ficalora, chairman, president and CEO of NYCB. “It was not that long ago, and it’s costly to do this, but it’s definitely worthwhile.”
Smart Business spoke with Ficalora about the power of your company’s brand and how to make smart acquisitions.
Q. With the costs associated with rebranding, why was it so important to rebrand AmTrust back to Ohio Savings?
People like identities. They choose their bank. They don’t have to go to any bank. They choose their bank, and part of what they choose is the person on the other side of the desk but also the identity that they associate with the place where they choose to do their banking, so they want to have a good sense of, ‘I’m in the right place.’
Now, for example, in the local media, I’m sure there will be discussions about the AmTrust bankruptcy. That’s not a good place to be associated with, and that’s going to be ongoing, but the fact that there was an AmTrust period that resulted in ultimately our acquiring the bank through a regulatory approved deal, that’s important, but it can be overwhelmed by the positive that the very people that they deal with every day they go to the bank will be the same people and the systems they have to work with will improve and the locations they have to do business at will increase and the times they have to do business very well may increase. I think, over time, there will be many positives that add to why a customer chooses Ohio Savings.
Q. What tips can you offer for leading a branding or rebranding effort?
Be conscious of the audience you’re trying to reach, meaning the people that are going to be affected by the brand need to be your target. It’s not a matter of sitting in a room and figuring out what you like — it’s a matter of deciding what is it that would actually be relevant to the market I’m going to serve.
We are in the service industry, so you have to understand what it is you’re going to accomplish in that service and then the identity of the bank should be part of what you’re looking to accomplish.
