Southern Bancorp New

Thoma Thoma

BANK EMBRACES A CULTURE THAT DRIVES BRAND LOYALTY AND INSPIRES PERFORMANCE

In its first 25 years, Southern Bancorp grew from a $10 million investment into a $1 billion community development financial institution. Yet the bank found its identity and purpose fragmented and its reputation in the industry and its communities not as cohesive, clear or compelling as it should be.

Thoma delivered its Brand Navigator consultation – guided by extensive research among all of Southern’s stakeholders – to reframe and crystallize the unique position of this leading CDFI. We developed brand frames and designed a road show for its 360 employees and 40+ branches to introduce the new brand, aligned under the mantra, “One Southern. One Mission.”

Tactics:

Comprehensive, research-driven brand strategy
High energy internal brand launch to set the stage
Multi-year internal branding campaign driven by our
proprietary Live Your Brand discipline
Created and launched peer-driven reward and recognition program–RAISE.

Outcome:

Increased employee engagement by 25 percent in one year cross 40+ regional branches. The core values program designed by the agency received thousands of nominations. The bank has leapt from $1.1 billion in assets to $2+ billion in just a few years, retired $38 million in TARP debt, restructured its capital and attracted tens of millions of new philanthropic capital investments before winning a $250+ million ECIP award.