One of the areas hardest hit by Hurricane Florence was Robeson County, N.C. This small rural county is full of hardworking, resilient people, and the place where the terrific brand story of Southern National Bank began.
As a young account manager, I often traveled the 90 minutes from Raleigh to Lumberton, N.C., to meet with Southern National’s Vice President of Marketing. The topic was almost always how to use our meager ad budget to win customers from the big city banks. The bank simply could not afford a big mass-market TV campaign, so our team had to rely more on a grassroots approach.
Research revealed that small businesses were an area of great success for Southern National, mainly because large banks treated them more like retail customers than like real businesses. However, business owners described Southern National as the bank that really was interested in their business and in making them successful. So, our team decided to make small businesses Southern National’s primary focus for growth.
To capture the attitude and behavior of the bank’s humble, hardworking culture, a brand campaign was created with this tagline: “Southern National Bank—you can tell we want your business.” The campaign featured business owners’ testimonials in radio commercials and newspaper ads. Their stories did a much better job of describing what Southern National meant to them than anything our team could have developed. This “testimonial” campaign was such a great success that almost every small business owner wanted to tell their story in Southern National’s advertising.
Let’s fast-forward 15 years to when BB&T merged with Southern National. It was described as a merger of equals, but senior management would come from BB&T. To our surprise, BB&T wanted to adopt the “You can tell we want your business” promise. Ensuring the promise was consistently delivered was a pretty easy task, as BB&T’s roots also were in small, caring communities of Eastern North Carolina. Ultimately, BB&T grew to become the ninth largest bank in the U.S. by carrying on the brand culture of “demonstrating genuine interest in the customer.” If you’re looking for guidance with your brand strategy, check the Services section of our site to see how we can help.
Now it’s our turn to show interest in them. The communities where Southern National and BB&T were founded are struggling to recover from Hurricane Florence. I ask that you consider contributing to the American Red Cross to show you care. Even a small gift will mean a lot to a place where showing you care has proven to be much more valuable and inspiring than any tagline. Visit this link to donate: https://www.redcross.org/