How we Helped a Credit Union Build a New Road to Wealth Management

Established in 2020, Journey Wealth is a standalone entity under Stride Credit Union that was created to provide wealth management solutions available and accessible to everyone, regardless of net worth.

Stride Credit Union, a longstanding client of Metric, wanted to establish a standalone brand for investment and insurance services after they became unsatisfied with their current provider. Their goal was to create a new entity that would meet people’s needs and expectations for investing personal wealth, guided by credit union values, and they wanted to convey that wealth management was available to everyone. 

We took key stakeholders at Stride Credit Union through a process that included name, brand, website and campaign development.

NAME DEVELOPMENT

We began with a naming process that included a hands-on workshop with Stride stakeholders, followed by name generation, selection criteria, a name selection scorecard, shortlist, and finally, the new name. 

This process helped focus attention on many things we take for granted in choosing a name. One useful tactic was our Selection Criteria Chart, which tracks the most important goals for the target name, then scores points for each of six shortlisted options to determine which scores highest and meets the most criteria. Naturally, some names scored higher than others, which helped focus the discussion and narrow down the final name choice to Journey Wealth.

BRAND DEVELOPMENT

Because Stride Credit Union needed to get to market quickly with their new business offering, we worked on the brand assessment concurrently with the naming process. 

For the assessment, we interviewed key stakeholders to understand the new service offering in detail—its business and service drivers, competitive differentiators, value proposition, target audiences, proposed services and planned delivery. We also wanted to distinguish the new brand from existing wealth management companies. By uncovering and articulating the new brand’s unique competitive advantages and differentiators, we were able to position the entity that would be named Journey Wealth and lay the foundation for the brand platform and marketing that followed. 

Name chosen and assessment completed, we created a brand platform and guide to ensure consistent marketing visuals and messaging moving forward. We also developed key marketing collateral, including business cards, stationery, in-branch posters, POS takeaways, and a new website.

WEBSITE DEVELOPMENT

A website is a critical marketing component in the digital age. Most consumers do research online before making a purchase decision and need to be able to find what they’re looking for. 

The Journey Wealth website didn’t need to be large to start with, but they did need something people could find that would clearly explain the new offering. The initial site was built to be small—only three pages—yet effective as a brand touchpoint and a destination for anyone curious about the new offering. Over time, the site can be expanded to meet the growing needs of the business and clients. 

We translated our newly developed brand platform into concise, useful web content that featured campaign messaging people at the top of the home page, and short pieces of easy-to-scan content for the rest of the page that included icons, relevant descriptions, logical calls to action and a contact form.

CAMPAIGN DEVELOPMENT

A few months after the brand and website were launched, we developed and launched Journey Wealth’s initial marketing campaign. What inspired the campaign was that many people believed they don’t have access to the kinds of investment products that build wealth. They believed they needed a certain amount of money or assets to even be considered as a wealth management client. Journey Wealth wanted to convey a different message, one of accessibility and encouragement, regardless of personal assets or net worth. 

“You’re Qualified” was a friendly, encouraging message and campaign designed to grab people’s attention and make them stop to think, “for what?” The ads, deployed online and in branches, were a variation on, “If you’re reading this, you’re qualified” with the subhead, “Wealth management for everyone.” 

Journey Wealth represents a new direction in investment services for Canadian credit unions. Stride Credit Union is an engaged partner/client who is continually exploring new boundaries in marketing and brand development. We always listen carefully to their business goals and values, and they are always open to our business and marketing development ideas. It’s because of this mutual trust, established from working together over the years, that we were able to work together to launch a new brand so quickly and effectively.