Five Questions With: Timothy Jermain

Timothy Jermain serves as chief operating officer for Pawtucket Credit Union, which recently announced plans to change its name to Coastal1 Credit Union to reflect its growing regional presence. Jermain spoke with PBN about the decision to rename the credit union.

PBN: What made PCU think that its existing name no longer reflected its business/growing presence?

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JERMAIN: As we’ve grown and continued to expand into other markets beyond our hometown of Pawtucket, we wanted to ensure that we remained attractive and relevant to current and prospective members alike. To that end, we conducted extensive consumer research to better understand the perceptions and attitudes of both PCU and non-PCU credit union members, bank-only customers, and bank/credit union customers across different age groups, ethnicities and geographies.

Expectedly, our members were familiar with our extended branch network, however most nonmembers thought we were only in Pawtucket and therefore had less interest in us, especially if they were from communities beyond the central R.I. area. This insight was a key factor in the decision to change our name.

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PBN: Was there any concern that giving up the name Rhode Islanders associate with the credit union would have negative effects?

JERMAIN: There’s always some amount of risk in changing the familiar, especially with your current customers. However, in this case the risk seemed limited based on the input and feedback we received during our research. In fact, some of our own members actually suggested that we should consider changing our name to reflect our larger market area.

PBN: Why Coastal1? Specifically, why the word coastal and also the numeral 1 versus the number one spelled out?

JERMAIN: After evaluating the three primary naming conventions and exploring a wide variety of potential names, we selected Coastal1 because it was a name that resonated with nearly everyone we spoke with. The numeral “1” is a reference to the credit union’s mission to be No. 1 in the minds of its members, and Coastal1 is an easier read, feels stronger and is stylistically more interesting than our other options.

PBN: What kind of reaction thus far has the credit union had to its name change announcement?

JERMAIN: We’ve been really pleased with the feedback we’ve received from both members and nonmembers. They like the new name and the new logo, and are as excited as we are about the change.

PBN: What do you think will be the most challenging part, logistically or in terms of marketing, with changing the name?

JERMAIN: There are a surprisingly large number of moving parts involved in changing our name. Some of them minor like changing the name and logo on stationery, and some more prominent such as changing all of our signage, debit and credit cards, checks, etc.

I think the biggest challenge is communicating to our membership that only our name is changing, not our commitment to our members or the local communities we serve. This change comes after long and careful consideration, and while we love our hometown of Pawtucket, the new name more accurately reflects the larger marketplace we now serve.

Our headquarters will remain in Pawtucket, and we will continue to provide the same high-quality, personalized service members have come to expect from the same dedicated staff they’ve come to know and trust.

Nancy Lavin is a PBN staff writer. Email her at Lavin@PBN.com.