News and events

Weber Marketing Group has hired Kristiana Lockman as a Senior Account Manager.

Lockman comes to Weber Marketing Group with more than 18 years experience managing successful client and creative team outcomes. She has been on both sides of the agency/client relationship and brings a wealth of experience gleaned from working with companies that span consumer product to professional service markets. Lockman’s past clients include Johnson & Johnson, National Geographic Channel, the Gere Foundation, Perkins Coie, FlexCar, and Washington State Convention Center.

Lockman is a graduate of California State University with a bachelor’s degree in natural resource management. In her free time she supports her husband’s eco-friendly landscape design and installation business, reads, plays tennis and enjoys spending time with her daughters.

Weber Marketing Expands to Atlanta with the Hiring of Financial Industry Brand Expert John Mathes

Seattle, Wash., June 27, 2012— Weber Marketing Group, a North American branding and strategic consulting agency focused on the financial industry continues its growing, best-in-class strategic thought leadership, with today’s announcement that John Mathes has joined the firm as Senior Brand Strategist.

Mark Weber, CEO, Weber Marketing Group said: “We’re excited to add John’s strategic brand and retail experience to our team of financial industry innovators at Weber Marketing. Besides amazingly similar values, John has a deep understanding of the senior level brand and growth challenges our financial clients face today. When you add his national advertising agency experience working on retail brands like Wal-Mart, BellSouth Mobility and Kohl’s, combined with a solid track record of increasing client growth and profitability, John is an incredible addition to the Weber family.”

John Mathes brings 30 years of senior agency and innovative marketing experience at some of the nation’s largest advertising agencies, branding and branch strategy firms, including Brandpartners and Bancography. He has managed some of the nation’s well-known financial retail accounts such as SunTrust Bank, H&R Block and Huntington Bank. Additionally, he has developed brands and created names for dozens of credit unions and community banks.

Mr. Mathes will operate from Weber Marketing’s newest office in Atlanta, Georgia. “John is highly regarded in the banking industry, including ABA, and well known in credit union circles from CUES to CUNA for his years of speeches, articles, blogs and social media posts,” adds Randy Schultz, VP Marketing at Weber Marketing Group. “He’ll play an instrumental role with our clients as we continue to develop 360-degree strategies that tackle major strategic issues from brand and branch programs, to high impact interactive campaigns that drive market share growth.”

In 2012, Weber Marketing Group expanded its national presence, with an office in Vancouver, Canada, headed by Jessica Lowe, Financial Services Director. Weber Marketing will now be able to better serve the eastern part of the country with its third location in Atlanta, Georgia where John Mathes is located.

About Weber Marketing Group

Based in Seattle, Washington, Weber Marketing Group is a strategic branding and marketing consulting agency focused on the financial industries. The agency specializes in helping clients solve complex marketing challenges with breakthrough brands, names, retail environments, promotional campaigns and multimedia design. Weber Marketing Group’s experienced team of highly-skilled marketing professionals has created hundreds of brands and thousands of branch environments. The agency was founded in 1988 by Mark Weber—a nationally recognized marketing leader in the financial industry. Weber Marketing Group was recently named the 2012 MAC Agency of the Year for the second year in a row.

Weber Marketing Group’s CEO Mark Weber and VP Marketing Randy Schultz will be among the faculty at the Credit Union Executive Society’s (CUES) School of Strategic Marketing, July 16–18  in Seattle, Wash.

Designed for credit union marketing executives, Weber and Schultz will share insights into the key elements in strategy-focused marketing and data-driven decision making. Topics to be covered include:

• What are the emerging impact drivers of profitable member growth and revenue? Where does social media fit in the mix?
• Is there bad market research? What are the most effective uses of market research in building a solid strategy and improving marketing results?
• How can marketing help engineer positive cultural transformation that enhances the overall brand experience for staff and members?
• What does the 21st century CMO look like to CEOs – and how do I get there?
• How can marketing integrate into long-range market analysis, branch planning, business development and new technologies to drive growth?

Mark is one of North America’s top branding, strategic marketing and branch retail specialists in the financial services industry. He has been involved in consumer marketing for over 28 years and his agency has consulted with over 30 of North America’s top 150 credit unions and regional community banks. Randy has more than 30 years of financial marketing experience.  He now acts as a mentor to others, sharing his knowledge of the industry and how to reach target markets.

For more information, contact CUES at 800-252-2664 or 608-271-2664, ext. 340 or via email at [email protected]

Click here to register.

Weber Marketing Group has officially expand its presence in Canada, opening a new office in Vancouver, B.C. The agency’s entry into Canada derives from the their extensive work with Canadian credit unions over the past ten years, including Vancity, North Shore Credit Union, GFFG, and Copperfin Credit Union.

“We are extremely committed to our Canadian clients’ growth, success and innovation. We feel that having a physical presence and staff in Canada will help us build even stronger relationships,” said Weber Marketing Group’s President Mark Weber. “Our Canadian partner, Wazuku Advisory Group, will work with us to provide our clients a greater depth of strategic consulting, operations planning, and project execution.”

Jessica Lowe, Financial Services Director at Weber Marketing Group, will run the Canadian office. Lowe previously spent seven years with Weber Marketing Group and most recently served as a Brand Solutions Manager for Microsoft’s Branded Entertainment Experiences Team.

Weber Marketing Group’s client services include brand strategy, brand design, renaming, internal brand culture, “Branch of the Future” prototype business models, retail merchandising programs, ad campaigns, marketing strategy and plans, long-range branch location strategies and market research.

The new Canadian office is located in Coal Harbor at 800-1455 W Georgia St., Vancouver, BC V6G 2T3. The phone number is 604-330-4430.

Weber Marketing Group is pleased to welcome a new addition to the team.

Jennie Morrison was recently selected as the top candidate for the account coordinator position from a pool of more the 150 applicants. In this role, Jennie will focus on assisting the account team with agency retainer clients.

Morrison previously interned for several agencies and marketing firms and most recently completed an assistant account executive internship with Ruth Edelman Integrated Marketing. She is a recent graduate from the University of Montana with three degrees which include Marketing, Management Information Systems, and International Business.

Jennie is new to the Seattle area, and in her free time she enjoys golfing, fly fishing and spending time with her golden retriever Izzy.

Weber Marketing Group recently presented at the Credit Union Executive Society’s (CUES) CEO/Executive Team Network in Las Vegas on November 7. Mark Weber, Weber Marketing Group’s CEO, presented “Strategic Brand Positioning: A Game Changing Competitive Advantage” along with Juli Anne Callis, President and CEO of National Institute of Health Federal Credit Union.

“It was amazing to see how many credit union leaders are now moving from recession challenges and regulatory burdens, towards mobilizing their staff and organizations for positive growth,” said Weber. “They are now setting their brands apart from mega banks in relevant, meaningful ways. While ‘Bank Transfer Day’ was a fun event, credit unions wanting sustainable new member growth must focus on raising awareness and building a clear value proposition, passionate culture, and a brand image that appeals to the younger generation.”

Weber continued, “John Moore, formerly with Starbucks, put the challenge of building brands in great perspective when he said, ‘you face a growth paradox that the smaller you are, the bigger you must look – so that people trust your brand.’ And Starbucks CEO Howard Schultz often said, ‘get big, but stay small.’ I think that starts with marketing as much to your employees as your members. You must earn their loyalty first.”

Mark Weber and Randy Schultz, VP Marketing at Weber Marketing Group, also facilitated a summit meeting at the conference for credit unions with under $300 million in assets. Key topics discussed included:

• NCUA and new regulations in sight for 2012
• Enterprise Risk Management programs that can increase efficiency, profitability and financial performance
• How branches of the future will look and function for members
• Technology advancements for members and how to integrate them into internal processing systems
• The importance of credit union collaboration to maximize the recent momentum toward credit unions

To learn more about any of these topics, contact Randy Schultz at 206-826-0322.

Weber Marketing Group is seeking a passionate, self-motivated and relationship driven individual to join our Client Services team with a minimum of five years agency, or financial services marketing background or experience.

RESPONSIBILITY OVERVIEW

Account Management:

• Work as part of a larger Client Services team to understand client goals/objectives and challenges, translating those into marketing strategies with clearly defined sets of marketing actions and tactics
• Manage multiple projects simultaneously on a day-to-day basis; schedule and prioritize projects within strict deadlines including branding, campaigns, media plans, segmented direct mail, web projects, and social media
• Strong marketing consulting and project management skills and the ability to oversee all aspects of project planning, budget management and partner coordination
• Build relationships with new clients, plus maintain and grow long-term existing client base
• Educate and inform clients on industry trends, tools and agency services
• Serve as the liaison between client and agency (client day-to-day contact)
• Fiscally minded; comfortable with numbers

Knowledge/Skills/Abilities:

• Financial services marketing experience a HUGE plus
• Confident and skilled in making group presentations; presenting clearly and concisely to clients, vendors and agency teams
• Excellent written and copy editing skills – marketing strategies/plans, creative briefs, work orders, schedules, proposals
• Resourceful and investigative by nature
• Ability to engage and work well within teams
• Operates with a sense of urgency; ability to work fast and juggle many aspects of project planning and implementation

As part of the Weber Marketing Group team, you’ll enjoy working in Seattle’s South Lake Union neighborhood, only a short trolley ride to Lake Union, the heart of downtown, and Pike’s Place Market. Plus, our office is located inside one of the first Gold LEED buildings built in decades and represents our values as an agency.

Competitive salary and robust benefits package, including medical, dental, vision, 401-k, vacation and sick time.

Interested parties should send resume and salary requirements to: [email protected] (no phone calls please).

Nevada Federal Credit Union has changed their name to One Nevada Credit Union as of October 1, 2011. Weber Marketing Group worked with the $677 million credit union to develop their new name and transformational brand.

The NFCU leadership team spent several months with Weber Marketing Group conducting research with members and non-members, holding naming and branding workshops and strategy sessions as part of the transformation process.

“The Weber Marketing Group team was great to work with,” said One Nevada’s Senior Vice President of Marketing Greg Barnes. “The process of changing the name and brand of the credit union was extraordinarily complex because of our 61 year history and passionate long-time employees. We weren’t the easiest client to work for, but in the end they helped us come up with a fresh name and brand that we will build on for years to come.”

The word “One” in the new name symbolizes strength and unity. The credit union serves both northern and southernNevada, providing unified services to the population centers of “One” state. The word “Nevada” conveys the message that the credit union is all aboutNevada. They are Nevadans, serving Nevadans.

One Nevada Credit Union has 19 branches and close to 80,000 members. For more information visit www.OneNevada.org.

To learn how your organization can benefit from a new name and brand, contact Randy Schultz at 206-826-0322.

On October 1, 2011, Yakima Valley Credit Union and Catholic Credit Union, both located in Washington State, will officially merge to become Solarity Credit Union. Weber Marketing Group worked with both credit unions to develop the Solarity name and transformational brand.

“Bringing the two credit unions together from development to execution was an exciting, collaborative process,” said Weber Marketing Group’s Senior Account Manager Ruth Kapcia. “We spent a six month period guiding the executives and staff through several stages of the process, which included strategy, branding, and naming workshops, in order to better understand who they were and their vision for the future. Our goal was to help them tell the story of how great they are together with a focus on what was best for their members and community.”

The name “Solarity” represents the sun’s energy. It reflects the credit union’s commitment to engage their members in achieving their financial aspirations, enlighten them to endless possibilities, and empower them to live up to their potential and accomplish their goals.

“Weber Marketing Group led our renaming/branding team through an exciting process, pushing the team to think outside the box,” said Yakima Valley Credit Union’s VP of Organizational Development Debra Hickman. “We are excited to become Solarity Credit Union and engage, enlighten and empower our members to reach their financial goals.”

For more information on Solarity Credit Union, visit www.solaritycu.org (site goes live October 1).

To learn how your organization can benefit from a new name or brand transformation, contact Randy Schultz at 206-826-0322.

Nice-looking is no longer enough for financial institutions, according to a recent article in CU Management Magazine. Branches should be built on a solid brand that communicates a consistent message upon every visit.

Reporter Jamie McMahon interviewed Mark Weber, CEO of Weber Marketing Group, and Paul Seibert, CMC & VP Financial Services at EHS Design for an article on branch transformation in the August edition of the magazine. According to Weber, a strategic approach to branch design is more important than ever, as a 2011 JD Powers Study shows brand image and, by extension, brand image is the No. 1 factor in people’s selection of a banking provider.

“Today we’re really trying to understand how facilities can become a greater tool for changing behavior of members, for enhancing brand experiences, and for setting an organization apart in the midst of an industry that looks a lot alike from one branch to another,” states Weber.

Seibert believes a particularly well-executed rebranding will also improve the energy level of employees, leading to consistent, exceptional service. “Rebranding can reinvigorate an organization,” he says. “Also, if you’re looking to make branches more about relational development, for example, it can attract that type of employee well-suited for the environment.”

Click here to read the full article.

Click here to learn how Weber Marketing Group can help transform your branches.