Prodigy’s New Brand Puts Collaborative Technology Front and Center
Any business that has been operating for a length of time might realize its brand doesn’t really match its goals anymore. It wasn’t necessarily wrong back in its day, but company objectives simply shift. The brand needs to move with them.
Prodigy historically emphasized its CUSO structure in its branding, and it is definitely something this proud CUSO stands by. The collaboration that happens inside Prodigy, with strategic partners and its credit union clients is second to none.
In fact, First American Credit Union President/CEO Phil Peters, one of Prodigy’s owner-credit unions, says, “The collaboration, not just internally but the network of credit unions – it’s just very unique. It’s something different than you’ll ever experience even at other CUSOs.”
And that won’t change. Ever.
What is changing is how Prodigy presents itself in the market. It’s value proposition really hasn’t changed; it’s just better defined to push its industry-leading technology to the forefront.
Rebranding Prodigy
Prodigy recognized that while being a CUSO is important to a lot of its clients, what’s really important to all of its clients and prospective clients is that its technology is positioned for credit unions now and down the road(map). A word of unsolicited business advice: Listen to your audience’s needs to better understand and define your company’s position in the market.
Because, despite being a smaller core provider, its platform is actually a big dog. It is:
• One of just a handful that is cloud based, making it cost-effective, scalable and flexible
• One of the few that can boast its coding is from this millennium
• Rare in that its credit unions can connect with any fintech or other third-party at no or low cost
That last point is where the cooperative nature of the business and its technology come together, because at Prodigy, when something is developed for one credit union it’s shared with all its credit unions. Its larger clients are driving innovations smaller credit unions can take advantage of that they never would have dreamed of. Prodigy’s cloud-based core processing and complementary cloud solutions are tailored to democratize leading-edge technology for credit unions of all sizes.
As a company follows through with supporting that brand through its hard work, it will be what others say about you, even when you’re not around. Like this from Northern Illinois FCU President Mark Lenaway: “Prodigy is not attempting to run a 1960s technology and just put a happy face on it.”
Prodigy users know and understand that value proposition. They were telling us. Now, we’re listening to them more holistically and reflecting that brand back to the credit union community.
Supporting the New Brand
“The mission of Prodigy is to enable credit unions of all asset sizes to serve their communities by offering modern technology,” Prodigy CEO Amber Harsin says. To put better emphasis on the technology, Prodigy partnered with uncommn and Cooke Consulting Solutions to develop and implement its new brand.
“We wanted to put the value proposition front-and-center without overwhelming Prodigy’s target audience with tech jargon," uncommn CEO Bo McDonald says.
Sarah Snell Cooke of Cooke Consulting Solutions adds, “The new website is an
incredible upgrade from the previous one, featuring a much-improved design and better functionality on the front end and improved capabilities and SEO on the back. It will be central to our digital marketing efforts going forward.”
Many of Prodigy’s clients mentioned during that they had only heard of Prodigy through word of mouth. Word of mouth is invaluable marketing the brand will continue to perpetuate. Prodigy also needed to scale its digital footprint with a content and public relations strategy that aligns with and supports its rebrand.
“We partnered with Sarah and Bo because of their deep knowledge of credit unions, understanding of the mission, the problems Prodigy is trying to solve and ability to speak the same language as our target audience,” Harsin concludes.
She continued, "Consider what you are trying to build for your own legacy. And does that mean continuing to partner with systems that we all know are going to struggle to stay relevant in the next 10 years? Let’s be bold, hold ourselves to a different standard than the old-school status quo.”