A Cinderella story: how marketing, among other things, helped a fading bank to reposition itself, enhance its image and rejuvenate the brand.

• Author: Baisley, Tony
• Position: Turnarounds

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Back in the 1980. University Bank had fallen on hard times. The neighborhood in which it was located--known as Frogtown in St. Paul, Minn.--was going through an extended economic slump. The former bank management viewed this deterioration as a liability, and focused the majority of their lending to wealthier communities. Unfortunately, the bank's assets eventually declined to the point that the institution had to be taken over by bank regulators.

In 1995. the bank was purchased by a father-and-son team who believed that they could turn it around. A key pare of their strategy was to win designation for the institution as a Community Development Financial Institution (CDFI). Another element was to use marketing to reposition the bank, upgrade its image and revitalize its brand. Today, they have, to a large degree, succeeded in reaching their goals.

ABA Bank Marketing magazine recently talked to Tony Baisley, the assistant vice president, marketing director for University Bank (he has recently moved on to another job outside the bank). We asked him to talk about the role that marketing played in helping to turn around the fading financial institution. Our questions and his answers appear on the following pages.

Tell us about the disrepair that both the historic Frogtown neighborhood and University Bank had fallen into.

For years, the ethnically diverse community struggled with drug dealers and prostitutes, who had brazenly taken over local streets and parks. The bank was also hemorrhaging--losing customers and experiencing operational problems. There also were severe regulatory concerns. In fact, the bank had developed a reputation for taking deposits from the financially distressed local neighborhoods but lending in the more affluent suburbs. "What we had was a train wreck!" is what David Reiling recalled recently (he is now CEO of Sunrise Community Banks, parent to the new University Bank).

By the mid-1980s, the bank had lapsed to just $14 million in assets, forcing regulators to take over day-to-day operations. Worse yet, the bank was saddled with a "needs to improve" Community Reinvestment Act (CRA) rating for its virtually nonexistent lending to the local community.

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While the former bank management saw the community as a liability; the new management saw it as an opportunity, albeit a challenging one. Indeed, today Reiling is building headquarters for Sunrise Community Banks, the parent company of University Bank and its sister banks: Park Midway Bank and Franklin Bank, in...