Hamilton Bank used a public relations campaign to help revitalize the bank brand.

• Author: Karfakis, Amanda
• Position: Hamilton Bank N.A

Founded in 1915 as a one-location federal savings institution in the Hamilton neighborhood of Baltimore, Hamilton Bank never had a driving need to formalize a PR strategy. The bank's core customer base valued the bank's local reputation and keen customer service--they had no reason to seek banking services elsewhere.

In recent decades, Hamilton Bank (assets: $321 million) began losing market share due to an aging customer base. Younger generations perceived the institution as strictly a savings bank, and they were disconnected from the brand values their parents and grandparents had cherished about the bank.

By 2005, the bank had geographically expanded and was providing a wide range of services at five locations across Greater Baltimore, offering lines of credit, mortgages, home equity loans, online banking, and business banking. The bank had maintained excellent financial stability and growth and a superior reputation for nearly 100 years.

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Like many banks, Hamilton Bank had previously been focused on day-to-day operations and not its brand. Over the years, the brand had become disjointed, off-message and lagging in visibility. In a competitive marketplace, with other banks crumbling around them, the bank saw an opportunity to capture more market share by restoring its brand vitality.

In 2011, the bank pursued a goal of gaining greater public awareness through an integrated rebranding and marketing-communications strategy, with an affordable PR component.

The bank hired Baltimore-based branding and public relations firm Vitamin as its agency of record. The firm also handled related Web design, advertising, and marketing-communications services. The idea was to rival big-bank campaigns at a fraction of the cost.

"When we decided to work with an outside agency partner, we were looking for a long-term partner that could support our expansion into new markets, and who had a proven track record in repositioning and re-launching traditional, established brands," states Bob DeAlmeida, the bank's president and CEO.

The agency facilitated a series of interviews with the bank's tellers, operations and platform teams, as well as executives and the board. The agency extracted key information from the interviews, coupled with market...