From SACU to Credit Human; a purpose-driven enterprise

Credit Human exists to improve the communities they serve by providing sensible financial products to people of modest means. And while that may have always been the mission, it wasn’t always the case in practice.

Incoming CEO Steve Hennigan believed the corporate culture needed to change in order to consistently deliver on the mission and regain relevance in a crowded market. And he saw purpose-driven branding as the means to do it.  Activated by the definition and transmission of a values set including Human Dignity, Sensible Innovation, Stewardship and Craftsmanship, Credit Human is creating an uncommon culture within the financial services sector.

With expectations on behavior made clear through values and purpose, innovation has been unleashed. Products (and related revenue) have been sacrificed, and others developed. Internal and external processes and practices have been dissected and improved. Branches are being re-designed, and a more human experience is taking shape. Trumpet has been a partner with Credit Human since 2010, first embedding within their marketing department to facilitate a Brand Design process focused on defining the company’s Vision, Values and Purpose. At that time, they were doing business as San Antonio Credit Union. Through Brand Workshops and Audits, we helped them clearly define themselves, then design and deploy an educational program to transmit this foundation for a distinctive culture to every employee at every level. In collaboration with senior management, we created videos, tools and storytelling exercises designed to make the values explicit within the organization. We also identified internal environmental and operational improvements that created tangible points of alignment between brand and consumers that reflected the company’s newly defined Purpose and Values. Throughout this process, we consistently leveraged Communications as an extension of the Brand Purpose, ultimately leading to a name change and rebranding in 2017 that marked a significant milestone in the organization’s journey to becoming a purpose-driven enterprise.