2014 Rising Stars in Banking: Laura Pomerene

Laura Pomerene, the marketing director at First National Bank and Trust Company, Beloit, Wis., isn't a "rising" star to Brian Bisbey, Pomerene's manager and the bank's chief operating officer. "The rising part has happened," said Bisbey, who has worked with Pomerene for 10 years. "I think of her as a star.".NorthWestern Financial Review is honoring Pomerene as a Rising Star in Banking for 2014, along with five other bankers..Pomerene earned recognition at the bank for taking the initiative to refresh the company's brand in 2008. The bank conducted a market study which surveyed both customers' and non-customers' awareness of First National Bank and Trust Company. "The results made a bank marketer gasp," Pomerene said. "A market awareness study showed that the bank's own customers listed another bank before this bank.."I live 18 miles from the bank and I had no idea it existed until I started interviewing here," Pomerene continued. "The immediate next question becomes, what products are our customers buying from the bank they named first?".Pomerene identified a need that was on the minds of the bank's management team. She pitched the idea to start developing a brand message that would make the bank stand out in the marketplace. "Our CEO wanted to investigate the possibility of changing the bank's name and stepping up advertising and public relations," Pomerene said. "The overall goal is to become our customers' primary bank.".Pomerene took the lead in contracting a marketing firm and facilitating the brainstorming process for the new brand. "We had a delicate line to walk," she said. "A brand isn't just a logo and a name. First National Bank and Trust Company is a 132-year-old bank. We had to combine the heritage of the bank with a message that made us stand out.".Yet, appealing to customers for whom heritage is important wasn't enough. "We know in our marketplace that we tend to have older clients with longer-term relationships," Pomerene said. "But we also knew we needed to appeal to the demographic between ages 18 and 34 years old.".Pomerene and the bank's management team decided to keep the First National Bank and Trust name. The brand message was crafted to appeal to a wide demographic. "All the studies show that people feel the most uncomfortable when making financial decisions," Pomerene said. "No bank in our market was positioning their bank around 'sound advice,' so we decided to make that the theme for our messages," she said..The bank decided not to create a tag line. Instead, messaging and advertising includes nuanced phrases centered on the sound-advice theme. "The internet is the internet; it will take over some banking interactions with customers," Pomerene said. "But when they want to make a decision they want to talk with you. We wanted to assure them that if they take the time to come in, we will deliver the needed advice.".First National Bank and Trust's most recent awareness study shows the work is paying off. "When asked to identify a local bank both customers and non-customers identified our bank first," Pomerene said. "I am proud of the role I was able to play in that project.".Pomerene also has helped First National Bank and Trust reach out to the next generation of customers. In 2012, she launched a social media strategy that used bank events, sweepstakes, fun facts and product offerings to attract customers' attention. The bank's Facebook page earned more than 7,000 likes within the first year..Pomerene also integrated the bank's sound-advice brand into the Facebook messaging. Since customers ages 18 to 34 are the primary users of Facebook, Pomerene's strategy put the bank's message in a place where it was most likely to draw them in. "This younger demographic feels they are not well educated in finance. This makes our rebranded message speak to them," she said. "This demographic is more likely to need mortgage loans; they are also the largest starters of businesses today. We want to be their primary bank.".Before Pomerene's work on the bank's brand and on the Facebook campaign, the bank's customer base between ages 18 and 34 declined 7.3 percent between 2006 and 2008. After the rebrand and Facebook campaign, the same segment has increased by 10.2 percent. "This younger group is our future," Bisbey said. "Laura is tremendous; she has done a wonderful job for us."Other 2014 Rising Stars in Banking include:Katy Wolf Bode, Platte Valley Bank, North Bend, Neb.Daron Van Beek, The First National Bank, Sioux Falls, S.D.Brian L. Johnson, Choice Financial, Grand Forks, N.D.John Welle, Minnwest Bank Metro, Eagan, Minn.Dusten Johnson, Northeast Bank, Minneapolis