Reaching an underserved community takes more than translating your marketing materials. In this guest episode of the Hit Record Podcast, Meredith Olmstead talks with Christin Vaughn, CMO of Allegiance Credit Union, about the years of research, community involvement, and internal change behind the launch of Alianza. They also share what Allegiance learned along the way and the results that proved there was a real need in the Oklahoma City community.
1. Start by listening to the community. Allegiance spent years talking with local community members and employees before building Alianza, allowing the people they wanted to serve to help shape the brand.
2. Trust has to go deeper than marketing. Bilingual staff, new policies, accessible products, ITIN acceptance, and an in-person branch experience helped make Alianza more than a translated version of Allegiance.
3. Serving an unmet need can drive real growth. Alianza generated more than 50% of Allegiance's new membership growth last year, despite its branch being open for only nine months.
Transcription:
Meredith Olmstead:
Hi there. I'm Meredith Olmstead, CEO and founder of Figrow Solutions. We are a digital marketing and sales consulting agency, and we work exclusively with credit unions and community banks. And I am here with one of our clients. This is a guest podcast, if you will. So I have Christin Vaughn here with us. She is the CMO of Allegiance Credit Union in Oklahoma City. Say hi, Christin.
Christin Vaughn:
Hi.
Meredith Olmstead:
Well, I was recently talking with a team member and we were talking about podcast topics and we were thinking about Allegiance and specifically around their dual brand approach for serving the Hispanic community in the Oklahoma City area. And so I was like, I think this is worth hitting record, asking Christin to join us, and talking a little bit about her experience as she was driving this approach to their branding. So just a little high level, Christin, tell the listeners what it is that you all did.
Christin Vaughn:
Yeah. So it's hard to encapsulate six, seven years of work into a short podcast recording, but ultimately at our credit union, we're Allegiance Credit Union here in Oklahoma City. We serve about eight counties in the Oklahoma City metro area. And we realized in 2019, 2020, we had employees that were telling us that their own family members couldn't bank with us. And that really started the conversation because they had ITINs, individual taxpayer identification numbers. And so it really started the conversation of, are we really serving the community and is there a need there? And then through a lot of research and realizing that nearly 22% of our population is Hispanic or Latino, and 57% of our largest public school district is Hispanic or Latino. So obviously this is a very growing community. And so we really just knew there's a need here that's not being met. And so just started a long process of getting involved in the community, asking questions. We hired a nonprofit group to do some community organizing with local community members, whether they were business owners or teachers. Just really hearing from them what is missing in the current financial services landscape and How can we better serve?
Meredith Olmstead:
Gotcha. Okay. So you did a lot of groundwork and laid the groundwork and really talking with your community and with the community there that you all were trying to serve. And you decided to create two distinct brands. So you have Allegiance Credit Union and then you have Alianza, which is the Spanish sub-brand that serves the Spanish community. So talk to me a little bit about why did you decide to create a whole new sub-brand versus just doing translation services that were more robust?
Christin Vaughn:
Yeah. So through that community organizing and actually asking those in the community what's missing, what do you need, we really determined that we didn't want to just go the route of putting an allegiance branch in the part of town that has our largest Hispanic population and just throw up some signs in Spanish and say, "We're good." We wanted this to say this was built for and by the Latino community. And so we had seen a few others ... Not very common. Were not the first. A couple of other credit unions in other states had done something similar with different communities. And so that gave us the idea of what if we did this sub-brand that when you see it, you know that truly is built for me. That it's not just another financial institution with a couple of Spanish flyers or something like that. It really speaks that they know me, that that's my neighbor, really that's my community.
And so just making the two brands felt like the best way to really differentiate ourself in how we went about this and that the community was a part of it. They picked the name, the community organizing group did, they picked the branding and the colors. They were instrumental and we didn't lead that, they did. Because again, I don't have the lived experience to speak for that community. And so we just really tried to be more hands-off. We already had quite a few bilingual employees here, but we really prioritized hiring even more bilingual employees that spoke Spanish since that was the particular demographic that we have a large population of here in Oklahoma City.
And so we leaned on our own employees that are a part of that community, and then also people who never heard of Allegiance Credit Union to get their feedback on what was missing and what their hopes and dreams and financial goals were. We determined there's a huge lack in trust in the US financial banking systems and they maybe came from a country where there was a lot of mistrust in their government and financial banking systems and stuff like that so we uncovered a lot of stuff in that process and really throughout.
Meredith Olmstead:
Got it. And really trying to build trust. So a couple of things that you mentioned that I was surprised, so it was always a goal that you were working towards a Spanish-speaking branch for that new brand.
Christin Vaughn:
Yeah.
Meredith Olmstead:
So that's pretty amazing. So now you have a fully-
Christin Vaughn:
Yeah. It started with just like, is there a need for this? We've determined very quickly there is. And so then it was like, we know ultimately we need a branch. This can't just be an online presence.
Meredith Olmstead:
So you now have a chiefly branded Alianza branch, and that's located centrally to where a lot of these populations that you're serving are. And then you also said there's something that evolved over time was that you have reintroduced a little bit more, obviously, the Allegiance brand alongside it to help build trust and continue to build trust in the institution.
Christin Vaughn:
Yeah. I would definitely say that's the biggest lesson we've ... We definitely haven't gotten it all right. Everything we did was perfect. There's learning lessons elsewhere too. But the biggest one that we noticed and from a marketing perspective was while we originally set out being like, oh, this has to be totally different. Again, it has to totally be Alianza on its own, almost like it's a whole its own credit union to really speak to this community. And then now that we've been open for over a year, we realized actually there's a lot of value in putting Allegiance's name behind it. We knew it would have to be a blend because when you bank at Alianza, you are a member of Allegiance Credit Union, so there's obviously some compliance-related things.
Meredith Olmstead:
Of course. Yeah.
Christin Vaughn:
Members have to understand that the NCUA is only covering insurance for ... They can't have one at Alianza and one at Allegiance. We're the same organization. So that was always a part of it. But just from a marketing perspective, we really thought Alianza would stand on its own. And then we realized just one specific example where this was put into place is originally the building only had Alianza branding and por, which means by in Spanish, its name is Alianza Por Allegiance Credit Union. So that is on the building, but it's very small, like a byline to a big Alianza. And about six, seven months into having the branch, we realized from the staff talking to us about their conversations in branch, that there would be value in putting Allegiance's logo on there and saying since 1963 so that it conveyed the message that we're not brand new, we're not a fly-by-night company. This is an organization that's established. And so that's been one of the biggest-
Meredith Olmstead:
Well, nobody wants to put their money in a brand new bank account with a brand new bank.
Christin Vaughn:
Yeah. They think it opened two months ago.
Meredith Olmstead:
Right. Right. Right. Right.
Christin Vaughn:
No. We've been around. This is just a new sub-brand.
Meredith Olmstead:
Yeah. Got it. So last thing I think that I'm curious about ... You definitely went through this in a slow methodical way and led chiefly by community organization or by community organizers so it was a very authentic and evolving process and it was slow. So I think that's something that in terms of mistakes to avoid, you don't want to jump into something and you don't want to pretend like you have all the answers when you absolutely don't. But how's business?
Christin Vaughn:
Really great. So the branch opened ... So we actually launched a website for Alianza with you guys in 2023. We got our digital stuff in place ahead of time. But then the branch itself opened in spring of 2025. And last year, Alianza accounted for over 50% of Allegiance's new membership growth despite only being open nine months of the year. So really showed that the need was there and it did so well in its first year that we've already got board approval and are working on. So we went into a modular building to be able to get the ground running and start serving the community. And it's been such a great response that now we've already, we're working-
Meredith Olmstead:
Oh, like getting a permanent ... A building.
Christin Vaughn:
Yeah. We've already hired a contractor and everything, and we're working on the build for the permanent brick and mortar.
Meredith Olmstead:
Nice.
Christin Vaughn:
So we thought it could maybe take a couple of years until we'd be able to get to that point, but one year in and we're like, "No, we're there, let's do it. We're committed. We're not going anywhere. The community's not going anywhere." And so we are really excited that we're in the official now branch build for Alianza.
Meredith Olmstead:
Yeah. That's awesome. Awesome. Well, Christin, thank you so much for your insight. I know that it was a massive labor of love for you for many, many years.
Christin Vaughn:
For our whole team. Yeah.
Meredith Olmstead:
Yeah. And so I appreciate you ... Well, and across the entire organization, honestly, which that's also a testament to mistakes to avoid is really making sure that everyone is invested, is bought in, has a voice in the process.
Christin Vaughn:
It's not just a marketing initiative. That's something that I really try to tell people. This has to be an organization-wide goal, strategic initiative objective, whatever you want to call it.
Meredith Olmstead:
Yeah. Because they have to have products and services that are created for these communities.
Christin Vaughn:
You have to have staffing. You have to change your policies and procedures. This isn't just a marketing initiative.
Meredith Olmstead:
Awesome. Well, thank you so much. This is super, super informative and useful. I hope that you all learn something about serving underserved communities in an authentic and really meaningful way that's lasting and can have a real impact. If you want to learn more about marketing for your credit union or community bank, please visit us at figroww.com. We have lots of other podcasts, case studies, blogs, so lots of resources there for you all. And otherwise, let's just all get out there and make it happen.