What’s the difference between Rockland Trust and Rockland Savings? To customers looking to make a quick deposit at a branch location or looking up the number in a phone book, not much.

That was one of the chief reasons Rockland Savings Bank recently changed its name to South Coastal Bank.

“We got about three dozen phone calls a day for the Rockland Trust and vice versa,” said John O’Connor III, president, chairman and chief executive officer of South Coastal.

Since Sept. 5, when the new name was officially unveiled, O’Connor said there has been positive feedback from the local customers in the bank’s hometown of Rockland.

“You’re always afraid you’re going to lose customers no matter what you do, and this was a very bold move. Our customer base is Rockland and by changing the name we were afraid we’d alienate our customer base, but we didn’t,” he said.

The decision to change the name of the bank came after market research, performed a year ago, revealed just how difficult it was for customers to differentiate between Rockland Savings, Rockland Trust and Rockland Federal Credit Union, he said.

O’Connor noted that according to the results, 68 percent of those polled recognized the Rockland Trust name while only 28 percent recognized the Rockland Savings Bank name. Even more disturbing to bank officials was that 21 percent recognized the name Rockland Cooperative Bank, even though there is no bank with that name in the town.

O’Connor said the choices for solving the problem were clear: either change the name or spend more in advertising to establish name recognition equal to that of Rockland Trust. In the end, a name change was less expensive and the results, it was hoped, would be more dependable for the $135 million-asset bank.

Dropping the word “savings” from the bank’s name was also a part of the strategic thinking behind the name change. When O’Connor arrived at the bank two years ago, his goal was to build it into a full-service community bank, he said. Having “savings” in the name could possibly limit what customers think the bank can offer, he said.

“I think for certain institutions that are savings banks or cooperative banks, if they really desire to serve the commercial markets, dropping that name from their signage can certainly help,” said Robert W. Powers, principal with Compass Consulting Group in Providence, R.I.

Significant Change
O’Connor began the name-changing process with about five dozen names gathered from focus groups, advertising and public relations firms before narrowing it down and finally choosing South Coastal.

“We didn’t want to get into ‘savings bank’ because that narrows the market,” said Chuck Pinkham, president and creative director of Pinkham Advertising and Design in Marshfield, which created the new name.

The name reflects the bank’s location near the Atlantic coast and the community it serves, south of Boston, he said.

While a new name can be a boon to a bank, there are dangers. “The biggest risk in any name change is to make sure your customers know that the bank hasn’t been acquired,” said Powers. There have been so many acquisitions in New England that if the name changes significantly, customers may think it’s no longer their bank and the services may change, he said.

“A name like South Coastal is a fairly significant change, so they need to reassure their customers that all the things they valued are still there but that the name implies growth and prosperity and broadening services,” said Powers.

Name changes often occur in community banks when the institution wants to expand beyond its hometown area, Powers said. “Sometimes a name that’s linked to a community can be too limiting when they grow beyond that town.

“I don’t think the name in and of itself is really a critical factor. It’s really the extent to which the name is known within the market area that they serve and the perceptions that may tie into that . . . If a name causes confusion among potential customers about who they serve and what they do, then it is a concern,” Powers said.

“I want to give the impression that this is a very different bank than it was two years ago,” said O’Connor. With the name change, the bank is offering a new line of products including debit cards, phone banking and a free checking product, he said.

The name change is the most recent in a plethora of name changes which swept through the financial industry within the last year. Wilmington-based Access National Mortgage changed its name to Nowlending.com. The company, owned by Webster Bank of Waterbury, Conn., took the new name to better market itself outside of New England. The company offers residential mortgages and refinancing in 47 states. Many financial institutions with a substantial Internet presence have chosen to change their names from reflecting community ties to the more broad-based consumer market offered via the Web. Boston-based Atlantic Bank & Trust Co. adopted the name Capital Crossing Bank in September of 1999 as it launched an online bank by the same name. Salem Five Cents Savings Bank launched its Internet banking service in 1995, but last fall chose to change the Internet business name to directbanking.com.

Mergers also have played a significant role in name changes, said Powers. The most recognizable was the merger of Fleet Bank and BankBoston which resulted in the new, combined name FleetBoston Financial.