Bo McDonald

From Bo McDonald:

The speakers may have been diverse at the CUNA Community Credit Union & Growth Conference, but their message was the same. In every presentation, the need was pointed out for credit unions to change their way of thinking.

Dr. Kevin Freiberg, author of BOOM!, opened the conference by pointing out that there are several thousand credit unions across the country quoting rates and fees, but only a handful can tell members and potential members what really makes their credit union “unforgettable.” Freiberg suggested that the experience your members have with your credit union is what sets you apart from the pack. He cited such examples as Southwest Air and Starbucks.

Likewise, Matt Tebbetts from Greenville Federal Credit Union shared its “Member Experience Standards” program. The program lays the groundwork for the credit union to provide a consistently positive member experience, including employee attitudes, attire and workplace atmosphere.

Aside from providing a unique member experience, a fresh lineup of useful products for members is a great way to set your credit union apart. Both Scott Butterfield from Credit Union Strategic Planning and Steve Williams from Cornerstone Advisers shared some ideas on products. Although these products are not new to the market, they haven’t been utilized by credit unions. Some examples provided by both presenters included micro-business loans for small business and payday lending alternatives. Both have been successfully implemented by several credit unions across the country already, including Brewery Credit Union in Wisconsin.

To sum up the CUNA Community Credit Union & Growth Conference in a statement, credit unions that want to survive need to understand that “what got us here today, is not what is going to get us there tomorrow.” The needs and wants of your members will change. Get ready to follow.

Bo McDonald is President of Your Marketing Co. and was a participant in CUNA’s VIP Network for Young Leaders at this year’s Community Credit Union & Growth Conference.  You can e-mail cunaresources@cuna.coop for information on the conference as well as the VIP Network.  This blog post was originally published on CU Insight.

International Credit Union Day is on the horizon (October 21, 2010). Credit unions who celebrate with posters or events help raise awareness about how credit unions impact the lives of 186 million people in 97 countries.

While those numbers are impressive, there are still so many around the world without access to basic financial services. They are subjected to loan sharks, hiding their life savings in mattresses, or taking long and dangerous trips just to visit the nearest financial institution.

That’s why the work of World Council of Credit Unions (WOCCU) is so important. Part of WOCCU’s role is to empower people across the globe with access to financial services through promoting the sustainable development of credit unions and financial cooperatives.

It’s also one of the most important reasons for celebrating International Credit Union Day; to raise awareness about how credit union principles truly change people’s lives. Promoting the world-wide impact of credit unions creates new and unique opportunities for the Credit Union Movement as well as for individual credit unions.

For example, learning about credit unions’ international impact is a major reason I’ve worked for credit unions these past 7 years. One story that has stuck with me was of Lois Kitsch‘s experience with a newly formed credit union in a remote area of the world during her time with WOCCU. (As I paraphrase Lois’ story, I hope I do it justice.)

ICU Day is also a great time to look back on how CUs came to be. Click above for a graphic history from CUNA's MoneyMix

As I recall, a small loan from the newly formed credit union–something like $10–enabled a woman to purchase a tarp. The woman prepared and sold food to villagers to earn a living. But when the rainy season hit, she was unable to prepare food because the rain extinguished her fire. This left the woman unable to earn money until the rainy season had subsided.

Acquiring the tarp allowed her to protect her food preparation from the rain and she was able to earn a living throughout the year. As a result, the woman was then empowered to expand her business and provide a laundry service.

She was able to improve the quality of life for her family as well as her community… and all it took was a $10 loan.

Pretty incredible, eh? I certainly thought so. Lois’ experience demonstrates the power credit unions can have and it left me feeling like I needed to get more involved with the Movement.

So, what was the most successful International Credit Union Day celebration for your credit union? How will your credit union celebrate it this year and raise awareness about how credit unions change lives?

When’s the last time you took a chance?  Bought a lottery ticket? Went skydiving? Went on a blind date?! Many of us take chances throughout the day and don’t even know it “eh, not too sure about the meatloaf at the cafeteria, but I’ll give it a go,” or “I think I could pull off skinny jeans.” Even if they’re not the best ideas you’ve ever had, you’re willing to give them a try. Ah, such is life.

Now, think about the last time you took a chance for your credit union??  Launching an expansive Facebook campaign?  (Too time-consuming). Hiring a Social Media Manager? (No, I don’t even know what that is!) Starting a blog? (Too much pressure.)

Why are we so resistant to change when it comes to innovation within the industry, but so open to it in other aspects of life? Think about that very first credit union to develop a website. What if that was considered ‘too risky’?  Where would we be if a few more didn’t join the internet bandwagon?  Where will your credit union get more membership inquiries from a website or a phonebook? The Internet has revolutionized all business’ relevancy. If you are not online in 2010 I will bet your membership numbers are declining rapidly (and I personally will never find you).

The credit union movement was created by taking a chance, by offering an alternative to other financial institutions.

Why not take a chance? All ideas may not be million-dollar ones (or I would be writing this from my second yacht in the French Riviera, in my awesome skinny jeans) but you’ll never know unless you try it!

When was the last time your credit union took a chance?

Steve Rodgers

From Steve Rodgers:

One of the primary challenges credit union marketers are currently faced with is finding ways to promote the benefits and services of their credit union to increase membership and awareness of credit unions, with a drastically decreased budget.  The Marketing Chapter of the 2010 E-Scan Report focuses on strategies for tackling this challenge; however, this endeavor may be even more of a struggle than many even know.  Here’s why I say this:

Each summer, I present the findings of CUNA’s Environmental Scan (E-Scan) to third-year students at CUNA Management School, which is a three-year school held on the campus of the University of Wisconsin in Madison for two weeks every July.

I give the students a one-hour PowerPoint presentation and then my co-presenter and CUNA colleague—Kristina Grebener—gives them a little field work for the rest of the afternoon.

Kristina divides the class into five teams of about a dozen students each and gives each team a Flip video camera. Their job is to roam around the campus and interview people. The teams ask questions like, “Do you know what a credit union is?” The goal of the exercise is to gauge consumer awareness of credit unions.

The teams return after an hour and share their videos with the rest of the class. To people like me who have spent their entire professional careers trying to communicate the benefits of credit union membership, the videos trigger thoughts of a career change. They evoke the emotions of depression, laughter, panic, amazement, and back to depression.

The most common response is, “I have no idea what a credit union is.” After that, you hear a lot of, “I bank at a bank because that’s where my parents signed me up.”

Other responses include:

“I think a credit union is one of those companies that monitors your credit report and tells you when something goes wrong.”

“A credit union is where you pay your taxes.”

“Credit unions are like labor unions—you pay membership fees to belong.”

One of the teams finally came across a guy who knew quite a bit about credit unions, although he did all his business with a bank. He knew credit unions are financial cooperatives and return profits to members. He knew credit unions exist to maximize service to members, and banks exist to maximize profits to shareholders.

“Why,” the team asked, “if you know about all these credit union benefits, do you still do business with a bank.”

“I’m one of those bank shareholders,” he replied.

Suffice it to say, credit unions have a tremendous amount of work to do to move the needle on consumer awareness.

Do these responses surprise you? What is your credit union doing to promote what credit unions are and how consumers can move their money to benefit from membership (no fees attached)?

Steve Rodgers is the Editor-in-Chief  for Business to Business Publishing at the Credit Union National Association.

Last week, I had the opportunity to speak about strategic marketing with the National Federation of Community Development Credit Union’s third year group at the Community Development Credit Union Institute (CDCU Institute).   I had the unique experience of chatting with some community development credit union stars about how they can reach more members and prosper.  I was so impressed with this group as they were already beyond just talking marketing tactics and promo campaigns, and really wanted to talk marketing strategy.

Now, I’m not a history buff, but recently I heard a presentation where marketing consultant, Steve Olson, gave a great analogy of the difference between marketing strategy and tactics.  As Steve put it, when entering World War II, the United States was facing two battle fronts, one in Europe and one in the Pacific.  The strategy for World War II was Europe first, the Pacific second.  That really got me thinking as I prepared for my talk at CDCU Institute about what battle fronts are priority for credit unions?

As our morning conversation went on at the CDCU Institute, everyone took notice of how many fronts we are trying to fight with existing marketing efforts.  Now, if your credit union has any sort of limited resources (time, money, etc.), you realize what we did … that fighting all fronts at once is not an effective battle/marketing strategy.  So what did our group come up with?  Here are some of the session highlights:

• Service is credit union marketing- be sure to know what you’re up against.  When each person told the group what sets their credit union apart from their competition, the immediate response was service.  Yet, very few people could recall a secret shopping or similar program to factually know what service their members receive elsewhere.  A strategy is no good if what you stand for isn’t your competitive advantage.  So, if your credit union stands for better member service than your competitors, do your undercover work.
• Identify the front you’ll battle first.  We talked at length about the benefits of focusing on a core target.  This target should represent your most loyal members, and members that use your credit union for what it should be used for. Having a stable membership base representing your target will ensure your credit union is in existence to serve all your members far into the future.
• Have fun!  Throughout this entire session, we pushed our comfort levels of what marketing meant to us and our credit unions.  When we did get to the conversation about tactics, it was fun because we had our goals and strategies mapped out.  While I didn’t come across the tactic of the Flash Mob of Innovations FCU until yesterday, it certainly would represent the fun ideas that came from this group.  Different now is that all our ideas are grounded in the marketing strategy we know will sustain our organizations.

So, let’s extend the discussion.  What strategies are you using to fight your marketing battles?

Rachel Best

From Rachel Best:

I think we all love credit unions. Or we wouldn’t be reading this totally splendid blog, right?

In fact, I would go so far as to say that “credit union people” are more vocal about their love of their credit union than bank people.  We tell the grocery clerk about the differences between a credit union and a bank.  We say, “Hey, I get my ATM transactions surcharge-free, how about you?”  We argue tax-exempt status with our friend who works for a community bank and then make a pact to stop discussing it so we can stay friends.

I think I talk more about credit unions than astronauts talk about the moon.  When people ask me where I work, my friends all go, “Is this where you start talking about credit unions?” No joke…they actually do this.  YES, this is when I start talking about credit unions and their awesomeness.  And most of them love it (or in the case of the above community banker friend – tolerate it) because they are credit union members themselves.   For those that aren’t, I try to show them the light.  I’ve had new acquaintances and professional friends comment at the end of my credit union diatribe, “Why isn’t everyone in a credit union then?”  I tell them that they qualify and visit creditunion.coop, etc, etc. I forgo mentioning that it’s because big banks are bad. Got to keep it friendly, you know?

I lecture young cousins about where to get their first loans.  And while I wouldn’t know from personal experience, I’ve heard that bars are a great place to discuss credit unions.  Mention it on first dates – you’ll know right away if your compatible!  Who cares if it’s awkward, embrace it, it’s our duty!  Ask, “Do I look like the Little Guy when I carry this umbrella?”

If you haven’t gotten someone to say “Why isn’t everyone in a credit union then?” this month, then we’ve failed.  I don’t think we are doing our job nor our service to fellow citizens if we don’t get them to realize what they are missing.

So go out and get them champs!  If you can’t bring people to the mountain, bring the mountain to the people.

Rachel Best is the Meetings and Exhibits Manager for the Credit Union National Association. Read her last CUNAverse blog post here.

I love convergences. About a month ago I found myself at the Wisconsin Credit Union League Annual Meeting where some friends at Filene were giving a general session on opportunities for credit unions. In Young Adult Adviser Brent Dixon’s section, he talked about the Golden Circle concept and its relevance for credit unions. It was a simple yet profound idea.

Source: blogs.law.harvard.edu

Driving back to Madison from the League meeting, I was listening to random TED talks and one of them happened to be on – you guessed it – the Golden Circle concept. The talk is from Simon Sinek and titled “How Great Leaders Inspire Action.” I recommend checking it out sometime and sharing with your co-workers.

> Click Here to Watch/Hear the Full TED Talk

The gist is this: people connect with leaders and brands who they think share their beliefs – the cause (or the “why?”) in the center of the circle above. Too often, credit unions and organizations in general start with the outside of the circle in their messaging.

“We provide financial products & services (what?) via branches in the Madison area or online (how?) because we are a non-profit cooperative financial institution (why?)”

Sound familiar? Now turn it around:

“We believe that you should own your money and your financial institution, not shareholders. We believe in people helping people and our financial products/services reflect that. We do this because we are a non-profit cooperative financial institution.”

When I talked with Brent about this recently, he had this to add:

If you market based on the “what” you are a commodity. As soon as the terms of that commodity changes  (and we know they will change) – lower deposit rates, dropping free services to stay afloat, cutting back on branch hours – the market will leave too.

But if you market based on “why” – they will stay, because they believe in your purpose, and, because this goes beyond altruism, they will stay because they know that no matter what, you will fight to keep their best interest at the heart of your decisions.

Communicating and acting on purpose drives gut decisions that change behaviors.

Powerful stuff, yet we start the “what” all too often – professionally and personally.

Source: oprah.com

I am one of the millions of people who watched Bernard Lachance fulfill his dream on the Oprah Winfrey Show last year.  If you haven’t heard Bernard’s story check out his message to Oprah and then watch his invitation to her show.  Watching his story is so much better then me rehashing the background here.  Even after a year, the story still makes me choke up.  So how lucky do I now feel to be working on a session for the upcoming 1 Credit Union Conference with Bernard!  He is going to share how credit unions can tap into the things that have helped him to continue to make his dreams come true.

Whether you are trying to reach a personal goal that seems out of reach or if you are looking to take your credit union to new heights – there are lessons to be learned from Bernard’s amazing journey.  His successes haven’t come without hard work, but his unique approach has helped him go beyond his wildest dreams.

While we’ll have to wait until Bernard’s Innovation on a Shoestring breakout session July 13^th to learn how he suggests we utilize his strategies, there are some things about his story that make all of his success no surprise to me.

Nurtured Strengths:  Bernard was born with a great voice, but on top of that he was surrounded by a musical family, his father a music teacher and his sister a piano player.  His environment helped to fuel his ambition to succeed in the entertainment business.  Is your credit union a place where strengths are identified and continually nurtured?

Legwork:  Bernard didn’t just jump into show business, he was formally educated and then spent a few years taking voice lessons and observing the industry.  He even would attend various TV show tapings to help him to begin understanding the ins and outs of the business before he fully made his jump in to entertainment.  Are new hires expected to have any knowledge of the credit union philosophy when they start at your credit union? 

Buzzworthiness:  This guy knows how to create buzz.  The marketing strategies he uses are different from anything I’ve ever seen.  From mailing a copy of his demo tape to every citizen in a community he is trying to make his name in to his clever t-shirt design to sell out his theater tickets, he knows how to get people talking.  What are you doing to get people to want to tell their friends how great your credit union is?  

Passion:  I think this is the key to Bernard’s story.  His videos capture how truly passionate he is about the dreams he has for his future and that translates into creating an emotional reaction from those of us who encounter his story.  Without a passion for what he’s reaching for he’d likely fall short on all of the creativity, hard work and determination needed to succeed.  What about your job motivates you to keep reaching for those nearly impossibly goals?

Bernard has shown that big things are possible.  What are you dreaming big about and what are you doing to make it happen?

>In a slight departure from our normal focus on young adults, I’d like to draw your attention to a post from our own Christopher Morris on the Open Source CU Blog.

Christopher’s guest post should be required reading for the credit union marketers in the audience. He offers up a solid list of free online tools and resources every credit union marketer needs now… which is good because that’s the title for his post.

Morris’ main point?

“If you are going to embark on a social media campaign in the near future or even if you are not, you need to know what people are publicly saying about your credit union on the internet.”

An excellent point to make, and the resources he shares are great for monitoring your credit union’s brand in cyberspace.

So, head on over to find out what else Christopher has to say and be sure to say hello to Brent, Charlie, and the rest of the Open Source CU gang.

>In the April 3 issue of Engage:Gen Y, “a newsletter dedicated to exploring this exciting demographic made up of individuals ages 18 to 30,” Chip Walker celebrates the admirable uniqueness of capitalism’s favorite demographic.

In the course of this paean, Walker makes some extraordinary generalizations, which readers might be forgiven for mistaking for claptrap. For example, how does this claim:

“Among GenYers’ most important personal values are authenticity, altruism and community.”

Compare with this statistic?

Volunteers by selected characteristics (age), September 2008

U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics Division of Labor Force Statistics

Looks like the under 35s have the worst record of any age group for service to community. Sure, it’s only one measure of altruism, but I have to wonder if Gen Y is as adept as “self-mythologizing” as the notoriously narcissistic Baby Boomers.

Walker claims that Gen Y’s penchant for activism is different from that of their over-the-hill parents. “For today’s Gen-Yers, activism is not about rebelling against institutions — there’s simply not that much left to rebel against.”

What? With daily revelations of corruption at the highest levels of government and corporate leadership, Gen Y can’t find enough injustice to get up off the couch to protest? (Or did the Boomers clean everything up?)

Finally, consider this: “Gen Y-ers don’t just want to buy brands, they want buy in to what a brand believes in.” That kind of gullibility just means we can look forward to replenishing the pool of prospective Ponzi victims in the future, when the materialistic and self-deluded Boomers finally step aside.