This is from an article from Megan Angelo on the Wallet Pop blog.
"The pistachio industry wants to get nut lovers' minds off salmonella and onto sex. Pistachios took a big publicity hit last year when 2 million pounds of the greenish nut had to be recalled due to salmonella contamination.
Now, as USA Today reports, the industry is striking back with a grabby campaign that casts the pistachio alongside winking innuendos ("Mobsters do it with muscle") and C-list celebrities like Adrienne Curry, Chris Knight and the curiously ubiquitous Levi Johnston. (One slightly creepy short stars the five-year-old Denny quintuplets hopping around on bouncy balls as the voice over proclaims that "Quintuplets do it with balance."
Here is the microsite:
The Get Crackin' campaign is extensive and extremely well funded—apparently to the tune of $15 million. It has a user-generated video contest and multiple provoking TV spots. For example:
Jeffry Pilcher has this to say on Ron's blog about a national credit union brand campaign:
"One thing is for certain, and that is the credit union industry has a huge problem. Research has proven over and over that people don’t know what credit unions are, therefore people don’t consider credit unions as viable financial alternatives. A solution should be found for this problem, whatever name you want to give it. It seems as if a lot of people summarily dismiss the problem because they don’t like the proposed solution (brand campaign)."
"I think a common misconception that many credit union professionals and board members hold is that the “Got Milk” campaign was successful. Yes, there was a lot of awareness for the CAMPAIGN; celebrities lined up to be in it…. but the deep dark secret is that it didn’t actually increase SALES of MILK. In fact, it worked brilliantly to commoditize milk, driving many smaller dairy farmers to either go out of business or figure out a way to differentiate themselves DESPITE THE NATIONAL BRANDING CAMPAIGN. Anyone want an additional battle to fight right now? No? No takers?"
CUNA ran an under-the-radar contest last year to see what the crowd could come up with. Speaking of Jeffry Pilcher, his entry won.
It's a good ad and I'm sure there are plenty more out there that would help promote the credit union difference.
Begs the question: If a nut that nobody thinks about can pull an industry together, shouldn't credit unions? I'm just a credit union fan from Canada. What the heck do I know?
September is 30 things I would implement or consider implementing at my credit union if I was a credit union leader.
Thing 16: Be positive and shy away from bank bashing in our branding and marketing
I like positivity versus negativity in life and in branding and marketing. That's why some credit union campaigns that focus solely on bank bashing rub me the wrong way. Jeffry Pilcher recently wrote a good opinion piece entitled, The ugly downside of bank bashing about this practice and I wholeheartedly agree with his take on the subject. The key questions that Jeffry asks are worth careful consideration:
How can financial institutions rebuild consumer trust when so many of the industry’s own marketing messages say bankers are untrustworthy scum?
Do consumers really see a difference between banks and credit unions?
At what point can the financial industry no longer withstand the mockery, self-loathing and shame it heaps on itself?
Matt Davis, the Credit Union Warrior, recently wrote a great post entitled Bringing back optimism. Matt concludes with this, "Swallow your pride. Spend some money. Take some chances on your members. Be optimistic that in doing this, you are being exactly what you promised your members you would be: a financial institution that they can count on, no matter what."
At my fictitious credit union, I would portray a positive and optimistic image and stay away from heavy-handed bank bashing. I would concentrate on the differentiated traits that make our credit union special rather than constantly pointing out what's wrong with banking.
Unless you can toe the line with an entertainment and educational poke at the differences between the banks and credit unions, bank bashing can leave your potential members depressed versus inspired.
Caveat: if you choose to bash banks, do it exceptionally well
There is always an exception to the rule. Addison Avenue's new Bank Intervention campaign is a heavy handed (and hilarious) bank bashing extravaganza.
After exploring the microsite and watching all of the videos, I had an ear-to-ear smile. It's humorous, exceptionally well executed, the video-script writing is brilliant and the casting of the actors is top-notch. It combines terrific product offers, fun quizzes plus a smart Twitter tie-in. It is bank bashing done right. It works because it is highly entertaining.
September is 30 things I would implement or consider implementing at my credit union if I was a credit union leader.
Thing 6: make membership mean something
You have to be a member to shop at Costco. Costco members happily fork over their annual membership fee because they are rewarded with great prices, huge selection and discounts on gas, eyeglasses and 50-gallon jugs of mayonnaise. In essence, Costco has made membership meaningful.
You have to be a member to deal with a credit union but credit union membership is nebulous—instead of creating a club feeling, it acts as a barrier to entry. What if you could make membership more meaningful by offering exclusive discounts at local merchants? How about striking deals with a local gas station, a local grocery store, a local theater or the local university to offer discounts on game tickets? You may even have business members that would love to work with your credit union.
Texas-based credit union, TDECU, has done just that. TDECU has struck a deal with Buc-ee's, a local gas station and convenience store chain to offer a 30-cent-per-gallon discount on gas! Not only will that drive new membership growth, it will also strengthen existing member relationships.
To contrast the difference between what Tim has done with Currency Marketing and what many credit unions are doing now and have done in the past, let's pretend that Tim followed a typical credit union's strategies in building his company.
In the beginning, Tim magically has just about the biggest field of membership (FOM) in the world. Let's see if we can do this in credit union wording: "Any company that is headquartered in, does business in or would like to do business in the English speaking world." It probably took years of lobbying and political positioning to secure such a broad FOM, but Tim knows people I'm sure.
Naturally, he would start by creating some products to please everyone in that FOM. Basic branding, print campaigns, websites—you know, the basics. All of good quality built to appeal to the masses. Meeting edge needs can come later, when there is more clients, staff and capital.
Next, Tim would probably look to economies of scale to enhance his offerings. He'd push hard to get any company he could to become a client and would bring on any that would sign up. He would offer his products at a cheaper price and complete his projects faster than the competition. And, he'd do it all with a smile.
Tim now has a hugely diverse client base and his resources are probably getting stretched. He can't afford to push the envelope in fear of alienating his largely diverse client base, so his team continues to produce good but middle-of-the-road products. They don't fit anyone's needs perfectly, but they fit many client's needs decently. What they don't have in unique products, his agency will make up for with the best darn service anywhere.
Years pass and Tim gets an offer to be bought out by a larger marketing company. He takes it, re-energized in the thought that a bigger client base will provide more opportunities both for his current clients and other potential clients in the English speaking world. Years pass and the company Tim merged with is in the same position Tim was in just a few years ago. Another merger presents itself. Tim is onboard but somehow feels he is only in store for more of the same.
The cycle continues.
CU Skeptic
About our guest author: The CU Skeptic is a sub-30-year-old male that has spent the last few years working in and around the banking and credit union industry. He has heard the tales of credit union greats and seen what some would call the bottom of the barrel. He's seen the efforts of small town banks and has all of his personal accounts with one of the big banks. His take on banks and credit unions? At their current state, credit unions as a whole are no different than banks to the end user. Each have their share of sellouts and standouts, but in his eyes, that’s the bottom line. You can read his blog here. You can also listen to a podcast interview with the CU Skeptic here.
Editor's note: The CU Skeptic wrote a lovely blog post, How Currency Marketing duped the CU world (and what you need to learn from it) after reading my post, Banks? No thanks. Rather than stew over how he has questioned my motivations or how he has permanently tainted our Google search results, I figured why not have fun with the situation and invite him to be a guest blogger. When in Rome...
As you read this, I'm jetting my way to the 2008 MAC Conference in Newport Beach, California. Should be exciting! To tide you over, here is a whimsical post about the odd things people like.
Once my 15-year-old daughter Taylor and I were shopping and discovered some "sweet" orange pants. "Sweet" is her word; "garish" was mine.
"Can you get these for me?" Taylor asked, excited and breathless from the sheer "sweetness" of the orange colour.
They weren't that expensive, but I figured this was an impulse on her part and I hate wasting money on things that don't get worn.
"Well, maybe this weekend." I stall, "They'll probably still be here." Come on. They were horrifically orange pants! Who was going to buy them?
"No they won't. These are totally sweet orange pants!" she countered, disappointed but resigned.
Next weekend we return. No orange pants. This was last spring. She still hasn't forgotten.
This proves that no matter what life-sustaining goodness you do for your kids - whether it's waking them up for school, making their lunches, lending them your make-up, throwing your body in front of various vicious animals, or even charging into burning buildings to save their CD collection (I haven't done this, but I might!) - if you don't buy one pair of orange pants you are forever vilified. Or at least remembered badly.
The point: Kids forget the everyday good stuff and never forget the ONE TIME THINGS DIDN'T GO THEIR WAY. Members are the same way. Buy your members the orange pants!
This post has been rattling around in my head for years.
The credit union franchise
Credit unions live and die by a double-edge sword. On one hand, being part of the credit union movement means that your credit union is part of the world-wide credit union brand. A largely misunderstood world-wide brand, but a world-wide brand none-the-less.
On the other hand, to succeed locally, your credit union needs to establish its own brand that differentiates it from dozens of bank and credit union competitors.
It's like buying a franchise restaurant but without all the support and brand recognition that you bought into the franchise for. To top it off, the franchise head office gave out another franchise to a store across the street and another franchise to the guy on the corner. Your credit union is largely left to fend for itself.
Your franchise manual has some basic product and service recipes, but much of the information is left to your credit union to figure out on its own.
To further confound the consumer in many regions, collective advertising paints credit unions as interchangeable. Sometimes this collective advertising promotessuperior products and services. Sometimes it promotes universal ATM access. Sometimes it promotes the credit union differencethrough the magic of rap music! Because this collective advertising needs to be generic in nature, sadly it is.
My strong finish to this post (not)
All of my quasi-analysis still leaves this unanswered question for me, and most likely, for your potential members: Is it a collective movement with a collective difference or is it a bunch of independent brands trying to define their own difference in a world where competing against one another is reality?
If I can't figure it out, no wonder consumers are left scratching their heads and unconvinced to switch to your credit union from that bank that they hate.
The smart part of this post, where I offer advice and guidance, is still rattling around in my head, but at least I got some of it out.
Help me rattle the rest out in the comments.
Tim
UPDATE: There is no such thing as a credit union franchise. I made this up. I use the word franchise because it describes a popular distribution method of other large global brands. Sorry for the confusion. Like I said, this notion has been rattling around in my head for years.
Many credit unions hang their reputation and their brand on a claim of superior member service. Not only is this not a significant marketplace differentiator, in my experience, it is not necessarily true.
My experience
I have 100% of my personal and business banking with one of Canada's 10 largest credit unions. On the personal side, I have been with this credit union for over a decade. On the professional side, I moved my business account within the last two years from one of the big five Canadian banks to my credit union. I felt strongly that if Currency was going to work only with credit unions that we should do our business banking with a credit union.
Reality check
Eryn Fraser, our Director of Finance, works two-and-half-days a week. This means that at least once every two weeks, I visit the credit union to do the banking. I have been into the branch more than 50 times in the last two years, yet the front-line staff still don't know my name. Even though they have a seven-figure CRM system, they don't even try to fake-know me.
After I have made a deposit or paid some bills, the conversation typically goes like this:
Tim says, "May I have my balance please?"
Jennifer or Terry says, "Are you a signer?"
Every 20 visits or so, throw me a bone with something like:
"Hey Tim, how's that credit union marketing thing going?"
Would that be so hard?
As I have made it abundantly clear on this blog, I have a personal connection with the credit union movement. Fundamentally, I don't like what huge banks stand for with their focus on driving shareholder profit above all else. However, the personal service that I received from my previous bank was actually superior to the service that I now receive from my credit union. A number of the bank tellers knew me by name and regularly asked me how my business was going and how my wife and kids where doing.
How can your credit union deliver on this superior service promise?
I have written a number of CU Branding 101 posts that describe in detail why your credit union needs to differentiate on more than service, but since so few credit unions are taking my advice, let's talk about this built-in credit union promise of superior service.
If your credit union is going to continue to proclaim that your people are your difference, your credit union needs to prove it. Everyday.
As your credit union grows, great service must be part of your organization's DNA. Great service must be a mandatory job requirement from every staff member. These simple steps would make a big difference to your members:
Use members' names every chance you get. If your branch is small, your staff are probably already doing this. If your branch is big, use your CRM system to remind staff of the importance of taking a personal interest in members' lives.
Educate your staff on the history of the credit union movement and the importance of superior member service. Your staff will respond—they want to believe in your organization and what it stands for.
Respond to member communications pronto. This means e-mail and voicemail need to be returned within the hour.
Answer your phone! This is simple, but so important.
Acknowledge your members as they come in the door! You typically have a front desk with a greeter—have this person actually greet your members instead of avoiding eye contact!
Is my experience isolated? Is your credit union's service really superior?
Tim
P.S. I know Jennifer and Terry because they wear name tags. Maybe I should get one!
I read this article written by By Eileen Courter with interest. Mark Weber from Weber Marketing provides most of the content and he offers some terrific, straight-forward advice that credit union marketers should pay attention to. Mark Weber says:
"If good service were the secret, credit unions would be thriving in membership growth today. Unfortunately, good service is not the bar by which people switch financial institutions. We've had seven years of the worst growth in history in credit union membership. You absolutely have to be working much, much harder than simply saying 'We have great member service' when everyone else is saying it."
Weber notes that even though some 20% of credit unions now have a community charter, the vast majority are not growing.
"There are two big surprises when a credit union gains a community charter," Weber says. "First, absolutely nobody is beating a path to your door. No. 2, you have to completely transform your business, operational, and sales models."
In our CU Branding 101 series, I have expressed my opinion that credit unions are undifferentiated. To add to the confusion, there are actually three levels of undifferentiated consumer-facing credit union brands you as a credit union marketer have to deal with!
The category: The credit union movement brand
The organization: Your credit union brand
The offer: Your product and service brands
Let's look at the impact that each level has on your credit union.
The credit union movement brand
After more than a century there is still a lot of misunderstanding about what a credit union is, what makes a credit union different and why that difference matters.
When we ask the general public to describe what a credit union is, we get responses that range from a shrug to credit unions are like banks, only smaller. A small percentage of folks will indicate one or two of the following: cooperative, member owned, involved in the community, great service, local decision making, friendly people, not-for-profit, too small, employer sponsored, exclusive and less sophisticated than banks.
To those that do understand what a credit union is, the credit union movement brand does have an impact on your credit union brand. The credit union movement brand creates a pre-disposition to be open to or closed to what your credit union has to offer. That is it. Nothing more, nothing less.
Your credit union brand
If most people don't understand what makes a credit union different from a bank, even less people understand what makes your credit union different from another credit union down the street.
In a competitive environment, your credit union not only needs to be perceived as different than the banks, it also has to be different from other credit unions in your marketplace. The little known category differentiators go out the window when folks are asked to identify what the difference is between competing credit unions.
Your product and service brands
And finally, if people don't understand what makes a credit union different from a bank and what makes your credit union different from the credit union down the street, then they really don't understand what makes your credit union's products and services different from everyone else's.
That's because credit union product and services aren't significantly different. This is why the financial services industry has been reduced to a commodity where most decisions are based solely on price.
With so little understanding, at what level should credit unions invest in brand building and marketing?
The category. Should we promote the credit union movement brand? No. Let's skip category differentiation. The credit union difference just isn't different enough to throw millions of dollars at. After 100 years, either people get the difference or they don't.
In the US, there is a heated debate going on about whether to mount a national credit union brand awareness campaign. Here is a link to a CUNA Marketing and Business Development white paper on the subject and a great post and comment string on Open Source CU to give you more background.
Judging by provincial and state credit union promotions, credit unions can't decide on one compelling difference to promote consistently. There is no 'Got Milk' campaign waiting to be discovered. And to be frank, promoting nationwide ATM access doesn't exactly excite the masses.
Again, remember that the only thing that branding and marketing at the category level is capable of is create a pre-disposition for against considering a credit union. Almost no sales or membership growth will come out of marketing and branding activity at the category level.
The organization. Should you promote your credit union brand? Yes, you should discover and articulate your credit union brand internally and live and breathe your brand externally. Every employee and member needs to know what makes your credit union special.
No, you should not mount a brand awareness campaign to promote your difference. Brand-only advertising for a credit union is a waste of money. Again, almost no sales or membership growth will come out of marketing and branding activity at the organization level.
The offer. Should you promote your products and services? Yes, but only after you have defined a unique brand strategy and everyone in your organization understands what makes your credit union different from every other competing bank and credit union in your marketplace.
This is the time to create unique and desirable products and services that support your brand and that fill a hole in your marketplace. Only through a complete market analysis and brand strategy process can real product innovation emerge.
The offer is where the rubber meets the road. In our experience, the greatest benefits come from promoting a highly differentiated product or service. In doing so, you are promoting the offer and your organization—the two brand levels which matter most to your credit union. Sales and membership growth happen when you invest in marketing and branding activity at the offer level.
A real world example to prove my point
When we ask credit union marketers to list brands that matter, Apple is always included in the list. Think about this. Apple does not promote the category or the organization, Apple promotes its offers: the Mac, iPod, iPhone, Apple TV, iTunes, iLife, Mac OSX and Final Cut Pro to name a few. Through product innovation and consumers' experience with Apple's products (the offer), the Apple brand is built and propelled forward. The offer is where the money is made and the brand is built.
Back to the title of the post: Could your credit union cause a freakout?
Below is a video that is part of a new Burger King promotion, "The Whopper Freakout."
The category: Fast food
The organization: Burger King
The offer: The Whopper
Watch this video and then ask yourself, does your credit union have an offer on its menu that members are so passionate about that, if removed, would cause a massive freakout? Does your credit union have the equivalent of a Burger King Whopper?
Boy, that was a long post to prove a simple point. Offer great products and services and the rest will take care of itself.
In 1998, Al Ries and Laura Ries penned The 22 Immutable Laws of Branding. It is a great follow up to Al Ries and Jack Trout's 1981 book Positioning: The Battle for Your Mind.
The concepts and ideas presented in these two books form the underlying principles practiced by today's leading brand experts.
Some will argue that there are exceptions to these rules and believe that nothing is immutable, meaning 'not subject to or susceptible to change.' However, for the purposes of this blog post, let's believe them at face value and measure the typical credit union brand against 12 of these widely accepted laws. I eliminated 10 of the laws for this discussion to keep this relatively short
I'll use a scale between 1 to 5 for a possible total of 60 points.
The Law of Expansion: The power of a brand is inversely proportional to its scope.
Most credit unions try to be all things to all people which ultimately undermines the power of their brand.
Average credit union's score: 2
The Law of Contraction: A brand becomes stronger when you narrow its focus.
By narrowing the focus, a brand can achieve extraordinary success. However, most credit unions are spreading themselves too thin as they expand their services and field of membership.
Average credit union's score: 1
The Law of Publicity: The reputation of a brand is achieved with publicity, not advertising.
A brand must be capable of generating favourable publicity in the media or it won't have a chance of standing out in the marketplace. Most credit unions simply aren't newsworthy.
Average credit union's score: 2
The Law of Advertising: Once born, a brand needs advertising to stay healthy.
Credit unions are outspent tenfold by the big banks. And to add insult to injury, these big banks are saying the same things: full service, friendly and accessible.
Average credit union's score: 2
The Law of the Word: A brand should strive to own a word in the mind of the consumer.
If you want to build a brand, you must focus your branding efforts on owning a word in the prospect's mind. A word that nobody else owns. Kleenex owns "tissue," Fedex owns "overnight," Volvo owns "safety." What are most credit unions trying to own? "Banking?"
Average credit union's score: 1
The Law of Credentials: The crucial ingredient in the success of any brand is its claim to authenticity.
Coke is the real thing in the minds of many. Finally a category where I won't be hard on you! Credit unions rate highly in trust and authenticity.
Average credit union's score: 4
The Law of Quality: Quality is important, but brands are not built by quality alone.
Does a Rolex keep better time than a Timex? Are you sure? The perception of quality, more than quality itself, is what builds a brand. The problem with a homogenous industry like financial services is that every brand's quality is perceived as equal.
Average credit union score: 3
The Law of Fellowship: In order to build the category, a brand should welcome other brands.
Credit unions have taken this to heart! There are certainly enough credit union brands competing against one another. The curious fact remains though: the average consumer has a difficult time differentiating banks from credit unions.
Average credit union score: 3
The Law of the Generic: One of the fastest routes to failure is giving a brand a generic name.
The problem with a generic brand name is its inability to differentiate the brand from the competition. Many credit unions are going through mergers and renaming. They are leaving highly positioned, 50-year-old city or employer names. In their place, they are opting for generic or abstract names or acronyms. Will any of these generic brands break into the mind and become a major brand? Unlikely.
Average credit union score: 2
The Law of Colour: A brand should use a colour that is the opposite of its major competitor.
This rule is particularly hard to follow in the financial services industry with most credit unions having more than 10 bank, credit union ad alternative institution competitors. We need more colours!
Average credit union score: 2
The Law of Consistency: A brand is not built overnight.
Success is measured in decades, not years. This is the law which is violated most frequently. Once a credit union occupies a position in the mind, many credit union marketers thinks of reasons to change. Markets may change, but brands shouldn't.
Average credit union score: 2
The Law of Singularity: The most important aspect of a brand is its single-mindedness.
What is a brand? A singular idea or concept that you own inside the mind of the prospect. It's as simple or as difficult as that. With most credit unions offering a myriad of undifferentiated products and services, this law is broken all the time.
Average credit union score: 1
By my non-scientific count, the average credit union scores 25 out of 60 (42%). This is an F. I think we have some work to do! If you actually read this far, aren't you glad I only included 12 of the laws?
Tim McAlpine
