CU Branding 101: Could your credit union cause a freakout?

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!

1. The category: The credit union movement brand
2. The organization: Your credit union brand
3. 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?

1. 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.
2. 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.
3. 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."

1. The category: Fast food
2. The organization: Burger King
3. 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.

Tim

Should we be so quick to discount user-generated advertising?

Last Friday, my "News flash: user-generated content is dumb" blog post created a lively conversation in the comments. Especially with my headline writer, Ron Shevlin. Ron was quick to point out that he didn't mean that blog comments or user reviews are dumb, he meant that user-generated advertising is dumb.

If I interpret Ron's viewpoint correctly, he was stating that large advertisers are chasing the latest trend hoping to strike gold by blindly jumping on the user-generated bandwagon without careful consideration and proper measurement of these experiments.

Trey Reeme summed it up nicely with his comment:

"Creating a strategic framework for experimentation and then measuring the impact is the key."

Agreed.

The only thing I take issue with is discounting a marketing approach because you personally think it is dumb.

Dumb or not, the lure is undeniable. And here is the latest lure: Cherry Chocolate Rain by Tay Zonday brought to you by Dr. Pepper.

Tay Zonday? Unless you have been living under a rock, you must have heard his original amateur song, Chocolate Rain, posted to YouTube on April 22, 2007? It has been viewed more than 11 million times and has spawned a slew of copycats including my favourite by Chad Vader.

Dumb huh? No doubt. Cherry Chocolate Rain was posted to YouTube on November 28, 2007 and as of this writing, it has been viewed more than 900,000 times, not including the people looking over the primary viewer's shoulders. Has more Dr. Pepper been sold? I don't know, but I'll bet the folks at Cadbury-Schweppes are keeping track.

This particular example brings up another question. When user-generated advertising gets a slick production overhaul, is it still user-generated and does it still resonate? Read the comments below the Cherry Chocolate Rain video on YouTube and you will see the divided opinions! Even the highly stylized Apple advertising is getting in on the action. This particular ad for the new iPod Touch was a professional redo of a user-generated ad from Nick Haley, an 18-year-old Apple fan.

The reality for the credit union marketer is obviously different than the reality of the mega-brand manager, but we shouldn't just cast a marketing approach aside because we might feel it's dumb.

Ron's other comment:

"The UGC campaign that the bank I alluded to is running will generate a lot of submissions. Big deal. What does it buy them? More business? Deeper relationships? If they say yes, I'll say how do you know? And I'll bet the $7 in my pocket they don't have a good reason for that."

Very good point. This particular campaign does seem superficial, potentially boring and it will likely not pull in the new business necessary to cover the media buy.

But, what if we can think beyond the obvious and really collaborate with our credit union membership? I believe credit unions are ideally positioned to leverage their member relationships to create engaging content and, in doing so, deepen member relationships and sell more products and services. Just look at what FORUM Credit Union has done in Indiana with its user-generated advertising campaign. All user-generated advertising doesn't have to be dumb.

The Generation Y Extreme Checking account from Fairfax Credit Union is a real-world example of a user-generated advertising contest going on right now in the credit union space. Is it dumb? Maybe. Will it be effective? We'll see.

My advice: I think user-generated advertising should be considered by credit unions and if it fits your credit union's overall marketing strategy, do it. I agree with Jeffry Pilcher's comment:

"I'm also very curious and very optimistic that the collective yield holds greater possibilities than my singular vision."

Ron's first comment sums up that everything you put out on the Internet is fair game and has the ability to spark conversation.

"I feel compelled to clarify and—to a certain extent—take back my remark. On one hand, my comment was intended in an off-hand manner, but that's no excuse (blogging and commenting is a public sport)."

I will now officially lay off Ron. And Ron, thanks for your blog, it is one of the best and really makes me think and solidify my own perspective! Keep up the great work.

Credit Union Chocolate Rain anyone?

Tim