By Frank J. Diekmann
Let me be first to express hopes that a character named Sad Irony isn’t just anxiously waiting off stage with plans to steal the Credit Union Show in the next act.
As CUToday.info was first to report last week, CUNA has plans to roll out a significant new “awareness” initiative in 2017. If you’re thinking the cooperative gods have finally answered your prayers and that “Got Milk” campaign for credit unions is now in pre-production, apparently you’ve been disregarding the gods’ Out-of-Office replies, because that is not what this is about.
In fact, committee members and others involved in the effort have gone to pains to stress exactly what it isn’t, with CUNA CEO Jim Nussle saying, “This is NOT a national branding campaign. That has never worked. Branding one credit union like another doesn’t work. You have your own brand. It’s also not a national television advertising campaign.”
Which can only mean the next question Nussle gets from an audience member at a CU meeting will be, “Tell us more about the national TV campaign” (just see the last item in this column).
For all the details on what this non-campaign campaign is all about, go here.
At its core the awareness initiative is all about having the 350,000 credit union employees and volunteers all reading from the same teleprompter and consistently using four key phrases in their communications related to what credit unions are and how they are different. The goal is that through consistent repetition of these simple statements CUs will be able to address the lack of awareness among both members and non-members (not to mention some employees and volunteers) about these oddly named financial co-ops.
As the research CUNA shared at its America’s Credit Union Conference last week in Seattle made all too clear, never have so many (106 million) joined an organization about which they know so little (about 18 people in the U.S. can explain the CU difference, apparently).
My one concern is that too many CUs will see this as a top-down CUNA effort and not realize it’s the other way around, and it’s up to credit unions to do the job in their own offices day in and day out. I know in my own credit union’s case, you won’t find a sign anywhere about what the place is or how it differs from the BofA branch that sits in the parking lot. In fact, the branch is decorated like they’re two months behind on the rent and might need to skip town fast.
BofA can afford a “Got Milk” campaign, but they’ll never have the budget for the message credit unions have. Let’s hope the latter realize they’ve got their own message to milk.
Other Notes From America’s Credit Union Conference and Seattle.
How One Co-op Tells Its Story
Speaking of telling your story: saw the sign at right inside the flagship store of REI in Seattle, which is a cooperative and reminds folks of it.
Within one day of signing up as a “member” I received an email welcoming me and explaining membership and that I would be eligible for a “dividend” (also shown at right). Does your credit union do that? And does it have a sign like this? You should.
One more note about REI: It may be a co-op, but I had this exchange with an employee. Me: “Does REI have a credit union?” Employee: “No, but I feel like we ought to.”
They ought to.
Cheap Bastards
Mark DeCarlo, who has hosted the ACUC for the past four years, in his meeting opening remarks referred to CUNA Mutual Group as “CUNA Medical Group.” A comedian, DeCarlo recovered quickly, corrected himself, and urged CUs not to do business with CUNA Medical Group, as “they haven’t given us a nickel. Cheap bastards.”
Flat Tire Finances
In his opening comments, CUNA’s Nussle pointed out that 46% of Americans “cannot come up with $400 to deal a financial emergency. That’s not a healthcare challenge; it’s just a tire.”
Nussle, who has helped drive the new awareness campaign mentioned above, after he was hired in late 2014 and said he soon discovered few people knew anything about credit unions, told CUs that the research has found “40% of non CU members didn’t even know they could join. Once they heard they could join, 82% of people polled who were bank-only consumers said they were ready to switch one or more accounts to a credit union.”
Nussle called the new awareness initiative “our relevance offense.”
Planting A Flag, Giving A Shock
George Blankenship knows how to warm up a crowd. “I love to be in a room surrounded by people who go to work every day to help other people,” he told ACUC.
Blankenship, who was key in designing Apple’s famous retail stores and later worked with Tesla on its car-buying stores, tossed out an intriguing a cheap idea for credit unions that want to get more mileage out of their community efforts.
“You probably sponsor lots of Little League teams,” he said, “And maybe they have a flag. But what if they came to the credit union and made the flag. And what if you hired a photographer to go to games and post all this on your social media. In a Tesla store you can design a car and then share what you’ve designed on social media. You have to find a way to emotionally engage people.”
And just as he warmed the crowd, Blankenship also gave them a little shock when he put up a slide showing a New York Times story announcing that Amazon had just announced plans to get into financial services in late 2016.
“That’s not true, but maybe it will get you to start thinking about what you should be doing,” said Blankenship. “Who in this room is going to close their eyes, envision the possible opportunities of the next 10 years, and then make a difference that will change the industry forever?”
You can read more about Blankenship’s history with Steve Jobs, Elon Musk and more here.
More Than A Megaphone
During an ACUC breakout session featuring some of Filene’s more successful innovations, Mary Beth Spuck, chief administrative officer at TwinStar Credit Union, shared that one project called Member Megaphone (a member referral app) had resulted in a single member who referred 22 other new members, ultimately leading to 161 new members from the one original referral. You can find more coverage here.
Powerful Promise
Alex Sheen went to bed one night and woke up the next day to find he had gone “viral.” The result has been an international phenomenon called “Because I Said I Would.” Numerous attendees said his presentation was among the most powerful they have ever heard. You can read more here.
Attention All (Unhappy) Employees
As an example of a leader who listened, author and researcher Charlene Li cited David Thodley, CEO of Telstra in Australia, who was managing the company at a time of great infrastructure change that had created very unhappy customers and, as a result, equally unhappy employees.
“He knew he had to change the company internally, because if employees didn’t believe in the company, how could they get customers to?” said Li.
Thodley sent a message to all employees asking them to respond via social media with the top “time-wasting and unnecessary processes,” and said the company would either fix them or explain why the process exists. Within one hour he had 700 responses from employees.
“What they realized was they could not go back to the executive board room and hide in there,” Li told ACUC. “Instead, they put it all out in front to discuss what they were going to stop doing and keep doing. It was a watershed movement for the organization. That engagement transformed their relationship. What kind of engagement could transform the relationship you have with your employees and members?”
Hey, Where Are You Going?
Joe Sullivan, CEO of Chicago-based Market Insights, shared an interesting observation about market areas credit unions serve or are considering serving. “The number-one thing to know is are your markets growing, or are they declining?” said Sullivan. “Fifty-four percent of counties in the U.S. are predicted to decline over the next five years.”
Sullivan also found an intriguing way to get a credit union to think about its culture.
“Does everyone on your team know what the purpose of your credit union is? It’s not to make money; it’s something deeper. When everyone is clear about what the purpose is, everyone gets on the same page. If you closed your doors at 5:00 forever, what is it people would miss about you? That’s the clue about what you’re about.”
New Filene Research: Who’s Paying Attention
During his presentation, Filene’s Ben Rogers pointed out that the survey data he was featuring in his slides added up to more than 100% because those surveyed could select more than one answer. So what math question did Rogers get from an audience member about one minute later? I will let you guess.
Frank J. Diekmann is Cooperator in Chief at CUToday.info and can be reached at Frank@CUToday.info or followed @FrankCUToday.