Archive for 'Credit Union' category
- Social Media and Credit Unions - It's All about the People
Posted by Beth Austin
A couple of weeks ago I had the pleasure of giving a talk at the Filene Research Institute Credit Union Digital Branding Colloquium along with several distinguished co-presenters. The colloquium's goal was to provide the credit union attendees with information that would help inform strategic decisions regarding their online/social media branding efforts. How can credit unions most effectively utilize online tools to communicate their brand? And how can members be engaged in building and sharing this brand? The perceptions and expertise of the six presenters varied, which provided rich content, yet many of the underlying messages were similar. From my perspective, here were the most important takeaways from the day.
The Revolution Will Be Virtual Among the presenters at the colloquium was Kristen Christian, the mastermind behind Bank Transfer Day. Her efforts, conducted primarily on Facebook, led to an estimated 210,000 Americans moving more than $4.5M from banks to credit unions. Her success underscores the magnitude of the power that can be harnessed through social media when you have a compelling story to tell and a clear call to action.
Tell Your Story Kristen Christian ditched her bank initially because of fees, but found more than just a friendlier pricing philosophy at credit unions. The fact that credit unions are local, community-focused institutions is important to people, particularly the coveted Gen-Y contingency. Credit Unions have a compelling story to tell and many people - including some of the presenters - still haven't really heard.
The Message Needs to Speak ...
- What is your bubble?
Posted by Heidi Wurpel
Consumer behavior tells us that our brains are wired to neatly place new information into pre-existing categories and to classify it quickly. Different consumers' classifications vary based on their upbringing and personal experiences; however, generally speaking, a person from a culture similar to your own will classify new information similarly to you.
How does this affect your business strategy? Our classification system acts as a hierarchy or organizational chart moving the information down as far as we can into ever more specific groupings until it finds its resting place. Once a classification is made, it can become difficult to move it to a new 'bubble' or group in our mind. If we do not know enough information about the product, it remains at a higher level of classification and does not implant as deep of an impression on us. Without a deep impression a product or company will rarely make it into our top-of-mind awareness or consideration set when we are looking to make a purchase because our brand recall will be low without being able to create a mental picture. When we have a hard time classifying an item, we selectively skip over it and can ignore the advertisement completely or gain only a vague understanding of the product.
Here is an example from my life that recently displayed the phenomena:
I posted to Facebook "I love Blahnik ads". What ensued were confused friends because my classification for this particular product is very deep but many of my friends could not ...
- Credit Union Messaging: Solving the Puzzle for Effective Communication
Posted by Beth Austin
Crafting effective messaging is not unlike completing a puzzle. There are a number of pieces that need to be assembled and it takes time and effort to find the right match, but with the right focus and understanding, it all fits together perfectly. Ultimately, the cornerstone to developing positive and persuasive communication is for the speaker (credit union) to present the information in a way that the listener (member or potential member) understands and wants or expects to hear it. Although this seems obvious, it’s a step that many communicators fail to execute, and then they are left wondering why their messaging was not effective.
Know Your Audience
Most organizations do a reasonable job of knowing the demographics and often even the psychographics of their target audience, but gaining an understanding of the audience’s wants and needs is also critical. Too many times, organizations will develop products or programs in response to perceived, not actual, member needs. The only way to know what members – or potential members - need is to learn from reliable resources (i.e., secondary research) or to ask them directly (i.e., primary research), and the best practices will use a combination of both. When you make assumptions, it can be counterproductive and costly, and you may learn that you don’t know your audience as well as you think you do. My favorite example of this is outside the credit union world, but has applicability. A large bagel shop in New England did extensive customer research ...
- Credit Unions Need the "Fifth P" of Marketing
Posted by Beth Austin
Marketing 101 has educated us on the Four Ps of marketing: Product, Price, Placement, and Promotion. Real-life experience has demonstrated that these four principles are indeed critical, and while there may be some fuzziness regarding the appropriate balance, I've never worked with anyone who didn't value the importance of each. The question I pose today is 'are these four Ps enough?' For many organizations they likely are, but for others - such as credit unions - there's a missing link that necessitates the "Fifth P of Marketing".
The Fifth P can stand for either "plant" or "people" depending on how you want to characterize it, but either way it relies on person-to-person interaction to communicate your brand message. Here's a for instance: Last weekend a friend and I had to make a minor detour while on our travels so that she could use the ATM at her (big, bad) bank because she would be charged a fee for using any other. To which I replied in my very best announcer's voice, "You know, if you had a high-yield checking account from XYZ Federal Credit Union, you would earn 3.51 percent interest and you'd never have to pay another ATM fee." My friend was intrigued. "Product" and "Price" were clearly appealing in this case, but I was also a "plant" - in this teachable moment when she was actively thinking about her banking choices, I was there to give a ringing endorsement. This personal recommendation from a trusted source ...