Are You Advertising Your Security, or Proving it?

Its no secret that credit unions aren't often in the media spotlight. So, like most other credit union folks out there, I've been really excited to see so much positive press coming out about credit unions.

I recently attended the 2008 Partnership Symposium in Fishers, Indiana. During the Idea eXchange section of the conference we discussed pretty heavily what credit unions should be doing during this financial crisis.

What should credit unions be saying to take advantage of the situation, and take advantage of all the positive press that has been given to credit unions.

My suggestion? Say nothing.

I know that sounds counter-intuitive, but hear me out.

You can say whatever you want. That doesn't mean its true.

Even the giant banks that are seeing most of this financial mess are saying "hey we're cool, everything's cool, we're safe and sound! Seriously, trust us."

Every single bank out there, including those that have recently failed, have touted the security and financial soundness of their institution. Many of those claims have been proven false.

Add this to an existing lack of trust in financial institutions...

and you get a large population of America who just had their skepticism proven. People are tuning out the feel-good, "don't worry, we're safe, trust us!" messages more than ever.

It doesn't matter what you say as a financial institution right now, it will be met with a large dose of skepticism.

It doesn't matter that you are a credit union putting out reassurances and not a bank because...

People don't see a difference between banks and credit unions.

As a certain CUSkeptic pointed out at the Partnership Symposium a couple weeks ago, to most people there is no difference.

I see the difference, and the fact that you are even reading this blog probably means you see the difference, but to your average Joe Sixpack its all the same thing.

So we're just supposed to sit here and wait?

In a way, yes. There isn't much we, as credit unions, can do by pumping out advertising to emphasize our security. Between consumer unease, distrust, and fear it probably isn't going to be heard or trusted if its coming from your marketing department.

Say nothing, but do everything.

The real opportunity here is not the chance to spout marketing that touts your security, but the opportunity to prove it.

Pay attention to all this positive press.

This may be the closest thing we get to a national brand. We have nationally trusted press selling the virtues of the credit union movement for us. They are telling the people that read their papers, blogs, and articles what they see as the unifying benefits of belonging to a credit union.

I don't think anyone would argue that this press is reaching, and being trusted by, far more people than an ad on local cable or a page on your credit union's website.

What we need to do now is...

Make sure we live up to the hype.

Take this positive press for credit unions and use it as a litmus test for how you are meeting expectations. Are you living up to the credit union "brand" that is being presented in these articles?

The best thing we can do to take advantage of the current financial situation and the positive press it's brought credit unions is to live up to what the people who people trust are praising about the credit union movement.

Morriss Partee CEO of Everythingcu.com at the 2008 Partnership Symposium

Morriss just wrapped up the final presentation of the day with a session on creating an engaging community.

Here are a few highlights.

This is our time to shine.

Community is not just a business to business thing, its between individual people.

Word of mouth is what worked for credit unions at first. The internet has enabled the spread of word of mouth in a big way.

Mass media has never really worked very well for credit unions.

Facebook has 100 million members.

Facebook would be the 12th largest country in the world if it were a physical country.

The traditional view of marketing is that the CU is in the center of the universe and we are sending out messages at them.

The networked word shows that those members are all connected in some way or another socially.

If we can engage in two way communication, we can become a part of that social network.

"56% of Americans fell a strong connection and better served by a company that is involved in social media."

The relationships that could be formed between front line and member via social media (if it were unblocked) could be much more powerful than marketing messages injected into the social media venue.

7 points of a successfully engaged community:

1. Have a common bond or purpose
2. Make them the rock stars
3. Give them a voice
4. Make it easy
5. Its alive (there are people behind the pages)
6. Make it easy to refer a friend
7. Merge online and offline communities and activities

well folks, that's all for the traditional sessions for the day. I'll be updating during the Idea eXchange sessions as I get the chance.

Andy Janning AVP of Training and Quality Service at the 2008 Partnership Symposium

Andy just gave an interesting session on how to fire up your trainers.

The major points were:

Most trainers are constantly worried about "their place at the table". They should be worried about everybody else's place at the table. It is their job to change behavior to increase the performance of other employees.

Who's place do you really care about?

Are you looking at the smile sheet or the balance sheet? Trainers shouldn't be concerned about whether or not people liked their training sessions, but rather, what measurable effect the session has on employee behavior.

A good trainer is an agent of change. They are focused on helping reach goals. They measure how their training changes the behavior of employees.

Knowledge isn't power, performance is.
what you know doesn't get you a promotion, how you perform does. Training needs to be focused on performance changes rather than a deluge of information.

Jeff Russell CIO/VP of The Members Group at the 2008 Partnership Symposium

Jeff Russell of The Member's Group just finished his session on the future of payments.

Here are some Highlights.

People have things that they want to sell and there are people that want to buy them.

What roll do we play in that transaction.

If we don't pay attention to our roll as intermediary we have no right to be the intermediary.

The primary driver of payment convenience is however the people choose to interact.

Check usage is dropping by up to 18% each year.

There has been a digitalization of life. We don't need a physical instrument to move money.

Does anybody really want a card, or do they just want what it buys. "I don't want a hot water heater, but I want hot water."

18-24 year olds write 1.6 checks per month. Only 44% have written a check in the last 30 days.

Tomorrow's members may never have a checking account or even know what to do with the checks.

The mobile channel is key. Text message banking, the shift of online banking to mobile platforms and the ability to transact on a mobile phone will be a growing driver of payment systems.

Paypal is betting that some years down the road, mobile will be the big method of payment for consumers.

The current mobile payment system is a closed system. When will it be open.

2009 MasterCard will allow P2P transfers. Visa will launch a P2P payment system this month.

New model for payments is location based, knows your preferences, and automates the payment process via the exising mobile infrastructure without physical currency or a card changing hands.

The mobile phone is no different as a payment instrument from a mag-strip card.

Implications

• Define your own payment strategy.
• Stay on top of new trends.
• Look for collaboration.
• What do we do about the loss of interchange income?
• What's our role in the future of payment processing?
  

Jeff Stephens of The Creative Brand at the 2008 Partnership Symposium

Jeff Stephens of the Creative Brand and also creator or the Blow Up Your Marketing podcast on Banktastic TV, just finished his presentation. Here are a few points I'd like to highlight.

Open minded and focused thinking are key.

Find your soul and you'll find your brand position.

Stop trying to be better and be different.

If you are focused on anything that ends in -er (better, friendlier, etc.) then you are competing on the same point as many other institutions and are a commodity and have little control over the direction you go. You're focus is determined by what others are doing.

3 points to being different

1) Find the story
2)Tell the story
3)prove the story

Its hard to tell the story if you don't know what it is.

The story is already there, you just have to find it. You have to be introspective, clear away the cobwebs and rediscover what your story is.

Don't worry as much about who your members want you to be, focus on who you are. This leads to Authenticity, being who you are and not all things to all people.

Its "differentiation" not "betterentiation"

You need to be apples to oranges, not apples to better apples.

Indifference will kill you.

Do something distinct enough to elicit a response. If some people hate it, that means some people will love it.

"Advertising is the price you pay for not being remarkable" - Anonymous

The more specific and narrow your postion the better job you can do creating relevant experiences.

Tim McAlpines Take Away Points From the 2008 Partnership Symposium

Tim McAlpine just finished his presentation at the 2008 Forum/Trabian Partnership Symposium. I won't Give you a full recap of his presentation, heck you can watch the whole thing live over at opensourcecu.com, but here are the take away points he gave.

• Is it possible for a credit union to have super fans?
• Innovation takes trust and a leap of faith.
• Gen-y is not a passing trend.
• Rethink the 3 month promotion.
• Do one thing really big.
• Mixing sales and social media is ok.
• Give young people the resources and they will do great things.
• Sense and respond
• Keep it fresh.
• Ask for the sale.
• There are incredible young people everywhere.
• Expect the Unexpected.
• Dream big
• Don't do anything half way.
• Be afraid of Ron Shevlin

I'll try and post points from each speakers presentation as they happen. Stay tuned and check out the live feed!

Adventures in Canada: The Maple Syrup Mystery (AKA BCBBC)

I just got home from BarCampBank BC in the incredible city of Vancouver. All I have to say is “Wow”! The BarCamp and the few days I was able to stay in the city afterwards were just plain awesome.

I’ve got a ton of notes from the event and will be getting some more in-depth posts up as I digest the giant amounts of info and ideas that came from it.

This was my second BarCamp, so I wasn’t unfamiliar with the format of the event, but that doesn’t mean I wasn’t still impressed with it. I think, if anything, this event highlighted just how cool it is that every single one of these is different in its own unique way.

As Mark McSpadden pointed out (from the live feed chat box no less!) after the topic wall had been finalized (as finalized as a BarCamp wall can be), we had just accomplished in 45 minutes, as a group, what normally takes a conference planning committee months.

The quality of discussion was great. So much got brought up, so many ideas got thrown around, and so much positive energy was at the event that it was just plain inspiring.

I think the coolest part of the camp wasn’t even the discussion, but the fact that, with the help of Brent Dixon, the whole event was streamed live via Mogulus. Maybe it was that I knew people were actually watching live, or that every once in awhile we’d be relayed a question from a view, or that it totally fed my geek side. It was just too cool.

There were so many awesome sessions; from measuring a web 2.0 campaign, to social finance, to tapping into existing networks. There were so many great, smart people in one place and the things that came out of it were just incredible.

I’ll have a couple of posts up in the near future that go deeper into the sessions I attended as I get my notes organized and digested. Until then, enjoy the videos on Opensource CU, the live blogging that came from William Azaroff, and all the videos and pictures on YouTube and Flickr.

A huge thanks goes out to Gene Blishen, William Azaroff, and Tim McAlpine for making this event happen. You guys rock.

KV Federal Credit Union Strays to the Dark Side

This post is going to be a bit outside my usual branding/strategy fare, and I’m not usually one to throw any muck, but I just have to add some commentary on this matter. The unspeakable is happening in my backyard. KV Federal Credit Union ($51 million in assets) has decided to convert to a mutual savings bank in order to promptly merge with Kennebec Savings bank (a $650 million bank).

I was at the Maine Credit Union League in Portland for an orientation program when the news broke Tuesday morning. Needless to say the room immediately exploded in conversation.

Now, I’ve seen a few credit union to mutual savings bank conversions go down here on the intertubes, but never thought it would happen right next door. I’m not positive, but I think this might be the first cu to bank conversion that is being done for the sole purpose of merging with another, larger bank. To me, that is even more disturbing than a strait up conversion in my mind.

Now, there are always two sides to a story, so I’m sure my bias towards the base philosophy of credit unions will show, but I’m not here to report objective news.

KV Federal Credit Union has said, in response to questions about why they are merging with a bank, “The merger would allow the two institutions to become more efficient and position themselves for growth in a crowded banking market.”

I’m not sure what their continuing plan is, should this merger actually happen, but it is my opinion that to merge for the sole purpose of growing is one of the worst ideas ever. If your current growth plan is not building your member or customer base, how is a merger going to do anything but create an artificial jump in customers/assets? Not to mention that even though they refer to KVFCU and KSB as “two institutions”, once the merger is completed, the only institution positioned for growth is the bank.

To me, that goes against everything a credit union should stand for. The members would lose their say in the running of the institution, and their ownership. They lose their credit union, and as one member put it in a comment on a Kennebec Journal article, “I know I plan to tell them I will also close my accounts if KV Fed and Kennebec Savings merge-I joined a CU for a reason.”

I think many credit union members feel the same way.

I hope that the membership of KVFCU votes against this conversion. These members have built and owned the credit union for years and if the conversion goes through the only thing that will remain will be their account numbers.

That said, if the membership doesn’t vote this down, I feel that we should let the conversion take place. The board and management have shown that they don’t particularly care for the philosophy of the credit union movement. Those members who don’t care about the difference between being a member/owner and a customer will follow KV to Kennebec savings. Those that are a member because they know what it means and enjoy the benefits of being a member/owner will hopefully find a credit union who’s philosophy and vision fits their own.

What are your thoughts on this conversion?

Sometimes Its Just Better to Start Again

You know what annoys me? Those jigsaw puzzles that have pieces that are all the same size and shape. You know…the ones that I never quite know if a piece is in the right place. Sure it interlocks with, and is generally similar in color or texture to the adjacent pieces, but then halfway through putting the thing together I realize it’s not even close to being in the right place.

You know what else annoys me? When I take an idea and add what I think are complimentary pieces to it…only to find that 75% of the way through, a bunch of those pieces don’t quite fit where they are; if they fit at all.

With a puzzle you’ve got the picture on the front of the box to tell you what the picture should look like. You’re able to remove the offending pieces, put them where they need to be, and continue.

When it comes to a marketing effort, campaign, or organizational change things are a bit more difficult. You don’t have that picture on the box to tell you how everything should look at the end. In many ways that’s a good thing. It leaves lots of room for creativity, but at some point you may find that a piece that once looked like it fit perfectly when viewed up close, doesn’t look quite right when you step back and take a look at the whole picture.

So when you find yourself in this position, looking down at a nearly finished creation and realizing that it doesn’t look quite right, what do you do? Do you try to find and remove or modify the parts that are skewing the rest of the picture, or do you take the whole thing apart and go back to square one; the basic purpose, focus, and reason for the project in the first place. Redefine your goal and refocus your attention on what you want as an end result and rebuild.

I think most times starting again from that first creative spark is easier, more productive, and leads to a better end result than struggling to locate and fix the piece that doesn't quite fit.

The Little Things

What makes a successful socially driven marketing campaign? Is it the fact that you have a blog, a spokester, or videos on YouTube?

No.

Anybody can do that, all it takes is a suitable Wordpress theme, a camera, and somebody to stand in front of it. What makes a successful campaign is what’s contained within the structure that a blog, YouTube, and the myriad other web tools that exist offer to the campaign.

These things are merely a container, and if you aren’t paying attention to what’s inside the container your going to get a mouthful of something that doesn’t quite taste like lemonade.

Its all about the little things, the things that create the tone, the atmosphere, and the voice you are aiming for.

As an example, take a look at Resource 1 Credit Union’s MyLifeMyMoney minisite. There’s been lots of talk about how it’s a blatant rip-off of Currency Marketing’s Young and Free product (recently launched by Resource 1’s neighbor TDECU). First let me say kudos to R1 for doing something most credit unions would be terrified of. Copycatting aside, it is still a gutsy move for any credit union.

On the site, the first thing that caught my eye was a bright green box on an otherwise gray site. In this box is a welcome message. See if you can spot what is wrong with this message:

Welcome to the MyLifeMyMoney website! MyLifeMyMoney is the perfect package of financial tools and products for adults ages 18-34, aka Generation Y. Surf around, check it out, and see why MyLifeMyMoney is the perfect way to bank for your generation.

The problem with this message isn’t grammar, length, or even the odd age range. The problem is the word “your”.

This campaign is an effort to connect with the Gen-Y crowd. One of the important things to keep in mind when dealing with Gen-Y is that they look for something that is “Theirs” or “ours”, something that isn’t handed down from a gray-haired banker trying to get their cash.

The words “your generation” say to me “hey we’re old, but we made this thing hoping you young whipper-snappers will open an account”. To really engage a Gen-Y demographic with a campaign like this it needs to feel like “we made this for us, this is our site, our blog, our product.”

Even if it happens subconsciously, this small piece of wording can undermine the entire effort, put potential Gen-Yers off, and portray an image contrary to what you're going for.

Its all about the small stuff, the tiny details, the words contained within the structure of a “web 2.0” marketing campaign.

So, to all you credit unions looking to start a Y&F style campaign, just because it’s yellow, doesn’t mean its lemonade.

P.S. Resource one, if you’re reading this, please lose the autoplaying video that pops up every time I visit the MLMM site. It’s not cool, its not helpful, its annoying. Thanks.