MAC Blog

KISS: What to do so people "get it"

Kent — 2010-08-30T00:00:00+00:00

The jurors in the Rod Blagojevich trial complained about the 100+ pages of instructions that the judge handed them when they began their 14 days of deliberations. Of the 24 counts, many came in multiple parts and were “highly technical and interconnected.”

According to the NYTimes, the verdict sheet looked like an elaborate IRS form. The jurors, while no dummies, were overwhelmed. “It was like, ‘Here’s a manual, go fly the space shuttle,’” said juror Steve Wlodek. The result, as we all know by now, was one verdict out of 24 counts. The prosecution provided so much information, the jury simply could not connect the dots.

Your marketing can also be too complex to understand.

Far too often marketing tries to cover all bases for all market niches, and as a result, the main benefits of the product or service get buried. Or so many products are featured, there is no one focus. Then, compliance provides so many disclosures that your promotions look like something from a pharmaceutical company.

Is it any wonder that members/the general public don’t respond? When they don’t understand what you are asking them to do, they are simply going to bail out or ignore you.

So here are a few tips to help people “get” your marketing:

Pick one. Don’t try to offer so many variables that it isn’t obvious what you want people to do.

Focus on it. Once you get started writing, keep those creative juices flowing until you finish the draft. Same thing for design.

Set it aside and try not to think about it. Nothing beats the sense of clarity you get when you come back to something after a few hours or the next day.

Ruthlessly edit. Use short words, short sentences, short paragraphs, and one visual.

Spell check. A typo is forever.

Test it with your target audience. If you are trying to persuade someone to do something it should connect with people in the language and ideas they use every day.

About the Author:
Kent Dicken is the head brain behind the "brain." Read more from Kent and the iDiz team.

Reprinted with permission.

Research and Change over Time

Neil — 2010-08-23T00:00:00+00:00

Times change. Member needs and wants change. Staff perceptions change. How recently (and how well) has your credit union changed to adjust? Research can provide the answers.

Consider an individual member’s needs and wants from your credit union over time. For example, there is a dramatic difference for members between selecting a new financial service provider, and maintaining an existing financial service provider. To maintain relationships, two key elements are accuracy and superior service. But when it comes to starting relationships, convenience has long been king. (This too may be changing – read on.) Relationship building is very different at different stages. How can you learn what you need and how you are doing? Research. (Prospective member, new member, transaction, and member experience research.) Specifically, in the current economy, cost savings, security and advocacy have all risen in importance to members.

Consider whom you currently attract vs. whom you are actively targeting. Why do members choose your credit union, and who are the members coming in? Do they represent the types of individuals you can best serve, and with whom you can build long-term relationships? Or are they simply the unintended consequences of a particular promotion, pricing, FOM, or delivery channel?

Even the key reasons and the ways in which members choose your credit union may be changing. In the past, four key drivers of when and why members change providers emerged:

1. Life change or event: moving, new job, marital change, etc.
2. Pushed away: poor service, inaccuracies, excessive fees.
3. Pulled in: marketing offers and promotions (but which)?
4. Selling: Cross-sold through rapport and trust.

Today, the rules still may — and may not — apply. The Internet and virtual convenience are changing the game. The economy is changing the way members look at money. And now, trustworthiness, service and integrity actually have marketing teeth. But what is true for one credit union may not be true for another. Differences in field of membership, demographics, and psychographics matter.

Now, more than ever, is the time to truly understand your members’ wants, needs and perceptions. Now, more than ever, is the time for research.

When we emerge from the recession, Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer noted he and his top executives believe the economy will not rebound, but rather “re-set” to a new, lower level of consumption. Competition may only intensify.

Times are changing. Member perceptions are changing. Don’t get left behind. Do the research. Learn and then act. Know your members. And you will continue to survive – even thrive – into the future.

About the Author:
Neil Goldman, CEO of Goldman Consulting & Strategy, is a leadership and organizational development consultant, having served credit unions in planning, speaking and OD/research in 43 states nationwide. He can be reached at Ngoldman@GCSfirst.com or 310-643-5910.

Printed with permission.

Danger: Business Model Change Ahead

Paul — 2010-08-05T00:00:00+00:00

Danger: Business Model Change Ahead

The passage of the Durbin Amendment likely will give big merchants the power to dictate consumer finance just as they did in the 1950s.

Thanks to Senator Richard Durbin, the American consumer and the credit union business model took a hard right hook to the chin. The passage of the Durbin Amendment likely will give big merchants the power to dictate the terms and fees associated with the card payment system. This is yet another jolt that has caused the credit union business model to jump the tracks.

The idea that big merchants will now dictate which cards they honor, what minimum purchase amounts they’ll accept, and the interchange fee they’ll pay is one more step in returning financial services to the 1950s. Back then, merchants ran consumer finance with their store credit programs.

It didn’t take long for merchants to figure out running a credit operation required credit departments, billing, accounting, and collections. They took losses, and in many cases, having a lending division cost more than the sales it produced.

Financial institutions introduced a product called Bank Americard. It could be used everywhere and merchants paid only a small transaction fee to make the headaches of a consumer lending program disappear. Merchants, who now could easily offer credit, were happy. The new service increased sales and reduced their costs. Who could complain?

Today, greed – the same kind that caused the latest economic collapse –has once again prevailed. Merchants have convinced Congress they are the champions of consumers. Merchants have no responsibility for fraud or to cover fraud losses, have no laws holding them accountable for protecting consumers’ data, don’t have to collect bad debts or reissue cards, and don’t have to maintain a network for 24/7 transaction approval and funding.

Unfortunately, Senator Durbin is rewarding this lack of responsibility and is giving merchants more power. If Senator Durbin really wanted to protect consumers, I think a law requiring both civil and criminal penalties for merchants who fail to prevent consumer data breaches would go much further and do more good than this current campaign.

Although the Durbin legislation has more hurdles to jump before it becomes law, it is important to take note, as this change – along with the overdraft protection opt-in changes, NCUA corporate and share insurance assessment increases, and the proposed ATM fee limit of 50 cents – is one in a series of shocks that will force a major business change.

I don’t want to make predictions, but it seems clear either accounts or services, such as checking, will no longer be free. Credit unions will need to rely on margin rather than fees to pay the bills. This will mean higher rates for credit and lower rates for savings. Consumers will pay more one way or the other.

As for credit unions, most are not margin lenders. They compete on price, and higher rates don’t fit well with that strategy. For many credit unions, capital is still a major issue and likely will be for years to come. Efficiency seems like the only path left. Being a high-cost producer won’t work anymore. Yes, credit unions provide more service than banks, but with more service comes more cost. Unless we figure out how to reduce costs we may be left in the dust.

Most concerning is that the regulatory changes are not yet over. It is impossible to predict what other changes will come along. Dealing with those changes is a sharp curve in the road for everyone, but those who react too late may well be left behind.

If you haven’t noticed our business model jumping the tracks yet, take notice. Times and models are changing, and when the dust from the recession clears, we will find ourselves in a very different world.

Reprinted with permission. Originally published at creditunions.com. Paul is Senior Vice President at Arizona State Credit Union, Board Member of the Marketing Association of Credit Unions (MAC) and all-around nice guy. Find him on Twitter @Paulsworld

Be More Differenter

Administrator — 2010-04-28T00:00:00+00:00

Remember those Kraft Macaroni and Cheese commercials a while back, where kids exclaimed “It’s more cheesier ?” I cringed every time I heard this phrase, and so did thousands of other writers and English majors. Painful grammar aside, the Kraft marketers have a point. To succeed, you have to amplify the differences. Crank up the cheese until it’s salty, tangy, and fluorescent orange - get as far away as you can from the bland, rubbery church basement casserole.

Millions of people are fed up with banks and ripe for something different, yet they simply can’t detect the slightest difference at their local credit union. But you’ve got a very real difference - lots of them. Differentiation is the secret weapon of the credit union marketer, so let’s turn that CU flavor up to “”11” . The “more differenter “ you are, the better your chances of finding and keeping a rabidly loyal audience. Here are a few ideas to get you started:

1) Escape the Commodity Trap. The truth is, pretty much everyone has free checking and competitive loan rates. Yawn. What if you could do something for your members that no one else can or will? What could this be? I dunno. It depends completely on your credit union and your members. What can you think of that would make life better in some new, unexpected way?

2) Banish the Weasel Words. Everyone else uses fine print to weasel more money out of people. So be different - be the anti-weasel credit union. Understand the actual regulations and risks involved, and slash, rewrite and wipe out the fine print.

Read three more iDiz at this link.

Kent Dicken is El Queso Grande of iDiz Incorporated, where they help marketers make better credit unions. Contact him at 317-576-0602 or kent@idizinc.com.

Reprinted with permission.

Marketing: Dawn of New Day

Administrator — 2010-04-09T00:00:00+00:00

The fact of the matter is that around the world, in every industry, there is a shift that is occurring in marketing. Marketers need to reassess and reconsider their marketing plans and budgets. There are two different but related areas of consideration that should be of utmost importance to every markter:

#1 Where are people spending more time today? And related to this, where will they be spending more time tomorrow?

#2 How do we make our marketing campaigns more relevant and measurable?

Virutally in all domains, what you will find is that the time that individuals spend online is higher than you thought, and is increasing at a fast clip. That does not mean that you abandon all forms of traditional media overnight, but it does mean that you can benefit greatly from both traditional and new media.

For an interesting chart that lists the amount of time people spend with other forms of media and more details on forms of new media, read the white-paper posted on the MAC site at this link.

Preetha Pulusani, CEO, Deep Target Inc.

Reprinted with permission.

If a Member Comments via Social Media and Your CU is not Around to Hear It… Does it Still Make Noise?

Administrator — 2010-03-15T00:00:00+00:00

The Dominoes employee who set the social media world ablaze by tampering with food then posting a video of it on YouTube made some noise. Patrons berating small business owners on Yelp! make noise. The ability of social media phenomenon to make their way into mainstream media coverage is enough for many credit union marketers to swear off social media campaigns forever. But abstinence won't work.

If your credit union doesn't have a Facebook or Twitter account, that doesn't mean that conversations about your organization aren't taking place on social networks. What's worse, these conversations are often initiated by the outliers of your brand experience – those who are disgruntled because of a bad experience or misinformed about why they were treated a certain way. Having a formal system in place for tracking conversations about your credit union, and others in your area, will help you proactively manage your online identity.

Here is a checklist for setting up a social media line of defense:

1. Allow one employee to take ownership over the process and put it into their formal job description. Counting on many people who are already overwhelmed with work will result in sporadic, shoddy monitoring. After establishing a baseline and tracking standards, consider incentivizing the employee for locating relevant comments and responding effectively. This is what social media is allabout, the power to turn a negative experience into a positive one. In fact, many disgruntled social media users are looking for exactly that, a response.

2. Set up guidelines for responding to comments. Not all comments warrant responses. In some cases, engaging in a social media battle can spur more negative commentary. Define the line between someone looking to pick a fight and someone blowing off steam. Unfortunately these guidelines may come as a result of trial and error.

3. Empower employees with the right tools for monitoring social media. View a CUtv clip on about ways that credit unions can use new and free technology to monitor their brand.

Chris Tissue, Industry Analyst, Callahan & Associates, Inc

Reprinted with permission.

Five iDiz on How to Grow Green

Administrator — 2010-03-08T00:00:00+00:00

More people are paying a lot more attention to Green these days, and not just in their accounts and in their wallets. They are also paying attention to how environmentally friendly the companies are that they interact with.

How “green” a business is can even be the deciding factor in whether or not they are selected as a business partner. As a result, there are a lot of questionable claims being made by companies that are trying to connect with this green movement, which in turn makes skeptics of us all. So if your credit union is “Thinking Green” for your next marketing pitch, just be sure it rings true.

Here are five ideas (and the financial institutions that have used them):

1. Shredding Days to help members get rid of documents that could expose them to identity theft, plus sign them up for bill pay and e-statements. (Spokane Teachers CU)

2. Green Accounts that let current accounts change to avoid unnecessary paper (no paper statements, no checks, no mailings, etc.), get cash rewards for doing so, and help plant some trees. (HSBC)

3. Lower rate home equity loans for energy saving home renovations (VanCity) or lower mortgage rates for greener houses. (TD Canada Trust)

4. Discounts/lower rates for fuel efficient car loans. (VanCity, Credit Union Atlantic, Florida CU, NIH FCU, MIT FCU and many, many others)

5. Visa cards that accumulate points/share profits with local environmental groups. (VanCity)

Kent Dicken is El Queso Grande of iDiz Incorporated, where they help marketers make better credit unions. Contact him at 317-576-0602 or kent@idizinc.com.

Reprinted with permission.

MAC on CU Chat Up

Administrator — 2010-02-18T00:00:00+00:00

In case you didn't see Paul Stull's post on the MAC message board, he was recently interviewed on CU Chat Up. The show was broadcasted on Wednesday, February 17. If you missed it, you can listen to the entire broadcast. Or, just listen to Paul's interview.

Carla Day is the host and her weekly program features lots of news and marketing insight concerning the credit union world. Carla is a bit of a phenom herself and is a former CU marketer who found herself on the wrong side of the economy. She was downsized by her credit union, but continues to serve the industry through her Twitter stream (@carladay and @cuchatup) and her latest endeavor on blogtalkradio. Carla's background in marketing and credit unions is a great platform to examine the industry. Her weekly shows have been a great example of the tenacity of marketing folk and I admire her spirit and willingness to give back to the industry. This is one smart woman!

Sarah Cecchin, Assistant Vice President, Marketing, Pacific Service Credit Union

MAC 2010 Chair-Elect

Advocacy Has Never Been Easier and More Important for Our Industry

Administrator — 2009-12-01T08:00:00+00:00

If you have been following the legislative agenda in Washington DC lately, you probably know that the second biggest issue behind health care reform is financial reform. The legislation already in place or being debated will greatly effect our industry for years to come. Most of it is not positive.

One of the biggest challenges for credit unions is that we keep getting thrown in the pot with the bad guys. In other words, the mistakes that created this crisis weren’t made by us, but the solutions and safeguards effect us nonetheless.

Additionally, for every political dollar that credit unions donate, the banking industry donates four. Whom do you think gets the most attention?

As an example of what advocacy support can do, the credit card reform act was recently modified so it does what it set out to do: Better regulate credit cards. Without the grassroots efforts of our industry, this never would have been modified so soon after it became legislation. Other issues facing us head-on include Courtesy Pay, Interchange income, and the current Member Business Loan cap. Until our legislators let their collective feet off the gas pedal, we are in for a long, hard fight to defeat negative legislation and to support anything that will help us.

As a result, the need for a strong voice in Washington has never been more necessary. That is where you come in. Advocacy has never been easier and more important for our industry.

The California and Nevada Credit Union Leagues have created “Connect for the Cause”, which is an extremely user-friendly way to make sure that our legislators hear our voice. It takes less than a minute to register (click here), and about as long to send pre-scripted letters advocating our cause to your respective decision makers. If you want to customize your letter, you can do that, too. Governmental affairs professionals will tell you that politicians definitely count responses, so every time you click and send, you are strengthening our collective voice.

CUNA offers a similar website for anyone, anywhere. It is an ideal site you can use to become informed, stay connected, and make your voice heard by the decision makers.

As marketers, we are truly the voice of our credit unions – if not directly – certainly as facilitators. Advocacy at a time when our industry is on the attack from our legislators and from our competitors is the best defense, and a timely marketing strategy. Once you get your fellow employees and also your members “connected,” our cause will have more strength needed to have a powerful voice inside the beltway.

Scott Coe, SVP Marketing, CoastHills Federal Credit Union

MAC 2009-2010 Chair

Stay Relevant, My Friend

Administrator — 2009-09-01T08:00:00+00:00

During our recent virtual learning lab, the speaker, Denise Wymore, started off her presentation with some concerning news: Two of her colleagues had recently found out that their marketing roles were no longer essential in their respective companies, and as a result, they were out of a job.

This got me to thinking. Is this part of our “new normal?” Will more and more marketers find themselves faced with a similar fate, as their roles lose their relevance during these unprecedented economic challenges?

In a sense, many of us have lost our jobs over the past few months. But, luckily, we are still employed. The role we played within our credit union has certainly changed. Whereas our focus centered on growing deposits, members, and loans for so long, we now focus on survival, on building a brand without spending money, and on being progressive marketers during a recessive economy.

What defense do we have when the relevance of our roles comes in question? The best advice to any colleague in times like this is to be willing to do just about anything. “It’s not in my job description” should not be in your job description. The desire and willingness to be flexible, to do what is needed, and to support your organization’s direction is critical.

Flexibility will not only enhance your relevance, but can provide you with a broader range of expertise. Areas such as public relations and event planning may already be part of your existing duties, but perhaps there is opportunity to get involved in training and education. An active role in the community, be it in volunteer work or in service organizations, is also an opportunity for you. The more you can be the face of your organization, the harder it will be to justify for that face to disappear.

Your MAC Board of Directors is taking a similar approach with this association. We will continue to rethink how we can provide the value and the benefits to our membership while travel budgets get squeezed and/or eliminated altogether.

In the coming months, we aim to stay relevant to our members by making information and education as easy as possible to access. Our goal is to become a key source for you – THE key source for you.

Through an enhanced website, “virtual learning labs”, and our one day Mini-MAC conference, we will provide interesting, relevant, and applicable information to you. And hopefully, all this will lead up to a successful conference in Palm Desert in May 2010, where we’ll gather and realize that the combined strength of marketers is the best way to stay relevant, vibrant, and to grow together.

Scott Coe, SVP Marketing, CoastHills Federal Credit Union

MAC 2009-2010 Chair