BofA Now Knows When You’re in the House.

Confession. I’m a BofA customer.

I know, I know…. but c’mon, don’t be a hater.

I’ve been with them a long fourteen years and at this point, it’s just too sticky. Early on, I needed nationwide ATM access. Plus it was handy to tell my credit union and community bank clients that I had to do my banking… “neutral”. It was a safe bet that I wouldn’t be consulting with BofA in the foreseeable future. And if I ever did, I guess I would have to bank “off shore” or something. Whatever that means.

I find myself needing to visit our safe deposit box on a frequent basis and that takes me into the branch (hmm… isn’t it interesting how safe deposit box access is diminishing). Today, I was greeted by a pleasant concierge, which in of itself is not a new thing, but she asked to see my debit card. Then she swiped it. In seconds she was looking at my entire relationship with the bank.

Theresa then calls me by name and wants to know how she can help me today. She summons Marla, who walks me over to the boxes. Along the way, Marla raves about the new mobile app and wants to make sure I am using it. Did I see the new check deposit feature? If not, she’d be happy to demo it for me. That’s a channel agnostic point-of-view if I’ve ever heard one, right?

Mission accomplished and I’m leaving the vault and there’s Richard to greet me. He just wanted me to know that he was the permanent on-site Merrill Lynch representative and that my status with the bank allows for a free consult. I passed, but enjoyed a quick banter, as he was nice enough.

On my way out, Theresa makes sure all my needs have been taken care of and she let me know that my current home equity line of credit has just a couple of years left before it needs to be renewed. She was fishing, but she still found a way to bait me with a relevant and helpful factoid. Smart.

It was a most pleasant experience. Why? Because they addressed me by name, knew enough about my situation and were not pushy about trying to dial it up. That’s engagement, folks! And before everyone starts to write me and tell me that’s what they do in their branches… I’m not talking about really knowing me. I’m talking about using technology to shape the experience into a differentiated personal engagement. Just like I find in the airline clubs, Apple stores and at the hotel check-in desks. I don’t want or expect these brands to know me, just respect me.

Debit card swiping seems almost antiquated. Think RFID chips, smartphones, biometrics and other Matrix-inspired technology. Think how this quick check-in step becomes the key to the whole in-branch experience.

The rush is on to transform branches from a transaction channel into a relationship channel. Conversations are the goal and having knowledge about the person standing before you becomes the starter.

I’m looking forward to my next interaction with Theresa, Marla and Richard. Or Debi, Carlos and Alisha. It won’t matter that I don’t know them, they’ll know me.

Where is the future taking us?

I’ve spent a great deal of time travelling across the country in credit union land past few months. I have talked with credit unions from the Caribbean to Canada, across the Midwest and all points between who do a fabulous job of doing what credit unions do best – building relationships with people.

As I’ve listened, taken notes and absorbed what I’ve seen and heard, I continue to reflect back to when I was much younger guy (some of you may even remember that) in the industry and what has, and hasn’t changed. From a marketing standpoint – wow. The exuberance and challenges held by a handful of us back in the 80′s and 90′s – that we were going to make a difference and break our credit unions out of the box in the process – has now been echoed by an infinite number of brash, young, smart marketers across the country who ARE making that difference. And what a great thing it is to see.

Talking to CEO’s, COO’s and even some Board members, they are seeing that same shift in what we’ve all be working to validate for many years. They acknowledge that marketing needs a seat at the big table. They acknowledge that marketing is the key (yes – the key) to the success of many for their overall strategic goals that continue to move their credit union forward. And, they acknowledge that more marketers are seeking to grab the reins of “their” jobs someday. Kudos to all who have recognized this shift. And the same to all those who are making it happen as we speak.

As for the future? I can only hope we keep pushing and challenging ourselves to make that changes that result in wallet share growth and member advocacy. To look for better ways to serve our members and the communities we live in – not for better ways to serve ourselves. That we continue to recognize that the potential for us to do great things is where this industry has the potential to succeed.

Where is the future taking your credit union? Somewhere bright?

Balancing your member messaging

Before focusing my attention on retail financial services branding, I spent the majority of my marketing career working with and for traditional retailers. Retail marketing and advertising is not for the faint of heart. No other category of business is judged so tightly as retail, where success is measured in comparative daily sales year over year.

With that monkey-on-the back looming over the marketing department, it’s very tempting to spend precious advertising dollars in one way – driving daily foot traffic with promotional events and price/item messages.

While some chains may attribute their growth to a sales event-only strategy, one only has to look at the major category players to recognize that these successful retailers run a boatload of brand messages to separate themselves from the pack. They have recognized their conundrum… that you have to brand for the long haul, but drive traffic in the short term… mostly to satisfy Wall Street. So they find their way into a balanced approach to their messaging.

Have you thought about your credit union’s balance of messaging? Perhaps it’s worthy of exploration. There are many ways to slice the spend. Such as:

  • branding vs. promotion
  • acquisition vs. retention
  • products vs. services
  • blast vs. direct
  • traditional vs. digital/social
  • media delivery vs. in-branch
  • credit union business vs. community
  • internal vs. external
  • network-wide vs. market focus
  • one target market vs. another

I’m sure you can think of other elements for comparison. The balancing act becomes even more dicey when you add the dimensions together. For instance… branding in media vs. branding in the branch. You can start to imagine the complexity.

How do you go about balancing your messages? Maybe you do it around seasonality? Or, maybe you put all of your horses in a single race? I’m betting there’s a good chance you do it the way you do because that’s the way you did it last year.  And the year before… the “that’s the way we’ve always done it” syndrome.

For 2013, I encourage you to shake things up. View your advertising through a new set of lenses. Experiment with different formulas. No two credit unions will end up with the same balance… that’s OK, just don’t get caught tipping the scale too much in one direction, or you may end up getting the same results you always do.

The branch ship has not sailed

Fear not. This isn’t yet another post in the long line of recent rhetoric on whether the branch is alive or dead. You may be the one without a pulse if you’ve missed the litany of pundits lining up to support or depose the branch as a viable channel in retail financial services.  But, if you’re like me, you’ve grown weary of all the branch naysayers with their death-knoll drumbeat of how backward organizations are if they continue to invest in brick & mortar. Most of these tarot-reading prophets come from the IT world, or from international climes that don’t connect to mainstreet in any way, shape or form.

To be fair, I will say that they are probably correct with some of their vision. The key to whether or not you drink their Kool-Aid though is tempered in degrees… degrees of shift, degrees of timing, degrees of transformation. As ships sail to far off destinations, captains are constantly adjusting navigation routes to ensure safe and efficient journeys… mostly with just a few degrees of manipulation.

Recently I had the opportunity to converse with quite a number of industry captains in retail financial services – the CMOs and marketing execs of brick & mortar networks. Together, we had attended a conference session where we heard the latest thinking regarding the future of consumers and their financial habits. As you might imagine, it was 100% focused on technology channels. Period. No room for branches. Over and out.

But as we chatted after the session, it became abundantly clear that everyone was like-minded in their response… “interesting, but…”

  • Interesting, but that will never work in my markets.
  • Interesting, but we don’t even have 50% debit card penetration.
  • Interesting, but my median account base is over 45 years old.
  • Interesting, but my branches are packed.
  • Interesting, but in my rural markets people won’t even use online banking.

And it went on and on. You get the point, as did I, branch banking should continue to evolve. As will wearable internet connections, flying cars and other technology-driven services that I’m not smart enough to even imagine. But it is not going to happen overnight. We all agreed that it will happen in degrees and stages and we talked about various ways to start the branch transformation process. Such as:

  • optimizing the branch network
  • shrinking the branch footprint
  • transitioning from transaction-focused spaces to service-oriented spaces
  • defining culture and brand and then manifesting that definition into brick & mortar
  • creating engagement spaces to differentiate the branch experience
  • employing more technology such as interactive kiosks, tablets and digital signage
  • providing more robust sales and service tools to branch staff

These are the conversations we should be having and not whether the branch is dead or alive. If my sampling of marketers is indicative, it’s the conversation that everyone in the c-suite wants to have.  Nobody wants to miss the sailing ship. The good news is that it’s still in port, so let the journey begin.

What can an astro-physicist teach us about marketing?

I’m a big fan of Neil deGrasse Tyson, famed astrophysicist at the Hayden Planetarium and unofficial Earth ambassador for all things science. He’s a fast thinking, fast talking genius.

And in a recent interview, he had this to say about hard work:

“In whatever you choose to do, do it because it’s hard, not because it’s easy. Math and physics and astrophysics are hard. For every hard thing you accomplish, fewer other people are out there doing the same thing as you. That’s what doing something hard means. And in the limit of this, everyone beats a path to your door because you’re the only one around who understands the impossible concept or who solves the unsolvable problem.”

Well said, Dr. Tyson.  

For us non-physicists, go ahead and replace “math and physics and astrophysics” with whatever line of work you’re in — and you’re left with a pretty good formula for a successful (and never boring) career.

More of that conversation with Neil deGrasse Tyson can be read here.

 

 

 

Is your brand in stellar health, in need of a “refresh,” or needing some serious work?

Great health rarely comes from one simple solution like changing your diet, sleeping more, or just exercise alone. You treat the roots, not just the symptoms.

You start first with a good diagnosis and assessment about the state of your health from a well trained professional – physical, mental, even emotional. You uncover what’s brought you to the state you’re in – before you take a friend’s advice to leap on a treadmill – or worse, to drink wheat grass shots. You look at the whole body and mind, not just the surface.

What does this have to do with your financial institution’s brand?

Probably the most frequent comment I hear across the US and Canada from financial executives is, “I’m not sure we know what our brand is internally, let alone how we’re doing on delivering it out in the market.” What is that such a huge question without clear answers?

A “brand” is not done when you update your logo, add mobile banking, build a new branch, upgrade your website or even change names to differentiate yourself. Former Disney CEO Michael Eisner described it succinctly saying, “a brand is a living entity, the sum of a thousand small gestures.” Great brands require nurturing, focus, alignment and clear metrics to adapt and remain relevant.

So how do you discover the state of your brand?

Brand health requires a serious outside, unbiased expert assessment, evaluation and research-based checkup to see how well it is performing, keeping pace with changing times, being lived out internally among staff and evolving in rapidly changing online channels across a myriad of consumer facing touch points.

Brands are at different stages of vitality and decline and uncovering what’s needed requires serious attention, starting with your members and your markets.

Financial service consumers today are savvy, time-starved, convenience-driven, skeptical shoppers who make countless decisions every day based on brand preference.

At rare moments, they need a “bank (just a verb)” – to loan them funds to buy a home, make a deposit, find a decent saving rate, or open a checking account. They literally have thousands of choices delivered in every media possible on a daily basis.

Here’s where your brand challenge begins: with limited marketing dollars, a handful of branches, and maybe a “legacy name” tied to a declining sponsor, you have to find a compelling and vibrant brand story to stand out beyond the competition. That’s a far cry from the old days when Motorola, John Deere and federal employees lined up to join their credit union, worked at one job for 35 years and would never consider another option for savings and auto loans.

The “good old credit union days” of total loyalty and lifelong relationships are as distant a memory as Polaroid and Oldsmobile. Especially among consumers under 35 who don’t even know what a credit union is.

While all of us would love to have the legacy and name/brand power of Navy Credit Union or USAA, with an unlimited source of members and a razor-focused growing market, many credit unions face real-life market challenges: dwindling market share, growing competition, price margin squeezes, costly technology and low net member growth.

Brands are defined by your members’ perceptions of many messages, impressions – including your name. Brands are built from direct first and indirect second hand interactions. Some of those experiences are within your control and must be carefully managed – and some are not. So if you’re seeking real strategic guidance on enhancing your brand health, you need to consider a broad perspective and all the analytical tools, strategies and options you can get to actively manage and focus your brand internally and externally to good health.

If you want to know the value and impact of some healthy name and brand strategies that looked to the future and acted boldly to compete, ask a few CEO’s like Bob Kane of Red Canoe Credit Union, who changed names in 2007 fro Weyerhaeuser Employees Credit Union. Or ask Roger Michealis from Vancouver, WA, who changed names in 2004 and generated 15% new member growth in 2005 with the new name iQ Credit Union. Talk with Bob Boland, CEO of AltaOne Credit Union in Ridgecrest, CA who changed his credit union’s name from Naval Weapons Central Community Federal Credit Union to AltaOne in 1999. Imagine answering that phone before the name change. How about attracting Gen Y members for car loans with a bullet-proof name like Naval Weapons?

We all know JD Powers and Associates for their consumer brand research for the nation’s auto brands. In 2006, they expanded that brand knowledge into financial services. And there are MAJOR brand differences between consumer passion for their cars and Harley motorcycles – and their checking accounts and CD’s.

Even great brands without intelligent marketing strategy and execution will struggle. 

Beware too that the current branding craze does not replace intelligent research-based marketing and well-focused growth strategies. They should be balanced with both increasing your existing loyal members and targeting future growth prospects. Focusing all your marketing efforts solely on your existing members without mining for younger members, first-time home buyers, or under-banked segments that have not yet established a “banking relationship” can be a time bomb for many credit unions facing an aging and often declining member base, a safety net of high capital, but a deadly downward earnings trend.

Don’t make the too common mistake of the board setting an arbitrary number of brand new $50 single-service members in the door (to appease your board), for the need to attract the next generation of borrowers, savers, small business owners and people who will need trusted financial advice and lightning-fast answers and delivery before a before a bank locks them into a great package.

The next time a “brand expert” tells you to turn the clock 30 years back and move back into your shrinking sponsors’ cafeteria branch, run for the hills. Or just stick your head in the sand and pretend there aren’t new community banks springing up all around you…that non-bank financial competitors like Mango and eLoan won’t impact your members…or that intelligent branding and growth marketing decisions – even name changes – sometimes do make sense.

Your marketplace is very dynamic and changes in member’s lives require innovative brand strategies and decisions beyond pretty brochures and more staff service training.

Successful brands evolve.

Your credit union’s brand is a living, changing being that needs healthy legs, a beating heart – and brains to be sustained and grown. And just like your member’s financial lives, a healthy brand requires regular and informed diagnostics, comprehensive growth strategies that look forward – not backward, smart targeted marketing choices and a creative and experienced team guiding it forward.

Understanding how your brand image evolves among members – and especially among your wider communities of SEG’s, sponsors and community markets and even the unique needs of members with small businesses and investment properties requires a sound strategic understanding of your current brand position, your target markets, a sound marketing strategy aligned with strategic goals and critical issues like:

  • Are your service satisfaction levels or NPS scores translating into increased share of wallet among existing members, higher prospect referrals and growth monthly?
  • Do you know which member segments are most profitable and have a plan to retain and grow them – and maybe even call them regularly? The old 80-20 rule is now much closer to 11-14% of members generating 90% of all profits. Can you afford to lose even one of them?
  • Who are you targeting to grow the credit union in the future and reach key new prospects? Is your brand helping you, or hindering your ability to reach out and attract them in relevant, meaningful ways that set you apart from the competition?
  • Do they really want to “join” your credit union, or are they looking for value, speed, convenience, 24/7 mobile access, expertise or lower ATM fees?
  • How is your brand being lived out internally to deliver consistently on your “promise” that is a sustainable and evolving competitive advantage? Does your staff even know your unique competitive advantages that are relevant to members and do they share them consistently?

Brands, like your members, are evolving, changing and dynamic. And like your physical health, they require good check ups, smart diagnostics, consistent and well focused energies to keep them on target – and intelligent decision making backing them up.

Is it time for an honest and meaningful brand assessment before your credit union’s health starts declining, membership starts shrinking or even a Red Bull can’t pump you up?

Simple

Having heard about an interesting new banking website called Simple, I was intrigued to see what it was all about. So in January 2011, I signed up to receive an invitation from a start-up called “Bank Simple” – later renamed “Simple.” The start-up is based in Portland, Oregon and what caught my eye is that it was a bank – but not just a regular bank – a bank dedicated to someone who actually uses online banking. I later found out that it is not actually a bank at all, but instead partnered with a bank to offer banking services.

I received my invite seven months later in July, and found myself lost with amazement on a banking site. Yes, a banking site actually caught my attention. And I deal with many banks and credit unions on a daily basis but find it hard to keep that much excitement around how much I spend or deposit and whether I’m actually saving or spending my cash (plus some).

Let’s face it – most people don’t balance their checkbook anymore. It’s tough (also boring) trying to figure out how much money you spend on coffee each month. But Simple’s user interface (UI) is slick. It combines two major things I enjoy looking at when trying to figure out my finances. It combines organizing your cash into categories with location services. You can tag your purchases easily – allowing you to divide up and organize your finances how you want, similar to organizing your photos or trying to find something on Twitter.

Simple’s UI amazes me because it has so much potential and you can clearly see the direction the company is going. They have found a niche. Geezeo and Mint have tried, but didn’t quite fill the void. I look forward to seeing how this industry will help those who are trying to make sense out of a very complex topic – by making it truly simpler to bank.

How are executives viewing Financial Marketing evolution amidst this economic cycle?

Since the financial crisis broke four years ago, the expectation of senior management leaders for high-impact marketing has never been higher. It has led a number of credit unions to re-examine their traditional marketing, brand image, name, products and even campaigns that worked for years but are no longer driving desperately needed results.

With the NCUA’s forced recapitalization, the crunch of loan losses and reserves, many leaders have tapped cost cutting measures and are now turning to marketing to drive earnings, new sources of fee income and overall member growth. The pressure is rising for marketing results.

In the last 18 months, I have never heard from so many credit union CEO’s sharing their challenge to grow new members, stimulate loan volume (amidst low demand), expand online and mobile channels and grow new revenue streams like small business banking.

Stimulating Member Growth and Standing Apart

The CEO often starts with their search for a brand or name diagnostic process, the need for research and branding strategies that can differentiate on relevant issues – to drive new member growth:

  • “Why aren’t we growing new young members with all the great news around credit unions and public sentiments around Bank Transfer Day?”
  • “Why is our awareness so low and our brand and name not resonating in the market?”
  • “Can I rally my staff around a fresh, new brand transformation to raise the bar on service above ‘friendly’ and deepen relationships?”

The conversations often delve into requests for more fact-based, data-driven market analysis and market segmentation – not just among members, but of the population and product demand surrounding branches:

  • “How do we evaluate our market share of demographic and geographic areas?”
  • “What targets should we be marketing to that resonate with our philosophy?”
  • “Do we have the right products today to attract those segments?”
  • “Are our branches located in the right markets to reach and attract new targets?”
  • “Do we have the right branch model to take us into the future and drive results?”

The common thread among those CEO calls is often the need for a deeper strategic marketing dive into the keys to future younger member growth, competitive brand positioning and well planned channel distribution required to accelerate growth, increase performance and raise earnings. And both credit union marketing departments and national marketing agencies like Weber Marketing Group are being asked to bring a higher level of expertise, skills and tools to the table that are strategic, long-range and holistic across the organization to drive results.

Marketing in the New Economy is About Results and Brand Impact

OK, breathe deep marketers…it’s getting tougher being a marketer with all the demands for results and expertise in these challenging times. And some marketers are responding dramatically. We have seen a number of marketing leaders making tough fundamental changes to their team structure, hiring new positions like ecommerce Manager and Business Development Manager. This is an exciting time to raise your existing teams’ skill sets, re-shuffle marketing strategies and priorities and understand where your marketing budget can increase results. It’s also just as important to educate credit union executives about important brand investments and results like:

  • Building brand awareness that raises confusing market perceptions of “credit union,” towards a more positive alternative provider of banking services, that’s also “cool” and relevant (think ing direct).
  • Creating an internal brand culture that lives and breathes the brand in new, passionate and well trained actions and behaviors.
  • Making investments in emerging “mobile wallet” technologies like remote deposit, SMS text, ‘tap and pay’ systems and SEO-enabled (search engine optimization) website enhancements needed to attract Gen Y and Gen X consumers.
  • Finding fresh new ways to design innovative new branch models that leverage new technologies and set your CU service and brand image apart, while generating an increased and profitable share of wallet.
  • Ensuring your brand demonstrates direct positive impacts you are making in your communities, without being too “quiet” or hidden about your work.

Be Cautious of Marketing Trends that Don’t Drive Meaningful Results

Some marketing “must have” solutions, that many executives have been hearing the past few years have not instilled confidence, as they can eat up precious resources and have yet to deliver sustained, impactful results:

  • You must have an impactful Gen Y program (results have been limited, with some great exceptions at a handful of credit unions like Educational Employees in CA)
  • You ‘must’ have a brilliant and impactful Facebook, Twitter and blog presence (a February, 2012 study in thefinancialbrand notes that 1/5 of CU’s have deactivated their Twitter accounts. Even some billion dollar CU’s have fewer than 500 “likes” and are unsure what to do with them)

That’s not to put a damper on innovation and emerging trends (social media will have an emerging role in future marketing and branding), it’s to be discerning on focusing your marketing strategy, time and limited resources for programs and tactics that achieve corporate goals.

The new economy keeps raising the bar for the caliber of strategic marketing for some heady issues ranging from technology trends, channel migration, market segmentation and product development, to profit marketing and corporate social responsibility. Leaders want to see innovation and creativity, but they are demanding a solid strategic plan backed with solid results in loan, new member, brand management and fee income growth.

While the credit union industry can thank BofA, Citi and Wells for their fee-based stumbles in driving a wave of new consumers into the arms of credit unions – not every credit union capitalized equally. Did your credit union capture a large wave of new members in the 4th quarter of 2011? Do you have the strong, appealing brand image, convenient branches, products and technologies that can sustain growth in the future?

This is credit union marketing’s greatest moment to make a strategic difference. Seize it.

What does the credit union carrot we’re really dangling look like?

Experts. They all have the answers, right? I think that’s what differentiates those who claim to be experts of the credit union industry from those who merely state that they are “students of branding” for the industry. The latter are the people who know how to ask questions and challenge you. They’re the people who don’t pretend to know who you are and what you should be doing to elevate your message and your experience to members and consumers without asking some smart questions first.

I found this very same group in Las Vegas, where they totally reenergized me as a teacher and mentor during the CUNA Marketing Management School Year 1 class. I heard some pretty interesting questions coming from this new group of 70 enlightened marketers, and thought to myself, these are the kinds of questions that should be shared, and then answered, by everyone at the credit union. Did I say everyone? Yes. Everyone – call center, volunteers, MSR loan officers and senior management. You want buy-in for what you’re doing? Make people care. And you do that by including them in as many process-altering projects as you can.

Here are a few of the discussion points from the marketers, day 1, fired up, and ready to go. They start out like this:

  • What if we made it all about service?
    • Building relationships instead of making staff  “sell” our products and services. If we become the member’s trusted advisor, they will always look to us for the right answers if and when they need something.
    • And what if the answer wasn’t us – and we recommended another credit union to them? What kind of message would that send them? Oh yeah…maybe that we really did care about them?
  • What if we concentrated on giving everyone a great experience when they call us, come in to the branch, see us at a community event, or find us online?
    • What would, and should, that look like? And what would we get out of it?
      • Repeat business
      • Larger share of wallet
      • Word-of-mouth advocates talking about how great we are
      • An elevated brand identity
  • What if we drove culture though random rewards and recognition for staff members who truly deserved it?
  • What if our Mission Statement really told people what our purpose was and didn’t sound like 4,000 other credit union Mission Statements?
  • What if we encouraged our entire staff to present ideas and solutions to help the credit union align with their Brand Position?
  • What if we communicated with each other? And I’m not talking about what we TELL our staff…I’m talking about really communicating with them the way we’d like them to communicate with us.
  • What if we encouraged our staff to innovate, engage, and live the brand?

You want to know what your marketers are thinking about and what they’d like to be asking others on the credit union leadership team? Here ya go. They are all about wanting to make a difference. Help them believe in what we are as cooperatives serving consumers, and doing it better than anyone else in the country.

Let them tell the story – and give them the tools to do it.

From Beer to Brand

What can Craft Breweries teach us about building a distinctive financial brand? If you’re Colorado’s Elevations Credit Union, nestled in the Napa Valley of beer, the answer is, a lot. In this recorded MAC webinar, you’ll learn how Elevations and Weber Marketing Group tapped into the soul of the community to retool the Elevations brand, boost market awareness and generate some impressive results:

  • Mind Share: #1 Financial Institution
  • Brand Awareness: 8% Increase
  • Membership Growth: 26% over 4 years
  • Preferred Financial Institution: 65% of members
  • Checking Accounts: 75% of members
  • Loyalty: Two times greater than nearest competitor