It would be good to attack people’s perceptions that credit unions are inconvenient in any broad reaching campaign. The basic three-pronged approach would be to hype…

1) Shared branching (if you participate),
2) XX,000 fee-free ATMs members can access (again, if you’re on the right network),
3) free online banking and bill pay.

Newsworthy? Significant? Differentiator?

I think it fits all of those but would love to hear your opinion.

If credit unions could/would pool their dollars, it would yield greater efficiency. Not only would the pooled dollars yield more media, there would be a single message out there. This combination of repetition, frequency and consistency would have a far greater effect than the fractured efforts attempted so far.

There are currently campaigns from CUNA, NCUA, NAFCU, the Pennsylvania League, the ADR Challenge, etc. It’s the same thing that’s been happening for years: everyone tries to do their part, but public perceptions aren’t changing (as SAC’s research reaffirms).

My suggestion is for increased cooperation and consistency, whether that be at the local, state, regional or national level. That’s the basic strategy. Whether iBelong, NAFCU, CUNA or some other entity can pull this off makes no difference. All I know is that there is a place reserved in credit union history for the organization (or idea) that brings the industry together by pooling dollars, getting a single message out there, and changing people’s perceptions.

I’m surprised no one mentioned that CUNA already HAS a national brand campaign (maybe someone did but I missed it). Anyway – it was rolled out in the early 2001 and the tag line is perfect for today’s times:

“Where people are worth more than money!”

http://www.cuna.org/initiatives/cu_brand/index.html

It’s done and paid for. People just have to pony up to use it.

BUT, I personally LOVE LOVE LOVE the brand campaign that the Pennsylvania League developed (and Illinois, Vermont and Mississippi are now running).
http://www.ibelong.org. Good stuff.

Another way I think credit unions could get the most bang for their buck today in raising awareness of financial cooperatives – participate fully in shared branching. Banks are going to be merging, closing branches, reissuing account numbers and plastic cards like crazy in the next year – what an opportunity to do the unthinkable – allow ANY credit union member to go to ANY credit union to conduct business!

So why not look at this glass as half-full? One of the true competitive advantages of credit unions has always been their local focus — on a SEG, a community, and on Members. This is a factor of competition that large, national competitors simply cannot match.

How much more frustrating would it be for our competitors to face a legion of ads across the country, each with a local focus?

I put the minimum funding level for a national campaign around $20 million (per year, for 5-10 years). $50-100 million would definitely do the trick, but $20 million would be enough to start making progress. The only problem is, “Where does this money come from?”

How a national campaign would be funded has always been one of the major sticking points. Large CUs aren’t super excited about the idea because they already have budgets big enough to move the meter on their own, and can do so exclusively to their benefit.

As long as the NCUA, CUNA and NAFCU work independently and are forced to work within their current budgets, and until all credit unions can agree on the need for such a campaign, the prospect of a national media seems admittedly remote.

Instead, we drew a distinction between brand attributes and individual credit union brands. As you note, while there are certainly some common brand attributes that all credit unions share, each individual credit union’s brand is the sum total of the thousand touchpoints they have with Members and prospective Members every day. Everything from SEG versus community charter to branch layout and website design to the specific mix of products and services.

There is no way for us to influence an individual credit union’s brand, but we decided we could offer an ad “platform” based on generic credit union brand attributes that empowers a credit union to (cost-effectively) raise the visibility of their individual brand.

We also see this as a wholistic effort, that there is no single solution. So we’ve also undertaken other efforts to make it easier for consumers to find a credit union. Look at http://www.CULookUP.com, traffic is growing at a rate of about 30% a month since we launched it in October 2008.

Understand these together don’t represent the same level of effort and splash that a glitzy national ad campaign might have, but call it guerilla marketing in the classic sense of the term.

Go to http://www.nafcuservices.com/creditunionads to see them, as well as one that was customized for Pacific Cascades FCU.

We’re also hopeful that the ads will be used, and see this as a modest contribution we can make to assisting the industry in it’s branding and awareness challenge.

Another round of free ads focused on promoting mortgage lending and housing finance for credit unions will be launched soon, look for them in about 6-8 weeks.

In all fairness, there are some great state leagues out there doing a good job to build awareness of credit unions and what they stand for. But there has never been (in my recollection) a single, high-profile national campaign.

Don’t know if you heard about NAFCU’s program which “crowd-sourced” a series of spots via a competition (run by a third party). See http://www.nafcu.org/Content/NavigationMenu/NAFCU_Services_Corp/Press_Releases/CreditUnionAdsAvailablePressRelease_2-18-09.pdf

The first national credit union campaign since Dorothy Hamil in the 1970′s was launched this year at the CUNA GAC. It is called the American Debt Relief Challenge and the goal is to save 37,500 consumers $300 million while increasing credit union net revenue and awareness about the credit union difference.

Credit unions are joining every day and the savings to date are $4,687,368. At the GAC, NCUA Vice Chairman Rodney Hood called the American Debt Relief Challenge, “something all credit unions should look at” during his speech to about 4,000 CUNA GAC conference attendees.

It is only $500 for credit unions to participate and free to credit unions under $25 million.

Ok, I’m done gushing. If anyone has any questions, please feel free to email me melina@adrchallenge.org or call (253) 200-0418.