Callahan & Associates, the credit union industry’s leading analytics firm and publishers of CreditUnions.com, have just released their 2010 Credit Union Directory. Comparing this year’s directory against last year’s, The Financial Brand has noted 75 substantive name changes.

Some of these name changes may be due to mergers, but most frequently, credit unions change names for one of these three reasons:

1. The credit union’s primary sponsor has disappeared, or dwindled to such a point that it can no longer sustain membership.
2. The credit union feels its name is geographically limiting and/or exclusive to certain types of people (e.g., teachers).
3. The credit union can no longer use another organization’s brand name. This is typically triggered by a request from the primary sponsor’s lawyers, but sometimes by another financial institution asserting trademark rights.

From this year’s new names:

• 11 credit unions included the word “Community”: Arlington Community, Champion Community, Community, Community Driven, Memberfocus Commmunity, My Community, NMTW Community, Prestige Community, Total Community, Valley One Community and Vue Community.
• 7 reduced their names to acronyms: CEFCU, CSE, MaPS, MCT, ME/CU, NMTW and USE.
• 7 are coined names: Altana, Aventa, Cinfed, Genisys, Meritrust, TruStone and Vue Community.
• 3 use the number “one”: Alabama One, Metro 1 and Valley One Community.
• 3 credit unions ditched the word “First” in their name, while one put it in: University First.
• 2 credit unions used alphanumeric constructions: Med5 and Metro 1.

It might be time to update The Financial Brand’s list of The Top 50 Most Distinctive Credit Union Names. Which ones do you think belong in the list?

Further Reading: Anyone in the financial marketing arena should know “How to Look Up a Financial Trademark in 10 Easy Steps.” And here are some of other stories about credit union name changes as reported here at The Financial Brand:

• The do’s and don’ts of CU acronyms
• The ‘Community Credit Union’ fallacy
• The most common words in credit union names
• What does ‘Federal’ do for FCUs?
• From “America’s who?” to “ACU who?”
• Advanta forces Avanta to become ‘Altana’
• Credit union picks ‘Wildfire’ as new name
• Two credit unions merge to create ‘Genisys’
• Credit union completes transformation to ‘Centric’
• Credit union picks ‘Aventa’ as new moniker

Also, please contact The Financial Brand for your copy of “The Credit Union Guide to The Name Change Decision,” a comprehensive, 33-page analysis of the strategic renaming issues that apply to any financial institution considering a name change.

The Financial Brand sat down with Nancy Radermecher, President of John Ryan, a global retail marketing agency specializing in total store messaging systems, to talk about digital signage for financial institutions.

Who’s using digital signage correctly in the financial industry?

There are many good examples of financial institutions using digital signage to engage customers at the appropriate times and places. Here are three:

In ING Direct’s cafes, they use digital content to both entertain and engage customers who stop by for an espresso and might not be aware that ING is indeed a bank. So, their content has to pull double duty. It has to introduce visitors to ING’s gospel of savings and also demonstrate how ING’s direct-only banking concept actually works.

Caja Mediterráneo is a client in Spain that uses its network to deliver brand and promotional messaging in eight different languages and to convey community-oriented content, such as help-wanted and real-estate listings, that is both current and unique to each branch. Most, the bank’s product messaging is tied to each individual branch’s sales results for the prior week. Just try doing that with paper posters and brochures!

CIMB in Malaysia is another client who has used digital media to help improve staff efficiency, move customers to self-service and reduce perceived wait time. My favorite example is their “queuing tree,” which tracks wait time in a highly visual format. As more customers take a queue number, the tree populates with leaves. When the leaves turn red, staff knows that it’s all hands on deck to alleviate the wait. At that point, other screens in the branch turn to more entertainment-oriented content.

What are the big mistakes financial institutions
frequently make with their digital signage?

“Locally relevant content” is the whole reason banks get into digital signage.
– Nancy Radermecher,
John Ryan Global

One of the biggest mistakes they make is in viewing digital signage as a technical problem for IT to solve, when in fact it’s first and foremost a marketing challenge. The technology has to serve marketers goals.

“Locally relevant content” is the whole reason banks get into digital signage in the first place. But when the sourcing of digital signage is left to IT, marketers typically end up with a network that either is not capable of localization or requires far too many staffers and ad-agency resources than is feasible. That’s when many banks give up and simply run CNN on their screens, which, by the way, is the next biggest mistake. Too many institutions just run cable shows on their screens and in doing so miss out on a great opportunity to communicate.

How do you know digital signage works? What’s the ROI?

That’s the ultimate question, isn’t it? Obviously, most people want to know how an investment in digital signage will boost sales. But it’s seldom easy to tie digital signage as a direct cause of product sales, because there are other influences in a customer’s decision to purchase a financial product. Digital signage is rarely deployed in isolation. A promotional spot running on the screens at the branch is usually one piece of a larger campaign that includes TV, print and online ads. So, determining which of all those mediums actually prompted the buy decision is not always easy. What we do know, though, is that banks can achieve measurable and meaningful gains by fine-tuning their messaging to branches based on CRM, geodemographic and patronage information. Two of our major clients are seeing regular sales lift in excess of 10% by bringing the intelligence once reserved for direct marketing into their POS efforts.

We also know that digital media improves the overall efficiency of point of sale marketing and have seen in some specific cases:

• 200% increase in awareness of bank offers
• 400% increase in recall of two or more messages
• 62% reduction of perceived wait time

Where’s digital signage going? What’s the future hold?

We’re getting past the stage where banks are questioning whether they need a digital signage network. The question is quickly becoming, “How can we make the most of this investment?” So, even as banks get their heads around the basics of digital messaging, I think they are going to look for other ways to leverage their investment. Here are some ways they might do that:

• Education – As educational marketing takes off, we’re seeing a lot of interest in using the digital signage network to deliver educational content to the branch. For instance, a bank might set up a temporary theater in the lobby and having hourly shows on topics like debt management, rebuilding your nest egg, or mortgage relief.
• Guided sales – With the use of touch screens and other interactive devices (e.g., Microsoft Surface) it’s possible to provide sales reps with something better than brochures as they walk customers through products, features and personalized what-if scenarios.
• Direct mail fulfillment – Some of our clients have run “scan and win” direct-mail campaigns that invited customers to bring their letters in to the branch, run them under a scanner to see if they’ve won a big prize. Sweepstakes are nothing new, but when you combine it with direct mail, the amount and quality of data you can collect is impressive.
• Staff training – If you can communicate to customers, why not to employees? Some banks run employee-only programming before opening time, or run employee-only content on screens that can be seen only in backstage areas.
• Customer experience – As I mentioned earlier, we had an instance where one of our clients used digital signage to reduce the perceived wait time for customers by 62%. How else can we use digital content to affect the ambiance of the branch and shape the customer experience? I believe this will be an area of greater experimentation going forward.
• Feedback – Digital signage makes it possible to pose questions to customers about different financial topics, say, as they wait in the queue, and then use their collective responses to influence the content that plays on-screen.

What I intentionally left out are Minority Report scenarios in which customers are identified upon entering the bank and presented with personalized selling propositions. Aside from the technology companies selling those kinds of approaches, I don’t think there’s a lot of mainstream interest in this. Maybe someday, but not in the current economic climate. For now, digital signage is appealing to banks only to the extent that it can solve existing business problems.

How much time should be spent managing a digital signage system?

We’ve said that locally relevant messaging is the key to ROI. However, most banks do not have the staff in place to manage large volumes of message permutations through a manual approach. For that reason, we are working with our clients to develop rules-based mechanisms to direct the right messages to the right branches. We’re also developing techniques to “assemble” content on the fly – again based on business rules. This “set it and forget it” approach lets our clients manage thousands of message permutations with very minimal in-house staff.

How often should messages be rotated for “freshness?”

It’s always good to give customers a fresh experience each time they visit the branch. To that end, we make a lot of use of “dynamic content,” which might include news-related content, stock-market information or weather updates – all of which update daily. It’s important to embed visual and other “clues” in the content to let customers know that they are watching the latest information. Product and service messaging is a little more long-lasting. We might aim to refresh those messages every four to six weeks, though these, too, can benefit from the addition of time-sensitive calls to action or other techniques to give them a sense of urgency.

What’s the right mix of messages — brand, product/service awareness, promotional? How much third-party content should there be?

It does vary from one client to the next and all depends on the bank’s marketing strategy. That said, we almost always employ a mix of third-party (news, weather, stock, entertainment, etc.) content with bank and community messages. Like editing a newspaper or TV broadcast, the art lies in how you mix all those elements.

What are the latest trends in digital signage?

We see that digital marketing – across all sectors – is thriving when used as an aid to enhance the shopper experience and build sales through coherent, locally relevant messaging. Classic digital-out-of-home (DOOH), which is ad-based, seems to be struggling as a model. There are an increasing number of ad-based networks that are moving toward a more customer-centric and “intelligent” model-even if the networks are still co-funded by advertisers. The Wal-Mart Smart Network is just one example of that.

What percentage of financial institutions are already using digital signage?

We don’t have hard numbers on actual install rates in the U.S. We know from our survey of 64 European and South African banks that 34, or 53%, have piloted a digital signage system, and 23 of the 34 have already rolled out or are preparing to roll out.

What’s a basic system cost? For one branch? 5 branches? 50 branches?

Obviously one branch is less expensive than fifty. Beyond that, at least when you’re talking about larger banks, the cost is dependent on several factors-but primarily, the type and number of screens.

==================

Nancy Radermecher serves as President of John Ryan, a global retail marketing agency specializing in total store messaging systems. Her responsibilities include global operations, finance administration and sales and marketing. During her 20-year career with John Ryan, Radermecher has devised retail marketing strategies for clients throughout the U.S., Latin America, Europe and Asia.

Among the clients with whom she has worked are Toyota Financial Services, UniCredit and Lloyds TSB. She has also served customers through the establishment of John Ryan offices in Madrid, London, Sydney, Lisbon, Milan and Tokyo.

Prior to joining John Ryan, Ms. Radermecher was Vice President of a marketing communications agency specializing in the personal financial services market. She also served as managing editor of a weekly banking magazine.

Radermecher holds a Bachelor of Arts degree from Grinnell College, in Iowa.

A study by Financial Finesse shows stark differences in the ways men and women feel about money. The firm analyzed more than 3,000 responses to an online financial planning questionnaire, revealing trends regarding spending, saving and investing.

Key Question: Does the apparent confidence men feel in their finances align with their behavior? Or perhaps are women more willing to admit their financial shortcomings?

Note: Sometimes with studies like this, it’s interesting look at the data conversely. 60% of women would say they don’t have a general knowledge of stocks bonds and mutual funds. 76% of women are unsure about how their investments are allocated. Same thing for 60% of men. That sounds like opportunity knocking for financial marketers.

Financial Finesse works with companies who offer financial counseling services to their employees. The firm has over 300 corporate clients who have a combined 500,000+ employees.

Percentage of consumers who have heard something
from the financial industry but felt more negative.
– Edstrom Worldwide

Percentage of consumers who have heard something
from the financial industry but felt more positive.
– Edstrom Worldwide

Percentage of consumers who have received
no direct communications from anyone in the
financial industry about the financial crisis.
– Edstrom Worldwide

Percentage of those who feel fully confident in banks,
down from 31% who reported full confidence in 2006.
– Edstrom Worldwide

Percentage of people who are
less likely to trust their bank.
– Siegal+Gale

Percentage of those who think banks are using
TARP money to pay salaries and executive bonuses.
27% think the banks are just holding on to it.
– Edstrom Worldwide

4 in 10 Americans believe the current economic climate will force
them to retire up to 10 years later than originally expected…or not at all.
– ING Direct

The percentage of disposable income Americans socked away
in January, the highest personal savings rate in 14 years.
– Commerce Department

Percentage of Americans who expect to receive a federal
tax refund for 2008 but will be saving it, investing it
or using it to pay off debt instead of spending it.
– ING Direct

Percentage of those applying for mortgages
that were not rejected by any mortgage company.
– Greater Nashville Association of Realtors

The Financial Brand used Google Trends to see how the economic crisis was affecting people’s feelings about their finances and the general state of things.

The Google Trends tool searches Google’s records to see how often people search for certain terms. It graphs out the relative frequency with which these terms have been searched over the last five years. In each graph, the top data line represents people’s searches, while the lower data line shows references in the news. (Tip: You can use commas to compare multiple search terms.)

Using Google Trends, you can get a sense of what people’s feelings and fears are. For instance, in a classic case of “saying one thing but doing something different,” people are increasingly looking for any “silver linings,” yet — at the same time — they are buying more “ammo.”

“Silver Lining”

People started looking for “silver linings” right as the subprime mortgage mess triggered a recession.
Notice how the media is increasingly looking for “silver linings” to share with a weary public.

“Ammo”

As the stock market crashed last November, people starting looking for more and more “ammo.”

“Unemployment Benefits”

A grim indicator of the jobs market.

“Home Safe”

People want more safes for the home.

“Coupons”

People’s interest in “coupons” is growing, along with the media’s usage of the term.

People have become increasingly concerned about the insured status of their deposits.

“FDIC”

The first spike is when IndyMac failed. The second occurred when Wachovia was acquired.
This graph also suggests people might be looking to move their deposits.

“NCUA”

The biggest spike happened last fall as deposit insurance limits were increased to $250,000.

Google has already proven it can track the flu as it spreads across the country. Could Google Trends be used as a leading indicator of economic trends too? These graphs show when economic fears became part of the common zeitgeist:

“Subprime”

“Subprime” became part of our vernacular in Spring 2007.

“Crisis”

There were whiffs of “crisis” by Fall 2007, but it wasn’t clearly obvious we had a
fully-blown “crisis” on our hands until the stock market crashed a year later.
Notice media references (the bottom data line) don’t really kick in until Fall 2008.

“Bankrupt”

This graph essentially follows the same trend as “crisis.”

“Socialism”

Obama’s tax plan spiked references and searches for “socialism.”

And here are graphs for a few financial services:

“Online Banking”

Notice the phenomenal growth in searches for “online banking.”

“Refi”

After a lull in 2008, interest in refinancing is again surging.

One thing is for sure: People’s interest in Twitter is up, up, up!

“Twitter”

Can the popular social media tool keep up with demand, especially when it has $0 income?

[ratings]

Financial Trademarks 1976-2008

In 1996 there were just 67,000 Class 36 trademarks on file with the USPTO. But in the last decade, that number has more than tripled. Today, there are around 250,000 registered financial trademarks. In 2008, the financial industry saw the largest increase in financial trademarks in the last decade, adding 13,864 new trademarks (see Table 2 below).

Key Takeaway: Securing a trademark in the financial industry is getting harder every day. Register your financial institution’s trademarks before someone beats you to it. And be careful coming up with new names, even for things like products and services. Make sure any new brand names you want to use aren’t already being used by someone else.

Reality Check: Any financial institution savvy enough to register its trademarks might be inclined to do whatever it takes to protect their brand assets (translation: “lawsuits”) even if you are thousands of miles away.

Bottom Line: It only takes a couple minutes to look up a financial trademark at the USPTO — time well spent if you save yourself a mountain of headaches down the road. Relative to the potential consequences if you don’t register your trademarks, the cost is basically nothing.

Tip: While you can register your own trademarks directly with the USPTO, you should retain the services of a lawyer.

Table 1. Financial Trademarks 1998-2008

Table 2. Financial Trademark Applications vs. Registrations

In 1999, the USPTO only approved 1-in-4 financial trademark applications, or around 25%. In 2008, the USPTO approved 4-out-of-5 financial trademark applications, or about 80% (see Table 2 above).

There were 2,784 fewer applications for financial trademarks in 2008 vs. 2007, off 15% in 2008. But the USPTO approved 1,574 more applications in 2008 (Table 2).

Table 3. Monthly Trademark Applications in Class 36

There were 2,784 fewer applications for financial trademarks in 2008 vs. 2007, off 15% in 2008. But the USPTO approved 1,574 more applications in 2008.

Table 4. Monthly Approved Trademarks Applications in Class 36

“Deposits are the lifeblood of banks.”
– Bob Chapman, President
Bank of the James

These days, you hear about a lot of financial institutions seeing huge increases in their deposits. Some financial institutions are seeing their deposits double over last year. Even JPMorgan Chase, an international megabank, was able to take in an extra $87 billion.

Reality Check: Now is not the time to pat yourself on the back. Everyone’s deposits are up (well, not everyone, but most). This is money just walking in the door.

A survey last fall by the ICBA showed that 70% of community banks were seeing deposits grow year-over-year. More than a quarter of the banks surveyed saw deposits grow by at least 11%. And a recent survey by CUNA found that one-fourth of credit unions were enjoying above-average growth.

One in five people said they were likely to move at least some of their funds to another institution soon. Nearly one in 10 were likely to move all their money.
– Nielsen survey

Key Fact: In a recent Nielsen survey of 3,000 consumers, one in five said they were likely to move at least some of their funds to another institution in the near future, with nearly one in 10 likely to move all their money.

Key Questions:

• What are you doing to keep your existing deposit base from defecting to other financial institutions?
• How much more could you be gaining if you had an aggressive deposit growth strategy?
• What are you doing to retain your newly-won deposits over the long term?

Both Mark Zandi, chief economist at Moody’s Economy.com, and Cam Fine, chief executive of the ICBA, both agree: The movement of money we’re experiencing in the financial industry is something we haven’t seen since the Great Depression.

From August to September last year, bank deposits rose by more than $158 billion, as investors yanked money out of stocks, bonds and failing financial institutions. $50 billion poured out of the stock market in the month of September alone. Where did people put it? In the relative safety and security of liquid deposits.

“People are panicked, and they want something as close to the mattress as they can find,” says Moody’s Zandi.

And that’s why many institutions are touting their financial strength.

“Banks’ emphasis on safety certainly scratches where it itches for consumers in this current environment,” says Greg McBride, a senior analyst at Bankrate.com.

McBride says deposits have always been a competitive business for financial institutions. But at a time when bank capital has been whittled away by loan losses, and banks are scrambling for low-cost funding, growing deposits has become more important.

That certainly helps explain why competition for deposit dollars has become as fierce as its ever been.

What do you want
to see more of
in 2009 from
The Financial Brand?
Share your 2¢
in the comments below.

The 10 most-read stories at The Financial Brand in 2008 are (in order):

1. Dallas credit union to launch Young & Free knockoff
2. The Biggest List of Financial Slogans Ever
3. When will the media’s infatuation with credit unions end?
4. Credit union checking promo exploits ‘LOLCats’
5. BNZ’s “Out of the Box” brand
6. The media falls in love with credit unions
7. The Top 50 Most Distinctive Credit Union Names
8. 2008 credit union marketing budgets – too much, too little
9. Don’t throw the TARP on credit unions
10. Merged bank uses guerilla tactics to launch new brand

This year, The Financial Brand published 312 articles that were read a total of over 100,000 times, including

• 39 articles about branding, and 24 about marketing
• 46 different ad campaigns and 23 promotions
• 26 bank name changes and 23 credit union name changes
• 34 branch projects
• 16 articles looked at Gen-Y and Web 2.0 initiatives

Other facts and stats about The Financial Brand in 2008:

• One-half of The Financial Brand’s readers subscribes by RSS, the other half subscribes via the weekly bulletin.
• Over 500 new subscribers were added between May and December
• The average reader typically looks at 3 articles each visit
• There was a total of 535 reader comments

Nielsen just released its ad spending data comparing the first three quarters of 2008 to 2007. In the financial industry, advertisers have already made significant cuts, with presumably more to come in 2009.

A sharp decrease in advertising spending by mortgage and loan sectors led a 10% slide in spending across the entire financial services industry so far this year. Mortgage and loan companies have spent 62% less — or $778 million –  on advertising during the first three quarters of 2008, compared with the same time period last year.

Overall, ad spending by financial services companies dropped from $5.9 billion in Q1-Q3 2007 to $5.3 billion through September of this year. (Note: Nielsen’s data excludes outdoor and B2B magazine ad spending.)

Traditional investment firms and mutual funds are increasing their budgets modestly — about 4-5%. Meanwhile, online investment firms are growing their budgets by almost 16% collectively, with some like E-Trade upping their budgets by 25%.

Lenders of all sorts — but especially mortgage companies — are slashing ad spending by nearly two-thirds.

Despite the struggling economy, some sectors of the financial services industry are boosting their ad budgets.

Source: The Nielsen Company

To better understand Gen X and Gen Y’s current and future financial situation, the American Savings Education Council and AARP commissioned a survey with members of these two generations. The online survey of 1,752 Americans ages 19-39 was conducted back in January 2008.

This research found that:

• Many young adults have yet to align their actions with their financial values and goals. While 91% report having financial goals for themselves, only 53% report sticking to a monthly budget. And while 62% have given at least some thought to their own retirement, 61% feel their retirement savings is behind schedule. 42% give themselves a grade of D or F to describe how well they are saving.
• There is a lack of financial sophistication among younger generations. Respondents were more likely to say they are very knowledgeable about their iPod (40%), than about how to file their taxes (26%), buy a home (21%), invest outside of the workplace (15%), or save for retirement (15%).
• Four out of five young adults report having some type of non-mortgage debt. This includes 63% with credit card debt, 48% with car loans, 31% with student loans, and 27% with medical debt.
• Workplace benefits are valued by employed young adults. At least three-quarters of employed young adults say it is important for their employer to provide health insurance, a retirement savings plan, matches or contributions to a retirement savings plan, a wellness plan, and education and/or advice on how to save for retirement.
• Many young adults feel things are harder for them than previous generations. Roughly half of those surveyed believe it is harder to support a family (54%), save for the long-term (52%), save for a child’s college education (50%), and buy a first home (47%) than it was for previous generations.

Key Question: If they think things were going to be hard for them back in January, how do you think they feel today, in the throes of a recession?

The average marketing budget for most financial institutions (banks or credit unions) at any asset size should be around 0.1% of total assets. Big banks like BofA, at $1.9 trillion, budgets $2.0 billion for marketing which is almost exactly almost exactly 0.1%.  Many factors affect this guideline — up or down — including, but not limited to, growth goals and media costs in specific markets. Credit unions with community charters need to allocate more.

As tempting as it may be for some members of your organization’s management team, a recession is never the time to cut the marketing budget. First of all, as market conditions get tougher, you need to ramp up your spending — just to keep your bottom line where it’s at. Second, it’s easier to “cut through the clutter” when there’s less clutter. It makes perfect sense: you’ll stand out if you ramp up your marketing while others cut back.

Take a look at this data from Callahan & Associates “Peer 2.0 Study” from June 30, 2008.

Key Insights:

• The country’s largest credit unions spend, on average, the least per member, but they may also be gaining media efficiencies with their marketing budgets.
• A marketing budget of $350,000 is not enough to support and sustain a billion-dollar credit union. That represents only .035% of total assets.
• Similarly, a $150,000 marketing budget is inadequate for a $500 million credit union. That’s only .03% of total assets.
• A $40,000 marketing budget is dismally low for a $250 million credit union. That’s about .015% of assets.
• A marketing budget of $2.8 million seems excessive for a $500 million credit union, as does $1.2 million for a credit union with $250 million in assets. That’s around .05% of assets.

Key Questions:

• What is your average cost of marketing per new member?
• What is your average growth in assets per marketing dollar spent?