SEATTLE–CUNA has offered a first look at a national awareness campaign that it intends to roll out beginning in 2017, and it will begin from the inside out.
To be clear, the awareness campaign is not a national advertising or branding effort, CUNA officials were careful to emphasize. Instead, it will be about raising awareness of the credit union difference, including basic misunderstandings among consumers such as what credit unions are and who can join, and the education will start with credit union employees and volunteers.
Representatives of the awareness initiative and CUNA spoke with CUToday.info during the trade group’s America’s Credit Union Conference here. A more formal presentation will be made today as part of the meeting, and CUToday.info will provide coverage of any updates.
A 13-person committee known as the Creating Awareness Advisory Group and chaired by Teresa Freeborn, CEO of Xceed Financial Credit Union, has been spearheading the awareness campaign effort since the beginning of this year. A Washington-based strategic communications consulting firm has also been retained.
Putting Things Into Motion
Putting the initiative into motion has been a confluence of two factors: the ongoing lack of awareness of what CUs are (despite the record levels of membership) and the hiring of CUNA’s new CEO, Jim Nussle, in 2014. Nussle has noted on numerous occasions that the most frequent questions he has gotten since moving into the job have been around what credit unions are.
Rather than commission new research, CUNA and the Creating Awareness Advisory Group have instead been poring through 16 years of accumulated information, including more than 16,000 interviews, polling, focus groups, and more.
From that, said Nussle in brief remarks in which he touched on the new awareness campaign, CUNA has found four overarching themes:
- Talking about the credit union difference makes a difference.
- Not for Profit also makes a difference. People need to hear that. There’s a difference about who we’re for.
- Local, member owned matters to consumers.
- Consumers like that earnings are returned to members.
Nussle said CUNA has found that “40% of non-CU members didn’t even know they could join. Once they heard they could join, 82% of people polled who were bank-only consumers said they were ready to switch one or more accounts to a credit union. Another 68% of non-PFI CU members said they wanted to become PFI members.”
Nussle described the effort as going on “offense” when it comes to relevancy.
'Not A Campaign'
Speaking to CUToday.info, CUNA’s chief strategic communications officer, Douglas Kiker, stressed that the awareness initiative is not a “campaign” and it will not have an official beginning or end. Instead, it will be designed to be a sustainable, ongoing effort. Kiker added credit unions should not expect a big, national TV campaign, for instance, and that whatever is eventually developed it will not overlap or supplant any campaigns being run by individual credit unions or associations.
Similarly, Nussle said the awareness campaign will not be a “one-and-done effort. It’s also worth measuring. It is a mistake if we don’t know if it made a difference.”
Freeborn, the Advocacy Group’s chair, said that after reviewing the research it was “hard not to say we need to do something here.”
Why An Initiative Now?
But why a national awareness initiative at a time when membership growth has been as robust as it’s been in history?
Kiker said that even with more than 106 million Americans now belonging to credit unions, wallet share remains a critical shortcoming, with just 43% of members using their credit union as their PFI. “That seems like a crying shame,” he said. “That is a lot of low-hanging fruit.”
Moreover, said Kiker, the research has found that of the 75 million Americans ages 18-34, one-third have no idea what a credit union is, and have guessed everything from labor unions to clothing stores.
Freeborn echoed the sentiment, adding that “people still come through the door and still don’t understand what credit unions are. People are still very unhappy with banks.”
Freeborn described 2016 as a “prep year” for the awareness effort, with plans calling for a much larger plan to be unveiled at CUNA’s GAC in early 2017. Initial funding will come from CUNA, and other funding sources will be explored.
“We want to make this truly viable and sustainable for the long term,” said Freeborn.
The Campaign Components
So what will the awareness initiative consist of?
Patrick Dorton, managing partner with Rational 360, a Washington-based communications firm, said an initial, fundamental focus will be on getting the approximately 350,000 credit union employees and volunteers in the country essentially singing from the same song sheet, which he called “message alignment.” The research CUNA has already conducted shows which messages are most effective and that resonate with consumers, he said.
That messaging will be assembled in one “playbook” and made available to that audience of 350,000 people, which Freeborn described as a “powerful army.” It will include a calendar and provide keys to communicating a consistent message at annual meetings, Chamber events, radio interviews and more, according to Dorton, who said it will help credit union volunteers and employees to become better “ambassadors.”
A second part of the initiative, said Dorton, will involve repackaging and repurposing materials CUNA has previously gathered and created, while the third part will involve the creation of what was described as a “best practices hub.” That “hub” will feature communications executions that have been shown to work in various markets and make them available to everyone.
Freeborn noted that the effort will “take time,” but that it must begin with awareness and education that consumers can “avail themselves” of credit unions.
“If you don’t understand the basics, you’re not going to march on (Capitol) Hill,” said Freeborn.
Members of the Group
In addition to Freeborn, members of the Creating Awareness Advisory Group include:
- Gary Vien of Suncoast Credit Union in Tampa, Fla., vice-chair
- Mark Rapp, of Schools First in Santa Ana, Calif.
- John Uchida of Space Age FCU in Aurora, Colo.
- Tom Berquist from BECU in Tukwila, Wash.
- Frank Weidner of Wings Financial Credit Union in Apple Valley, Minn.
- Barb Bowker from PSECU in Harrisburg, Penn.
- John Bratsakis of the Maryland-DC Credit Union Association in Columbia, Md.
- Michelle Hunter of the Credit Union of Southern California in Anaheim
- Myles Bristowe of PSCU in St. Petersburg, Fla.
- Denise Gabel of the Northwest Credit Union Association in Seatac, Wash.
- Mick Trevey of CUNA Mutual Group in Madison, Wis.
- Samantha Smyth-Paxson of CO-OP Financial Services in Rancho Cucamonga, Calif.