EL SEGUNDO, Calif.–A third of the U.S. population belongs to a credit union, although many have only a vague or no idea what a CU is. For non-members, the lack of awareness is even worse. A new initiative is getting closer to attempting to change that.
The Credit Union Awareness Initiative is a CUNA-backed, research-driven project that is seeking to create top-of-mind consumer awareness of credit unions, and its organizers recognize the task before them.
Teresa Freeborn, who chairs CUNA’s Creating Awareness Advisory Committee, told CUToday.info that the early consumer research has already revealed a number of surprises that have led to some “evolution” in the Advisory Committee’s thinking.
The objective of the now year-old initiative—which was created in part by CUNA CEO Jim Nussle, who said he discovered after being named to the position that many people he encountered knew little about credit unions—is to create a sustainable “brand platform” that will create top of mind awareness of CUs among consumers. It is not, organizers have stressed from the beginning, a national advertising campaign.
Instead, one goal is to identify messaging that resonates in a meaningful and market share-moving way with consumers, instead of being messaging that CUs themselves might mistakenly think is what works best with consumers.
“The most important thing is to be really well-connected in the market,” said Freeborn, who is CEO of Xceed Financial Credit Union. “We are very interested in what consumers think.”
Even CUs Consistently Inconsistent
What that research has found is that what consumers think about credit unions and what is true about credit unions are often two different things. It’s a fundamental problem, noted Freeborn, made manifest by sub-10% market share numbers for credit unions, despite claiming one-third of the U.S. population as members.
“The first thing we realized is that credit unions are not consistent in how we define what credit unions do,” said Freeborn, saying that during a meeting of the Advisory Group its own members used different definitions. “There is a lack of a unified consumer identification for credit unions. If you say ‘bank,’ that is a part of the basic vocabulary. But if you say credit union, there is a lot of confusion. It means something different to everyone. So, we wanted the research to show what the consumer thinks. We want to have a brand platform for who we are as a category; we want it to be distinctive. It will be used to supplement all the good work that credit unions do in their own jurisdictions.”
Freeborn compared the brand platform the Advisory Group is building to the model used by the National Football League in which the league owns and manages the overall platform, and it is then supported in different ways by the individual franchises.
The consumer research is being conducted by and overseen by Washington-based Greenberg Quinlan Rosner.
“The research had to be conducted so it wouldn’t just be a gut feeling (decision)” by the Advisory Group, Freeborn said.
But the research is also about much more than just awareness of credit unions, said Freeborn: it’s about whether or not a lack of awareness in certain areas really matters.
“If the public doesn’t know we are not for profit, if it’s not a priority for them, do we really need a brand platform for that particular (knowledge) gap? Do we really want to hang our hat on that?” asked Freeborn. “We could waste a lot of energy on things that don’t matter to consumers.”
The Knowledge Gap
Graeme Trayner, vice president of the brands and communications practice at Greenberg Quinlan Rosner, said surveys and focus groups have been used to date to probe the consumer knowledge gap.
“What we can see in the research is very strong fundamentals,” said Trayner. “Credit unions are known for good rates, especially on car loans. There is trust in credit unions, which is a rare commodity. They are seen as warm and fuzzy.”
But Trayner said researchers were also “keen to understand” what he called the “myths” around credit unions, and it four primary misunderstandings:
- Many people don’t believe they are eligible to join a credit union.
- There is a belief that credit unions are for people in need.
- There is a consumer misconception that CUs have limited ATMs and branches, which means limited access to money.
- The flip side of being warm and fuzzy is also being seen as small and maybe not safe.
“That gave us four things to think about as we look to grow market share,” said Trayner. “And we don’t just want to think about now; we want to think about the future of credit unions in a way that is compelling.”
For instance, Trayner said that when the concept of the credit union model is explained, that earnings are returned in the form of higher rates and that all members have a stake in the operation, consumers very much like the idea of “sharing in success.”
A Key Takeaway
From that, the researchers and the Advisory Committee have identified one key takeaway: “It’s going to be really important to connect with people’s aspirations,” said Trayner. “Credit unions have a powerful story to tell, so we have to connect the brand to aspirations. Credit unions can help you and your family to get ahead.”
Trayner said research among current CU members has found them to be “very positive” about their experiences. But there is also a cloud in the silver lining. “There is the perception that credit unions are on their side, but even credit union members are uncertain of the model and not sure why the rates are good.”
Understanding that, said Freeborn, will be key in building out a brand platform that turns passive members into active members. “If you have 105 million people as members, that’s astonishing. But it’s about the level of engagement” with each of those members, she said. “We want the messaging to be that credit unions lift all boats. But we need to explain that in a way that is simple, in a way that has people say, ‘I want to be a part of that, that you’re savvy if you’re a credit union member, you’re smart.’ That is powerful.”
The Advisory Committee now has a Request for Proposal in the field for a creative or branding firm to help take the purpose of the initiative—to make credit unions top of mind—and couple that with the research to bring it to life. The objective is to create a platform that is tangible and useful and then allow individual credit unions to build out the tactical, according to the Committee.
“There is no timeline, but we are moving deliberately,” said Freeborn. “We are going to test some of the brand platforms, and at the end of the day there will be one approach. Not everyone is going to love it, but everyone should see the value in it. There is no rollout date, and will be several months before we are talking about strategies.”
Lessons Applied at Home
Freeborn said there is no set budget at this point.
She also noted that her own credit union, Xceed Financial, has already acted on some of the findings.
“At Xceed, when I took this to our marketing team and we talked about our messaging, we realized some of our messaging flew in the face of the research, so we made some tweaks,” she said.
In addition to Freeborn, other members of the Advisory Committee include Vice-chair Gary Vien of Suncoast Credit Union in Tampa; Tom Berquist of BECU in Tukwila, Wash.; Steve Bosack of Pentagon FCU in Alexandria, Va.; Barb Bowker of PSECU in Harrisburg, Penn.; John Bratsakis of the MD & DC Credit Union Association in Maryland; Myles Bristowe of PSCU in St. Petersburg, Fla.; John Cassidy of CUNA Mutual Group in Madison, Wis.; Denise Gabel of the Northwest Credit Union Association in SeaTac, Wash.; Jon Gorman of the Cornerstone Credit Union League in Plano, Texas; Michelle Hunter of Credit Union of Southern California in Anaheim; Steve Langley of Schools Financial Credit Union in Sacramento, Calif.; Mark Rapp of SchoolsFirst FCU in Santa Ana, Calif.; Samantha Paxson of CO-OP Financial Services in Rancho Cucamonga, Calif.; John Uchida of Space Age FCU in Aurora, Colo., and Frank Weidner of Wings Financial Credit Union in Apple Valley, Minn.