By Frank J. Diekmann
As Seen On TV! The pre-computer “contacts app.” The problem that could lead to a wave of murders in the U.S., and other notes from the recent CUNA Marketing & Business Development Conference:
- Kevin Harrington, who was an original shark on TV’s Shark Tank and behind the “As Seen On TV” merchandising, told the meeting, “One of the amazing things about a credit union vs. a bank that I don’t think a lot of people understand, is how amazing credit unions are.”
- Later, Harrington told CUs, “You as credit unions have such powerful members. Use member testimonials. The advent of the Internet has changed rules of engagement. Testimonials have greater power to influence others.” You can read more about Harrington’s remarks here.
- In a video created by the world’s only youth-chartered CU, Star Credit Union in Madison, Wis., one child explained deposit interest this way: “I like that we don’t work, and we still get money.” Star CU won the Pitch contest and its $10,000 prize at the Marketing and Business Development meeting. You can read more about it here.
- During a breakout session, John Best wondered why credit unions don’t offer “curbside service. What if CUs had that, like Chili’s does.”
- Later, during the same session, when an audience member wondered about the appropriateness of communicating using emojis when members use text, he further observed that he thought it would be cool if credit unions created their own emojis.
- Finally, Best had this warning about what could be coming, not just to credit unions but to the safety of everyone in the U.S. He noted the Trump administration has indicated it could eliminate the so-called “net neutrality” laws that make all traffic on the Internet equal. “I get Neflix over Comcast. But it’s not in their best interest that Netflix works great. We’re about to repeal that law, which means if my Netflix starts buffering again, there’s going to be a lot of murders in this country.”
- Those credit unions that offer any information on their websites about their history or founding or reason for being usually bury that kind of stuff. But Bryn Conway believes that’s a mistake. Conway, a consultant out of Myersville, Md., who works with numerous credit unions, said, “I’m sure your ‘About Us’ pages have a charming story about how five people started the credit union in a shoebox or a desk drawer 60 or 80 years ago. It’s a wonderful story—but what I don’t think we do is communicate that during the onboarding process. Instead, we talk products and services. We have a checklist of four or five products to sell. Do we talk about our mission and values? Chemistry in relationships comes from shared beliefs and shared values. Stop shoving a debit card in their face and instead talk about your values and how they can help write the next chapter in your story.” You can find more on Conway’s presentation here.
- During a panel discussion session on why adoption of mobile wallets has been below expectations as a result of POS infrastructure not being in place, panelist Sam Mallikarjunan of HubSpot in Boston observed, “It’s hard to sell cars in a country with no roads.”
- Later he offered another observation related to why it’s important that credit unions own as much of the digital platform as they can. Asking his audience to respond by applause, he asked, “Who has ever bought anything on Amazon?” That elicited applause from throughout the room. Then he asked, “How many of you can name the merchant?” That brought a scattered few claps.
- Observed by Roy MacKinnon, who was presented with the Lifetime Achievement Award by the Marketing & Business Development Council, regarding his early days in credit unions: “I had a Rolodex. For the Millennials in the audience, that’s the original contacts app.”
- Finally, if you’re interested in seeing the top entries that took home the Diamond Awards in marketing, go here.
Frank J. Diekmann is Cooperator in Chief at CUToday.info and can be reached at Frank@CUToday.info or @FrankCUToday.