By Frank J. Diekmann
There’s a four-letter word one person says credit unions should stop using, and that won’t be easy, because bank-bashing is a staple of credit union meetings and media messages.
But that’s a mistake, according to Sasha Strauss, who leads the Los Angeles-based brand management firm Innovation Protocol and who teaches at three universities. Speaking to the California and Nevada leagues’ recent REACH meeting, Strauss offered seven “rules” every CU should be following and said every credit union that is “selling” is making a mistake (you can find more here).
Among those rules: Don’t use critique of your bank competition as a crutch. “That’s not something positive. You don’t need to talk about other actors. You need to talk about what you do and why it’s good. People want to feel lucky to be part of a credit union, they want to celebrate something. All humans want to pride themselves in something. But in the name of fair warning, if you do not step up and fill this void, someone else will. Someone else will create the beliefs.”
Strauss also offered these insights:
- It used to be said the “pen is mightier than the sword. An idea well communicated has far more effective than any weapon. Now, the click is mightier than the bomb. It’s not going to go away.”
- “It used to be the organizations with the most money controlled the broadcast--the industries, religions, etc. The Internet comes along and its control, alt, delete, and we all have the exact same power to broadcast. Every single war in the last decade in the Middle East was ignited by social media.”
Maybe the Others Were Out Using the Payphones
To illustrate just how much cellphones have become intricately interwoven in our lives, Anne Legg of CUNA Mutual’s AdvantEdge Analytics asked an audience of more than 100 people at REACH how many did NOT have a smartphone. Not a hand was raised.
Do As I Say…
Speaking of fintechs, during a presentation at one meeting at which representatives of four fintech companies pitched their technology offerings, there were numerous glitches in the PowerPoints. Not that that seemed to stop anyone from talking about the importance of a “frictionless” experience.
Engagement at the Very Top
An emcee at one recent CU meeting stepped down from the stage to speak with attendees. When she asked one person whether fintechs were something he was paying attention to, he responded, “I’m a director, so I don’t really pay attention to fintechs.”
Prestige Vs. A Severed Head
Scott Stratten, the author of several books and a podcast around “Unmarketing” and “Unbranding,” offered an entertaining take on what really matters when it comes to what it is that really comprises “marketing” at a credit union or any business. Stratten, incidentally, deserves props for not sucking up to his audience and admitting he’s not a CU member, but instead a customer of TD Bank.
During his presentation, Stratten served up a series of pretty humorous observations, including:
- “What comes to mind for you when you see the logo of the Ritz Carlton? I see a lion with its severed head impaled on a crown.”
- “My bank has been telling me they are dealing with an unusually high call volume every time I call. That’s been happening for seven years. I don’t think that’s unusual anymore.”
- The issue for credit unions, said Stratten, is “you think most of your members are is not where they are. Most are in a ‘static’ state, and that is actually worse than vulnerable. The reason the middle is the problem is this is where the ‘F’ word lies: It’s fine. They’re fine. Fine is where business goes to die.”
- I didn’t even realize they were still in business, but according to Stratten, 59 million people still go to MySpace every month.
- “Wisdom is just time plus mistakes,” Stratten said.
Frank J. Diekmann is Cooperator in Chief at CUToday.info and can be reached at Frank@CUToday.info or followed @FrankCUToday.