Posted by Ron Jooss
I fell behind on my trade pub reading, but recently over my oatmeal I read about California credit unions accepting state government IOUs and, just as importantly, banks not accepting them. I had heard about this before, but not until I read the article did I realize what a great opportunity this was for credit unions—all credit unions.
As a consumer, I can’t imagine going into a bank and being told by my bank (if I was a bank customer) that they would not accept an IOU from the state government. The Golden 1 Credit Union, California’s largest, ran newspaper ads asking bank customers to “Tell your bank, no thanks.” I e-mailed Teresa Halleck, CEO of TheGolden 1 CU, to ask if they had received any media coverage about their campaign outside of the trade press. She said they didn’t receive much. She also said banks contend they are helping resolve the budget issues by adding this market pressure.
To be fair, I did a Google search for “California IOUs credit unions,” and credit unions got some press on CNN, the LA Times, Reuters and The Wall Street Journal for accepting the IOUs.
But I couldn’t help but wonder how this issue could have been leveraged to credit unions’ advantage if there were a concerted national branding campaign. With some PR leverage, this issue could have been pitched to local and national TV networks. I have heard that this issue did receive some coverage on CNN, but a national credit union PR rep could have gladly offered interviews with California credit union CEOs (To it’s credit the California Credit Union League went to bat for state credit unions. They are quoted on the CNN site as well as in several California newspapers. They also featured a notice on their on their Web site.)
Meanwhile, banks would have had to explain why they wouldn’t accept the IOUs. Everybody knows banks are on the you-know-what list for both consumers and news organizations. (New York Times Columnist Frank Rich called banks “Public Enemy No. 1” in his column last Sunday.) Every Joe and Jane Six-Pack in America could have known that banks did not accept those IOUs—but credit unions did—if there were someone advocating for credit unions on a national branding level.
I know, I know … there are lots of reasons why putting together a national branding effort is too much of an uphill climb, but there are just as many reasons why it’s too important not to.
Christopher Stevenson’s recent blog post really hit home with me. Credit unions are different from banks both structurally and—though not as much as some would like—philosophically. But I know most credit unions in this country would have accepted those IOUs. We can’t let these opportunities to show consumers how credit unions are different pass us by. That difference should be celebrated, shouted from the roof tops. Think of companies that are different, and that have leveraged those differences to build their brands: Southwest, Apple, Harley Davidson. Philosophically, credit unions have their “blue ocean” if you want to call it that, at least from a marketing standpoint. Now they need that message to be heard.
Ron Jooss is a CUES editor.
