By Theresa Witham
The CUES School of Strategic Marketing I kicked off in Seattle Monday morning with attendees talking about their biggest challenges as credit union marketers. Many of the goals were similar. Others were polar opposites. For example, several attendees said growing loans is their top challenge. But a couple said they are doing great at lending and need to grow deposits. Deposits!
Here is the entire list of challenges they shared:
- capitalizing on a good reputation to get people to switch their accounts to the CU from a competing institution;
- social media;
- branding and building CU awareness;
- member retention;
- growing loans;
- growing loans without only talking about rates;
- competition with really big CUs in town. How do you stand out?
- Gen Y market;
- alignment between existing CU and a recent subsidiary, regulatory issues;
- lending in the future: What will it look like? Are millenials loan adverse? Will baby boomers borrow more later in life than previous generations? (In the photo at right, Mark Weber, CEO of CUES Supplier member Weber Marketing Group in Seattle and lead faculty of the school, said millenials will be seared with the Great Recession their entire life in the same way those who lived through the Great Depression were.)
- checking account profitability and restructuring checking account product lines (Weber added: “Almost every bank always had a product manager. We haven’t exercised that muscle.”)
- need to gain some outside perspective (“At my CU everyone is a marketer.”);
- revamp business lending strategy plan (trying to get good, small business loans without going after the start-ups);
- grow loans and members;
- product penetration;
- sales culture;
- trying to sell savings;
- new brand and name change;
- rebranding and a merger;
- new culture;
- thin resources;
- marketing on a budget;
- need to make marketing an executive position;
- data-driven marketing initiatives;
- need to get re-energized;
- engaging nationwide and worldwide members;
- be better at sales;
- marketing needs more voice in overall strategy;
- making marketing strategic leader for organization;
- maintain the CU’s strong culture but find ways to prep it for innovation;
- new community charter;
- attracting younger membership;
- differentiating from other CUs in area;
- optimizing channels
- rebranding;
- board not on board with necessary changes;
- is our name holding us back in community charter?
These are a lot of challenges. And this is exactly why marketing needs to be part of the strategic team at each credit union.
(Interesting side note: Two CEOs in the group spoke about the importance of elevating marketing to the strategic level. One quickly received a business card from a marketer in the room!)
How is your credit union responding to these challenges? Are you having success with any of them? If you were here this week, what tips or suggestions would you offer to the marketers struggling with them?
Now, what are your challenges? What would you add to this list?
What resources do you need to work through the challenges? What actions do you need to take?
Theresa Witham is a CUES editor.
Follow the discussion all week on Twitter when you search for #cuesschool.
