5 minutes
There are two components to every successful marketing campaign—the creative and the analytical. As VP/marketing for $84 million Power Credit Union in Pueblo, Colo., Jennifer Mravich has proved she can handle both components equally well. Her multi-faceted skills proved essential in developing a comprehensive rebranding campaign built around the theme, “Life is Calling.” On the strength of this campaign, Mravich earned the designation of Rising Star during the 2015 CUES Golden Mirror Awards competition.
Mravich, a CUES member, joined Power CU in 2011, having previously served as communications manager for Pueblo Economic Development Corporation. She earned her MBA from Colorado State University-Pueblo in 2010. “My first undergraduate degree was in finance, but I obtained my marketing degree immediately afterward,” Mravich says. “There really are two sides of me. I like the analytics—the data and the figures—but I thoroughly enjoy the creative side as well.”
A Top 5 finalist in the 2014 CUES Next Top Credit Union Exec competition, Mravich was completely taken aback when she learned she had received the Rising Star honor as well. “After I received the email notification, I wrote back to CUES saying this is the second time in a year they’ve almost made me fall out of my office chair,” she reports. “It’s such a tremendous honor, and so unexpected. I can’t stop smiling about it.”
Power CU President/CEO Vanessa Trexel sees Mravich as being exceptionally worthy of the honor. “It’s not very often that you see someone with a marketing background who also understands the financial side,” Trexel, a CUES member, says. “Jennifer provides us with both of these abilities, and she also brings a lot of enthusiasm as well.”
Do Your Research
As the first step in developing the rebranding campaign, Mravich began qualitative research to ensure the marketing message would appeal to the hopes, dreams and aspirations of the targeted demographic. “My recommendation to any credit union interested in doing a project like this is don’t make assumptions about what consumers want,” she says. “Make sure you back it up with research.”
A major component of the research involved conducting focus groups of members and non-members. “This enabled us to learn about people’s views and expectations regarding financial institutions,” Mravich explains. “From there, we derived our unique selling proposition, which is: ‘to serve members with the resources they need to be free and secure, to create the life they want for themselves and their families.’”
“Life is Calling” was deemed the perfect tagline to communicate Power CU’s brand position and personality. “We really like it because it’s upbeat, it’s optimistic, and it complements our culture well,” Mravich says. “It expresses our belief in the potential of all people and the importance of self-empowerment.”
The creative aspect of the “Life is Calling” campaign has emotional impact, showing people at key milestones in their lives—getting married, buying a car, moving into a new home, raising a family—while conveying the message that Power CU will help them improve their financial lives.
The campaign introduced a new logo, new colors and new technology (including a mobile app), along with updates in training, hiring policies and even CU facilities (where updates included new signage, floors, furniture and paint). With an annual budget of $100,000, the campaign made an impact with television commercials, point-of-sale ads, online video, website redesign, social media, email, promotional events, and advertising with business partners and SEGs.
Signs of Success
Since launching in November 2014, the campaign has helped Power CU achieve its objectives of attracting new members, retaining existing members and increasing market awareness. In terms of membership, the campaign has reversed five years of declining numbers. The most notable growth has occurred in the younger demographics, with membership among 18- to 29-year-olds growing by 5.2 percent and among 18- to 45-year-olds by 3.2 percent. Total membership currently tops 11,400.
Another sign of success is increased website traffic, with the newly revamped website gaining nearly a half-million page views and 60,000 unique site visits within 10 months of the campaign launch. Additionally, the campaign has produced hundreds of social media referrals via Facebook.
Concurrent with the campaign, Power CU launched its new mobile app and personal financial management system. Within 10 months, the mobile app achieved adoption by 5.1 percent of members while the PFM system gained 2.9-percent adoption.
Mravich stresses that the campaign was a collaborative effort that involved her CU colleagues as well as the creative contributions of The Karma Group, Green Bay, Wis. She also gives kudos to B2C Enterprises and Motion Adrenaline, both of Roanoke, Va., for creating and producing the brand video and television commercial.
“I’m fortunate to work with a talented group of people,” Mravich says. “Vanessa encourages us to work as a team, and I attribute much of our success to her leadership. She and the senior management team are the driving force behind what we’ve been able to achieve. I also want to acknowledge our board of directors. We couldn’t have moved forward without their buy-in and support.”
Looking ahead, Mravich plans to continue enhancing the credit union brand. Having recently attended the CUES School of Strategic Marketing™, she already has a strategy for moving forward.
“The next step is to operationalize the brand,” Mravich says. “We need to make sure we’re living the brand, strengthening the culture around it, and continuing to get out the positive message about Power CU to our members.”
Diane Franklin is a freelance writer based in Missouri.
