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In the United States, what are the best marketing practices of the most successful Credit Unions?
Hello! Thank you for your research request to find the best marketing practices of the most successful credit unions in the United States. The short version is sports partnerships, advertising blimps, member participation and social media are four marketing practices used by the most successful US credit unions. I was not able to find any specific marketing practices for the State Employees Credit Union (North Carolina) and the SchoolsFirst Credit Union. Below you will find a deep dive of my findings.
I conducted advanced Internet searches using a variety of keywords and query types. I sifted through information from trusted media sites, industry reports, local news sources, company websites, press releases and annual reports. I confined the results to within the last 2 years unless otherwise noted and kept a US scope.
A successful credit union can be defined in several ways including the amount of cash assets it has, the number of members or the number of branches. For this research, I decided to use cash assets as the criterion for ranking the most successful credit unions.
RESULTS
My initial searching found several lists of the largest US credit unions based on cash assets. I compared several of them and found no significant differences in the rankings. I chose the list at the USA Credit Unions website as my main reference because it gives the number of members and branches as well as total assets for each institution. Below please find the top 7, their total assets and details on their marketing practices, including any unique tactics and/or positioning they use. Please note that in several cases, I was not able to find any measure or comparison to determine the “best marketing practices” for some of the credit unions as you requested. In these cases, I proceeded on the assumption that the marketing practices they are using are the best because the institution is successful.
Overall, I learned that the top 7 credit unions in the US have a variety of approaches to marketing and several of them center around using real credit union members.
1. NAVY FEDERAL CREDIT UNION - $81.5 billion
Using social media for marketing is not a new idea and it is used successfully by businesses worldwide. But surprisingly, not all credit unions have taken advantage of it. Navy Federal owes much of its success to its social media presence, primarily on Facebook. A February 2016 article in the Credit Union Times reports that Navy Federal uses a “sophisticated blend” of engagement campaigns, contests, offers and promotions that have yielded impressive results. The article cites data from 2013 in which Navy Federal generated almost $96 million in new loans and $90 million in Certificates of Deposit in only 6 weeks, and it was generated almost entirely using Facebook. This credit union has over 1 million followers on Facebook.
One of Navy Federal’s marketing successes has been their strategy to “honor its members.” Navy Federal members submitted videos to a Facebook app and described how the credit union helped them in some way. Member voting determined the winner. Simultaneously with the video contest, Navy Federal ran a 1-week advertising campaign that offered special products for members and additional offers for new members who joined. According to a case study discussed on Facebook Business, this combined campaign strategy resulted in a 25X conversion rate, 60,000 new members and a 5X increase in fans on Facebook. In addition, hundreds of videos were submitted for the “honors its members” promotion and over 45,000 votes were cast in the contest.
2. STATE EMPLOYEES CREDIT UNION (SECU) - $36.5 BILLION
I was not able to find any specific advertising campaigns launched by SECU, but as a credit union for employees of the State of North Carolina, they appear to be very involved in the local and state communities and take a grass roots approach to their outreach and brand perception. In April 2016, SECU launched the “Thanks for all you do!” campaign which recognized state Department of Transportation (DOT) workers via an ad campaign that featured DOT employees who SECU says “often work long hours and in dangerous conditions to maintain and improve the state’s transportation system.” This down-to-earth approach was also reflected in the media SECU chose for the campaign---local newspapers across the state.
Press releases on SECU’s website show that they are also very active in the community with environmental causes and education. For example, in January 2017, their “People Helping People High School and Community College Scholarship Program” allocated over $5 million for college students in the state, bringing the total to almost $57 million allocated over the last 12 years. In addition, SECU has donated to local schools to help fund the purchase and installation of solar array systems in 14 schools.
3. PENTAGON FEDERAL CREDIT UNION (PENFED) - $22.4 BILLION
PRNewswire reported in February 2017 that PenFed has launched a cash back Visa Signature Card which can be used everywhere and does not have some of the drawbacks of other rewards cards such as spending caps, revolving categories or hidden fees. Curtis Arnold, the Founder and Editor-in-Chief of CardRatings.com says, “PenFed has certainly raised the bar with their new cash back card. They have leaped overnight from a good cash back card to a best of breed category. The 2% earn rate, coupled with the reputation of PenFed, makes their new card a very compelling offer.”
According to iSpot, PenFed has had 366 airings of 22 television ad campaigns in the last 30 days. Several of the commercials emphasize their great rates and are titled “Great Rates for Everyone – Auto Loans,” “Great Rates for Everyone,” “PenFed Has Great Rates Across America” and “Great Mortgage Rates.” These commercials also include exposure for the cash back card discussed earlier.
A unique but unsuccessful advertising event for PenFed occurred at the 2017 US Open golf tournament. The credit union’s advertising blimp caught fire and crashed shortly before the start of the Thursday morning competition.
4. BOEING EMPLOYEES CREDIT UNION (BECU) - $17.2 BILLION
In June 2017, the Puget Sound Business Journal interviewed Stephen Black, the Vice President of Marketing at BECU. Under his watch, BECU has been promoting LGBTQ rights and “became an active voice within banking for underrepresented individuals.” For the past 10 years, BECU has promoted gender diversity and featured same-sex couples in its advertising.
The Seattle-based advertising firm DNA created BECUs “You Own It” campaign, which DNA says is “Helping people understand BECU’s member-first philosophy [and] has helped make it the most favored financial brand in the region.” The campaign emphasizes that people are member-owners, not customers which is empowering to people. DNA uses photos and videos of real BECU members of all ages with large captions such as “Customer? Nah. Owner,” “You Have a Voice,” “BECU Own It” and “Owners Get Better Returns.” DNA also says that the “You Own It” campaign “celebrates individuals who have chosen to bank on each other.” The results of the campaign include +6% new members year-over-year, 71% account opening consideration and +27pt “brand consideration advantage over competitors.”
BECU encourages members to send in their photos to be used in their marketing materials. Their website says their members make them who they are, and “You are inspiring! Your family is adorable! Your achievements are impressive! Have a story to tell? We want to hear it.”
5. SCHOOLSFIRST FEDERAL CREDIT UNION - $13.6 BILLION
After extensive searching, I was unable to find any marketing, advertising or positioning information for this credit union. Their 2016 annual report says that member mobile banking increased almost 44% with about 50% of members using their mobile app. SchoolsFirst is very involved in community education including organizing school supply drives, giving over $100,000 in grants to local teachers and over $163,000 in scholarships.
6. THE GOLDEN 1 CREDIT UNION - $11.1 BILLION
One of the advertising tactics this credit union uses is the relationship they have established with the Los Angeles Kings hockey team. Called the “Golden 1 Center Benefits,” members can qualify for the following benefits simply by signing up for online banking: presale notifications about games and concerts, preferred pricing for Los Angeles Kings home games, early entry 1.5 hours before the game and a 15% merchandise discount.
Like the BECU discussed earlier, Golden 1 Credit Union also encourages members to send in photos of themselves to use in their marketing materials. For members to have their photos considered for publication, the credit union asks they include a short story to “let us know how our products and services have helped you meet your financial goals.” Other than this, there was very little information on Golden 1’s marketing campaigns and/or strategies.
I found a press release from December 2015, announcing Doug Aguiar coming on board at Golden 1 as Chief Marketing Officer. The press release says “Aguiar will lead Golden 1’s Marketing, Communications and Community Relations teams to expand Golden 1’s community impact and brand awareness. He will lead the evolution of Golden 1’s media and advertising strategy as well as continue to improve membership engagement and loyalty.” Their website says that in 2015 they won the Diamond Award for Brand Awareness from the Credit Union National Association. However, I was not able to find any details about it.
7. ALLIANT CREDIT UNION - $9.8 BILLION
Alliant is making the move to be the first credit union to go all-digital. A March 2017 article in The Financial Brand says “Their goal is to make it easy for members to conduct all their banking through online and mobile channels — even opening accounts. Because Alliant hasn’t relied on a traditional branch-based model the same way other retail institutions have, the shift to digital has been easier.” Right now, about 80% of Alliant’s transactions are digital, according to Michelle Spellerberg, the Vice President of Marketing and Digital Strategy for Alliant.
Alliant's move to all-digital was prompted by the customer information obtained from “industry research, market trends and extensive member surveys.” The first steps were to create apps for mobile and tablet with a variety of features and the latest security, along with an overhaul of the Alliant customer website. Alliant used the Pandora, WalletHub and NerdWallet websites to test ads on the tech-savvy consumers they wanted to reach. The ads featured “smart people through history to explain the value of Alliant.” One piece of data given in The Financial Brand article is that “Alliant’s click-through rate surpassed our [Pandora’s} internal benchmarks by 56%.”
Alliant uses “marketing automation tools” to learn as much as they can about their members so they can create predictive models that anticipate what the member will want to see next. They also spend their marketing dollars on a combination of Google Adwords, Adroll, social media, geofencing, retargeting and third-party ads on Facebook to send the best personalized messages to members. The article in The Financial Brand includes some impact data which I will quote for accuracy: “Alliant Credit Union launched its first set of digital and retargeting ads in the summer of 2016 to promote a high-rate checking account, along with some brand awareness messages. The results exceeded their expectations, with new account growth increasing 137% year-over-year from May 2015 to May 2016 and 151% year-over-year from June 2015 to June 2016.”
CONCLUSION
To wrap it up, sports partnerships, advertising blimps, member participation and social media are four marketing practices used by the most successful US credit unions. I was not able to find any specific marketing practices for the State Employees Credit Union (North Carolina) and the SchoolsFirst Credit Union.
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