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I live in Seattle. We don’t have good public transportation. Our monorail is really a Disney Ride through the shopping district. Our buses clog downtown streets, our traffic is among the worst in the nation.
But we are making progress. We’re getting the SLUT.
I’m excited because the SLUT’s going to go right by my office. I’ll be able to take the SLUT downtown and back. The SLUT should open soon (if they stay on schedule).
Hey, it’s a beginning. Albeit a SLUT-ty one.
Now before the execs at 3M get their panties in a wad over this blog post, I love scotch tape. But for the things it was intended to hold together. Like my birthday presents and the 100 dollar bill I won in poker last night that is slightly torn.
You must say NO to scotch tape in your lobby!
I declare today to be “National No Scotch Tape in the Lobby Day!”
As a Modern Marketer it is your duty to get up from your desk (get in your car if you have to) and visit each and every branch of your credit union. You must walk in the front door (not the employee entrance) and begin the search and destroy mission. If something is being held up by scotch tape, you must rip it down.
There. Doesn’t that feel good? Doesn’t it look great? So much less clutter.
If you’re worried that some of that information in your hand is actually valuable (like how will members KNOW they need to wait here for next available teller and have their deposit slip ready…) then you have to make the sign suitable for framing or building a monument to. Otherwise it goes.
PS - Tomorrow is Talk Like a Pirate Day!” Arrrrrrgghhhhhh……
That was the subject line of an email I was forwarded today from my friend Carlyn. Her husband, Chief Master Sergeant Jeffrey P. Roy is stationed in Kuwait for the next 4 months. He gets up at 0600 for his twelve hour, six day a week assignment in 115 degree weather.
Yesterday he drove into Arifjan AFB on the coast of Kuwaite. And found paradise. Here are his words:
On the base they have a Starbucks. It is a double wide trailer but when you walk in it looks and feels like any Starbucks USA. It felt like walking into a worm hole and being transported back home with the opening of a door. They did a great job to give us the feeling of home.
Jeff also ask us to …”pray with ARDENT and FERVENT prayer for those folks in the line. We need the Lord to hold those boys in the palm of his hand and bless them with a shield of armor..
Amen.
Franklin Mint Federal Credit Union(applause)
These folks popped up on my google alert this morning because they’ve posted a new 9 month CD rate of 5.40%. I clicked on over. I love this website.
It’s clean
No Shiny Happy People anywhere (in fact the only photos are of REAL members)
Easy to navigate (check out their branch locations page). Brilliant!
Has an RSS feed - so smart
They have Live Chat (if you’ve never experienced that you need to - so cool)
Click on the Member Support button (very creative with their categories, love it)
And c’mon - you gotta love that name…and the fact that Mr. Franklin peeks out at you everywhere.
This is a website to be proud of!
I get google alerts every day for “credit union.” That’s how I get MY news. Because if it’s on the web, it’s truly newsworthy, blogworthy, or in this case “yelp-worthy.” It’s not all press releases from vendors announcing another credit union contract (okay, there’s some of that - but I never open it).
Today I found this link.
It’s on Yelp. Real People. Real Reviews.
As Alexander of San Francisco Fire CU says, “This is the chillest bank of all time.”
It’s no wonder SF Fire Credit Union has an enviable bottom-line and net promoter score. They really care about members and these reviews reflect that.
Are you on Yelp?
That was the headline today on denverpost.com. After operating for 73 years under the same name and three decades with the same logo, Colorado State Employees Credit Union is getting a makeover as the Credit Union of Colorado.
The CEO, Terry Leis said the new name is designed to ..”broaden the credit union’s appeal.”
Terry goes on to explain that they “Weren’t getting the message out. People still thought they couldn’t join because they didn’t work for the state.”
And yet, 30% of their 80,000 members are state employees. Hmmmm, sounds like the word is out.
I just want to make this one point. I HATE to see press releases like this because it perpetuates the myth that changing your name “gets the word out” and “broadens your appeal.” That a name change is the silver bullet for growth. It’s not.
Terry needs to get the “word out” the old-fashioned way. Treat people so well that they will tell their friends and family and co-workers about the credit union.
SIDEBAR: Kudos on the new logo. Very nice.
I chose that blog title because I want CEOs to read this. And I know what most of their objectives are today because I frequent the speaker circuit, read the trades and generally feel the pain. We need to grow!
Well, there’s a case study now, that has ROI and everything. But first I’d like to share (from my own experience) what not to do.
I first met Ray when he opened an Umpqua Branch across the street from a credit union in Eugene, Oregon (where I was working at the time). We had never heard of this bank. What a weird name, right? And get this, their tag line, “Pretty cool for a bank huh?”
Ray’s goal was to get our members. HA! We are a credit union - our members are loyal! They will never ever go the “dark side.” We were wrong.
You see, Ray gets modern marketing. It’s not about trying to be all things to all people. It’s about having a vision and the discipline to stay the course. He was inspired by two Northwest companies (Starbucks and Nordstrom) to create a retail experience second to none.
The Eugene Credit Union (where I was the training coordinator) thought they were in the service business too. The credit union down the street KNEW they were in the lending business. Assets of these two credit unions were neck and neck. Why do I know this? Because it was the only ruler we measured with. So this little bank from Roseburg, Oregon moves in (at the same asset size incidentally) and we summarily dismiss them as competition. Instead, the lean mean lending machine (that was our CU competitor) started offering “loan steal” incentives to their highly trained sales staff. Again, our focus (or so I thought) was service. We sent every employee through a one-week very expensive breakthrough leadership program. Our HR gal had been to the Disney Institute. We had just launched the most expensive campaign in the credit union’s history to tout our service experience. I mean, over-the-top television commercials with the tag line “SELCO (let’s call them that) - Why didn’t you say so?……and the music begins to the play and balloons drop from the ceiling…you get the idea.” But we got impatient and took our eye off the ball. We started competing on price too. I’m here to tell you, you can’t do both.
I left Eugene shortly after that. Started my own business a few years later, moved around for 5 years and finally back to Portland (my hometown) where, guess what? There was Umpqua Bank. Serving their own blend of coffee (the Umpqua Blend), putting out the doggie water dish (Umpqua Brand) selling Umpqua t-shirts and mugs and giving their customers free quarters to plug the parking meters. Customers were surfing the web, watching TV (not your lame ads on the plasma screen) - generally hanging out like you would at a Starbucks.
Ray has just released his story. Leading for Growth: How Umpqua Bank Got Cool and Created a Culture of Greatness. He shares his secrets to success to the world. In the first chapter he spells it out:
“Leading for growth isn’t necessarily about getting bigger just to be bigger. It’s about getting better, stronger, more agile, more customer focused, and becoming a relentless competitor. And companies that do that do get bigger - but it’s a result, not an objective. You cannot grow your business if all you are doing is worrying about your numbers.”
Wow.
Just to review: In 1994 all three institutions in a three block radius in Eugene were around $140 million in assets. Today the Eugene Credit Unions are $730 and $807 million in assets. Umpqua is $7 Billion in assets.
A couple of years after I left Eugene, the credit union hired a new ad agency to come up with a new tag line……..this was it: “Serves you right.”
Enough said.
I used to be a runner. I grew up in Portland, Oregon. Every year, Cascade Run Off, Hood to Coast, Portland Marathon. Then I started my own business. I still run. In fact just last week I ran from gate F14 to C25 at O’Hare which I estimate is a little over a mile. AND I did it in heels carrying a 27 pound briefcase!
Last year Mark and I walked the Portland Marathon. Hey, it’s still 26 POINT 2 miles!! The event is coming up so we’re getting lots of stuff in our mail boxes (e and metal) that says we’re on some list of “runners.”
Yesterday we got two complimentary copies of Runner’s World Magazine. One for Mark. One for me. On the cover is a lovely girl, Desiree Ficker - an Ironman Triathlete and 2:40 marathoner (for those that don’t know - that’s FAST!!! I’m a 2:40 HALF marathoner). The photo is of her “running” and she’s smiling and has make-up on, and is clearly Photo Shopped to chiseled perfection.
Anyway, here’s the point of this post (finally). The target audience for Runner’s World is me. I will never win a race, I rarely smile when I’m running, I certainly never wear make-up and HATE people who show up to a race wearing perfume (for god’s sake). Let’s keep it real Runner’s World. I know your magazine has to be on the shelf next to VOGUE and People with Lindsay Lohan, airbrushed to perfection to hide her ever increasing drunken binge bagged eyes, on the cover. Can you imagine putting someone on the cover that just finished their first marathon? Lips stuck to their teeth, salty whiteness around the neck of their sweat soaked shirt, a little blood on the right shoe from where the blister has now popped and exposed the raw flesh to the too-new shoes you decided to wear.
Okay, now that I visualize that - never mind. Magazine covers are here to show us the world we DON’T live in. Keep up the good work Runner’s World!
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