You’ll hear it time and time again. Credit Unions need to find a way to differentiate from banks. But that’s only part of the battle. The credit union brotherhood only goes so far. Credit Unions also need to differentiate from each other, especially if you’re sharing turf with another credit union in your area.

Kansas City, Missouri, our local market, is one of the most competitive markets for financial institutions in the country. It seems there’s a bank or credit union on every corner. Certain areas have one on all four corners of an intersection.

So how do you cut through all this clutter and stand out? The answer lies in your brand. What story is it telling? What vibe does it have? How is it different? Too often, credit union brands don’t have much that sets them apart.

Here are a few exercises that can help you uncover the pearls of uniqueness in your brand:

Ask yourself some questions

1. What are the 1-2 things that make us unique?

This is not an easy question to answer. Your first attempt will probably include words like “friendly” or “member service” or “caring” or “personal”. If that’s what you came up with – try again. 90% of other financial hang their hat on the same thing, hardly unique.

“We have great member service.” is probably the most common. Strive to dig deeper. Using service as your key differentiator falls flat in numerous ways. First and foremost, if you’re a credit union, your member service has to be good. It’s an expectation. Also, logic will tell you everyone can’t have the best service. Our over-marketed society knows this all too well and turns a blind eye to these clichés.

1. Why do I like the ______ brand?

Try thinking about your favorite brands and why you like them so much. Whether it’s Coke, IKEA or Southwest Airlines, chances are it won’t involve words like “service”. Now apply that same process to your credit union to uncover your real brand gems.

Make a list

Here’s another approach. Take down a list of everything you say about your credit union. Examine your website, brochures, ads and press releases. Look for statements you make about your credit union, what it offers and what it represents. Your list might look something like this:

• great rates on loans
• great member service
• NCUA insured
• free checking
• free online banking
• free mobile banking

Analyze each statement

Look at each statement on your list and write down how it differs from the other financial institutions you compete with. You can even rank them on a scale from “unique” to “identical”. Also rank them by how important they are to your membership from “Must-have” to “Who cares?”

Put them on the grid below

Finally, figure out which quadrant each statement belongs in on the grid (displayed).

Usually, credit union brands have neutrals, distinctions and antes as their foundation. Keep in mind, these are things your members can get at any other financial institution and in reality, they don’t really care about them anyways.

As you can see, the Drivers are the key elements of your brand that you should weave into every aspect of your credit union. You may ask yourself, “What if I can’t find any Drivers?” Its ok, most don’t. But don’t let that discourage you. Get your team together and create some!

Source: http://thefinancialbrand.com

Credit Unions, CUSOs and other CU industry partners are the only groups we work with. We specialize because we are a CUSO and believe in the credit union philosophy and its advantages.

We adapt every day to the changes in the industry. For those who know of us, we are different today than we were just 1 year ago. Our job is to learn and grow each day so when we partner with our clients, we see the big picture and provide real marketing and consulting solutions to meet short- and long-term goals. If this is your first introduction to Beyond Marketing, we started in 2003. We are from a credit union, to service the credit union industry.

We believe in challenging our clients and ourselves. We go beyond what is expected in order to continue bettering ourselves. We believe we can help any credit union, CUSO, or industry partner and look forward to helping you succeed.

Our work speaks for itself.

• We engage the credit union industry and our clients, by requesting they think, learn and grow with us.
•  We strive for CU industry success and sustainability.
•  We accomplish this by being a strategic marketing and consulting CUSO, created by Credit Unions for CUs.

So we ask, “How is it that some leaders and organizations achieve things that appear to defy common assumptions?”

There’s a gentleman who believes he has codified the process that explains how those leaders and organizations that achieve more and do better. It is because they think, act, and communicate in exactly the same way and it is the complete opposite of most.

Check out our recent webinar on this process and see how you might think, act, and communicate differently as a credit union, CUSO, or CU industry partner.

The co-founder of Apple, Steve Jobs, recently phrased the beginnings of the iPod, iPhone and iPad, and all related software services, as really the beginning of a post-PC era. In a sense, the PC is then not so much about specifications (speed, memory, etc.) but about experience, form, and function.

A recent editorial by Joshua Topolsky on engadget.com interprets “post-PC” from Apple’s perspective in this way, “There’s no Mac vs. PC here — only “the future” versus “the past”. “It won’t be a debate about displays, memory, wireless options — it will be a debate about the quality of the experience. Apple is not just eschewing the spec conversation in favor of a different conversation — it’s rendering those former conversations useless. It would be like trying to compare a racecar to a deeply satisfying book. In a post-PC world, the experience of the product is central and significant above all else. It’s not the RAM or CPU speed, screen resolution or number of ports which dictate whether a product is valuable; it becomes purely about the experience of using the device.”

Topolsky’s potentially most important point for our credit union conversation is, “Apple’s not saying that it beats other tablets on the market. It’s saying “we do one thing, and these guys do something else altogether.” They’re not competition — they’re not even playing the same game!”

So how does this scenario play out in the financial services industry?

Because we so often debate and concern ourselves over the minutia of the specifications and features of products, services, and facilities and less on the outcomes that truly affect the consumer/member. I say consumer, because that is what all non-members are. I believe many of the credit unions with community charters also have a significant number of consumers in their membership versus members. Consumers have not bought-in yet. Consumers are shopping specs, members buy you. If you are shopping specs (example = rates), guess what consumers and members are going to care about when they think of you? We continue to commoditize our value. We continue to play the same game…

Regulation, supervision, etc, make our products/services similar. We can offer incentives or differing rates based on our operations, but these again are all specifications. Although specifications can occassionally be unique, they are never unique for long.

Consumers are moving. Delivery and consumption is changing quickly. If consumers are moving into a post-PC world, are we moving into a post-Financial Product world with them?

This isn’t a conversation about things like, “Should we offer something like The One Account?” This is more a conversation about totally re-inventing ourselves with only our philosophies as our core. Look from the outside-in. See 10 years in the future and start creating that vision now.

One credit union moving in this direction is Mazuma in Kansas City. In 2007, Mazuma began the process of re-building the credit union with a foundation centered on member experiences. This credit union has maybe promoted/marketed a product’s rate once or twice only during this 3-year span, yet they grew significantly during tough times… without mergers and without significant member growth and acquisition marketing. They re-built new members out of consumers and strengthened heritage member relationships seemingly every day.

Growth from 12/07 to 12/10 (ncua.gov call reports)

• Assets = +26%
• Loans = +15%
• Deposits = +35%
• Members = +3%

So, what’s your credit union doing to compete in this post-Product environment?