NEW ORLEANS - Personal, anticipated and relevant. As far as Tony Rizzo, president of Liberty Direct Marketing, is concerned, those are the three most important words marketers can hear. Marketing should be personal, that is, tailored to the member, Rizzo offers. It should be anticipated - the member should anticipate the credit union will talk to them. It should also be relevant, and not pitch the same thing to everybody. Rizzo said he sees marketing moving from acquisition to retention, as marketers realize it's two to 12 times more expensive to acquire a new member than to retain one. Companies are sensitive to the lifetime worth of the individual consumer. Another slow but important trend among financial institutions, he continued, is a growing focus on wealth management. Why? For one thing, people 65 and older possess a median net worth of $86,000, not counting their homes. Seventeen percent boast net worth more than $250,000. Yet 63 percent put their money in regular savings accounts. Thirty-eight percent of the money is in retirement plans. Still another development Rizzo sees - the consumer owns the buying experience. Internet channels may draw a lot of attention, but 66% of new clients at Fidelity and Schwab originate at branches. He noted marketers are responding by boosting their use of highly-targeted approaches. For example, newspaper inserts can be directed at specific neighborhoods. The U.S. Postal Service is testing mail delivered in a personalized plastic bag aimed at selected areas. "Direct mail is getting smarter. It can be based on factors such as credit score, nationality, available credit or age," Rizzo said. At the same time, he added, marketers are increasing the number of contact points available to consumers and also beefing up their use of data. Data analysis for direct marketing allows reaching the most appropriate member with the most appropriate product. Valerie Polancyak is president of Liberty Creative Services, a creative marketing company for credit unions that specializes in brand development. "A genuine brand is part of the corporate goals, strategies, and decisions," she said. "It carries down to tellers and member service representatives. The brand must express the unique benefits the brand offers. It's a commitment that is fulfilled and is used as a foundation to make decisions. "Branding is the key to member and consumer lending. Branding is the constant creative execution of your strategic marketing position. Branding is not about getting your targets to chose you over the competition. Branding is about getting your members to see you as the only solution to their problem." Polancyak listed 10 rules of branding: * Brands are not about you. Brands are about them - consumers. What do the members want the brand to be? * If the branding is wrong, so is everything else. * Advertising grabs their minds, branding grabs their hearts. * Build from our strengths. * If you can't articulate it, neither can anyone else. * The success of a brand varies directly with the ability to accept the mantle of leadership of that brand. * The stronger the brand, the less susceptible you are to pricing issues and competition. * The brand begins in the business plan. * Branding is branding. Advertising causes awareness of the brand. * There is no such thing as co-branding. "Think like a brand," she urged. "Make a brand promise, and communicate a brand message. Live the brand. Leverage the brand - you have something different than any other credit union or bank." Keith Hillestad, president of Liberty On-line, noted "every issue of Credit Union Times has news of a new Internet product." However, he added, "A Web site does not equal an Internet strategy. We all have Web sites, but few have plans." "It (your Web site strategic plan) should derive directly from your business objectives," Hillestad emphasized. "Is your number one business objective clearly on your home page? Don't let your Web site run your business. "Cool' is a seldom-seen business opportunity. There's a lot of glitzy graphics and fun things you can do, but is it achieving a business objective?" Hillestad then offered a checklist of performance criteria for Web sites: * Number of hits. * Number of new loans. * Meeting new service needs. * Member growth and retention. * Expense reduction. * Return on investment. * Member awareness. "Know your total costs of execution," he stressed. "Work relentlessly on your ROI. Set measurable objectives - and measure them. Collect `soft' successes as well. Share your business objectives with your teams. "Your Web address should be on your teller receipts, in your ads, on your checks, in your lobby and in your newsletters - everywhere. Make your site `sticky,' a site to which members want to return and will bookmark." Michael Neill runs Michael Neill and Associates, a consulting business in Fayetteville, Ga. He offered his thoughts on creating and maintaining a sales and service culture. First he defined a selling culture in a credit union as one where the credit union exerts efforts to train employees in sales and to evaluate and reward effective selling. Employees themselves view selling as a routine part of their responsibilities. Neill said it can take a year and a half, perhaps two years or more, to create a selling culture, depending on factors such as management commitment and the current staff. He had a ready answer for people who worry about a sales emphasis downplaying credit unions' traditional service focus. "We'll have more business when we start asking for it," Neill declared. At the same time, "You can't have a sales culture without a service culture." Credit union employees should offer each other, as well as members, good service, he added. "The service we provide to the member is never better than the service we provide each other," Neill said. "Everything we do should focus on making it easier and more convenient for members. We must deliver better service than our competitors. But a lot of our 20-something tellers don't know what good service is." Neill listed some challenges credit unions face in providing high quality personal service: * Low unemployment, which means people can demand better wages. * Poorly-trained staff who lack product knowledge. * Low morale. * Ineffective internal service. * Low wages. He advised credit unions to hire confident, assertive employees with service experience, not necessarily cash handling experience. Hire applicants who want to provide a high level of member service, and make certain selling expectations are listed in the position description. "Commit to train your managers to be coaches and leaders. Employees will care no more than their leader and will probably not exceed the leader's level of performance," Neill said. He cited a 1997 CUNA survey revealing 73% of employees say they are less motivated than they used to be. Eighty-four percent said they could perform significantly better if they wanted to. Fifty percent said they are doing just enough to keep their job. Front-line employees listed recognition as the number one motivation. "What is the 10%, 80%, 10% rule?," Neill asked. "Ten percent are willing and able to do a good job. Eighty percent are unwilling but able. Ten percent are unwilling and unable." He then cited questions credit unions can ask themselves as they consider whether they have an effective sales culture: * How many members does your credit union have? * What percent of your members hold your Visa card? * What percentage of members who do not carry your Visa card would qualify? * What is the average Visa balance of your account holders? * Do your loan interviewers look at a credit report as an opportunity or a rap sheet? -
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