VADNAIS HEIGHTS, Minn. - Scott Olson got a rude awakening last year. After spending nearly $40,000 on a television and cable advertising campaign to promote the community chartered credit union and its products and services including auto loans, the president/CEO of the $26 million CCU realized the campaign was missing its mark. It was an expensive lesson for Olson to digest.

"We could have flushed that money down the toilet and gotten the same results," he said unabashedly.

Olson got the eye-opening news from Cities CU's marketing manager who was just back from attending a credit union branding event sponsored by EverythingCU.com in Portland, Ore. in September 2005. The independent company based in Holyoke, Mass. and headed by Morriss Partee includes more than 4,000 credit union marketing professionals representing about 1,500 credit unions who network with each other via the company's online discussion board on CU products and marketing techniques. Members also use the site to share various documents such as charitable donation forms and newspaper ad samples.

"I was shocked and admittedly a little put off at first by what my marketing person told me," Olson added. "After all, $40,000 is a lot of money. But then I listened to what she had to say, and it made sense.

"Even though we got our community charter three years ago, we're still a small credit union that's surrounded by larger credit unions and banks that can out-market us and out-service us. We needed to find our uniqueness.

When it comes to auto lending, Cities CU thought it had that product down pat. Olson said the CU held open houses and got good attendance and, advertised on the television and radio. He said the CU was known for its auto loans-Cities CU's auto loan portfolio is $11 million-so Olson assumed the credit union was doing everything right. But in fact, he said, that wasn't the case. Cities CU's auto loan growth was actually flat.

"Before, we were trying to be all things for the community. We were known for doing a good job, but there was none of the classic buzz where people remember your name and refer you to other people. That's credible advertising, and we weren't getting that. We were getting our name out there, but it wasn't bringing people into the credit union. We have something very special here at Cities CU, and we needed to find what that was and market that uniqueness."

He added, "The commercials we ran showed the lengths we go to to service our members, but consumers are hit with so many ads each day. You're just among the masses. The advertising wasn't credible, it wasn't bringing people into the credit union for auto loans."

According to Partee, the mistake many credit unions make is "they have a hodge-podge of things they try, the latest and greatest auto loan program, or the latest and greatest mortgage program. But there's a lack of consistency and coherence in the way they market products. Our job is to give them alignment so members know what to expect, and the credit union delivers that constantly to the members."

In the case of Cities CU's auto loan portfolio, Olson said the CU changed its message and emphasis.

"We had to ask ourselves are we going to grow just for growth sake and bring on services we have no experience in, or say this is who we are and if you as a member have this need, then we'll provide this type of environment. If we do well with your car loan, then maybe there's another service we offer that you'll like."

To redefine and redirect Cities CU's auto loan marketing effort, Partee took the credit union through a five-phase branding exercise all CU clients go through. The exercise begins with member focus groups; the CU then reviews the member feedback to ascertain what makes the CU unique and determine what its members want; then the CU develops a filter they can do everything in that's linked to their branding. EverythingCU.com also develops a brand manual for the CU's employees so everyone is on the same page and knows the CU's purpose; phase four features an alignment between service and the way the CU delivers its marketing effort "so service and marketing aren't operating in two different silos"; and lastly there's a branch launch party the CU holds.

Cities CU realized what it prided itself on most was its family-oriented values and treating members like they're family.

"Now that our members have a handle on our brand-that we put members' interests first, like family-word is spreading around the community that this is a place a consumer wants to do business with," said Olson.

"All credit unions have a uniqueness they need to leverage, this is ours," he added. "We take the time to get involved in our members' lives. If they have a problem, we can humbly guide them. People in the community see their values are the same as our values, and then they start to move their money over to the credit union and open accounts. They're bringing their money over here."

By April, Olson began to see an improvement in Cities CU's auto loan portfolio, but he said at first he thought it was a "fluke." At the end of May though, when the CU finished tabulating auto loans disbursed for that month, the CU was in for a surprise. After doing about $600,000 in auto loans in the month of May each year since 2003, Cities CU finished May 2006 with $860,000 in loans, a 38% increase over the previous year's $619,000.

"When you're passionate about what you're saying and you have a message, you can tap into the mood of the area and what motivates people. We're not saying we're all things to all people, we're telling them we're family friendly. We've hit a nerve," said Olson. [email protected]