ORLANDO, Fla. – When Seth Godin referred multiple times to attendees at CUNA's Future Forum as being with a bank, the audience corrected him.
But that was his point. "Nobody cares about what you think. They care about what they think," the Purple Cow advertising guru said. People still think of doing their financial business at a bank. "Ideas that spread win," he stated.
So credit unions need to market for their remarkableness as well as targeting people who actually want to hear the message. He pointed out that GM actually loses money on its line of mid-size cars marketing average cars to average people. Where they make their money is on the fringe, on the Hummers and Mini Coopers.
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"It's at the edges that gets people to switch," he said. It is the stories these vehicles allow their owners to tell. "The stories matter a great deal," Godin advised.
But there is a lot of clutter and many companies make the mistake of "dealing with the clutter by making more clutter." Market to people who want to be marketed to, like Hallmark when it started a mailing list for its collectible Christmas ornaments that they sell in July. One woman tells another and brings another and on and on. "We like doing what other people are doing," Godin commented.
When marketing to a more receptive audience, it is anticipated, personal and relevant. Permission also helps cut through the clutter.
"The great advantage for all of you in the room is that your competition is asleep," Godin said.
He explained that while driving through the countryside, his kids stopped talking for about five seconds to look at a cow. However, had that been a purple cow, they all would have stopped and gotten out to check it out because it would have been remarkable.
Remarkable means "worth making a remark," he said, and word of mouth advertising is not only effective but it is free. He pointed to the company Mismatch, which sells colorful mismatched socks in packs of three-not three pairs, three-to pre-teens who go to school and say, `look at my socks.' Even Godin was wearing a pair.
"What I'm begging you to do is work the grapevine," he explained. [email protected]
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