Since 2003, Beyond Marketing LLC has been helping shift the general marketing assumptions – one credit union and CUSO at a time.

“We believe marketing is more of an investment than expense or line item in a budget,” said Curtis Hays, director of strategy at the Lenexa, Kan., CUSO. “It's about how do we create positive, sustainable results so that the money spent is used to help the credit union do more and do better for their members.

“Ultimately there has to be some measure of ROI but that doesn't necessarily always mean making more money but can be brand presence, building awareness, unaided recall. Regardless of what's being measured, we believe in the credit union philosophy and working on how we can help CUSOs and credit unions to maintain their difference.”