SEATTLE—A man-on-the-street video interview of seven millennials presented at the ACUC general session Tuesday communicated that the credit union industry has an awareness problem.

Only one millennial said a credit union is a type of bank, while a second young adult said she joined a credit union because her mom told her to, but she was unaware its benefits over a bank.

The other five millennials were simply clueless about credit unions.

According to CUNA's extensive research that involved more than 16,000 interviews with American financial consumers over the last 16 years, more than 70% of millennials do not know what a credit union is.

That is a critical problem for the credit union industry, but it is also a major opportunity.

“The opportunity is greater today than it has ever been to work together and to close this national awareness gap,” said Teresa Freeborn, president/CEO of the $947 million Xceed Financial Federal Credit Union in El Segundo, Calif. “We have the opportunity to capture the hearts and minds of more consumers, especially the young folks that are drawn to our core values as being cooperatives and as member directed businesses, and that really appeals to them.”

Freeborn chairs CUNA's Creating Awareness Advisory Group that developed new resources to help credit unions raise awareness of the movement.

She emphasized, however, this new program is not a national campaign.

“It is a sustainable long-term commitment that is meant to add value to the work under way by the leagues, by credit unions in our local and regional markets,” she said. “It is going to put the leagues and credit unions, and some of those established brands that we have already, in the driver's seat. And it is going to provide empirical tested key messages to weave into new and existing marketing communications efforts. Our intention is to help unify how we talk about credit unions.”

According to CUNA Chief Strategic Communications Officer Douglas Kiker, there are four research-tested messages that can help raise the awareness of credit unions and move the needle to attract new members.

“Eighty-nine percent of the people that we polled over 16 years and 16,000 people responded positively to these messages that differentiate credit unions from banks and drive our mission to help members,” Kiker said.

The four messages were: Credit unions are different than banks; credit unions are not-for-profit unlike Wall Street; credit unions are member owned like Main Street; and, credit unions return earnings to members through lower fees and higher interest rates on savings.

“These messages are no surprise to anyone in this room at all,” Kiker said. “We have found through our research that if we utilize these messages and hammer them home, they will be effective in driving market and wallet shares. These are more than just warm and fuzzy messages. They have actually triggered financial change. We have this documented.”

When consumers are exposed to these messages, 82% said they would consider opening at least one account with a credit union, while 68% of non-primary financial institution credit union members would be more likely to move a greater share of their business to a credit union, according to Kiker.

To help credit unions and state leagues incorporate these four key messages into their current and future marketing communications efforts, CUNA has opened an online site that includes a variety of toolkits and resources such as digital and mobilization toolkits primarily for social media messaging, a best practices hub of what projects are working throughout the nation, and an ambassadors initiative that will get credit union employees, directors and members involved in promoting the credit union difference.

Instant Insights /

CUNA Launches Awareness Program: Onsite at ACUC

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