I've been traveling a lot in the past month for both work and not-work reasons. On each trip, I've made a point to ask people, family members, Uber drivers and business professionals about credit unions to see what they know and think.

I spoke with 18 people – none of whom have a credit union account. Of the 18 people I casually interviewed, all of them knew or understood very little about credit unions.

“My mom was a nurse and I know she had an account for years because of the union she belonged to,” responded one person. “And I think some of my friends have accounts at one.”

“I don't know where a credit union is around here,” said an usher at a Colorado Rockies game. He continued, “Maybe I should look around? I don't know.”

My favorite response was from a person in Miami, when I asked about what it would take to move their account from Chase Bank to a local credit union: “Why in the hell would I do that? I've been with Chase for years and I don't want to deal with changing everything.”

The underlying story with 17 of the 18 people I spoke with was that they picked their current financial institution years ago because it solved an in-the-moment need and they've never had a good reason to change.

“Because I was in the Army, I don't have any fees and Wells Fargo covers up to 10 ATM transaction fees each month,” said an Army veteran who served in Iraq and Afghanistan. “Also, I get free checking and I don't give a sh*t about mobile banking stuff.”

All fair points.

Even when I had a lengthy amount of time to explain what a credit union is, it just didn't seem to click. For instance, I was driving with a family member through downtown Boston and even that wasn't enough time for them to fully grasp the point of a credit union or find a good enough reason to switch.

The most positive reaction I received from anyone was when I explained how it's free to use any credit union ATMs around the country, as long as you're a member. After that, interest was minimal.

Now, maybe it's the delivery vessel (me) or maybe it's that the audience I spoke with just didn't care? Or maybe there just isn't a strong message about credit unions that resonates with a mass non-credit union audience? Obviously it's resonating with some people because we're still watching overall membership numbers grow nationwide. But who are those people? Relatives of existing members?

Here's my point: Having this many conversations and trying multiple angles to try and test out what clicks and what doesn't with non-credit union members was an interesting, if not entertaining, experiment.

Since I've been inside the credit union industry, there's always been one topic that has popped up every so often – the idea of a nationwide credit union branding campaign. But, with the individuality of each credit union, larger credit unions either not wanting it or just not interested in supporting a campaign, and the challenge of a consumer message that could apply to the industry as a whole – it's a difficult task.

It's like asking Wells Fargo and Bank of America to go along with a community bank marketing and social media campaign and spend their money on something the big banks know would be a pointless effort. Another analogy would be creating a campaign that worked for The Gap and your small-town clothing store. One size does not fit all.

I started digging around in some folders from my previous public relations life to get some ideas on how to solve this (or decide if it was unsolvable) and found email campaigns, social media strategies, landing pages and old-school media pitches.

And the only thing that really stood out that might work for an overall national campaign to fit every size credit union was an old-school approach of a media tour around different regions of the country.

It goes like this: CUNA and/or NAFCU join together to decide some kind of actionable message and then apply that message individually to 50 small- and medium-sized credit unions and 50 large credit unions spread around the country. CUNA and NAFCU then train their marketing people and those from the selected credit unions on the message and deliverable strategies. Then the national marketers hit the road for one long summer and go to each media market served by the selected credit unions. From there, the national marketing pros work with the local marketing and public relations people to visit TV and radio stations to talk about the message and connect that to a local event happening in those markets.

Once the “credit union summer” is over, the local credit union marketers train the other credit union staff in their area on the message and how to deliver it and so on and so on. Then you have an entire industry on the same page with the same message and a specialized impact on every credit union market in our country.

I know, it takes a lot of work and a lot of planning, but I've done this before for other regulated industries and the benefits you reap from this kind of planning and execution will last for years.

Don't expect perfection, but do expect lives to be changed in an incredible way and a new energy to waft through credit union staff and communities.

Michael Ogden is executive editor for CU Times. He can be reached at mogden@cutimes.com.

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Credit Union Summer Tour

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