Nexus Connection

Green Standard in Banking?

Posted by Theresa Witham

As an editor for Credit Union Management, I take notice of interesting financial institution marketing, especially on TV. I live near Baltimore, and was impressed by the ads that PNC Bank has occasionally run in my market.

So I did a little research and learned that PNC, headquartered in Pittsburgh, has been committed to building green since 2000 and it applies green building standards to all new branches, claiming on its Web site and in television ads to have the most buildings on the entire planet certified by the U.S. Green Building Council.

More than 50 percent of the construction materials used in the bank's green buildings are locally manufactured or made from recycled or green materials--from the structural steel to the carpeting and fabrics throughout the building.

• Glass in the windows is three times more efficient than conventional glass.
• Natural "daylighting" is incorporated into all occupied areas of the building.
• Lighting fixtures and daylighting controls help minimize electricity use.
• Fresh air is used as much as possible. During moderate weather seasons, some buildings can be cooled and ventilated with 100 percent outside air.
• Reduced water usage results from the installation of dual-flush toilets (which give users a choice about how much water to use) and low-flow faucets.
• Heating and air conditioning systems use 35 percent less energy than traditional ones.
• Highly reflective roofing material reduces heat retention and is supported by trusses and plywood that come from managed forests, which plant multiple trees for each one cut down.
• Most everything is made from recycled material--from the steel structure to the carpet.
• Pre-manufactured exterior panels reduce construction waste.
• Roof projections were designed to shade the building interior from direct sunlight.
• Solar shades for windows block direct sunlight without eliminating daylight.
• The plants, adhesives and caulking used during construction do not contribute to greenhouse gases.
• Use of drought-resistant plants require little to no water.
• Green housekeeping procedures and green cleaning products are utilized.

The bank's corporate offices are also green. Plus, PNC works with real estate developers to determine if contaminated land, or "brownfield" sites, can be cleaned up and redeveloped for branches.

The bank applies its green efforts to all major construction projects. For example, if future development sites have existing buildings, they are "deconstructed" rather than demolished. For one project, this allowed the bank to salvage or reuse more than 90 percent of materials that would otherwise go to landfills.

What's good for the environment is good for employees, the bank says. A study found employee retention and satisfaction to be much higher at PNC Firstside Center, a U.S. Green Building Council LEED Silver certified building, than at similar traditional facilities.

And what's good for the environment is good for the bank's bottom line. PNC says the green practices can reduce its building operating costs by 35 percent or more. By improving natural lighting, heating and cooling, the bank says its employees are more comfortable and productive, and the gas and electric bills are reduced with advanced air-cooling systems. Plus, the HVAC technology takes advantage of seasonal pricing by using natural gas in the summer and electricity in the winter in select buildings.

PNC is not the only financial institution that is making a green commitment. Read several ways that CUs are getting greener in articles from the August 2009 "green theme" issue of Credit Union Management:

• Green Assets
• Greening Your Staff
• Living Green
• Shades of Green
• Walk the Green Walk

These CUs have promoted their green efforts to their members and their communities, fostering goodwill and showing their commitment to creating a better world. What is your credit union doing to support the environment, and how is it promoting its efforts?

Theresa Witham is a CUES editor.

Also read "Going Green Promotes Positive Press and Positive Impression" and "Going Green Neither Corny nor Idle" on CUES Skybox.

Learn how CUES saved $52,000 by making some small energy changes in CUES Cost Control Series: Facilities.

Learn more about green facilities in CUES Complete Guide to Credit Union Facilities.

Packaging (Loans?) Made Perfect

Posted by Lisa Hochgraf

A friend I respect a lot for her medical knowledge (formerly an ER nurse, now mom and biology instructor) raved on Facebook recently about Target's new medicine bottle.

I asked Kristen for more specifics about just what she liked, and check out what she said:

It is really well thought out for people who are on multiple medications, and for families with more than one person taking medications: 1) Each family member is assigned a color--all the medications with the blue band belong to one person, and the red bands to another 2) The bottle itself is flattened, so all the information--drug name, instructions--is easily readable without having to read around a cylinder 3) The backside of the bottle includes a physical description of the medication inside--ever tried sorting pills for Grandma and wondered which medication was the yellow pill and which the blue? 4) The bottle is designed to stand on its lid, and the top (normal bottom) of the bottle has the name of the medication in large print--really useful for people who store their medications in a basket--they can identify the medication from above. Packaging science at its best. I am really impressed!

Now I have to say I really like and trust my local pharmacist, but this bottle is cool enough to at least turn my head and consider whether Target might be a good place to fill my next script. Read more about Target's marketing plans for the new bottle in this article.

In a way I can't believe I'm blogging about pill bottles this morning. I wonder if there's a way loans or savings accounts could be packaged that would make people turn their heads and think about switching over to your CU? Ideas, anyone?

The Delta Way: Reflections on Merger Marketing

Posted by Lisa Hochgraf

Early this month evening I flew to Madison to be at CUES headquarters for my 10th employment anniversary luncheon (see the photo here). In Detroit, I had to literally run from one plane to the next.

Thankfully I made the flight, still labeled as a Northwest jet, but with clear signs of the Delta merger present. When I thanked one of the flight attendants for waiting, she said, "It's the Delta way. As Northwest, we would have left. But Delta waits for people."

Wow! Am I ever a proponent of the Delta way!

The experience got me to thinking about the marketing aspects of mergers. So let me ask you some questions, especially if you've ever merged with another CU.

• How did you preserve the best in the member service culture of both credit unions? (The Delta way is definitely my choice in terms of helping passengers make connections, but I'd guess there are Northwest culture characteristics worth preserving, too.)
• How did you talk about the merger with members? (There were updates in the Delta in-flight magazine on my Northwest flight.)
• What plan did you have (and at what cost) for converting your brand image to the remaining credit union? (It seems like yesterday that Northwest was repainting planes to match its new brand look, and now Delta is repainting them again.)

A Moment of Brand Reflection

Posted by Christopher Stevenson

Have you seen Brand Tags? It's a Web site that shows you a logo and asks you to submit the first word or phrase that comes to mind. Your answers are added to a tag cloud that visually represents all answers related to that brand's logo. The premise is laid out on the home page: "The basic idea of this site is that a brand exists entirely in people's heads. Therefore, a brand is whatever they say it is."

For instance, popular responses to the Home Depot logo include DIY, hardware, home improvement, and crap. Common responses to Coldstone Creamery are ice cream, yummy, expensive, and fat. Here's a sample from the tag cloud for the Apple logo:

Brand Tag is a fun site to explore as it provides insights into common perceptions of some of the most common brands.

This raises the question: What would the tag cloud look like for your credit union? How about for the movement as a whole?

What do you think?

Not Quite a Brand Tattoo, but Close

By Lisa Hochgraf

Last week, while my husband and son were enjoying a biking and camping trip, I lived it up. Specifically, I invited other moms on my street over on Tuesday for a quiet, post-children's-bedtime game of Scrabble (and a relaxing glass of wine).

One of my neighbors, also named Lisa, showed up wearing this Scrabble tile necklace (except hers had an "L," of course).

 

All the players admired it and the next day Lisa sent an e-mail with the link on how to buy one. I'll probably bite, and get one for myself and for the other Scrabble-lovers in my life.

Now wearing a necklace or another one of the Scrabble jewelry options available from Eclectic Elements is not quite the same as putting a tattoo of the brand on my body. (Check out the discussion of Harley Davidson in Denise Wymore's book, Tattoos: The Ultimate Proof of a Successful Brand.) But to get me, a not-generally-brand-concerned word lover, to wear the Scrabble brand seems like pretty good news for Hasbro, the game's owner.

So why does the Scrabble brand resonate with me? Maybe there's something in my list of reasons that would help energize members to get enthusiastic about your CU's brand.

• It stands for something fun.
• It brings people I like together. (I play with my mom on Facebook and don't forget the aforementioned moms' night out.)
• It delivers a consistent experience. (Everywhere I play, I sometimes get a rack full of vowels, sometimes win and always get to think.)
• It makes me feel part of the "club" (I own the "official" scrabble players dictionary, after all.)

Loyalty Program--or not?

Posted by Lisa Hochgraf

Greetings from CUES headquarters in Madison, Wis. It's great to be out of the basement (where my home office is located).

When I arrived in town late last week, I did some grocery shopping at the Copps grocery store near the office. I was proud that I had my "shoppers card" with me (no Copps in Rochester), and was surprised when the checker told me the card I had was no longer in use.

Instead, he explained, I could turn it in and get a rewards card where my purchases at Copps would help reduce the cost of my next gasoline purchase.

This week at CUES, my inbox seems to have a lot in it about such card rewards and affinity/loyalty programs. Intuitively I thought that such programs would be no-brainers right now as people try to get the most for their buck during this economic downturn.

And for retailers like Copps, this may be true, according to research by COLLOQUY, which finds that 75 percent of 2,152 surveyed said the down economy had a neutral or positive effect on loyalty programs. In contrast, the impact of the recession on financial services industry rewards programs was relatively flat, with 52.7 percent reporting "no difference" in the impact of the recession on program participation.

What is your perspective? Is now the time to take a fresh look at member loyalty through special promotions, debit/credit rewards, Net Promoter and the like? Or are there better ways to build member relationships this year?

Drum Roll, Please ...

Posted by Lisa Hochgraf

Used to be you had to be on hand after the CUES Golden Mirror Awards banquet if you wanted to check out "the boards"--a room full of displays of the winning GMA entries. Marketers, CEOs, vendors, agency reps and I used to walk up and down long aisles of easels, checking out the great ideas, celebrating the successes, and loving the artwork and choices of color.

My how things have changed.

This year you and I can check out the best in credit union marketing right here, without ever leaving our seats. From that one link, you can view not only a list of winners, but the complete entries, artwork and materials for each one of the winners. And for the top three--the GMA Best of Show, the Rookie of the Year and the Golden Shoestring--there's also a video summary of their winning work.

So join me after the drum roll ... in congratulating--and being inspired by--the 2009 GMA winners!

Web Video Success Tips

Posted by Lisa Hochgraf

I like to say that the surest way to leave an editor without words is to stand them up in front of a group of people and ask them to speak.

So this day of Web video can be daunting for some of us. In contrast, CUES member Gary Easterling, CCE, seems to have taken in stride the shooting of the video for his credit union's new common sense Web site.

$850 million United Federal Credit Union's campaign, covered in more detail in today's CUES article, includes print ads and the common sense Web site, which showcase the credit union difference. The Web site features videos of Easterling, president/CEO of the St. Joseph, Mich., CU, answering questions about credit unions, TARP and how members can manage in these tough economic times.

He laughed a little when I asked him about his experience making the movies.

"It is a little intimidating at times if you think about it," he says, noting that things are easier once you realize you'll never get it right on the first take.

Indeed, Easterling says it took a half day to shoot the footage. While what he was going to say was scripted out in advance, he didn't want to read it. So getting it smooth took some time.

"You lose track of where you are, start, stop, cut and then edit later," he says. What you see on the site is the combination of several takes.

Anyone else have tips for success shooting Web video?

I've Had Enough Chicken Soup, Thank You

Posted by Christopher Stevenson

Some brand extensions get to be a bit ridiculous. I've never been a fan of the Chicken Soup for the Soul series of books, in part because it seemed they always seemed to be pushing the touchy, feel-good brand a little beyond its healthy scope. What started with a popular series of books expanded to include calendars and greeting cards (those are okay), flowers and gifts (alright), clothing (stretching a little), bibles (beginning to lose me), and puzzle books (I'm gone).

And there's this:

How exactly does pet food fit into the Chicken Soup brand? Brandextension.org notes 10 principles for a successful brand extension. Among those principles are: brand extensions must have leverage in the new category; brands should not be stretched to too many diverse categories, risking dilution in the long run; and brand extensions that do not create a positive synergy for the parent brand should not be pursued. Chicken Soup is in direct violation of each of these principles.

Every branding consultant will tell you your brand isn't your logo. It's not your branch or storefront. It's not your product. Your brand lives in the mind of the consumer. It's not just your story, but how the consumer interprets your story that matters. Brand extensions like Chicken Soup for the Kitten Lover's Soul cat food only serve to interject static into the story telling and interpretation.

The question is, how careful are you about your brand extensions? Do those travel services really communicate your brand? How about the reward program? Weigh these extensions carefully or you risk introducing static.

To close, here's my favorite iffy financial service brand extension: the ING Direct-branded mountain bike.   For only $450, you too can advertise for ING Direct.

 

Marketing Through Sponsors or Major SEGs?

Posted by Lisa Hochgraf

I spent a fair bit of time in the Newark and Cleveland airports this holiday. This airport time wasn't long enough to be miserable, but it was long enough to notice and take some notes about two bank marketing efforts.

What I noted is that banks are in the airports marketing through airline partners--companies I'm pretty sure credit unions also serve. This is not a dig at airline credit unions ... but rather a probe of what credit unions in general might be able to do more of in this new year in terms of leveraging the existing branding of their large sponsors or select employee groups.

These were the two things I observed:

• In Newark, where I spent four hours or so, HSBC had bought a logo ad on the outside of what appeared to be every last Continental Airlines jetwway. Big and prominent.
• In Cleveland, where I spent more than five hours, I saw this ad on my walk inside the jetway and also on posters inside the airport: "Checked bag fees? Bag 'em. Get your first checked bag fee waived with the Continental Airlines Chase credit or debit card. For more information visit continental.com."

What a great way to take advantage of what some other company spent on their brand to promote your own!What credit unions do you know of that are doing a great job with this? What are some other ways credit unions might be able to do this? Please comment.

Stop reading here to miss the shameless plug ...

Maybe I'll get lucky and see some additional examples of leveraging sponsor and SEG brands to credit union advantage when I peruse this year's entries in the Golden Mirror Awards contest. The final deadline for submissions is coming up Jan. 9.