Nexus Connection

Tune in to a New CU Social-networking Site

Posted by Jamie McMahon

Last fall Lisa wrote a post on the "fun first, detailed explanations later" marketing approach, using examples such as the Young & Free Alberta campaign to illustrate how credit unions may be able to draw young people in with entertainment, then mix the "boring" financial-related information into that entertainment or even leave it entirely for later.

While the approach probably isn't ideal in all situations, I think Mount Lehman Credit Union's new online community The Mount Lehman Show is a perfect example of what could be a successful model. It draws you in with its own Facebook-like social network, providing members their own profiles as well as the ability to upload photos, videos and blog posts. That represents the fun.

The information part comes through the actual show, which has online episodes posted at the top of the Web site's home page. They themselves are tinged with a bit of wackiness: The inaugural episode features an introduction from Mount Lehman CU's CEO Gene Blishen, a "get to know an employee" segment, and a clip of the CU's mascot, Payday the horse, dancing on the credit union's lawn. The show, however, only constitutes a small portion of the site, which is dominated by member-generated content.

Why might an online community like this be successful in attracting young people to a credit union? For one, exploring the lighthearted bits and pieces of the site was a refreshing experience for me, a 22-year-old set to enter the worst job market in recent memory and tired of news of economic doom and gloom. But I also think it's important to look at the social-networking capabilities of The Mount Lehman Show as more than just entertainment. Here are a couple ways such capabilities go beyond fun and actually begin to promote loyalty to Mount Lehman CU:

They encourage aggregate behavior. It's easy, even for my me and my friends, to dismiss communities like Facebook and Twitter as nothing more than procrastination tools—as channels through which we generate the ridiculous notion that the world cares about what we have for breakfast every morning. Taken by themselves, for example, my Twitter posts are absolutely useless. But when they're added together, and added to the posts of my friends, they begin to form aggregate behaviors that we all use to guide our daily lives. We may not realize it, but when deciding how to act, what products to buy, and yes, even which financial institutions to trust, we rely more on our friends and these networks than we do on TV or radio ads. What's great about The Mount Lehman Show is it provides a very specific version of that sort of network, allowing young people to explore and gain confidence from financial behaviors of their peers—the most obvious and important behavior, of course, being joining the community and Mount Lehman CU in the first place.

They provide users the means to do something good. My friends and I also want to make the world a better place, and we want to know that we're doing it in significant numbers. (I've seen countless movements succeed on Facebook solely because members saw the sizes of certain groups and realized they could actually make a difference by joining up.) On The Mount Lehman Show site, users can view a video explaining how the CU helps the community, then scroll down and see all the subscribers who have become a part of that. This feeling of collective action is harder to promote if you're simply sending Tweets out to isolated subscribers. (And it's reminiscent of Vancity's changeeverything.ca.)

So I think The Mount Lehman Show adds another level to the “fun first, information later” mantra. Certainly people will stumble upon official information from the credit union through the site, but the information more relevant to them will be obtained through networking with their peers—while they’re simultaneously having fun, that is.

Could this represent the next movement in marketing to Gen Y? Other industries seem to think so: the free service used to create The Mount Lehman Show, Ning, is growing in popularity. Everyone out there is looking to harness the power of social networking, and this allows you to literally focus that power on your organization alone. You can decide exactly what you think fun is to your members, then design your online community to reflect that.

What the Heck are Mail Goggles?

Posted by Christopher Stevenson

After several failed attempts at coming up with a clever introduction to this post, I give up. Here's what I want to share with you. Gmail's Mail Goggles.

Mail Goggles will help prevent you from sending those late-Friday-night, four-appletini e-mails to friends and colleagues. How? By making you solve a few simple math problems after you click <send> to make sure you're in the right state of mind.

What I like about it:

1. It's edgy without being offensive.
2. It meets a need (kind of).
3. It's funny. (By default, Mail Goggles only runs late nights on weekends, when you're most likely to need it.)
4. It's bound to create buzz. (The the AP has already picked up the story.)

Will it really prevent you from sending long, rambling e-mails to your friends, loved ones, or rivals? No. Will it increase awareness of Gmail and it's benefits? I'm almost sure of it. 

Don't be afraid to be a little edgy.

'Fun' First--or How Would You Phrase it?

Posted by Lisa Hochgraf

I've been having trouble articulating an idea that came into my head during FORUM Symposium early this month in Indianapolis. Maybe you can help.

The idea is basically that entertainment in marketing brings people in and makes it possible to effectively tell people the "boring" stuff they need to know.

Here's an example of what I'm driving at: Larissa Walkiw made Young & Free Alberta's blog so fun that young people got charged up about it--and, ultimately, signed up for a lot of free checking accounts from Common Wealth Credit Union, Lloydminster, Alberta. My guess is they didn't come for the checking accounts initially. They came to be entertained and then happened to sign up.

And then yesterday I (belatedly) read Melissa Troiano's "Banks ... one step ahead" post on the Filene blog (Thanks, Mary, for pointing this one out!). The post discussed how widely known personal finance adviser Suze Orman is now FDIC's paid spokesperson. There were lots of good comments on the post, but a key takeaway for me was that the FDIC wasn't afraid to get people's attention now--entertaining them with bronzed and blonde Suze Orman--and follow up with the details later.

Ron's "Game-Based Banking" post on this blog yesterday suggests that gaming can bring people in and form connections with them. Again, fun first, product sales later.

So is "fun first, detailed explanations later" a new mantra for communicating with members and potential members? How would you phrase this mantra better? Do you have additional examples of entertainment leading the way for good information about financial products and services?

How Do You 'Unlock Cool'?

Posted by Lisa Hochgraf

I'd like to hear about how you "unlock cool."

I'm stealing the phrase "unlock cool" (with cool being something unique and cutting edge) from Jeremy Gutsche, MBA, CFA, chief trend hunter at trendhunter.com. He gave the closing keynote at CUES Experience last month. (In the photo he's talking to CUES member Jack Kennelly, VP/marketing, $316 million City & County CU, Maplewood, Minn. A side story, Jeremy saw attendees drinking bottles of root beer and thought it was beer. Maybe beer would have been cooler!)

Jeremy told conference attendees that taking a "methodical approach to innovation can help you generate ideas, stimulate creativity and ultimately unlock cool."

Whoa! "Methodical" innovation can lead to cool?

Twyla Tharp would agree. One of America's greatest choreographers, Tharp suggests in her book The Creative Habit: Learn It and Use It for Life"  that making creativity part of your life means making it a habit.

Tharp has clearly succeeded with her methodology, having created more than 130 dances for some of the world's best dance companies, winning two Emmy awards for television's Baryshnikov by Tharp, and a Tony award for the Broadway musical Movin' Out. (Set to the music of Billy Joel, Movin' Out is awesome! I went, I know!)

To support all this creative work, Tharp (she's in her 60s--that's her, at right) gets up every day at 5:30 a.m. and takes a cab to the gym, where she works out for two hours. She uses cardboard boxes to contain the things that inspire her for each project she works on. She reads every evening, scratching for ideas. She works with the best people she can, to inspire the best in herself. She uses exercises and games to keep her mind fresh, help her get started, and to get over blocks and worries.

With preparation and effort, she'd say, "creativity"--and I'd say "unlocking cool"--are within everyone's reach.

So how do we commoners "unlock cool"? I'll go first: My personal habits to push creativity are to do writing early in my work day, swimming even earlier in the morning two days a week, having some friends who are more "artists" than me--including a poet, a dancer and a painter/biologist--to provide out-of-the-box ideas, and making sure I get enough time for my brain to be quiet.

Your turn. What do you do?

Kudos to PopCap

Posted by Christopher Stevenson

Do you ever get the urge to try and control consumer conversation? To keep tight reins on how consumers view and use your products or services? It's one of the main reasons many companies don't get into blogging or social media. It's understandable; it's scary to release control. And typically what happens when a consumer tries to wrestle a bit of customization away from a company that maintains tight control is a lawsuit. Think about the music industry's insistence on suing college students for sharing music files. (Before anyone sends me a nasty note about the illegal nature of swapping files, let me state that I know it's wrong, but multi-million dollar companies beating on broke college students doesn't get to the crux of the issue.) Recently though, PopCap, the software company behind the popular video game Bejeweled, demonstrated how allowing your customers a little free rein can pay off in spades.

Here's the scoop. Apparently Bernie Peng, a software programmer in New Jersey, hacked Bejeweled so when his girlfriend reached a certain score in the game it would display a ring and a marriage proposal. (I would prefer Jumbotron proposals, personally.) Peng detailed his efforts on his personal blog and PopCap caught wind of his work.

The Associated Press reports that instead of sending Bernie a cease and desist order, PopCap decided to give Bernie and his bride a wedding gift:

The couple plan to marry over Labor Day weekend, and PopCap, the Seattle company that makes "Bejeweled," will fly the couple to Seattle as part of their honeymoon.

"Most video game companies would frown on people manipulating their games," said Garth Chouteau, a spokesman for PopCap.

"But it won him a woman. As a bunch of geeks we have to say, 'Bernie, hats off to you.'"

The company is also supplying copies of "Bejeweled" to hand out as favors to the wedding guests.

Huh, go figure. PopCap could have made a stink, rifled off a C&D, and positioned themselves forever as enemies of romance (right up there with the Montegue and Capulet families). Instead, they've blessed brilliant Bernie's romantic (albeit geeky) escapades and have generated a huge amount of positive press for the company and its trademark game.

Is there risk to opening up and releasing a bit of control? Absolutely, but it's clear from PopCap's example that there is a huge upside potential as well. It's not right for every credit union, but maybe it's right for yours. 

   

Saying it Over and Over Doesn't Make it True

Posted by Christopher Stevenson

I know you've heard it before. It seems every credit union differentiates itself on service. It has become the CU mantra, "Our service makes the difference; our service makes the difference; our service makes the difference." You've also heard lots of consultants saying that it's hogwash; not everyone can differentiate themselves on service. Nevertheless, there are some CUs that really believe deep down that their service is what makes the difference. But how do they really know? Member surveys? Questions like "Were you greeted with a smile?" and "Did you wait in line more than five minutes?" do little to determine if our member service is worth squat. Even more important, how do we communicate it to our members and potential members? Posters in the lobby boasting of our undying dedication to member service won't cut it.

Then today a friend sent me a link to CustomInk.com, a custom T-shirt company. By nearly all accounts, CustomInk.com is a typical T-shirt company, selling team jerseys, custom trucker caps, and the like. What sets CustomInk.com apart is the sidebar on its home page that shows "Uncensored Customer Reviews" for today. Click on it and you can see all the customer reviews, unedited and unfiltered, and sort them by catagories. There's no hiding behind marketing slogans or selectively printed testimonials. What you see is what you get. Talk about having faith in your service and product quality.

I wonder how many credit unions could pull something like this off. If we truly think our service is what sets us apart, then why not prove it? If we don't think we have the raving fans we need to try something like CustomInk.com's "Uncensored Customer Reviews," then we'd best surrender our ideas of differentiating on service and find the thing that truly sets us apart.

Remember, just chanting a mantra doesn't make it true. If it did, I'd be 20 pounds lighter and driving an F-150.

   

The Savings Revolution (I love this idea)

Posted by Christopher Stevenson

What's your strategy for saving for retirement and paying off debt? Oh, well, that's obvious; just systematically set money aside in your 401(k) and Roth IRA, and pay credit cards off at the end of each month. Pay yourself first, right? Not if you're part of the 40 percent of low-income earners who think it's more practical to bank on winning the lottery than to follow a systematic plan for savings. Not if you're one of the folks recently interviewed for Filene's Why Choose a Credit Union report who say they are on the "death plan" for retirements savings (i.e. planning to die before retirement). Savings isn't obvious to millions of Americans; they need some help.

Enter The Savings Revolution, the brainchild of Filene i3's Musette Bracher, GECU, El Paso, Texas; Danielle Chatfield, Kemba Financial Credit Union, Gahanna, Ohio; Mark Forsyth, NIH Federal Credit Union, Rockville, Md.; Tom Gisewhite, MidWest Financial Credit Union, Ann Arbor, Mich.; and Kathleen Emery, Online Resources, Woodland Hills, Calif.

From The Savings Revolution business plan:

"The Savings Revolution is like Weight Watchers for your wallet. It's a member-oriented, member-driven social-engineering-based method for helping members help themselves get out of debt and build wealth. It's a combination of reality TV, robust online interaction and support, and individual planning."

There are two components to the program: Savings Challenge and Savings Revolution.

Savings Challenge is an event in which selected members of the credit union work toward achieving established savings and debt reduction goals. Coaches work with each participant to help them develop strategies and support. The participant who comes closest to or exceeds his or her goals wins a prize. At GECU, where the Savings Challenge was piloted, two local television stations monitored the competition and broadcast monthly updates featuring the participants, raising the Savings Challenge from "just another CU marketing scheme to a community-based reality TV experiment. Check out the video here.

Savings Revolution takes the Savings Challenge to a national level, encouraging CUs across the country to promote the program in their own areas and building a national network. There may also be an online component, such as Wesabe, that would allow participants to establish goals and track their progress toward them.

Now think big. In GECU's Savings Challenge, the two participants who do the best job of meeting their goals will win $10,000 each, obviously a signficant cash prize. But what if a network of CUs worked together to launch a national Savings Revolution with an even more notable prize...say, a million dollars? (Yeah, I think CUs and the suppliers who serve them can swing that much.) Imagine the press--T.V., print, on line, radio, local, national. And the coverage wouldn't just be for the prize; it would also focus on the coordinated effort of CUs to coach consumers and help them eliminate debt and develop good financial habits that will put them on the road to wealth. Imagine, Mark Burnett presents: The Savings Revolution, hosted by Warren Buffet. (Hey, I said think big.)

I believe that this idea has legs. There are undoubtedly challenges, not the least of which is overcoming the increasing unwillingness of some credit unions to collaborate with others. But if those challenges can be overcome, The Savings Revolution has the weight to improve consumer knowledge of CUs, build membership, and push back hard on bankers' accusations that CUs don't do enough to help the underserved. There's lots of talk about building a national credit union brand; here's the start of it.

If you're interested in having your own Savings Challenge, the Savings Revolution Implementation Guide, available through Filene Research Institute, offers a step-by-step approach to getting started.   

A Buzz about Shaving

Posted by Christopher Stevenson

Mr. Thomas E. Murry, CEO, Local 20 IBEW FCU, Dallas, closed out the Filene i3 meeting last week. Did he close with a motivational speech to get folks charged up before they left for home? Nope. How about an insightful look at the nature of innovation? Nuh uh. Cool credit union product ideas? No. The closing session was on the art of shaving.

Mr. Murry spends 45 minutes a day shaving his face. Read that again; 45 minutes shaving! I spend a third that time on my entire grooming regimen, shaving included. (Hey, I'm clean. What more do I need?) I couldn't imagine what would possess someone to take that much time just scraping his face. Why would he do it?

Because it's an experience. It wakes him up and makes him feel good.

Okay, good enough. Though, when I walk down the shaving aisle at Target or the grocery store, I don't get the sense that anything there will make me feel good. I pick up my Gillette Good News disposable razors (cheap and relatively effective) and Barbasol or Colgate (whichever is cheaper) and I'm set for a month, all for under five bucks.

But Mr. Murry found The Art of Shaving store in a Dallas shopping mall. The clerk showed him "The 4 Elements of a Perfect Shave®": prepare, to soften the beard and protect the skin; lather up with shaving soap and a shaving brush; shave with a good handle and proper technique; and moisturize. He also received a free barbershop-style shave with his purchase. Never mind that "The 4 Elements of a Perfect Shave" are "value priced" at 100 dollars; Mr. Murry was sold.   

More than that, though, he's become an Art of Shaving evangelist. He talks about it with friends. He shared his routine with his roommate at the CUNA Management School. He talked it up with Filene's Denise Gabel who was presenting at the school. And, he took time out of his workweek to come to the i3 meeting to share it with the group. With the help of Lydia Johnson, Vancity Credit Union, Vancouver, British Columbia, he even demonstrated the proper way to shave on Todd Marksberry, Delta Community Credit Union, Atlanta.

Mr. Murry moved me. At heart, I'm a cheapskate (hence the disposable razors and Barbasol), but when I returned from Dallas I broke out my good razor and shaving brush (a gift from my ma years ago) and went out and got myself some high-end shaving stuff. I wanted to feel good, just like Mr. Murry. Am I just an easy sell? Maybe, but my face is smooooth.

What's the bottom line? Some people are willing to spend more for high-quality experiences? That's part of it. Here's the rest of it. More people will be willing to spend more if you can get your current customers to go out and rave about your products and services, even if they are considered commodities by the general public. That frees you up from having to compete on price alone and that's good news. As Denise Wymore commented on an earlier post, Umpqua did it by offering free chair massages for busy moms. GECU, El Paso, Texas, is doing it with Savings Revolution, an event in which selected members compete to achieve defined savings and debt reduction goals; it's like Weight Watchers for your wallet (more to come on this in later posts).

It's cool stuff, even better than shaving with expensive shaving soap.