Steal Your Members

Kent Dicken
April 23, 2010 | COMMENTS

If you were a small soft drink company, you wouldn't be trying to convince people to drink soft drinks when they were thirsty. That's the job of the market leader. That's Coke and Pepsi's job. What you would be trying to do is to connect with the consumer in a way that when they walk up to the cooler, they end up buying your soft drink instead. You would be trying to steal some of Coke and Pepsi's market share.

In most markets, credit unions are not the biggest player. And their local competition, the smaller community banks, seem to be getting swallowed by bigger banks. These megabanks are the market leaders simply because they have deeper pockets for advertising. Yet many CUs still try to convince people that they are the same as a bank, rather than highlighting the reason that people should use them instead of a bank. That's like trying to sell the idea of buying a soft drink instead of telling them why they should buy your soft drink.

When you are not the market leader, you have to steal share of the market. You have to differentiate yourself.

Instead of telling people that you also offer car loans, you need to communicate why they need your car loan. Instead of saying you have a good checking account, you have to tell people why your checking account is perfect for their lifestyle. Instead of telling people why you are just like a bank, you need to tell they why you are not just like a bank.

Credit Unions have so many positives about them that the hardest part is communicating the difference to potential members. But that's how you “steal” members.

Kent Dicken is El Queso Grande of iDiz Incorporated, a marketing firm that works with credit unions. Contact him at 317.576.0602 or kent@idizinc.com. Reprinted with permission.