Flavorful finance: How banks, credit unions are using food to win business

September 22, 2022 2:23 PM

Banks and credit unions are finding that in some cases, the way to a consumer's heart is through their stomach.

From recruiting influencers on social media platforms such as Instagram and TikTok to creating bespoke offerings based on feedback garnered from millennial and Generation Z consumers, financial institutions are launching initiatives to meet the needs of younger audiences.

These organizations below are examples of how broadening the scope of advertising methods can reach untapped groups and start the conversation on financial wellbeing.

Avocado Toast and Iced Coffee card in action

Hand-out/Alliant Credit Union

Alliant Credit Union offers new members "Avocado Toast and Iced Coffee" promotion

Original mention by Frank Gargano

Stemming from the popularity of avocado toast and iced coffee amongst younger consumers, Alliant Credit Union in Chicago offered to pick up the bill for those willing to become its newest members.

The $16.4 billion-asset Alliant launched its "Avocado Toast and Iced Coffee" promotion on February 15, offering a $200 branded prepaid Visa gift card to the first 1,500 consumers that become a member and open a checking account.

"The idea kind of came from talking about the myths surrounding millennials that they struggle to save money and they're spending money frivolously on craft coffee and items like avocado toast which prevent them from being in the financial position that they want to be," said Norm Buchanan, chief product and experience officer for Alliant.

Buchanan explained that the myths were a jumping off point for the campaign amidst rising housing costs and helped start the conversation with millennial and Generation Z consumers around how the credit union could help.

"We're here for our members, and there's a lot of things Alliant can do, especially in these inflationary times to to help folks out ... [the card] was a great visual representation of that for starting that conversation," Buchanan said.

Advertising for the Pumpkin Spice Loan featuring "Merv," the spokesperson for Verve, a credit union.

Verve, a credit union.

A seasonal twist on a credit union classic

Article by Frank Gargano

With the return of "pumpkin spice" foods and drinks, a Wisconsin credit union is applying the same fall flavor to one of its products.

Verve, in Oshkosh, Wisconsin, began offering a "pumpkin spice loan" in 2014 after seeing the name catch on following its use as part of Starbucks' menu in 2003.

"We've run different approaches to the pumpkin spice loan in the past, where it began by playing on the pumpkin spice trend, and we've [since] expanded to other fall activities like getting lost in a corn maze," said Jordan Destree, assistant vice president of brand and design for the $1.5 billion-asset credit union. "Currently, it morphed to what you hear now, which is our spokesperson acting as a scarecrow having a conversation with a crow."

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Customers browse mobile devices in a Capital One Cafe.

Community bankers fear big-bank cafes will eat their lunch

Article by Laura Alix and Hilary Burns

It's a scene you might find in any American coffee shop.

Baristas steam milk and pour espresso shots. Students and young professionals sip on Peet's Coffee as they set up laptops at small tables, ready to hunker down and work, while other patrons pop in for a quick caffeine fix or a bite on their way to work.

It seems so ordinary, if it were not for a few Capital One Bank employees lingering in front of a large screen at the back of the store. Armed with tablets, they stand ready to answer questions about banking products and services, yet they avoid approaching people with a hard sell.

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From coffee shop to payments pioneer

Articles by Daniel Wolfe

Starbucks came at this trend from the opposite direction — it was a food and coffee retailer that became one of the few early success stories in mobile payments.

An early version of its mobile payments app debuted in 16 stores in 2009, and a key element to the app's success was that it was based on the wildly successful Starbucks Card. In 2010 the retailer tied the app to its Stars loyalty program, and in 2012 Starbucks invested $25 million in Square (now Block) and began using the company for payment processing. In 2014, when Starbucks had 10 million customers using its app to make 5 million mobile payments a week, CEO Howard Schultz passed along many of his responsibilities to another executive as part of a plan to focus more attention on mobile payments.

"I think the payments space itself is a very attractive opportunity for our company given the digital assets that we have," Schultz said at the time.

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A credit union in a bread factory

Location is everything. And Orion Federal Credit Union's headquarters is quite the location.

The Memphis credit union moved its headquarters into a former Wonder Bread bakery in 2019, moving 150 employees into the historic building. The factory was built in 1921 but had been vacant since 2013.

Orion described the building's Wonder Bread sign as iconic to the Memphis area. It chose the location as part of an effort to address blight in the Memphis area.

How credit unions in California, Hawaii are rethinking branch models

Article by Frank Gargano

As grocery and convenience stores redesign their layouts, so do the banks and credit unions that operate branches within those stores.

Hawaii State Federal Credit Union in Honolulu partnered with Element back in 2019 to help develop and open two new locations and has been working with the design firm to further expand its branch network across the island. Since January, the credit union has added two offices in Safeway grocery stores and plans to add three more this year.

"We were in the 3,000-plus-square-foot range for branches, and in Hawaii, finding that type of space in really good locations is very difficult," said Aaron Vallely, senior vice president of retail experience and operations for the $2.3 billion-asset Hawaii State. "With Element's assistance, we've been able to really scale down to a little over 1,700 square feet. … When you walk in, you don't feel like you're in 1,700 square feet, and they really maximized every inch in that space."

Despite the tight space of grocer-based micro branches — less than 500 square feet — tellers equipped with tablets instead of desktop computers will be able to help offer members the same services available at larger locations, Vallely said.

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Simplicity — and pizza — whet an appetite for mobile payments

Article by Bailey Reutzel

Many mobile payments vendors pile on features to set themselves apart, but Push for Pizza had a different philosophy when it launched in 2014. It let consumers purchase a pizza, and that's it.

The iPhone app got 7,000 downloads in its first 12 hours. The app stored the user's payment card and preferred pizzeria from a list of 12,000 accessed from Ordr.in's API, and enabled subsequent purchases (including tipping the delivery driver) by simply tapping an icon on the app. The only choice the user had to make is whether to get plain or pepperoni.

At a time when many restaurants were still struggling to figure out how — or whether — to sell through a mobile app, Push for Pizza filled a niche for nosh.

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Alliance Data becomes Bread, taking buy now/pay later unit's name

Article by Kate Fitzgerald

Alliance Data Systems, long a private-label credit card lender, changed its name to Bread Financial, assuming the identity of the buy now/pay later startup it purchased about 18 months ago.

The Columbus, Ohio-based retail credit specialist positions the rebranding as a turning point in its evolution into a "modern, tech-forward financial services company" providing a wider range of financial options, its CEO, Ralph Andretta, said in a press release.

"Bread Financial will remain laser focused on delivering the innovative, omnichannel payment, lending and saving solutions that consumers now demand at every stage along their financial journeys," Andretta said.

The company's rebrand underscores the extent of the BNPL industry's explosive growth in recent years.

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