WEST MIFFLIN, Penn. - Every time United Community FCU employees drive to work, pick up the kids from school, and stop by the supermarket, they're promoting the credit union.
The $36-million CU recently purchased 17 Chevy HHRs-wrapped in credit union advertising-for each of its employees in a move to drive growth and help its staff battle rising gas prices and the economy, explained President and CEO Michael Pastirik.
"We go community charter in 2006, and the misconception is that new members will be waiting in line to join," Pastirik said. "That wasn't the case. Last year we took an aggressive marketing approach to get our name out and response has been moderate. So we wanted a new and unique way to stand out."
The white HHRs carry the credit union's red, white, and blue logo along their sides and the CU's phone number and Web address on the back. UCFCU also struck a deal with a text messaging service to make it easy for residents to get quick information about the CU.
"If you text 'CU' to a five-digit number that's on the cars you'll get a message back in 30 seconds that has our phone number, Web address, and short message about the credit union," Pastirik explained. When consumers text in, they also include a unique number that identifies each car, which Pastirik said will help target future UCFCU advertising to areas showing the greatest interest in the CU.
Pastirik explained that the $380,000 price for the cars and insurance represents half of the credit union's marketing budget over the next three years, and he acknowledged that mailing and media ads have not been effective in driving growth.
"We're still going to do the traditional forms of advertising, just half of what we would normally do," said Pastirik.
With less than one week into the effort, it's too early to gauge results, Pastirik said. "But it's easy to see the impact on employees."
To drive the cars staff must remain CU employees and travel a minimum of 10,000 miles in the cars each of the next three years.
"We can't give our employees salary increases or do anything to help defray the cost of gas and all of the skyrocketing expenses, so we felt we could help them this way," Pastirik said. "If they decide to get rid of their personal cars, which some are already doing, we're fine with that. They won't have a car payment, an insurance bill, or repair costs."
Employees pay for their own gas, but they can offset high pump prices if consumers stop and talk to them about the credit union and become members. Cars include "notepads" with promotional information sheets that employees tear off and hand to consumers. If a consumer joins the credit union, the employee gets a cash bonus at the end of the month.
UCFCU chose the HHR because of its fuel efficiency and the credit union's affiliation with General Motors. Before moving to a community charter, the CU served only the GM plant in town, which is set to close at the end of this year.
"The car also appeals to a younger individual, which is who we are going after," explained Pastirik, who said no goal was set for the promotion. "This is a win for our employees and the credit union. They have new cars and I have 17 rolling billboards. And that's money I would have spent on mailings that may have been looked at once and thrown away. Now my money is working for me for the next three years. I hope at the end of this we'll trade the cars in and do it all over again."(c) 2008 The Credit Union Journal and SourceMedia, Inc. All Rights Reserved.http://www.cujournal.com/ http://www.sourcemedia.com/
