SAN DIEGO — Seattlelites may no longer be lined up around the block to get into Seattle Metro Credit Union, yet one effective strategy continues to pay it forward.
Seattle Metro has rebuilt its business philosophy upon the seven Rochdale principles of cooperative principles, and the results are driving growth. During Credit Union Journal's Grow Show, Jill Vicente, VP and chief marketing officer, said the strategy has its roots in the CU's own struggle to ask who it is and what it's all about.
"We were struggling with who is our target audience," Vicente said. "Even if you're working with a SEG, your audience tends to be everyone, and you have to speak to a broad range of people, and that's a struggle. We started to ask ourselves what if we stopped talking to everybody. And then we asked 'Who do we want our audience to be?' We started doing research on cooperatives, and in doing that we found nothing on credit unions. But in doing so we also found Rochdale's Seven Principles (of cooperatives) These are themes that resonate in all of our credit unions, not just Seattle Metropolitan."
The result has resonated among many in Seattle, where cooperatives have a strong market presence. As a result, SMCU moved away from talking about credit unions or its products in order to get "people thinking differently about their banking relationship."
Ads, all of which use similar design, asked questions such as, "What if … you banked at a co-op," and "What if … you banked for principles, not prizes."
Calling it "crazy idea No. 2," the CU created a separate website at www.7principles.coop where it talks about cooperatives, not Seattle Metropolitan.
"We made a decision to live these seven principles and live our brand even got down to expenses and our rates," Vicente told Credit Union Journal's Grow Show. Furthermore, it started building the principles into its products, such as green loans, Feel Good Checking (which gives back to non-profits that live the seven principles themselves; member decides who gets the funds), and free tote bag.
To get its members and community to start thinking similarly, it introduced an idea in 2008 that drew significant press attention. It asked, "What if … We gave you a penny for your thoughts. How about 1,000 of them."
In this case, Seattle Metro offered $10 to people; all they had to do is tell what they would do with it. It filmed responses at its downtown branch, which had a line snaking around the block. Those responses were then placed on YouTube, and votes were cast for the favorite idea for using the funds.
"The aftermath has really been the highlight," said Vicente. "At the end we started getting phone calls from all over the United States. People started talking about what they would do with the $10. Staff and members for weeks after and even now talk about how proud they are to bank with our credit union. Staff say how proud they are to work there. And how often do you hear that?"
The campaign was not just a feel-good piece of abstract value. CFOs everywhere will be cheered by the ROI the "pay it forward" concept received. Until it quit counting, Vicente said Seattle Metro estimated it received 263 news stories; a total Nielsen audience of 13.6 million; 30 second ad equivalency of $124,273; otal calculated ad equivalency of $433,609, and total calculated publicity value of $1.3 million. The total cost? Just $13,000.
In addition, Vicente said new member volume has tripled. "Granted the environment is helping, but we're getting a lot of feedback that people like what we stand for."
