DEER PARK, Texas - One credit union has introduced a youth program with a unique component: a heavy dose of community volunteerism and involvement-and a bit of "green," as well.
Those aspects of Shell FCU's new iLife Youth Program followed requests from the targeted young demographic while the program was in its research and design phase. Instead of focusing on financial needs, SFCU was seeking to know more about kids' take on the economy, the environment, and politics.
The unique approach allowed Shell to better understand the needs of Generations X and Y before building its products and services to attract the youth market, explained Angela Head, VP of marketing and technology for the $325-million credit union.
"We know it's difficult to sell to kids now because everyone is trying to get this market," she said. "But no one is really asking questions of this age group outside of what kind of checking account they want. We want to build a relationship with them, so we have to understand what's important to them and build our products around that knowledge."
One of iLife's "big differentiators" is the community involvement piece, said Head, noting the credit union was influenced in its approach by the "Young & Free Alberta" program introduced by Canada's Common Wealth CU.
"Two major themes came out of our focus group research," shared Head. "The kids said they want to be part of something bigger than themselves, and they want to be eco friendly."
Encouraging Volunteerism
iLife allows young members to join the Shell FCU-Furthering Community Unity-team, a group of credit union employees who volunteer to support Habitat for Humanity, Muscular Dystrophy fundraisers, and other community events. Kids sign up in branches and the CU provides transportation to and from events.
The research also prompted the credit union to change its image to be more eco friendly. "We were the first credit union to join the National Green Alliance," Head said. "It's one of the first things we did (following the research)."
To learn what youth are interested in, the credit union didn't let kids know-at first-that they were speaking with a financial institution. Research was conducted in locations outside the credit union in markets where it had branches.
"We held up signs that said 'come tell us what you think,' Head said, explaining that prior research in which the CU shared its identity caused kids to "clam up because they thought we were trying to sell them something."
Kids understood that questions were coming from a non-profit organization, and the credit union's identity was shared near the close of the focus group sessions when financial questions were asked.
"One of the interesting things we learned is that the kids are not that interested in credit cards," Head shared. "They're seeing their parents struggle so much with credit right now that they don't want anything to do with credit cards."
iLife will offer a credit card, but it will not be a primary emphasis. The key product is the Be Green rewards checking account that paid 5.13% for balances up to $25,000 at presstime. To get the high rate members must take all electronic services, such as e-statements, debit card, and bill pay. Head added that Shell is monitoring money market funds to ensure those accounts are not cannibalized, and will drop the checking rate if that occurs.
Some of the other services iLife offers is a first-time car buyer's program that charges 8% for 60 months, and iSave, a savings account structured similar to a Christmas club that's expected to pay near 1.50% APY when it is rolled out soon.
A new iLife website (www.sfcuilife.org) is separate from the CU's site, and includes financial information via podcasts, as well as blogs.
Shell, which expects to spend $110,000 for iLife development and promotion, hopes the youth program reduces its median membership age to 46.5 from 47.7 in the next 18 months.
With iLife just launched, Head said it's too early to gauge results.
"We have done a lot of research to come up with what we feel is a product that does exactly what we want it to do," offered Head. "We want to stand out to youth community and give them an avenue to do the things they are interested in doing."(c) 2008 Credit Union Journal and SourceMedia, Inc. All Rights Reserved.http://www.cujournal.com/ http://www.sourcemedia.com/
