Space Coast Credit Union added significantly to its footprint in 2009, when it merged with Eastern Florida Financial Credit Union, expanding its field of membership to 14 counties spanning Florida’s east coast – from Flagler County to Miami-Dade County.
Including the merger, Space Coast has 13.6 million potential members to reach out to, putting it at No. 7 on the list of CUs with the greatest number of potential members to market to based on third quarter 2016 call reports.
Carmen Tapanes, director of retail services for the Miami-Dade region, told CU Journal the community-chartered Space Coast was not necessarily looking to expand its field of membership through the merger with Eastern Florida Financial CU.
“Rather, it was a byproduct of the merger,” she said. “We chose to merge with EFFCU because of the opportunity to grow our production and reduce our reliance on the economic conditions of a few counties.”
Miami-Dade is the seventh-most populated county in the United States, Tapanes noted. She said Space Coast CU does not view the entire population of more than 6 million people as its “opportunity.” Instead, she insisted, it is the existing membership and the immediate communities it serves within a radius of its branches that the credit union views as the potential for production growth.
SCCU does not have a “membership growth” goal, Tapanes said. “We are careful not to become distracted from our mission of providing value to our existing member-owners by focusing on new member acquisition,” she said. “Instead of focusing on balance sheet growth goals, we believe growth happens as a result of serving our membership.”
In setting goals, Tapanes said the management team assesses the production potential and the CU’s capacity to drive production growth. It tracks member participation, which measures a member’s active engagement with the credit union, including services such as online and mobile banking, direct deposit, and card usage.
“We believe we have a great opportunity to leverage our extensive branch network to attract deposit growth through business members, by offering a competitive free business checking account, and a fast, convenient experience.”
Marketing strategy varies by area and product, Tapanes continued. In SCCU’s northern markets – where the CU enjoys strong brand awareness and market share – the focus is on retention. In Broward and Miami-Dade counties, which are heavily populated, the Space Coast CU brand is still “relatively unknown.” As such, the aim is “incremental” growth in brand awareness, using its “Members’ Watchdog” brand as a key point of differentiation.
“Brand awareness is achieved through reach and frequency, so more mass media is used in our Southern markets to fill the top of the sales funnel, while our Northern markets emphasize more digital media and interacting with the member as early as possible in the buying journey,” Tapanes said.
