|
Credit Union Management, May 2003 by Gerson, Vicki
MARKETING
Creating winning relationships with ad agencies is challenging in today's competitive environment. Credit unions want to hire agencies that can develop award-winning marketing pieces or campaigns so they can stand out from competitors. In addition, credit unions and advertising agencies are trying to come to terms with the important issue of exclusivity-whether an agency should be expected to work with only one credit union in a particular market.
WORKING RELATIONSHIP
$125 million Priority One Credit Union, (www.priorityonecu.org) Pasadena, Calif., with 22,000 members, has developed a solid relationship with agency Andermahr & Company (www.andermahrketing. com), Stockton, Calif., over the 10 years the two groups have worked together.
Two-and-a-half years ago, the credit union changed its name (from Postal Credit Union of Los Angeles) and wanted people to recognize that the new name referred to the same credit union. Connie Andermahr, president of Andermahr & Company, worked to achieve that goal, including designing a brochure explaining that the credit union had existed since 1926. Andermahr & Company also created the renamed credit union's new logo (see p. 36), which won first place in the CUES Golden Mirror Awards among credit unions in the $75 million to $200 million asset size category. (See the list of winners of this year's CUES GMA on page 38 of this issue.)
Maggie Rios, the credit union's director of marketing and business development, believes one of the keys to a good relationship with an agency-one that creates award-winning marketing-is creativity. "There are so many campaigns out there, yours has to stand out," she says.
In recent times, Rios has been pleased with Andermahr & Company's creativity in producing the CU's annual report for its 75th anniversary, celebrated in 2001. It fit in a standard No. 10 envelope, a fairly unusual size for an annual report.
Although Andermahr used historic photos from 1926, she gave the piece a modern touch as well. Using a solid black cover, a die cut diamond was located on the right side and is actually the flap that holds the report together. Highlighting the credit union's corporate palette, each page is a different color.
Rios admits she's "very picky" when she works with designers. If she doesn't like what Andermahr's designers have given her, she will say: "Connie, we need to start all over again."
"There are no egos in the way," she says.
According to Rios, Andermahr visits the credit union often and knows the staff and the CEO. She puts her heart and soul into helping the credit union achieve its goals. "We want consistency so we do everything through Connie. It's also important that if we're close to the budget, she will ask us what we want to do."
In addition, Rios depends upon Andermahr's agency for help in finding other services. "We used to pay quite a bit for maintaining our Web site," she explains. "Connie gave me the names of three different vendors as well as her opinion as to who we should use. The change has made a big difference to us."
Andermahr prides herself on achieving long-lasting relationships with credit unions-she has worked with credit unions other than Priority One CU nine, 13 and 21 years, respectively. And, she considers her small boutique agency a "partner."
"I don't like to be called a `vendor,"' she says. "I like to be called a partner, so most of my relationships are very long. I'm able to be proactive in what we do on a marketing campaign.
"To win an award, there must be a super campaign and the creative brief must be extremely well planned," Andermahr adds. She and the credit union client discuss who the competition is and how they can differentiate themselves from the others.
GOING EXCLUSIVE?
Sometimes CU-agency relationships involve resolving the issue of exclusivity-whether the agency will represent more than one credit union in a particular marketplace.
For example, when Olympia, Wash.based Daniels-Brown Communications Inc. (www.daniels brown.com) began representing a credit union in 1997, the CU asked the agency not to take on another credit union client in its membership area. President Stephen Daniels-Brown agreed on a letter of understanding, and the agency continues to work with that client today. Under the spirit of the letter, the agency can work with banks and other financial institutions (not credit unions) that serve that credit union's field of membership, as well as credit unions that serve other fields of membership.
"I don't think it would be wise for an agency to take on another credit union in the same area of membership," says Daniels-Brown. "It undermines the confidence level you have with your client by inhibiting their ability to confide in you regarding their product development and advertising strategy. This in turn makes you less effective in advising them about marketing strategies."
Rios from Priority One CU doesn't feel she needs to require exclusivity from Andermahr & Company.
"It's Connie's business, and that's her way of making a living. She has a lot of different clients and that doesn't bother me in the least. What Connie does for me is exclusive, and we put our ideas together to develop an idea. Whether she has two credit unions or five credit unions, she is creative enough to basically give us what we need-individuality."
In fact, Rios is so confident in Andermahr's abilities, she recommended another credit union just down the road become her client, which it did.
According to David M. Dawson, president of San Luis Obispo, Calif.based Data Based Marketing (www. dbmkt.com), some credit unions also are interested in having a non-disclosure agreement with an agency that is doing market research for them. Such an agreement, stating that the information given to the agency by the CU would not be shared with any third party, might make moot the issue of exclusivity.
"Any consultant would vigorously defend the strength of a non-disclosure agreement" as a way to say the agency can work with more than one group in a particular market, Dawson says.
At the same time, non-disclosure agreements don't really work with marketing campaigns that are designed to be made public. Knowing this, Dawson has agreed verbally to exclusivity agreements for two credit unions in different markets.
Daniels-Brown points out that when a credit union expects "exclusive" representation, it sometimes doesn't realize that the ad agency may correctly and fairly expect the same treatment regarding the credit union using other competing ad agencies or suppliers. This reciprocal thinking, however, is not necessarily shared by credit unions.
"This has been a point of some contendon between us and our credit union clients when they have occasionally gone out to bid or sought the services of other marketing service providers who are our competitors," says Daniels-Brown. "In this situation, the agency has to weigh whether the relationship with the credit union is more valuable than the fairness issue."
According to Bill Ziegler, president/CEO of $611 million, 1st United Services Credit Union (www.1stus cu.org), Pleasanton, Calif., with 51,000 members, "We are attempting to formulate an exclusive agreement with Data Based Marketing."
Ziegler says his marketing department works well with the company, and doesn't want to end that relationship. But, Ziegler doesn't want any outside agency to learn the CU's latest marketing ideas and use them with a competitor. He notes that the CU may be willing to pay an additional retainer fee to ensure the needed level of exclusivity.
According to Dawson, the next two years will be interesting times in marketplaces that have a strong credit union presence in terms of total assets and overlapping fields of membership, such as California. Credit unions will not be comfortable working with an agency that is also producing promotional work for their key competitors, he says.
"In time, a credit union marketing director may say: `You may be the best agency in town, but you're making it worse for us by doing your best work for our competitor.'"
All agree credit unions must recognize that in every exclusivity agreement there are exit clauses. If the two can't work together successfully, either can pull out of the agreement.
For credit unions that wish to hire an agency to help them leap ahead of the advertising and marketing pack, a good relationship, exclusive or not, is key.
Resources
Credit unions and ad agencies have formed winning relationships this year. Check out the CUES Golden Mirror Awards winners list on p. 38.
Read more articles on marketing and advertising in our online archive. Visit www.cumanagement.org, select "Article Archives," then "Marketing."
Vicki Gerson is an award-winning free-lance writer with over 20 years of experience writing for trade and consumer publications.
Copyright Credit Union Executives Society May 2003
Provided by ProQuest Information and Learning Company. All rights Reserved
Bibliography for "Stretch goals"
Gerson, Vicki "Stretch goals". Credit Union Management. May 2003. FindArticles.com. 01 Mar. 2008. http://findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_qa5328/is_200305/ai_n21329485
back 
|
