MARKETING STRATEGY

Building an Affinity for your Credit Union


We're the ProCon Group, a leader in board governance, management team building and strategic planning. About five years ago, we noticed with the continued movement toward community charters, there were three questions that credit unions needed to answer in order to grow. Who are you for? What is it you really do? And how are you different? Once we started really, deeply dissecting these questions with credit unions, we noticed an increased ability and propensity for them to gain market share into the future. 

For the past three years, we've been partnering with Scott Cooper (see resume in the About Us section) and KW2 Advertising to help our clients build differentiated brand platforms, create stronger growth, create test and learn marketing programs based on statistics versus hope, develop stronger marketing communications, web sites and social media programs. We have a proven process to uncover your story and develop a differentiating brand platform that sparks a new way of doing business across your organization - product development, web, call center, marketing, and operations. We'd love to talk to you, and discuss with you the three questions that may change the way you think about and grow your credit union. 

"Great marketing companies across all categories think in terms of value added versus transactions, target market segments versus being all things to all people, and creating a strong differentiation versus simply being open for business. The problem is it's hard to get there. You have to engage and listen to members and non-members, build around a core competency and above all be mindful that successful brands pay attention to the of the art of limitation."

Scott Cooper



Affiliated Partner, The ProCon Group



www.marketingenginegroup.com



"Credit unions have a huge advantage over banks - they can honestly say they have their members' best interest at their core of everything they do. What a powerful tool. The communication sweet spot lies at the intersection of what members really want and need, and what they can find only through their credit union."

Jennifer Savino


Vice President, KW2


Partnering with our impressive team of credit union experts, marketing visionaries and creative magicians is the first step in assessing your credit union's readiness for growth. Our experience, expertise and insight are available to you through several levels of consulting services, all developed to help your credit union grow and thrive. 

1. The Comprehensive Plan (Cost varies depending on your needs) We start by talking with you about your credit union, so we can learn about your opportunities and areas of concern. After we get to know you better, we'll provide a comprehensive plan for improvement, and a roadmap to get there. This could result in deliverables in one or more of the following areas:

  • Research - and analytic capability
  • Brand platform and message strategy
  • Marketing strategy and objectives 
  • Web and digital strategy and tactics
  • Communication strategy and tactics

2. Marketing Audit We'll perform a comprehensive review of your marketing department, looking at strategic direction and tactical execution. Working closely with your executive team, we provide analysis and directional recommendations in the following areas.
  • Brand position and message strategy
  • Overall marketing strategy and objectives 
  • Research, evaluation and analytic capability
  • External marketing research and internal data resources
  • Web and digital strategy
  • Advertising, PR, media effectiveness, promotion, CRM, events, in-branch point of sale
  • Staffing and organizational readiness


The ProCon Group 


The ProCon Group is a member of Third Way Alliance, an international consortium of credit union advisors in the U.S., United Kingdom, Ireland, and Australia
The research philosophy of ProCon revolves around three beliefs and resulting methodologies:

  1. Research should follow a continuum of insights and strategy. We believe strongly that the team doing the research should be part of the team creating the strategy - that too often the two are not connected by strategists who understand and help drive the research and researchers who understand and help drive the strategy the insights are intended to affect. 

  2. Research should overcome the limited budget. We've never worked with a client that has either unlimited time or budget. We believe strongly in focusing the research toward solutions based on a couple of plausible hypothesis supported by foundations around defined primary target markets and key strategy components. If this isn't done, the research findings are often too vague and broad dealing with aggregates and normalizing the findings.

  3. Research should follow a consumer behavior model. Behavior is what brand platforms and marketing communication influence. We believe strongly that research should provide insights that drive a unified brand positioning based on understanding the drivers of behavior. 

All three of these philosophies are present in the following KW2 research proposal.  Brand Platform Research The following provides a summary chart of the four-step research process.  ProCon relies on a research model that is steeped in consumer behavior. The research is developed to compare and contrast target market segments (attitudinal, demographic, business size, new/existing customers, etc.) and the relationship between awareness, knowledge, attitudes & perceptions, initial trial and loyalty relative to key competitive offerings. We use the knowledge that comes from looking at the inter-relationship of these pieces to help drive the fundamental marketing decisions around:

  • Which target market segments hold the best potential and why. 
  • Determining marketing objectives and communication objectives. 
  • Finding strategies to best execute the two bullets above.


GECU


ProCon worked with GECU on both qualitative and quantitative research developing a uniquely GECU brand platform that formed the basis for work done in their lending, product, operations and marketing communications. Working with the ProCon's research, KW2 knew that for generations, GECU's philosophy of "people helping people" resulted in a closer, more caring relationship with members. KW2 created a brand video that illustrates GECU's deeply-rooted connections with the people, community and culture of El Paso.