Standing out in a crowd of Wangs
Current Chinese law states that children are only allowed take the surname from either their mother or father, but the lack of variety (100 surnames in the whole country) means there are now 93 million people in China with the family name Wang.
93 Million Wangs! Can you imagine?
The story made me think about my own name. My name is kind of unique. There is only one other guy with my first and last name - and he is a relative (second cousin twice removed or something). If you look my last name up in the phone book in my home town, every Mannor listed is a relative. In fact - every Mannor in the country is a relative (so I am told).
The very first Mannor in the United States came here as a Menard. He changed his name - who knows why - and all of his descendants share this interesting last name. I think there are 300 or so of us in the country. Now, why have I shared this nugget of personal information? I’m glad you asked 
Credit Unions (You knew I was going to get here eventually right?). Credit unions all share the same name. The benefit to this is that we know that we are all related. We know where we came from. There is power, dignity and strength in the name. We are family.
But…
In my family there are police officers, doctors, soldiers, engineers, coaches, designers, writers, artists, rich, poor and indifferent. We are all different. We all have a different point of view. We all have something unique to offer. Just like your credit union.
Every credit union needs to find a way to make themselves unique and valuable. Look at your community-if you have a community charter. Look at your SEG membership if you are SEG based. Talk to a member research company or do your own in-house focus groups. Talk to your volunteers. Figure out who your members are, what they are concerned about, what they want from you. This is critical information when organizing your services and preparing your marketing efforts. You have to know who you are selling to and what they want. You can’t sell ice to Eskimos for a reason - they don’t need ice.
So now you know who you are selling to and what they want. How do you convince them to buy? This is branding and marketing. This is where we separate the wheat from the chaff. First let’s talk about marketing. Marketing is communication. It is really that simple. You need to communicate with your members. They need to know what the credit union is doing. It doesn’t matter if that communication is done via the web, email, newsletters, press releases, phone calls, going door-to-door or standing on the corner with a bullhorn and a sandwich board.
You need to review your credit union’s culture. Are your tellers indifferent? Are you secret shopping your branches to gauge member experience? Do you have regular training and educational programs for your staff? Are there incentives for completing these programs? Do you pay for webinars for your team? Do you offer educational reimbursements for your staff? Do you have an open door policy where a teller may approach the branch manager with ideas or concerns or observations? Are your staff members advocates for your credit union? Are they cheerleaders to your members? Do they smile? Do they try to learn the member’s names? This is branding. This is how you assure that your members can differentiate you from the banks they left to join your financial collective.
This will help to stand out in a crowd of Wangs.
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Well put Tony. The powers that be at so many credit unions assume that their members and prospective members get what makes them unique. Nevermind that the powers that be don’t even know!
Tim