Well, first off, I operate by the Seven Cooperative Principles for Market Researchers that my competitors don’t abide by.

And unlike my big bad competitors — who provide terrible customer service and treat their clients poorly — I have the advantage of the Shevlin “difference”.

Specifically, I voluntarily get involved in the CU/banking community, I’m committed to educating the CU/banking community, and I provide research services to the under-researched.

My guess is that, at best, it’s something along the lines of the “better rates, non-profit, etc.” discussion because those are generally what matters. If you’re not sure, ask your branch managers or front-line folks, they’ll know EXACTLY what matters.

Every other year CUNA conducts two national surveys: one of current members and one of non-members. We contract with an outside research firm to tele-survey U.S. households.

Generally, what moves consumers to join is convenience, which is defined by location, hours, and remote delivery channels; and recommendations from family and friends.

The latter does imply to some degree an understanding of the less tangible values of CU membership such as the cooperative structure and volunteer board. However, it is safe to say that most consumers do not know about nor will they necessarily respond to the intangibles. Credit unions do not have a national brand.

Individual credit unions do in many cases have a local brand — but not all since it depends on the resources applied to building a brand within a community. The movement has on many occassions funded national branding, marketing, and advertising programs that eventually sputter out due to lack of consistent funding from credit unions.

In my many years at CUNA, I have witnessed the National Advertising Program (credit union Rose Bowl Parade float), the National Marketing Program, and the National Branding Campaign. The first used spokespeople although its been so long I am embarassed to name them: Lorne Green (Ben Cartwright) and Chad Everett (the TV show Medical Center). The last one that I am aware of was figure skater Dorothy Hamill in the 1980s.

In the late ’90s, some of the nation’s largest credit unions did kick in the dollars for a pilot National Branding Campaign that focused on the intangibles and tied them to better service and addressed some of the questions here.

The results of the pilot, which occured within several large metropolitan areas, clearly showed a marked improvement in non-member perceptions and awareness of credit unions and a willingness to join.

However, the costs of mounting a truly effective national campaign and to sustain it were simply beyond the movement’s financial ability. Of course, this project occurred just as major media channels were splintering into niche markets due to cable television, the Internet, and most recently social media. There likely are brilliant marketing minds out there that could effectively design something using the new media that is more successful than what was done.

For an example how a national or at least a regional brand can be built and succeed, you can look at the success of the Desjardin credit union system in French-speaking Canada. There, it is the Desjardin brand that is marketed not the individual credit union brand and the result is 70-plus market penetration in the province of Quebec. It’s not just the marketing and advertising campaigns, it is the use of Desjardin-branded payment cards, call centers, investment brokerages, etc.

Desjardin has an entirely different business model than that which eveolved in the states, but there are elements of it that are still adaptable in terms of strong collaborative efforts some credit unions are experimenting with (back office, online banking, other forms of Credit Union Service Organizations known as CUSOs).

But, we do have some interesting findings from the past few years that could serve as proxies for the kind of questions you’re talking about. In an August 2008 study, we found that for multi-SEG (single SEG) credit unions the most important referral factors were:
1) Friends/family: 29.4% (32.0%)
2) Employer: 23.7% (31.7%)
3) Drive-by branch: 9.8% (6.5%)

The research didn’t attempt to capture the messages or value propositions conveyed during the referral, but it’s clear that advertising messaging (even in aggregate among newspaper, outdoor, TV, radio) was less important than traditional referral connections and the convenience (or perceived convenience) of nearby branches.

A second report, also from 2008, only seeks to understand the choices of 18-34 year olds, but it gives another take. There, credit union members chose their institutions because of:
1) Convenience (hours, location, etc.): 35.2%
2) Product (rates, fees, variety): 27.1%
3) Service: 20.8%

Strangely referral scored very low in the second study, so perhaps I’ve confounded real causes here. The (unfortunate?) takeaway for me is that, as much as I believe in and appreciate credit union philosophy, it is a tertiary issue in attracting new members.