Put Some Sexy Into Credit Union Marketing
by Penne VanderBush
It’s time your marketing capitalized on imagination, the bridge between reality and possibility.
Intriguing. Stimulating. Imaginative. When was the last time your marketing could be described using these words? Let’s face it, checking accounts, credit cards and auto loans don’t even score on the attractive scale but possibility… possibility is downright sexy, ranking an easy 11 on a 10 point scale!
Your advertising doesn’t need to feature a slim figured woman in black and pink leather suit on a Ducati to sell products and services, but it does need appeal. Consider the cell phone industry for a moment. A phone… it places calls, doubles as a camera and has the ability to run software programs more commonly known as “apps,” that’s all it really does. Can you fathom if that was the marketing message from the world’s dominating cell phone manufactures and service providers?
Cell phone marketers intrigue consumers with all the possibilities that apps can bring to their lives. They show you the functionality of one app and then leave the rest to your imagination. They let you apply it to your own life and allow you to sell yourself. The phone in the commercial being held by a supermodel, glistening in the spotlight solo or in some cases not even seen at all, becomes a sexy, must-have to the consumer because it teases with possibility. No matter which cell phone brand you own, the recent commercial demonstrating playlists and videos being exchanged between two phones by simply touching them together made you wonder, at least for a moment, if that phone offered more possibility than the one in your hand.
According to the North American Association of State and Provincial Lotteries, lottery sales totaled $63 billion in 2011 and more than half of Americans have played the lottery in the last year. Over 50% of your marketplace is already working their imagination to bridge the gap from their financial reality to possibility and they are looking for a solution. Your credit union can offer them better odds of making a difference than the lottery can, so what are you doing about it?
Although traditional marketing explaining the features and benefits of your products and services in print is effective and members in commercials reciting rehearsed lines about their financial success (queue elevator music here) is better, where’s that sexy glimpse of possibility for the viewer? Banking is boring but achieving financial success with your credit union is exciting.
Show that spark!
Put a guy on waterskies (queue “Moves Like Jagger” here) behind a glimmering boat stopping at his gorgeous summer home and as he gets onto the dock he says “I started my membership with a checking account at XYZ Credit Union and they have helped guide my financial success every day since!” and you have appeal and have sparked imagination. People that have no intentions of ever being dragged behind a boat at 20MPH or keeping up the maintenance of two properties will be intrigued by the possibilities you have to offer. If your credit union helped put that guy behind his boat at his summer home the possibility exists that you can help them reach their big dreams too. Show the consumer possibility and let them apply it to their own life; don’t try to demonstrate a better life for them.
With over half the population throwing money into the lottery system where the odds of winning are next to impossible, consumers are begging for someone to offer them the possibly of financial freedom. While half your marketing dollar caters to consumer’s needs make sure the other half exercises the imagination. If you intrigue the consumer you can sell the best service you have time and time again, the sexy offer of possibility.
