Her Money!

CO-OP Think 13 Thinking WOMEN...big time!

I was thrilled when Sarah Bang, head of CO-OP Financial Services, tweeted to me in reference to my OPED in CUTimes early last year. (read tweet string from bottom up)

Sarah Bang ‏@sarahbang

@HerMoneyOrg You're welcome Roger! Loved the article. Thanks for sharing!

1. Roger Conant ‏@HerMoneyOrg

   @sarahbang Thanks..You'll enjoy the OPED I have coming w/ the next @CookeonCUs & #Women2Watch issue DM me your email for an advanced copy!

2. 18 FebRoger Conant ‏@HerMoneyOrg

   @sarahbang Hi Sarah--thanks for the RT!

That told me that Sarah was on-board in realizing the untapped opportunities with marketing to women for credit unions.  

But nothing speaks louder than actions, and the choice of this years primary keynote speakers for THINK 13 tells me that Sarah & Co. really do "get it"!

The choice of Margaret Heffernan is obviously an affirmation of championing women...just check out her resume and the titles of her books.

But what many may not know is what a marketing to women "champion" the other main keynote speaker, John Costello, is.  

Costello has a long history of championing women as a dedicated part of his marketing plan with all of his past employers.  

I started following him years ago when he championed "the softer side of Sears".  And when he arrived at Home Depot, he immdiately took on Lowes, who had built quite a sales increase by specifically engaging women.

Costello belives in using the subtleties to engage women, so instead of making tools specifically for women, he chose to emphasize teaching women to use tools. Thus You Can Do It...We Can Help!

Any way you look at it, Costello has built a lot of his success leveraging the power of the purse.

 THINK conference's tagline is "disrupting business as usual"! Engaging women proactively would certainly honor that!

 

CUNA Mutual's New TruStage Brand Set To Court Women; Stewarded By Women's Retail Expert!

Are we in for some really creative marketing to women efforts to co-inside with CUNA Mutual's launch of the TruStage brand? It sure looks like the CUNA Mutual leadership team has placed the right person in charge to make that happen.

Why? Because the TruStage steward, SVP Susan Sachatello, has a resume that screams retail and women.  Her successful stints at Victoria's Secret, Limited Brands and most recently, Lands End, means she is well aware that women are the custodians of most decisions made in the household.

Financial Services, and especially insurance, are no different.  As marketing to women expert Holly Buchanan states in her recent book Selling Financial Services To Women:

"Insurance is a women's issue. Women are hard wired to want insurance." 

We applaud the leadership at CUNA Mutual for going outside the ranks of your typical credit union marketer, to choose a real pro from the "big time" retail environment.  And also a woman! :-)

And even though it's subtle (great marketing to women is subtle), the TruStage website is dominated by images of women. I counted 5 images of women to 1 of men in the rotating home page. 

My favorite image is the "about us" page, showcasing the images of mother and daughter rain boots. It reminds me of a well know, Madison based credit union who doesn't need any lessons about marketing to women.  Speaking of "women's footwear", 1.9 Billion Summit Credit Union's latest campaign , Red Shoes, filled up so quickly that many women will have to wait until the next round in Spring to participate.

By the way, did I mention that my business partner, and CU marketing to women expert Holly Buchanan, consulted with Summit about their "women's" efforts?

And speaking of insurance and women, check out this recent blog post by Holly title "Why Selling Life Insurance To Women Is So Important"!

From the info in Holly's post, it sounds like prime time for credit unions to be offering insurance to women.

 

Latest iBelong campaign leaves no doubt...boldly focusing on WOMEN...period! (research from PA CU "marketers" backs it up)

Update: Would you believe that I posted this (below) almost exactly a year ago. Fast forward to today and the iBelong campaign has just released another round of TV spots.  

And guess what...they're even more skewed to women!  Take a look at a compilation of the spots here.  Every spot showcases the woman as the storyteller.

And pay particilar attention to the first spot in the series featuring a young, African American woman shopping for a car.  It reflects the findings of MDDCCUL league research below...

Polling shows that African-American are the most loyal group for credit unions. More than 33% of African American women call credit unions their PFI, the highest percentage of any group.

So it's a fact that the PA Credit Union Association, via research for iBelong and MDDCCUL research, very formally affirm that WOMEN are the primary decision makers credit unions need to engage

But what about the individual credit unions in PA, IL, IN, KY and MS using iBelong? What are those credit unions doing at their local lever to bolster this expensive advertising?

Well, CUs really haven't done very much to enhance those expensive commercials with their individual marketing, but Marketing To Women expert Holly Buchanan and I have decided to make 2013 the year CUs wake up!

Stay tuned!

***********************************************************************************************

Posted 11/2011...

I'd heard about the success of iBelong, but had not gone deeply into it. Now that I have, I'll share this one link that best describes the commonalities between it and other successful League branding campaigns.  It was posted a while back by Paul Gentile, formerly President of the New Jersey Credit Union League, now with CUNA Mutual...but back then, he was the Editor/Publisher of the CU Times. This was way back in 2007 --- and the piece was titled "Pennsylvania CU Association/CUs Doing the Right Thing".  The commonality of of both of these programs is in bold.

After the CEOs demanded it and PCUA committed to the program, they did another smart thing; they brought in the marketers, the creative minds that can get it done. The marketers gladly offered their time and talent to the worthy cause, serving on a 15-member steering committee.

PCUA then did its research, and it was an eye-opener. First, it found out who to target--females in the 25-49 age range, who control household financial decisions. The imagery in the spots is aimed at females. There is a family, birthday, wedding and other scenes designed to appeal to women. The media buy is designed to hit 80% of the target audience four times a month. The commercials will run on the morning news, home and garden cable channel, Oprah, Rachel Ray and other shows that will deliver the female demographic. It is getting the most of its money by book ending shows, taking the first 15 seconds of a show and the last 15 seconds.

So what's the one commonality between iBelong and Whatsinitforme? Engaging Women! A couple of years after iBelong, the MD & DC Credit Union Association cranked up it's own initiative for branding CUs. Although the league states that it conducted it's own research, I suspect it borrowed from the playbook of the PCUA.  After all, by that time 3 other states had licensed the iBelong Program.  There is no surprise that the MDDCCUL's research identified the same target audience.

The primary target for this campaign has been identified as Adults 25-54 – skewing female.  Polling shows that African-American are the most loyal group for credit unions. More than 33% of African American women call credit unions their PFI, the highest percentage of any group.

What does Mint.com's partnership with DailyWorth mean for the future of PFM? It means that PFM 2.0 is content integration!

It didn't receive a huge amount of press, and the companies involved didn't comment much...but it was important(I think). I'm talking about the announcement last month of the formal relationship between Intuit's mint.com and DailyWorth.                                       

And couple that with the fact that, in the 36 comments on Ron's Shevlins post recently,  "not one" disagreed with the fact that women are by far and away the primary decison makers and influencers with respect to financial decisions for their families. Including Ron!

So, armed with those facts, it's not to hard to see why a smart industry leader like Intuit is "banking" on women. And thus the partnership between Mint and DailyWorth.

I'm not saying that Mint.com is the best PFM!  There are some fantastic players in this field. I'm just saying that this move by Intuit is important.

In another article about this partnership from American Banker, Celent Senior Anaylst Jacob Jegher makes a valid point when he says "the PFM tools out there are being used by pretty much anyone and are meant for the masses, but there are different things going on that affect people's financial planning needs". 

I know a little more than just a little about Intuit.  Because Intuit (TurboTax) was the only strategic partner of a company I worked for here in Houston, I have a intimate knowledge of their operation.  

I worked for Credit Union Tax Services Inc., a Houston grown company now part of the Michigan Credit Union League's operation. But when I worked there, it was just us and Intuit (TurboTax).

And what I learned was that Intuit believed completely that women are and will be shaping the future of financial services. Intuit calls it the She Economy!

So what does this partnership between Mint.com and DailyWorth mean. It means that the next phase of PFM will be linking it to content (just where GroupOn & LivingSocial are moving).  And if women are the She Economy...then I don't have to mention what type of content, do I?

 

 

 

The Case For MOMs...Women!

UPDATE:  In honor of Tim McAlpine launching Money MOM...I thought it appropriate to re-launch this blog.  Way to go Tim!

Women, as a market, represents an incredible opportunity for credit unions.  Women spend  $ .85 of every dollar in the marketplace.   I could quote statistic after statistic, but those facts have been out there for years (go here for "fast facts" about the power of the women's market).

And there are many "sub-segments" of women that are natural opportunities.  We'll start by showing you how MOMs are a key gateway to Gen Y.  Every survey that digs deeper into the "gender" breakdown of parents, reveals that Gen Y, on the average, is closer to their MOMs by a respectable margin.  And the "single" MOM growth is astounding.  But what about "women" car buyers?  Now there's a piece of the credit union business that has always been a prime source of revenue...as well as reputation in the general marketplace.  I can tell you from personal experience that when I was fielding calls from for our prospective member car shoppers at the Preferred Dealer Program of our CUSO, it was the women I heard from the most.  And I could go on and on.   

But here's the biggie you might not realize.  Credit Unions and women are the perfect match!  It's a fact that women, much more than men, take careful notice of the "culture" of the companies they are shopping.  And believe me, the fact that the credit union culture is anchored by relationships and collaboration will mean a lot to women.  As Nancy Pierce, president of the Tipton Research Group--and long time CU executive, says "“Credit union philosophy fits more easily with women because they are attuned to building relationships with others; that’s what credit unions are all about, and that’s a natural role with women-building relationships,”.

So why, with all this mounting evidence, are credit unions not taking advantage of this opportunity?  My take...simple "fear"!  There is still a fear that if you in any way design some of your marketing to appeal to women, you will run off the men.  Not true!  And, in fact, you will exceed the expectations of all consumers. Stay tuned!