Moving Up in Marketing

In its search for a new marketing executive, First Entertainment Credit Union went looking for an experienced professional with the knowhow to apply data analytics to burnish its brand and message to appeal to a diverse membership ranging from “Classic Hollywood” to millennial video game developers.

“No more one size fits all. We’re looking at a mass market of one,” says CEO Frank Wasson, a CUES member. “We are ready to look beyond the traditional financial services approach and rethink our model.”

When Wasson signed on as the chief executive of $1.3 billion First Entertainment CU in June, the vice president of marketing position had already been open for eight months. Though the credit union was able to rely on marketing vendors and interim appointments, “we could see that we’ve been losing a little bit of traction around our brand and in emerging markets in our area.”

By late last fall, the field had been narrowed to four finalists with extensive resumes in the financial services and entertainment industries and strong experience in product and brand development. While they ultimately selected a candidate with banking and credit union experience, they were not hesitant to consider out-of-industry candidates. They were looking for someone who could “hit a homerun to the other side while we get them educated about how credit unions work,” Wasson says.

With his background in technology, Wasson, formerly a CIO, suggests that the credit union industry has some catching up to do in deploying business intelligence and social media as a means to more nimbly target messaging. On the up side, “marketing analytics holds potential for credit unions to compete more readily with larger financial institutions, with a targeted approach around brand to find the right products for the right members,” he says. “It can level the playing field in terms of reaching a large number of people with a reasonable investment.”

While the roles of building brand, managing messaging and enhancing the image and reputation of the credit union remain central to marketing, CEOs “are seeking someone who derives every single decision from some metric or toward some metric,” says Peter Myers, senior vice president at CUESolutions provider DDJ Myers, Ltd., Phoenix. “That’s not to discount anything that creative executives do, but now they’re all expected to tie that work with some relevance to the target demographic.”

A willingness to try marketing strategies outside the traditional financial services framework is especially crucial in connecting with younger prospective members, especially in the wake of the Wells Fargo scandal, Wasson suggests.

“Those headlines sent a shot across the bow of financial institutions. There are a lot of skeptics among younger members, and they’re more inclined to use nontraditional financial products, so we can’t just scale up a traditional marketing approach,” he says. “Our marketing team has to help us rethink how our products and channels can resonate with members, from our call centers and branches, to our digital channels.”

In addition to a willingness to put new analytic and social media tools to work, experienced executives suggest that these attributes and actions may help marketers improve their performance and boost their careers:

Embrace continual learning opportunities. “That’s true of where I am in my role,” says CUES member Jill Vicente, chief marketing officer at $740 million Seattle Metropolitan Credit Union. “There is so much change going on and it’s so rapid that you have to put yourself in an environment where you’re constantly learning.”

Vicente looks for training and development opportunities inside and outside the credit union industry. For example, “I toured Facebook and got a look at the inside of that organization. I’ve gone to different manufacturing companies,” she notes. “I’ve engaged in platforms that aren’t specific to the credit union industry. I’ve watched companies like Zillow and Redfin that are impactful to credit union lending and have changed the way consumers engage in real estate.”

Develop your creative problem-solving and strategic communication skills. “I think most marketers are attracted to this field because they like to solve problems. They like to look at things in a different way,” says CUES member Amber Hughes, VP/marketing and HR with $644 million Lakeland Credit Union, Ltd., Bonnyville, Alberta. “You also need to be a great communicator. You have a short window of opportunity to speak to your audience. How are you doing that in the most precise, creative, eye-catching and memorable way? To me, those attributes stand out as what’s required of successful marketers.”

Those are also among the skills that can carry marketers into the upper executive ranks. “The sales and service component of marketing—being in tune with membership and making strategic decisions—align with the C-Suite,” Hughes notes. “At the end of the day, any great leader needs to be a great communicator. In marketing, that’s what we do. We should be the best communicators in the organization.”

Collaborate with other departments. “My advice is to keep your mind open to opportunities that may or may not have anything to do with marketing,” says Elizabeth Hayes, CEO of $330 Infinity Federal Credit Union, Portland, Maine, and a former marketer. “Look for opportunities to get involved in projects or teams, to lead initiatives, or to represent the credit union in other ways. Marketing people, in most industries, tend to get pigeon-holed as creative sorts who may not be particularly sales-minded. I think it is important to hone those skills and learn the business outside of marketing.”

In her former role as VP/marketing at a Midwest credit union, Hayes worked with colleagues in finance on ROI calculations, got involved in NCUA examinations and took on additional responsibilities in HR and branch operations.

Spend time with members and member-facing employees. Member service staff are in touch with what members say they want and need, which is essential data in engineering new products and services, says CUES member Tony Dunham, SVP/sales, marketing and channel marketing with $1.2 billion Northern Credit Union in Sault Ste. Marie, Ontario. Marketers at Northern CU spend time each week on the frontlines of member service—in branches and the call center—observing, job shadowing and convening focus groups with members to gather feedback.

“We do a lot of listening, ask very open-ended questions, really dig deep and bring all that back to us. We sit down as a group and whiteboard it,” Dunham says. “We build those personas and storyboards. You have to be a really good storyteller in marketing to be able to move from data gathering to finding solutions.”

Be attuned to diverse communication styles, preferences and media. “If you’re a millennial out in the marketplace, you probably have a really good understanding of your peer group’s communication style, but you also need to develop an understanding of the communication styles of those coming up behind you and those in front of you,” Vicente says. “The ability to empathize with and understand other audiences is a critical skill set.”

Challenge the status quo. “You’re never going to get noticed or set yourself apart if you’re always following,” Dunham says. “At the same time, you need to make sure that your thoughts and your voice are ordered carefully. You need to have a brand of yourself that people can relate to. You need to be a good storyteller with the ability to articulate things in a very simple fashion that evokes emotion. And at the end of the day, you need to have strong accountability for yourself, your role and your actions.”

Recognize opportunities and potential limitations for career growth in your organization. “If you’re working at a credit union that doesn’t embrace marketing, you might want to limit your time there and learn what you can for your next career opportunity,” Vicente says. “You may grow faster than your organization does. That can be frustrating to a marketer, especially if you’re working in an environment that isn’t responsive to new ideas.”

Build team expertise. Part of Dunham’s job is making sure that the millennials on his team have ample opportunities to learn and participate in decision making. “We need to put the right tools in front of them so that they can grow and foster a strong voice that provides value to the organization. Every two years I’m looking at trying to elevate their requirements, their abilities and their decision-making power in the organization,” he says.

For people who are preparing to launch their careers in marketing, Deedee Myers, CEO of DDJ Myers, suggests going “deep and wide in education.” Graduate programs that cover both marketing and finance could prepare them in areas including branding theory, effective research methods and data analytics.

“The ability to influence others to adopt new mindsets, leadership, conceptual thinking, conflict management, employee development, planning and organization, and emotional intelligence are all important,” she adds. “Marketing is a big job.”

Karen Bankston is a long-time contributor to Credit Union Management and writes about credit unions, membership growth, marketing, operations and technology. She is the proprietor of Precision Prose, Eugene, Ore.