Stretch goals

Credit Union Management, May 2003 by Gerson, Vicki

MARKETING

Creating winning relationships with ad agencies is challenging in today's competitive environment. Credit unions want to hire agencies that can develop award-winning marketing pieces or campaigns so they can stand out from competitors. In addition, credit unions and advertising agencies are trying to come to terms with the important issue of exclusivity-whether an agency should be expected to work with only one credit union in a particular market.

WORKING RELATIONSHIP

$125 million Priority One Credit Union, (www.priorityonecu.org) Pasadena, Calif., with 22,000 members, has developed a solid relationship with agency Andermahr & Company (www.andermahrketing. com), Stockton, Calif., over the 10 years the two groups have worked together.

Two-and-a-half years ago, the credit union changed its name (from Postal Credit Union of Los Angeles) and wanted people to recognize that the new name referred to the same credit union. Connie Andermahr, president of Andermahr & Company, worked to achieve that goal, including designing a brochure explaining that the credit union had existed since 1926. Andermahr & Company also created the renamed credit union's new logo (see p. 36), which won first place in the CUES Golden Mirror Awards among credit unions in the $75 million to $200 million asset size category. (See the list of winners of this year's CUES GMA on page 38 of this issue.)

Maggie Rios, the credit union's director of marketing and business development, believes one of the keys to a good relationship with an agency-one that creates award-winning marketing-is creativity. "There are so many campaigns out there, yours has to stand out," she says.

In recent times, Rios has been pleased with Andermahr & Company's creativity in producing the CU's annual report for its 75th anniversary, celebrated in 2001. It fit in a standard No. 10 envelope, a fairly unusual size for an annual report.

Although Andermahr used historic photos from 1926, she gave the piece a modern touch as well. Using a solid black cover, a die cut diamond was located on the right side and is actually the flap that holds the report together. Highlighting the credit union's corporate palette, each page is a different color.

Rios admits she's "very picky" when she works with designers. If she doesn't like what Andermahr's designers have given her, she will say: "Connie, we need to start all over again."

"There are no egos in the way," she says.

According to Rios, Andermahr visits the credit union often and knows the staff and the CEO. She puts her heart and soul into helping the credit union achieve its goals. "We want consistency so we do everything through Connie. It's also important that if we're close to the budget, she will ask us what we want to do."

In addition, Rios depends upon Andermahr's agency for help in finding other services. "We used to pay quite a bit for maintaining our Web site," she explains. "Connie gave me the names of three different vendors as well as her opinion as to who we should use. The change has made a big difference to us."

Andermahr prides herself on achieving long-lasting relationships with credit unions-she has worked with credit unions other than Priority One CU nine, 13 and 21 years, respectively. And, she considers her small boutique agency a "partner."

"I don't like to be called a `vendor,"' she says. "I like to be called a partner, so most of my relationships are very long. I'm able to be proactive in what we do on a marketing campaign.

"To win an award, there must be a super campaign and the creative brief must be extremely well planned," Andermahr adds. She and the credit union client discuss who the competition is and how they can differentiate themselves from the others.

GOING EXCLUSIVE?

Sometimes CU-agency relationships involve resolving the issue of exclusivity-whether the agency will represent more than one credit union in a particular marketplace.

For example, when Olympia, Wash.based Daniels-Brown Communications Inc. (www.daniels brown.com) began representing a credit union in 1997, the CU asked the agency not to take on another credit union client in its membership area. President Stephen Daniels-Brown agreed on a letter of understanding, and the agency continues to work with that client today. Under the spirit of the letter, the agency can work with banks and other financial institutions (not credit unions) that serve that credit union's field of membership, as well as credit unions that serve other fields of membership.

"I don't think it would be wise for an agency to take on another credit union in the same area of membership," says Daniels-Brown. "It undermines the confidence level you have with your client by inhibiting their ability to confide in you regarding their product development and advertising strategy. This in turn makes you less effective in advising them about marketing strategies."

Rios from Priority One CU doesn't feel she needs to require exclusivity from Andermahr & Company.

"It's Connie's business, and that's her way of making a living. She has a lot of different clients and that doesn't bother me in the least. What Connie does for me is exclusive, and we put our ideas together to develop an idea. Whether she has two credit unions or five credit unions, she is creative enough to basically give us what we need-individuality."