A few months ago I wrote about my aversion to the hot bank bashing marketing trend that some credit union marketers were exploiting mercilessly (and some still are). I’ve also been noticing the growing number of people in the credit union industry who are railing against Dick Durbin’s proposed interchange fee regulation. Could the two issues possibly be related?
As the discussion about Dick Durbin's new interchange fee regulations grows, one comment (from Bob) to the above-mentioned blog post continues to resonate with me.
I think Jason makes a good point! Too many times we get caught up in the frenzy of the campaign to criticize the competitors and do not realize how we might suffer the same backlash.
One example that comes to mind is when the public got mad at Ford over the Explorer and Firestone/Bridgestone tire issue. Ford SUV sales went down, but so did other SUV sales! The issue soon went from being an anti-Explorer campaign to an anti-SUV campaign. Soon television tabloids were running stories about all SUVs being bad and how they should be off the roads. Government standards were developed for testing ALL SUVs - not just Fords. This cost every manufacturer significant money to comply with these standards (some of which involved extensive record keeping and reporting).
Here, the public thinks that the TARP banks are bad, sure - but few know which ones are TARP and which ones are not. And, once people get irritated about banks and start thinking about what they don’t like about them, the conversation soon drifts to bank fees and interest rates and late fees and ATM fees.
Question: Do CUs charge any of those fees? If so, be careful and watch the anti-bank campaign as it might turn into a brush fire you lit that now turns into an "anti-financial institution" forest fire.
Pay particular attention to the Bob’s last sentence.
These new regulations, spurred by the “big, evil bank” backlash, whose flames some credit union marketers have been fanning, is now resulting in regulation that will substantially impact credit unions and small banks. As Vantage Credit Union’s write-up stated:
What’s interesting is we seem to have an amendment that is feeding on consumer anger that all financial institutions are bad and have hidden profit motives. Credit unions aren’t part of Wall Street. We are NOT a “greedy profit driven” financial institution. But, most importantly, interchange rates have absolutely nothing to do with the financial crisis and are completely out of scope of this Financial Reform Bill. But, don’t believe me. I’m biased right? I work here. So, let’s look at a couple interesting and unbiased groups who oppose the Durbin Amendment.
I think this was Bob’s point exactly. Credit unions and small banks are now caught in the firestorm that they helped to grow. Bob’s crystal ball was obviously showing a clear view into the future when he made that comment.
As marketers, we'll reap far greater rewards focusing on our customers and meeting their needs rather than talking trash about our competitors. Credit union and small bank marketers need get back to the business of touting their benefits and improving their own products & services and let the bank bashing fad die.
Jun 10, 2010 • by Jason Sherrill
