As the month of May fast approaches, we'll soon find the college
graduation season upon us and the awarding of degrees—Bachelors, Masters,
Doctorates, and let’s not forget honorary degrees. So it won’t be any surprise when
we hear and read about such folks as the POTUS or Warren Buffet or Captain
Sullenberger receiving an honorary degree. That’s part of the annual May
ritual. But, did you ever stop to consider why these and other dignitaries and celebrities
are being recognized in this way? Are we to believe that the degrees were
bestowed in a vacuum, devoid of any strategy as to how the recipients will
influence and benefit the institution? Of course not!
A lot of factors go into the nomination process for honorary
degree recipients, from how they would attract publicity and foster alumni
donor support, to how they reflect the values of the institution and can help
open the door to new opportunities. Sometimes the rationale can be as simple as
forming a relationship that will eventually develop over time to see the
recipient becoming a major benefactor of the institution.
OK, so you’re wondering what does this have to do with
credit unions. What is it about honorary degrees that can apply to credit
unions and their business strategies? Here’s how I see it.
When we speak of an image or branding campaign that promotes
the credit union difference, I can easily see the honorary degree model serving
as a highly valuable template for credit unions to emulate.
However, before that can successfully occur, there are a few
things we ought to assess. I’m talking about our understanding of image
campaigns and from what I’ve seen just last week at the ball park, I have to
wonder what’s going on. Have some of the folks responsible for image campaigns just
become all too complacent in their understanding of branding initiatives, or
are they unable to devote the proper amount of time to such initiatives given
the workloads they carry? Not only does this pose a problem but the campaigns I
saw were just downright bland in their creativity. I mean no disrespect, but
that’s the impression these campaigns had on me.
Then again, maybe there’s a lot more going on that’s
contributing to what I was experiencing. For instance, why is it that when we
talk image and branding, a majority of credit union folks feel the compulsion
to immediately think about taglines and logos, and possibly the interior
decoration of branches as the only way a credit union brand is expressed? It
frustrates me to see this confining attitude and misunderstanding of what
“brand” actually is. It’s as if minds have become frozen, locked in a marketing-centric
paralysis that only sees the importance of catering to sales and advertising.
I’m sure there are many who would disagree with my
assessment, but let me be clear, my point is this: marketers must have their
eyes focused on selling the credit union’s products and services as their
primary responsibility. Community outreach and branding (creating a distinct
experience of the credit union through all its touch points) is for them, secondary
to sales and delivering the numbers. Yet isn’t community outreach, branding and
the credit union’s reputation in the marketplace equally as important as sales,
particularly in a cooperative business model? Are we not about “people;” people
helping people?
This is why I advocate that credit unions employ a public
relations officer in addition to the marketing officer, because community
outreach and branding can too easily become lost in a mix of product ads, sales
strategies and MCIF (Marketing Customer Information File) mining. Public
relations delivers its own unique value to the overall sales strategy of a
co-op, and it should not be overlooked or underestimated.
A fully-engaged PR effort is too important to load on the
back of the marketing officer where it does not get the kind of attention it rightly
deserves. In my opinion, by not acknowledging a PR/marketing distinction and
relegating it to the back seat by lumping it on the long list of
responsibilities reserved only for the marketing officer, we are all overlooking
a critical deficiency in the way we manage credit union image and reputation in
the marketplace, and by doing so, we continue to feed impediments to our own success!
While it’s true that my opinion vis-à-vis public relations
and marketing reflects a debate that’s been going on for decades among all PR
and marketing professionals, it’s also true that credit unions can benefit by thinking
a little differently about the role of public relations at their shops, how
they manage their image campaigns and of course, how the honorary degree model might
be used to foster brand awareness.
I see three takeaways.
1) By instituting an award campaign that publicly recognizes
individuals in the community for the way they exemplify credit union values, your
shop can bring a whole new dimension to its reputation and image in the
community. This might be a new imaging idea to many, but I believe it’s
certainly an effort worth discussing.
2) Consider refining the award programs currently being
conducted throughout the credit union community to go beyond recognizing one of
our own. Once again, let me be very clear; there's nothing wrong with recognizing
our own and the practice needs to continue. The occasional pat on the back is
good, but it seems that the stories of the heroic people we celebrate never get
conveyed beyond the credit union walls. They only internally energize the
credit union community.
What I do recommend is that current programs also recognize
others outside the credit union community with whom we should consider forming
special relationships, much like the way colleges select honorary degree recipients.
Imagine how the Wegner Awards might look if they also recognized, let’s say,
someone like Vice President Biden for his legislation with Claiborne Pell that
eventually provided funding to launch Credit Union Development Education—which is now
an international program—or someone who cherishes the principle of cooperation
over competition, like Hollywood producer Tom Shadyac has demonstrated in his
current documentary film, “I Am.”
3) Let’s re-evaluate our understanding of public relations
and the strategies that flow from it. They are not intended to sell products
and services. PR is not slick marketing or advertising but a tool for building relationships
through brand awareness and positive publicity. In doing what it does best, PR
helps to cultivate the sales process by serving as a catalyst for marketing and
advertising to then engage customers in the business of the organization. While
PR and marketing may exist as separate disciplines, let there be no doubt that
they are aligned as partners for the same goal—the success of the organization.