Ask Us Anything

If you’re looking for a good bank website, check out Irwin Union Bank’s site. While it’s visually appealing, it’s also extremely easy to navigate and has a few elements worth pointing out.

First of all, the featured message on homepage is not static – it changes when you refresh or revisit the site. But, I was impressed when I visited the site and was greeted with a photograph of Brad Kime, President of the bank, with the message “Experience Easy at IrwinUnion.com.” And, after checking out some of the site’s features, I must say I am impressed. Easy is exactly the word I would use to describe my experience in navigating the site.

I think it’s also worth pointing out the Irwin Life section of the website which discusses areas of interest that aren’t typically associated with banks. These areas include: travel, food & wine, design, entertainment, wellness, and luxury & leisure. The content in these areas is intriguing to say the least. Like, when you look at entertainment for example – there are two music album suggestions as “summer soundtracks.” This is expanded upon by offering sample tracks from the albums and the artists’ bios. It also includes links to buy the album from amazon.com, the artists’ webpages, myspace pages and youtube videos.

Irwin Life is clearly a departure from typical bank newsletters – and has certainly captured my interest, and I wouldn’t be surprised if it captures the attention of people looking for a refreshing banking experience.

And, whether you have a question about their services or why they are featuring Ray Lemontagne as a featured artist in Irwin Life, at the bottom of each screen you’re invited to “Ask Us Anything”– it’s just the icing on the cake.

Brass Magazine’s Bryan Simms Gives Us 5 Gen-Y Characteristics to Think About

On Wednesday afternoon, I attended an excellent presentation given by Bryan Simms, CEO of Brass Magazine about Generation Y. The presentation “Generation Y Revealed” included five different characteristics that financial institutions may consider tapping into as means to target this young segment. And while this set of characteristics doesn’t apply to every member of Generation Y, it does provide a starting point for financial institutions to consider when marketing to this group.

First of all, and not surprisingly, this group tends to be tech-savvy. Generation Y uses all sorts of technology – everything from social networking online to text messaging with their friends, Simms highlighted the fact that today’s youth is able to do 44 hours worth of tasks in a 24 hour day because of their ability to multi-task. This is certainly an issue for financial institutions to address as this group demands sophistication, speed, ease of use and fun.

Secondly, Generation Y is very entrepreneurial, and this group is not likely to work for the same company for the duration of their career. Therefore, financial institutions must address both the personal side of this trend (i.e. making it easy to transfer accounts during job transitions) and the business side (i.e. offering small business loans to start-up companies).

In addition, Simms suggested that financial institutions consider the large number of New Americans that are a part of this age group. The average age of many immigrant groups tends to be younger than the average age of the American population; therefore many can be considered part of Generation X and Y. Financial institutions should consider how they target New Americans when they are looking to attract a younger demographic.

Also, this segment tends to be socially conscious. Financial institutions can attract the socially conscious members of Generation Y by taking an active role in areas of interest to this group – this could be anything from Habitat for Humanity home building to participating in community green initiatives. Or, institutions may support the socially conscious efforts of local groups through donations and/or fundraising for the efforts.

And, many members of Generation Y are considered to be underserved. While underserved segments exist across the age spectrum, Simms emphasized the importance of not necessarily associating “no credit” with “bad credit”. One approach to this market for financial institutions could be hosting financial education programs and offering services that are designed to help the underserved build a better financial future.

Overall, the presentation brought out some great points about attracting Generation Y to today’s financial institutions. I would also encourage you to take a look at Brass Magazine’s website for more about how financial issues impact young people. And, if you have the opportunity to see Bryan Simms speak, don’t miss it – he was excellent.

Change your mindset-revisited

From time to time, we will be posting our thoughts in video form. In this first video, I revisit changing your mindset as a means to survival in the financial services industry. I welcome your comments and suggestions for future video topics.

Canora Credit Union’s Name Change

I recently came across a document from Canora Credit Union inviting its members to help change the credit union’s name by submitting their suggestions. The document sites the Board of Directors’ interest in re-branding itself as the reason for the name change. In addition, the document also states that “a new name will help the credit union continue to grow and prosper for years to come.”

While I would be interested to see what kinds of names the members come up with, this initiative raises quite a few red flags.

Recently, we have seen an increase in financial institutions that are interested in the possibility of a name change. And all too often, we see institutions that have mistakenly simplified the re-branding process to include nothing more than changing their name and/or logo.

There are certainly appropriate times to consider changing the name of a financial institution. We see this most commonly in a few different situations:

• Institutions looking to expand into new markets with a name that is not associated with a specific town, city or geographic location
• Institutions merging together will usually opt to carry one of the institution’s names forward or will make a decision to establish a new name for the recently combined institutions
• Institutions looking to simplify their name and/or adapt to changes in their market as a means to stay relevant

Whatever the case, changing the name of an institution has huge implications across the board. From a branding perspective alone, a name change will impact the visual, verbal and experiential elements of an institution’s brand, and in today’s marketplace, these elements must be carefully managed to create favorable perceptions.

An institution looking to change its name should do so at a time when it can also revisit its brand standards to ensure that the two are in-line with one another and that they both support the institution’s overall objectives. In the case of Canora Credit Union, it seems like a misdirected effort in getting member buy-in to a name change. While acceptance of the new name is important, a new name can not simply be selected because it sounds good – as a name can make or break a brand, and the careful management of a brand is often times the difference between success and failure.