Tips for Incorporating “Green” into CU Brand Found in New White Paper

CUNA Councils
August 6, 2009 | COMMENTS

Learn to successfully incorporate green initiatives into a credit union’s brand and image in a new white paper from the CUNA Marketing and Business Development Council. Additionally, the challenges and rewards of running a single-person information technology (IT) department are featured in a new white paper from the CUNA Technology Council.

“Going Green – A Marketing Perspective” builds awareness of underlying requirements for incorporating green into a credit union’s branding efforts. The paper provides insights into the process of building a demonstrated foundation of commitment to environmental stewardship in order to avoid potential backlash from environmental groups, who are educated in such matters and vigilantly watch for unsubstantiated or inflated promotion of green efforts – also known as greenwashing.

“To avoid the quicksand of greenwashing, credit unions should develop a big picture mentality about environmental stewardship that incorporates what they have done, what they are doing, and what they could do in the future before launching a green marketing campaign,” explains the paper.

“People who are interested in the environment and sustainability can smell trickery a mile away,” cautions Kim Deppe, vice president of marketing for Community First CU in Jacksonville, Fla. “There’s a lot of suspicion particularly among young people about slapping something up against the wall and calling yourself green. Be sure that you’re being genuine about it and truly representing yourself accurately because the downside risk about trying to be something you’re not is that you lose credibility with some very important audience segments.”

“Being eco-friendly is more than a passing trend; it is an important part of a credit union's business model,” said Ann Legg, council chair and vice president of marketing for Cabrillo CU in San Diego. “Being green is integral to sustainability, viability, and relevancy.”

“Drinking from a Firehose: Running a Successful One-Person IT Department, from the CUNA Technology Council looks at how to leverage time and talents to create effective credit union operations by examining key factors such as: time management, project planning, prioritizing tasks, and outsourcing. It also offers ideas for getting in front of the CEO and top management and expanding the role in budgeting and planning.

Rudy Pereira, council chair and senior vice president of operations and technology at Alliant CU in Chicago, acknowledges that running a one-person IT shop is a major challenge. “These practitioners are usually on call 24/7 and are under pressure constantly to keep the credit union functioning with software that nobody ever sees and hardware that nobody understands. They are charged with protecting the integrity of the credit union's data, serving the entire staff, training the users, and updating the equipment. Vacations are often ruined when the BlackBerry rings. My hat is off to these professionals."

CUNA Council members are entitled to complimentary copies of these white papers; non-members may purchase the white papers for a price of $50 per copy.

The papers are available online in the white paper section of each council site - c hoose the “Marketing & BizDev” tab for the going green paper or the “Tech” tab for the IT department paper. From there, non-members should follow the non-member link to order.