Life was very different 15 years ago.
- Second Gen iPhone came out and the big deal was 3G and it finally had GPS!
- Blu-ray players went “mainstream”
- Google introduced the android
- Blackberry debuted the Storm and Wii Fit was introduced
- George W. Bush was still president, Obama was elected later in the year
- Giants beat the Patriots to win the Super Bowl
- Feds cut interest rates by 75 basis points to 2.25%
- Bill Gates stepped down from Microsoft and WALL-E was released in theaters
- Bernie Madoff was arrested
- The No. 1 song was “Low” by Flo-Rida
If we focused on your credit union marketing plan 15 years ago, it was probably pretty simple. It consisted of traditional media like radio, television, outdoor, and maybe even direct mail. You may have been dabbling in starting a Facebook page or launching email marketing campaigns at a very basic level.
A lot has changed in 15 years. It’s time to hit refresh and redefine marketing.
I chose 15 years because YMC is coming up on its 15-year anniversary. We could very easily keep on keeping on, cutting off the ends of the roast because our great-grandmothers did it, and we just do it because “that’s what we’ve always done.”
We chose to rethink what marketing is to ensure our credit union marketing clients remain relevant with your ideal members. We want credit unions green and growing, not ripe and rotting.
“But our board doesn’t like it.”
“Our older members would never embrace that.”
We could never because… (you fill in the blank on this one.)”
Over the next 12 months, the Your Marketing Co. leadership team will be working to redefine what marketing is and making bold moves to help us remain successful and relevant for the next 15 years. Ultimately, that means making sure each one of our clients is rowing similar boats in a similar, yet unique, direction. Just because we’ve always done it, doesn’t mean we’ll still be doing it next year, because what’s gotten Your Marketing Co. here, won’t necessarily take us where we’re going.
It will be uncomfortable. It will take overcoming our collective and individual fears of change. It will require tough conversations and accepting that not everyone will join us on this journey. There will be some lonely, cold nights on the side of Everest.
However, we are confident that 15 years from now Your Marketing Co. will be as strong as we are now, and our client credit unions will continue to be the pillars of their community by providing relevant and necessary financial products to the next generation of members, and we’ll be here again redefining marketing after 30 years.
Our future will be built by channeling this quote from the famous philosopher Don Draper:
“Let’s also say that change is neither good nor bad, it simply is. It can be greeted with terror or joy, a tantrum that says, ‘I want it the way it was,’ or a dance that says, ‘Look, something new!’”
Ready for something new? Let’s talk.
