California Credit Unions & CO-OP Network Work Together to Position Credit Unions as the Best Choice in Financial Services.
The City lifestyle magazines Los Angeles Magazine and San Francisco Magazine are featuring credit unions as the best choice in financial services this summer. With an 8-page special section in July in San Francisco and an 8-page specialsection in August in Los Angeles, credit unions are portrayed as service focused alternatives that have a mission to improve their members financial outlook not profit from them.
The articles feature Filene as the father of the credit union movement and include editorial andads from each of the participating credit unions. San Francisco Magazine added Best Credit Union to its reader poll and San Francisco Federal Credit Union won the honor. Reprints of the section will also appear in the Los Angeles Times,the San Francisco Chronicle, and the San Jose Mercury News.
Both programs are part of a year-long community outreach program designed to foster public awareness of what credit unions are and why they are better alternatives. The program focuses on the not-for-profit, member owned aspect of credit unions. It emphasizesthe variety of benefits that credit unions offer: lending practices, a focus on consumer advocacy, the role of a trusted partner in critical financial products, such as home loans and financial planning (to name a few!).
The programs are a blend of PR, public advocacy, media partnerships, and an inventive form of cooperation developed by Market and Sales Logic (MSL) of Redondo Beach, CA. This marketing process capitalizeson the cooperative spirit of credit unions: it enables credit unions to better inform the public about the benefits of the credit union industry while also helping them reach potential members more efficiently. In fact, MSL filed a patent on the processearlier this year after a handful of credit unions in Los Angeles experienced great success from this method. Clearly, credit unions must leverage partnerships and economies of scale to properly inform the American public about their choices in financialinstitutions. And when informed, it seems that credit unions are best!