Filene CEO: Nothing Matters As Much As Growth Posted by AVCU on 11:48 AM

Mark Meyer, CEO
Filene Research Institute

Filene Institute CEO Mark Meyer posts on his blog today an article touting his belief that nothing is more important to the long-term health of today's credit unions than sustainable membership growth. Not huge growth in members, but a steady 2% to 5% annual growth in members, he argues, will bring in more borrowers, which equates to a healthier credit union. Meyer points out that credit union membership growth trends are definitely in decline. In 2001 credit unions added almost 2 million members. In 2006 it was 1.2 million. In 2011 we’ll be lucky to get 600,000 or 700,000. 


Meyer's Filene organization did a study of the effectiveness of credit union marketing that revealed that words like ‘membership’, ‘join’ and ‘cooperative’ don’t turn many people on. Instead, consumers like simple, individually relevant statements like “save $200 a year.”  Also, people seem to respond well to the age old credit union motto of “For People, Not Profit.”


Meyer also talks about reasons preventing credit unions from sustaining meaningful annual growth in members, including recession fears, costs of maintaining minimal accounts, decline in car sales, the capital accumulation mode of credit unions, and inadequate marketing budgets.


Read Mark's blog entry in entirety.