MADISON, Wis. – Best Practices Award winners from the CUNA Marketing and Business Development Council were announced during the council’s 16th annual conference, held March 11-14 in San Diego.

The awards recognize outstanding new marketing and business development approaches with potential for universal application across the credit union movement. Without regard to asset size, a panel of judges selected winners based on strategy, process, application, and results. Representatives from the winning credit unions were present at the conference to deliver presentations about their entries. This year’s winners are:

• Beehive FCU in Rexburg, Idaho, for its cross-selling system to help accomplish its goal of moving toward a sales culture. The $130 million asset credit union implemented a system to track employee cross sales, establish goals, and provide incentives. The system also allows reports to be generated that measure activity for individual employees, for one or more branches, and for the entire organization. In just over a year, the new system helped bring in $1.6 million in loans and $2.7 million in deposits, along with more than 4,200 additional products and services.
• Financial Partners CU in Downey, Calif., for its Marketing 212 program for staff members. With only three team members to service all of the locations, staff, and departments for the $727 million asset credit union, the marketing team created its new Marketing 212 portal, linked to the credit union’s Intranet. The portal was a one-stop location for information pertaining to marketing and communications, and included all internal communications, marketing presentations and forms, current promotions, and more. With its fresh content and prizes for suggestions, the portal’s traffic has been high, and it has decreased calls to the marketing department.
• TLC Community CU in Adrian, Mich., for its Merillat Industries newsletter, entitled “Creating Your Financial Future.” When Merillat Industries announced that it would be closing its Adrian plant in April 2009, TLC acted to helps its 221 members employed by Merillat. The $282 million asset credit union partnered with The Taylor Agency investment firm to create the Merillat newsletter. The content focused on TLC’s “People Helping People” philosophy, gave reassurance, highlighted familiar faces, and provided options for employees. TLC also interacted with employees at the plant and analyzed account structures to maintain open communications with employees. The project was successful, and the total cost of the newsletter was $509. With many more plant closings likely in store for Michigan, TLC is looking at future considerations for the project.

For more information on the 2009 Best Practice Award winners or to view PowerPoint presentations of the winning entries, go to
www.cunamarketingcouncil.org, and click on the “Best Practices” link, located on the “Events” pull-down menu.