Living la Vida Hispana

Micheal Muckian

CUs reach the fastest-growing U.S. member demographic by applying lessons learned at WOCCU’s Hispanic Marketing Immersion Program.

Visitors to $90 million asset Guadalupe Credit Union’s south Santa Fe, N.M., branch might think they’re having an out-of-country experience.

Winona Nava, the credit union’s president/CEO and chair of the Credit Union National Association’s (CUNA) Hispanic Outreach Task Force, says the foreign feeling is intentional. It’s a byproduct of her (and staff members’) participation in the World Council of Credit Unions’ (WOCCU) Hispanic Marketing Immersion Program.

The south Santa Fe branch is dressed in bright colors, with Spanish-language signage and bold assertions about products and services. Marketing is strident and the ambience member-friendly, with rope-and-stanchion lobby controls replaced by take-a-number options enabling members to visit freely rather than stand in lines.

Guadalupe patterned many of the branch’s unique features after Caja Popular Dolores Hidalgo, a credit union that’s part of Federación Alianza in Guanajuato, Mexico. Nava “worked” at the caja for two weeks in 2007 as part of the Hispanic Marketing Immersion Program. The lessons learned significantly increased Guadalupe’s success attracting and serving Hispanic members, she says.

“We were opening a branch devoted to serving recent Hispanic immigrants and we needed to better understand the culture,” says Nava. “I brought home a much greater awareness of where our members were coming from, and we altered our plans based on what we learned.”
 

During its first year of operation, the branch enrolled 352 new members for a growth rate of 10.6%, attracted $434,057 in deposits, generated $875,101 in loans, and reduced the credit union’s average membership age to 42.8 years from 44 years—well below the national credit union average of 47 years. Serving Hispanics attracts more members, she says, and also more effectively draws in a younger demographic that will help the credit union grow in years to come.

The WOCCU program fully immerses participants during one- or two-week training periods—offering Spanish language lessons in the morning, temporary “employment” at local cajas in the afternoon, and home stays with preselected Mexican middle-class families throughout the entire experience. By the end, Nava observes, participants are culturally saturated with a new understanding and appreciation for “living la vida Hispana.” She adds, “The WOCCU program proved to be an excellent mix of language, culture, and credit union business.”
 

Beyond the gateway states

Immersion program participation seems a natural part of credit unions’ marketing evolution in states such as New Mexico, where Hispanics comprise 44.4% of the population—nearly three times the 15.1% national average—compared with a white non-Hispanic population of 42.3%, according to U.S. Census data. But the Hispanic demographic is increasing nationwide. Unless prepared, credit unions in many states may wind up scrambling to attract a rapidly growing pool of potential members.
 
“North Carolina is one of the fastest-growing states in attracting Hispanics,” says John Radebaugh, president/CEO of the North Carolina Credit Union League. “We already have 10 credit unions that concentrate on serving Hispanic members, and it’s spreading.”

The league has conducted meetings and issued white papers on how to better serve Hispanic members, says Kim Bohannon, league vice president of compliance, who also serves on CUNA’s Hispanic Outreach Task Force. In addition, in 2007 the North Carolina League formed a relationship through WOCCU’s International Partnerships Program with Caja Morelia Valladolid in Morelia, Mexico, the site of the 2008 and 2009 immersion programs (dates for the latter are Sept. 19 through Oct. 2).

Caja Morelia officials visited league headquarters in November 2008 and developed a partnership. It has broadened awareness and understanding of Hispanic culture, further supporting lessons learned through the immersion program, says North Carolina League Chairman Ben Hill, CEO of $35 million asset Blue Flame Credit Union in Charlotte, N.C.

“I had a personal interest in participating,” says Hill, who traveled to Querétaro, Mexico, with the 2007 immersion program. While his credit union doesn’t yet serve many Hispanics, he says, “In Mexico, we can more easily see the roots of what credit unions do to help members, the reason we were created in the first place.”

Hill notes the prominent role youth programs play, which Mexican credit unions use to cultivate member loyalty across multiple generations. Lack of widespread automation also forces more face-to-face member contact, something he says could benefit credit unions everywhere. “It would be great if we could interact with our members the way Mexican credit unions do,” he adds. “If you don’t know your members well, you can’t serve them effectively.”

Credit unions that don’t understand Hispanic culture, he says, will have a tougher time capturing and retaining what may be their greatest potential for member growth in the coming years.

Toppling the ‘State Fair’ stereotype

North Carolina’s population is 7% Hispanic, according to U.S. Census Bureau data. But it’s growing rapidly, giving Hill’s assumption increasing validity.

By comparison, Iowa has only a 4% Hispanic population. But rapid Hispanic membership growth at two of $239 million asset Greater Iowa Credit Union’s four branches sent Michael Adams, the Ames-based credit union’s vice president of marketing, to WOCCU’s 2008 immersion program for a crash course in how to reach this segment.

“Iowa still suffers from the ‘State Fair’ stereotype,” says Adams, in reference to the 1953 Rodgers and Hammerstein film about the Iowa State Fair, featuring an all-white cast. “But we’re getting increasingly more diverse. My East Des Moines branch is about 20% Latino, and the Denison branch in western Iowa is now 50% Latino.” Adams says his week at the immersion program in Morelia was “eye-opening.”
 

“It was a very intense experience, but I reveled in it,” he says. “Morelia is off the beaten tourist trail, which enabled me to experience the country without artificiality. Living with my host family deepened my empathy and understanding of Mexican everyday life, which has helped better market to them here.”

What most impressed Adams was the dominant use of sports marketing, which has led Greater Iowa to sponsor local youth and adult soccer leagues. The credit union also became a major sponsor of Des Moines’s Latino Heritage Festival. The East Des Moines branch hosted the Fiesta de Navidad in December, and the Denison branch its first “spring fiesta” in May, which Adams says may have helped the community adjust to its rapidly changing demographic profile.

The most critical lesson Adams learned from the immersion experience was the difference between his credit union’s marketing efforts and campaigns geared specifically to Hispanics. Substance and splash, rather than subtlety and style lie at the heart of Hispanic marketing, he says.

“We’re the former Iowa State University credit union, and I’m a sort of ‘serene’ marketer,” he explains. “In Mexico, marketing is noisier, more dynamic. It’s a bit of a carnival. When we market to Latinos, we have to be noisier and more colorful, which runs counter to what we normally do.”

The credit union’s new marketing collateral picks up on the culture’s bold colors and its even bolder marketing assertions, featured in everything from brochures to radio spots. Adding more information sometimes makes copywriting a challenge, he admits, a situation compounded by the estimated 20% text length added when translating English to Spanish. However, Greater Iowa is rising to the challenge.

“We’re going to launch the use of ITINs [individual taxpayer identification numbers] in July that will allow more Latino members to apply for loans,” says Adams. He also works with Coopera Consulting, an Iowa Credit Union League subsidiary designed to help credit unions reach Hispanic members. (CUNA also has joined forces with Coopera Consulting to help credit unions reach this market on a national scale.) “At present, the best way for us to measure progress in this community is to look at our remittance business, which has been doubling every month.”

Strangers in a strange land

Many immersion program participants report a new perspective on service—one that falls more in line with traditional credit union philosophy. “When serving Hispanic members, I’ve found I have to start thinking in terms of people rather than policy,” says Adams. “I’m advancing an agenda that errs on the side of helping members. It’s no longer enough to do what we’ve always done.”

Blue Flame’s Hill agrees, especially regarding credit unions’ roles in supporting members’ well-being; and providing services that are ethical, affordable, and prove credit unions aren’t like for-profit institutions that may have ignored immigrants’ needs at home.

“A lot of Hispanics come to the U.S. because they see opportunities. Credit unions are working hard both here and in Mexico to make sure those opportunities are realized,” says Hill. “If banks would have served those members initially, credit unions may not have needed to exist. That’s as true here as in Mexico.”

“I’ve traveled extensively and have lived in foreign countries. I know what it’s like to be a stranger in a strange land,” says Adams. “The immersion program has planted a seed. This is a humanitarian issue as much as it is a service issue, and it should be driving every credit union’s people-helping-people goal in reaching out to this group.

“I am very passionate about the program,” Adams adds. “The impact is profound.”

* Listen to a Spanish-language radio spot and view an archived WOCCU Webinar.

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