Listed below are 3 days of points some of the speakers made. They are not in any order.
You could call them key points (ideas that hit a home run or were hat tricks). Some of the quotes have been adjusted for clarity but the italics are mine.
1. In a time of highly diverse issues we live with three common themes – detect you competition, destroy your competition or avoid your competition.
2. Brand equity is an investment. So how does an investment blog?
3. A credit union must become more than an ATM. Too bad some ATMs give better service.
4. Why should they care about what you do. You need to show members you do care. Differentiate. Caring and service are not the same.
5. The lowest employee on the organization chart has the great contact with the member. But why are they the least consulted when it comes to any change in process with the member?
6. Promises to members must be fulfilled. Focus on execution. There should be a method to monitor integrity.
7. Avoidance of pain is a great motivator. see point no. 1.
8. Personal agendas can harm collaboration. Tough to collaborate when our system is driven by personalities.
9. Direct mail response sites at 0.28% Read ‘Punk Marketing‘ for a full explanation. Seriously.
10. Not measured, not managed. Tatooable
11. Credit Union’s may have satisfied members but no loyal members. Something we all need to ponder.
Tomorrow we hear Lydia Johnson – Vancity, Jason Knight – Wesabe, Shari Storm – Verity CU & Trey Reeme – Trabian, Doug True – FORUM Solutions and Tim McAlpine – Currency Marketing. These are key individuals in today’s CU world and it is going to be an honour just sitting and listening to them.
Tinfoiling 
1. I like Denise Wymore’s thoughts on competition: “Make them irrelevant.”
2. At Weber Marketing Group, we’ve had much discussion about whether brands are investments or assets. We fall into the asset camp. Credit union brands have value like their buildings — they can either take care of them and improve the value of that asset or not. ‘Brand equity’ is the overall value of that asset.
3. Alternate phrasing: “The ‘buckstop’ stops here.”
4. And “caring, personal service” is not what differentiates you.
9. The direct mail people used to talk about a 2% response rate. To cut through the clutter these days, you almost need to shoot for a “2% offense rate,” meaning if your stuff is going to get noticed, you better be getting complaints from 2% of the recipients (on the concept, choice of photo, language, headline, etc.). Not really, but just about.
11. The statement that “credit unions have no loyal members” is hyperbole. I’d argue that almost every brand in every industry has some loyal followers, and I’d further argue that the credit union industry has more than average. Surely, member loyalty is something to seriously examine. But to say CUs don’t have loyal members? What evidence is there to support this?
Jeffery,
Great points. Looked up hyperbole on the OED.
“A figure of speech consisting in exaggerated or extravagant statement, used to express strong feeling or produce a strong impression, and not intended to be understood literally.”
There is no evidence to support this and I couldn’t find any. Glad you could ‘ponder’ this as much as I did.
fyi – I’m sure just a few weeks ago some survey or other showed the Credit Unions came out on top for customer satisfaction. TD/CT got all the press, but Credit Unions were the (too) quiet real winners. So, are they satisfied because we care, or our service? Who cares – they’re happy; we’re happy.
Jeffry,
I’ve always felt that the goal of ANY marketing piece should never be to get zero reaction.
Your point of the 2% offense rate is well taken….