MemberTree, Credit Union Marketing Consultancy

New ROTH IRA Campaign

2012-01-12T09:24:00.000-08:00

MemberTree has added a new ROTH IRA commercial to their catalog of campaigns.
Take a moment to view this unique spot that helps put your financial future "in focus."
Click here to view

Watch Santa help "Cut The Card"

2011-12-01T11:33:00.000-08:00

United Teletech Financial Credit Union, based out of Tenton Falls, NJ engaged MemberTree to create a unique television campaign. Click here to view the commercial.

This campaign was developed to help increase the awareness surrounding their already created marketing message "Go All Ears." MemberTree presented an idea that would definitely make consumers stop and take notice, and set the tone for an ongoing initiative that emphasizes United Teletech's willingness to listen to it's members needs.

MemberTree Recognized by CUES

2011-09-06T11:36:00.000-07:00

The Credit Union Executives Society (CUES) has awarded MemberTree with multiple Golden Mirror Awards for the work performed for Capital Credit Union in Bismarck, ND.

MemberTree was part of 560 results-producing 2011 entries, and we're proud that our work made an impression with credit union consumers and Golden Mirror judges.

All wining entries are presented online at www.cuesgma.org.

Visit MemberTree at the MnCUN Fall Conference

2011-08-17T11:35:00.000-07:00

The 2011 Fall Conference will be held September 9-11 at Madden’s Resort in Brainerd, MN.
Filled with educational sessions, entertainment, and recreation opportunities, this event provides a weekend of learning and fun.

MemberTree will be on the tradeshow floor, while also attending various breakout sessions.

Click here to learn more.

MemberTree MNCUN involvement recognized by CUNA

2011-05-20T13:37:00.000-07:00

MemberTree Consultancy is proud to become a member of the Minnesota Credit Union Network (MNCUN) VIP Participant.

Click here to read the CUNA press release.

As participants, MemberTree agrees to offer professional service, quality product lines and competitive pricing to all Minnesota credit unions.

Find out more about the MNCUN VIP program by clicking here.

Visit MemberTree at the CUAD June 2011 Summit!

2011-04-26T08:42:00.000-07:00

MemberTree will be attending the CUAD Summit in Fargo, ND.
June 7-10, 2011 at the Ramada Plaza Suites. Celebrate the accomplishments of your credit union and the difference we all make to our members and communities.

Content Creation: The Mediocre Are Always At Their Best.

2011-02-23T08:00:00.000-08:00

By David Hanson, Pres. H2M

Posted 01/15/2011

We have now crossed a threshold where the average person can be a worldwide-published author of information and entertainment at the click of a mouse. Being ‘published’ means having obtained the means of disseminating work to a larger audience, usually by way of some other company’s network and channels of distribution. What information or entertainment that is being published is being lumped together under the term “content”.

Up to this point in time on planet earth, there has been a wide gulf separating those who published content and those who consumed it. News was gathered and analyzed by professional reporters. Films were created by professional filmmakers at professional film studios and disseminated over airwaves and theaters by the companies who owned the equipment to project and broadcast them. Record companies signed deals with artists, sank money into the their development and sold the finished products at a healthy price which, if it was a hit, covered all the losses of money they lost from the artists who didn’t sell enough records to cover their cost.

As little as 20 years ago, being published was extremely difficult if not impossible for the average amateur, because the production and content companies of newspapers, book publishers, film studios, record companies and television studios took all the risk, and were very careful about messing with proven formulas they had developed for financial success. Those who owned the means of production bore the risk because the means of production such as printing presses, recording and film studios were very expensive. No longer.
I recently purchased a Canon 7D digital camera that I bought at Best Buy for around $2000. This camera shoots 1080 hi-definition video and is consistently used now in major productions in Hollywood. Therefore, for the most part, I now own my own means of production. But more than that, I also “own” the ability to publish my content via YouTube, Facebook, Flickr and others for free with no financial strings attached to any other entity.

The inevitable consequence that follows this ability for the average person to publish is the average quality of all that is being published declines. We have now been lulled into an “average” appreciation of “average” content. Today new emerging talent is no longer required to “pay their dues” in order to “make it”. Our 15 minutes of fame, as postulated by Andy Warhol in the 1960’s, is now down to less than 30 seconds as we pass video, audio and blog articles back and forth at the speed of light. But this is not a diatribe against amateur content creators and I will not go so far as to say that we have dumbed down our intellectual and aesthetic appreciation or discernment, because that would betray the fact that this democratization of the means of production has given unknown and untested talent an incredible platform upon which to be discovered.

As for marketing, almost every company in the western world now has their own Internet presence of some sort. So now we are seeing the inevitable rise of content strategy and content creation experts. It’s as if all these businesses suddenly woke up and realized they have no clue as to how they are going to fill the space they have created with things that are interesting and relevant to their audiences No one likes to read the same thing over and over, so “content creation” and a content updating strategy has become the latest buzzword and a fertile market for those promising to fill the need for a price.

It’s one thing to create a strategy for good content, but it’s an entirely different thing to create good content itself. Although the means of production have now been evenly distributed, talent has not. The reality is that there are very few talented and skilled creators of anything that people would want to consume on a regular basis. Great content is something you can’t simply pluck off a shelf; besides great talent, it takes skill, insight, perseverance and often years of hard work to be good over the long haul.

Legend has it that Picasso was sitting in a Paris café when an admirer approached and asked if he would do a quick sketch on her on a paper napkin. Picasso politely agreed, swiftly executed the work, and handed back the napkin. The admirer asked him how much should she pay. Picasso replied, “five thousand dollars.” The admirer gasped, “But sir, it only took you a few seconds!” Picasso replied, “No madam, it took me my entire life.”

dave@h2m.biz

Why Some People Excel Far Beyond Others: The Relentless Drive Of Curiosity.

2010-12-23T06:10:00.000-08:00

David Hanson

Pres. H2M

dave@h2m.biz

By David Hanson, Pres. H2M

Posted 12/19/2010

It wasn’t that long ago in America that if you wanted to learn something about something you had to look it up in published and often outdated books such as the Encyclopedia (if your household was affluent enough to own a set), or you had to go to the library. There was no “online” resource to “Google” or “Bing” an inquiry that would result in thousands if not millions of replies within seconds.

Online resources today are superb, but even they cannot reach to the same depths of understanding and completeness that actually reading a complete book about a subject can reach. The Internet is terrific for quick bursts of information and various people’s opinions on things, but nothing comes close to the depth of subject matter that has been codified in a book. In most cases, because a book has taken a lot longer to create and format, will contain better thought-out material, tempered with various other views tied in to a complete overview great depth and clarity.

And now to cut to the chase: In every organization there are people who excel at their jobs. There is something about them that is so vibrant, so engaging and so infectious that they attract success to themselves in a measure far beyond their peers without any seeming effort. I attribute this to a passionate curiosity. These are the ones who are never satisfied to rest on what they learned in school (often years ago) but consistently seek out not only the latest issues concerning their chosen field, but also the field the customers they serve. It astounds me how few times I find someone who has actually bothered to read about their customers business from available businesses trade information both online and offline. It’s as if once they graduated from school, they feel they have learned everything they need to know to have a successful career.

I attribute a lot of this mindset to our educational system, which often promotes rote learning and grades over curiosity and passion. I receive many resumes from self-described young copywriters who can write but have no conception of how business works. They can string language together and utilize the correct syntax but have no solid conceptual framework that relates to the customer’s business upon which to hang their words. It is simply technique without understanding. Their work sounds like advertising, which is anathema to the whole endeavor. In short, they are not curious people. They, even at their young age, are already resting on the laurels of their past education. In this time of exploding knowledge and interconnectivity we live in can teach us anything, it is that today's learning of facts and techniques becomes obsolete almost before we can put them in to practice.

And so in my experience over the years as both an employee and employer, I have learned it is the curious ones are the ones that excel. They excel because their curiosity betrays a deeper excitement and passion about the work they do. I know the journeyman type of work I’ll get from those who never keep pace with their customers businesses and their own craft. And I also know to expect the exciting surprises I’ll receive from the “curious ones” who consistently wonder how things work and how to make them work better. These are the ones that don’t need to be told to continue to learn about their craft and their custonmers. These are the ones that will grow into any challenge that comes their way. These are ones who will succeed beyond their wildest dreams.

New MemberTree Website Launched!

2010-11-18T07:34:00.000-08:00

If you have some time, take a minute to visit the newly launched MemberTree Consultancy website.

Visit us at www.membertree.org

Brand Conversations: Who The Heck Would Want One?

2010-11-04T07:52:00.000-07:00

By David Hanson, President, MemberTree Consultancy

Posted 11/4/2010

I decided to paint my fiberglass sailboat by myself last spring, and I had no idea how to do it. So I hit Google and started researching how to do it, what type of paint I needed, what type of preparations were required, and how hard and long it would take. On the web I found three companies that sell marine paint. Each offered good directions on how to accomplish the task. I read all their promotional materials and then read some (hopefully) independent reviews. The reviews clued me in as to what paint actually performed the best and was easiest to apply.

So now I have made my choice, and guess what, I had absolutely no conversations with any of the brands I researched. Now of course you might say, “Well, by reading their materials and reviews you actually ARE having a brand conversation," but no, that’s sloppy and I won’t let you get away with it.

In reality, there’s nothing really new here at all. I just happened to use the web to do my product research instead of asking around and having to go to different outlets for the products. Same procedure, different path is all. Heck, I like it better BECAUSE I didn’t have to have a conversation with a commissioned salesperson or rely on some store that sells the stuff, which is hardly an unbiased review. I didn’t want to converse with any of these boat paint brands. I just wanted information on what was available and how well it worked.

Come to think of it, I don’t recall any conversations I’ve had with any brands. Can you? Seriously, I’m trying to figure out exactly what a brand conversation is. It’s lost on me. If you’re interested or working in marketing, you’ll find endless crap out there about these supposed brand conversations.

So I sampled a bunch of “conversation gurus” on the web and chose the following one as a fairly typical exposition of the current “brand conversation” babble. Kevin Masi, Co-founder, President and Future Builder of Torque, a Brand Marketing Agency writes:

“A brand is a conversation between a company and its customer tribes.”

Customer tribes? So Walt’s body shop has customer tribes? This line alone is the essence of how these vapid pundits lump all businesses into one leavened loaf of lingo-babble. He continues:

"A brand story stays out of the way unless people seek it out. People are busy and have high expectations. Interrupting them in the middle of something (like a television show or reading a magazine) is annoying."

Has he ever picked up a copy of Vogue or Glamour? It’s nothing BUT advertising. The content actually interrupts the advertising.

And again:

"For a very long time, businesses focused on products and sales. And they thrived. Their marketing flowed in one direction, from company to consumer: selling, advertising, and generally imposing their brands on a hungry audience of consumers. A one-way conversation. Then: change. Markets became crowded with competitive choices, and interruptive advertising became pervasive. Businesses no longer thrived. The marketing techniques that grew out of their sales-and-product focus stopped working."

Stopped working? Isn’t that a rather broad statement? Plus, he speaks of marketing “techniques." Good lord...techniques are tactics for cripe's sake. Marketing based on techniques has always been a loser. Marketing is based on creative exposition of relevant messaging to likely prospects.

Has he even read the data about the absolutely incredible rise in television viewing, which by the way is filled with “one-way” advertising? Does he think companies would be buying that much television advertising if it wasn’t performing? Obviously people aren’t finding it too annoying, and that’s because for over 60 years the American public has honored a tacit agreement between the owners of the frequencies and their time: they will get free entertainment in return for watching messages from the people who actually pay for it, the advertisers.

Peeps, let’s stop the jargon mill. There is no one out there who wants to have a conversation with a brand. Is our current definition of “brand” so skewed that we think we can converse with them as if they are conscious beings? Since brands are the aggregate summation of all the sensory input and mental experiences we have concerning a product or service, isn’t having “conversations” with them really a form of just talking to ourselves? The entire conversation jargon-wagon is in a rut and its wheels are broken.

It’s just not that hard. If marketers want to promote their brands, they will need some form of commercial messaging placed in locations and times where people either see, hear, smell, touch or taste them. And it’s okay to simply call it what it is: advertising.

Find out more about MemberTree Consultancy
www.membertree.org