Wednesday, May 23, 2007

Market segmentation for credit unions - specialty and commodity

One of the most interesting things to look for when segmenting your markets for potential members is the difference between specialty and commodity buying behaviors.
A specialty member prefers your credit union for specific reasons, and is willing to overlook differences in rates and fees because of those reasons. Another way of looking at this is a specialty member gets premium value and pays a premium price. There can be lots of different values here - convenience (both hours and location), service, what it's like to be a member of your credit union, or any other extra little things you do for your members.
The commodity member has chosen your credit union strictly for the rates and fees. As a rule, a lot of credit unions try to woo these members with low rates, but these members are likely to look elsewhere if they think they can get better rates.
There are some very interesting points about these two behaviors and strategy. First, smaller credit unions tend to do better with specialty members, because they can be more service-oriented and do not have the economies of scale found in larger credit unions. Second, credit unions that focus on attracting just one type or the other tend to be more profitable, because catering to specialty members creates major problems for commodity members and vice versa.
How would you characterize your membership? Are they mostly one or the other, or do you have a mishmash of both?
-Robert

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