Take a look at last year's strategic planning document. What was the direction of your competitive strategies? Were you aiming for a niche market that although had low volume delivered high margins? Or were you trying to compete as a commodity to get high volumes even though the margins were low? Or did you take the time to research and develop ideas that created differentiation to your credit union where you can have high volumes along with high margins? You achieve this by delivering premium products at premium prices.
All three of these strategies can make your credit union sound and with a solid financial picture, but your actions must align with your competitive strategies and your competitive strategies must align with your approach to leading the credit union.
Niche Market
To reach a niche market you have to segment your membership and offer special features for that specific type of member. In some cases customization is required along with a good bit of research to understand the needs and proper approaches for this market. Obviously, if you want to attract young white collar members to use a particular product, then you must find ways to rise above the competition and reach that member or prospect in the correct manner based on their buying habits.
If a blue collar member is the niche you want to serve more, research the products that best fit their needs and still fit the proper margins for the credit union. Learn their buying habits and develop strategies to directly reach them. Needless to say, the different market segments used in this example are going to have different buying habits and have different product needs. The credit union needs to strategize which niche they want to be the expert in and work to deliver for that niche.
There are many different approaches to competitive strategies and in the next blog entry; I will address Commodity strategy and Differentiation strategies.
-- Russell
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
No comments:
Post a Comment