SAN FRANCISCO — Count Patelco among credit unions stepping up efforts to attract Latino members. The $4.3 billion institution is mid-way through an eight-week campaign that includes the launch of a new remittance product, a branch opening in a predominantly Hispanic Redwood City, and a radio and print campaign featuring a popular recently-retired Spanish language news anchor.
According to Chief of Strategic Innovation Carol Highton, the campaign seeks to meet two objectives: better serve the Bay Area's large Hispanic population, and attract young families.
Patelco's strategy includes a smart mix of big and small credit union tactics. The credit union will utilize the grass roots communication channels favored by successful niche players, like relationships with Consular offices and ethnic grocery stores, while leveraging the marketing budget of a billion dollar institution.
The credit union partnered with Bay Area consultant Jake Beniflah to devise strategies that appeal to Patelco's specific Hispanic market.
Beniflah has both academic and corporate experience in Hispanic marketing strategies, and specializes in defining sub markets within Hispanic populations. Many companies mistakenly group all Hispanic consumers together, he said, when in reality, there are significant differences between generations and homelands.
Patelco's Northern California community charter represents a variety of Hispanic consumers, he said, from comfortable 2nd or 3rd generations living in San Francisco, to day laborers working in rural agricultural fields.
Beniflah and Patelco agreed a high-impact spokesman would be beneficial to the campaign, and struck pay dirt with long-time Univision newsanchor Luis Echegoyen. Though they didn't know it at the time, Echegoyen was already a Patelco member.
"Jake was aware, through another source, that (Echegoyen) was interested in emerging from retirement and doing this kind of work again," Highton said.
"So we met with him, and lo and behold, he was a Patelco member, so that really cemented the deal."
Echegoyen's familiar face and voice are featured in Patelco marketing, and because the credit union is Echegoyen's first post-retirement gig, his return to the airwaves is generating buzz. He appeals to many sub markets within the Hispanic population, and has both big-time and grassroots appeal.
"It wasn't enough to build competitive products and services, Patelco needed to get out there with a face and voice the market trusts," Beniflah said. "Luis is the nightly face people have known on TV for years, talking to the community in their own living rooms, which is pretty grassroots."
In addition to increasing brand recognition, Echegoyen is specifically hawking Patelco's new Redwood City branch and free remittance product, Envios a Casa, which is tied to a deposit account. It wasn't difficult convincing Echegoyen to promote Patelco's electronic services, Beniflah said, because he had been using the credit union for years to transfer funds to his daughter living on the East Coast.
Highton said she will track and quantify the return from the campaign and Echegoyen's spokesmanship, and said next week's branch opening will be a good test.
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