Altura Credit Union
The Challenge
Altura Credit Union is the largest credit union based in the Inland Empire and has achieved two significant milestones: surpassing 100,000 members and exceeding $800 million in assets. Altura recently opened its 12th branch location expanding its network further into the Coachella Valley and the high desert. As the Inland Empire continued to grow and receive more attention from surrounding counties, competing credit unions from surrounding counties made inroads and began to erode Altura’s market share.
The Approach
Extensive research determined the most profitable products for Altura with demographic and psychographic profiles on these target audiences. Under the brand positioning of “Rewarding Relationships,” Altura’s campaigns were designed to add new members and leverage relationships with existing members through lending, core deposits and investment promotions as well as brand messaging through direct mail, radio, billboards, community events and brochures. Campaigns were designed to reflect Altura’s brand personality through bright colors, fun images and friendly photographs depicting Altura’s membership base.
The Results
Altura’s marketing team placed extreme importance on tracking the results of its campaigns and reporting the data to the executive team. Campaigns were tracked by cost, forecasted response, actual response and the increased return brought to the credit union. Although Altura’s membership had declined through the first half of 2006, the newly branded strategic marketing campaign reversed this trend and tracked positive growth each month for the rest of the year between 11% and 31%.
“Rewarding Relationships”
