My Marketing Strategy

Nicolette Lemmon, President & Founder

Last week there were signs of hopefulness in the nation’s economy and for the credit union industry. First, I spotted that the share of the auto loan market for credit unions has increased to 24% over 14% last year. The second thing was that the durable goods orders were up for the first time this year. And, the final thing was that housing starts were up for the first time in months.

Then, in a news story on MSNBC, “Toyota Motor Corp. sold more than 20,000 Camry models in February alone.” If those Camry models were averaging $20,000 each, that was $40 million. With the credit union share of market at 24%, then potentially almost $10 million in just one car model of Toyota would have made its way into the lending portfolios of credit unions nationwide.

Better yet, while still at the lowest level since the 1980s, a Reuters poll of 31 economists has estimated that consumer demand will be 9.2 million cars and light trucks in March. If, as in the Toyota example, credit unions pull in 24% of the auto loans for these vehicles, that would mean 2.28 million vehicles.

At a low estimate of $20,000 each, the potential amount of auto loans is $45 million.

The strategy during this time is to be squarely in front of your members to remind them to ask for your credit union financing! Simple, yet never assume that your members all turn to you or remember the reasons that they should.

For 2nd Quarter focus on grabbing your share of auto loans!