Fun and Function

For Morriss Partee, owner and creator of EverythingCU.com, a multi-faceted resource center and online community for credit unions, people are what it’s all about, and what drives his business forward.

People and gnomes, that is.

Can’t forget the gnomes, the unofficial mascots and a point of pride for EverythingCU and its members, who join to take advantage of products and services designed to make credit union operations smoother, but also to become part of a community that is far removed from preconceived notions of the world of financial institutions.

“Other people want to copy us, but so far no one has,” Partee said. “I think it’s the eBay effect: they’re the best online auction site not because of their technology necessarily, but because that’s where everyone is.”

With 5,620 registered members and counting, EverythingCU.com seems to be positioning itself for a similar reputation.

“We’ve got a formula that is based on three things: education, innovation, and fun,” Partee explained. “These are what attract and inspire people, and also make our members feel like they’re one of the cool kids.”

This philosophy is reflected in several aspects of EverythingCU.com, which began as a strictly marketing-based endeavor in the late ’90s and has since grown to become a more far-reaching information portal for credit unions and their marketing departments across the country.

Understanding Assets

As exhibited by its garden-dwelling poster children, there’s a certain quirkiness about this business. EverythingCU first unearthed the gnomes three years ago, and members, who became honorary gnomes for participating, refused to give up their status after the event. Today, the pointed-cap-wearing, white-bearded mini-members continue to surface in marketing materials, message boards, and in the company’s virtual Gnome Hall of Fame.

But the fun and games are just one part of EverythingCU’s business model, albeit an intrinsic aspect that keeps members coming back for more.

“Just a little bit of personality and character goes a long way,” said Partee, noting that this ‘a-ha moment’ helped to nurture a seed of an idea that began when Partee was a freelance marketing consultant, convinced that the world of financial services didn’t have to be a boring one.

Partee said he first began working with credit unions in 1996, joining forces with the UMass Five College Federal Credit Union in Hadley to offer design work for logos and other materials.

At the start, he was afraid the work was not going to be terribly creative.

“I was envisioning lots of coins and bills and dollar signs,” he said. “I thought it was going to be pretty boring.”

But with the support of the credit union’s then-president, Jon Reske, Partee decided early on to forgo graphics of piggy banks for more creative imagery, ideally depicting people — members — who are intrinsic to the health and longevity of any credit union.

“It was at that time that I truly started to understand that credit unions aren’t all about money, they’re all about the members,” he said.

“And in the sphere of people’s lives, the creative options were endless. We could use images of what credit unions did to make life easier or better, and once we started down that path, everything was a home run.”

The Loan Ranger

Partee maintained a working relationship with Reske and the credit union for three more years, when, in 1999, he began thinking about his next venture. At the same time, the Internet exploded, and he began taking stock of his talents, strengths, opportunities, and interests, to see if he might be able to parlay them into a business with an online component.

“I was trying to think of what I loved and what inspired me,” he said. “I had always enjoyed marketing and business, as well as art, music, computers … by that time, I was working with a few credit unions, but I thought, what do I know about them, besides they all seem to pay me on time? What does the world of CUs look like?”

That was enough to prompt Partee to delve further into that world, though, by creating a ‘discussion site’ online to serve as a sort of idea generator and focus group all in one.

“I thought, I may not know everything about credit unions, but I do know I need more clients like Jon Reske,” he said, noting that he obtained a public directory of credit unions across the country and invited their marketing directors to join the forum he’d created. Not long after, he was welcoming between 15 and 20 new members a day.

“Then after about a year, people started showing up on their own,” he said. “It morphed quickly from a marketing tool to a community of like-minded people.”

A few “environmental factors,” as Partee calls them, also helped spread the word about what would soon be named EverythingCU. Credit union deregulation created a world of new opportunities as well as a new level of competition.

“There was a rush among select-employer-group credit unions to go community, and that got people competing with each other more than ever,” he explained. “All of a sudden, credit unions in the same communities didn’t want to talk to each other anymore. On a national level, though, trading ideas and best practices still felt safe.”

The business began its existence as CUMarketingDept.com, offering marketing, design, and consulting services to the national credit union industry. It operated under that moniker until 2003, when Partee said technology and the need among credit unions for guidance in many different areas of business prompted a name change that would better reflect the diverse services the company offered.

“It’s been a gradual evolution,” said Partee. “We’ve moved away from just marketing to focus more on products that serve credit unions in general, and we’re offering more strategic planning. A lot of our focus is on consulting and helping credit unions adapt to today’s wired world. In essence, we’re helping credit unions find their way.”

The Power of the Product

EverythingCU.com does this through a wide range of technology-based channels. The site is member-based and open only to credit union employees and their dedicated marketing agencies, in order to maintain a level of privacy.

There’s a strong social media aspect — similar to professional networking sites like Facebook and LinkedIn, members post photos and news bits about themselves and their workplaces, create profile pages, and participate in regular discussions regarding everything from holiday hours to promotions to vendors (who, incidentally, are blocked from joining EverythingCU and soliciting its members).

A suite of ‘gadgets,’ online and technology-based tools designed by EverythingCU specifically for use by credit unions, is also available. These items include an online switch kit that streamlines the process of joining a credit union for new members (typically, such kits have been paper-based, until recently). Customized with a given credit union’s name, address, and routing numbers, and tailored to match the look and feel of a Web site, the switch kit creates a complete set of letters and forms as a PDF, while allowing members to type their information into a template only once, and negating the need for a credit union to create such an online option for themselves.

EverythingCU products also include a marketing budget report that allows institutions to compare their own budgets to those of their peers and competitors. The report includes customized Web pages, which show how one marketing budget compares to another using key result metrics such as loan growth, salaries, and expenses.

The report also includes a display of the top credit unions by asset size and membership, as well as those with the largest marketing budgets.

In addition, the site includes a section on branding and what EverythingCU can offer as a marketing firm — brand development, branding workshops, and Web site design are among its specialties.

Meetings of the Mind

Partee said EverythingCU’s break-out product, however, has proven to be its interactive Webinars, or online seminars that facilitate discussion among professionals in credit unions across the nation. The interface was developed in-house and allows members to glean information from a wide variety of guest ‘speakers,’ as well as virtually raise their hands to ask a question on topics such as developing better relationships with select employer groups or determining a marketing budget.

“We’ve tried to make the Webinars as ‘live’ and in-person as possible,” said Partee, “and we’ve realized how cool the credit union discussions can be. The Webinars allow people to share ideas, documents, and what has worked and not worked for them. They create a private place for public institutions.”

The importance of that private place goes back to the trend among credit unions, especially of late, to become isolated as they strive to protect confidential information from their competitors, while at the same time learn new practices in an increasingly competitive climate.

“Essentially, many credit unions are operating in secrecy,” said Partee. “It’s a big problem facing the industry; while they need to find examples of practices that are successful, they need to protect their own ideas and protect themselves from an onslaught of vendors. And as non-profits, their budgets must be closely monitored constantly.”

Regardless of the venue, areas in which credit union professionals can have meaningful discussions that sometimes include proprietary information is a key tenet at EverythingCU. The team, which currently includes six employees, also travels frequently to discuss branding and other marketing initiatives, and in 2005 held its first credit union branding conference with a twist — the Triple B, or Branding, Bonding, and Brew — in Portland, Ore. The following year, a similar conference was held in Baltimore, and Partee said he’s currently planning a third event for 2008, which could be located in the central part of the country, in order to cover all territories.

Gnome-man’s Land

It’s an extremely diverse business model, but one that has created a niche for credit unions that previously did not exist.

“We’ve brought credit unions to the forefront of ‘World 2.0,’ and we’re thrilled with it,” said Partee. “I think we have the best people involved, and we’re working for a mission we can believe in.”

And with a little irreverence for good measure, the company continues to grow its member base and develop new programs and products. At the start of the year, EverythingCU unveiled its latest draw, Stampede! The World’s First Branding Game, starring Tumbleweed the Branding Gnome.

“It’s our way of being authentic, and showing people that we’re real,” said Partee. “It’s what makes us great; it’s what makes us human.”

Jaclyn Stevenson can be reached at[email protected]