The Mutuals Matter content that's been created has been an incredible supplement to help educate our employees about what a mutual bank is, giving them tools to be able to talk about it more easily to customers.
From the American Bankers Association, this is the ABA Banking Journal podcast. Welcome back. I'm Evan Sparks. Today's episode is presented by TransUnion. We're here today to talk about mutual banks. And one of the challenges that many of our mutual banks face today, and that's helping people to understand what the very concept of mutuality is. It's right there in the name. It's one of the, presumably one of the biggest selling points for a mutual bank.
And yet, A lot of the general public doesn't really understand what's going on with this. So, we did I'm hearkening back to some survey research we did here at ABA. We could, the ABA Banking Journal asked for, helped, field some survey questions through Morning Consult. And what we did was we asked, how familiar are you with mutual banks? And this was back in 2019, 2020 timeframe. So it's been, the, the data is a little old, but it's, but I suspect it's probably somewhere in the same area.
And we had about 5 percent say they were very familiar. 18 percent say they were, they were somewhat familiar with mutual banks and then a 36 percent not too familiar, 41 percent not familiar at all. So to, to add that up, we've got 23%, just less than a quarter of the country is very, or somewhat familiar with what the concept of mutual banks is.
And as a result, we have about the same proportion, a little under a quarter saying they were, you know, somewhat or very likely to bank with a mutual. And a big chunk, nearly 60%, saying they didn't know they were unsure. So we then asked some questions. What, knowing more about what makes mutuals different, how do you view mutual banks? And the answer, you know, giving a few, giving some details about what the structure of a mutual is like and what makes a mutual unique.
And we saw those numbers go up from, you know, 23% to 52 percent of people feeling like they would be more likely to bank with a mutual once they learned a little bit about it. So there's, so there's clearly some big opportunity for mutual or for America's mutual community banks in helping to get the word out about that. And to talk about that today, I'm delighted to bring on two friends from the banking industry.
We have Gregg Tewksbury, who is president and CEO of New Hampshire Mutual Bank Corp up in New Hampshire. We have Lori Dufficy of Chelsea Groton Bank in Connecticut. And so we're delighted to welcome both of you to to discuss what's some, an exciting new initiative in the mutual banking world. Thanks for being here.
Thank you for having us, Evan.
All right. So I'd love it, just for the benefit of our listeners, before we dive in to learn a little bit more about branding mutuality, Gregg, if you could, Gregg and Laurie, if you could just introduce yourselves and your banks a little bit Laurie, I'll start with you.
Sure, I am the Chief Experience Engagement Officer at Chelsea Groton Bank. We are a 170 year young mutual bank based out of Southeastern Connecticut. And my role encompasses marketing facilities, purchasing, wealth management, cash management, retail banking, and learning and development. So we're a smaller institution. We're about 1. 7 billion in assets. So many of us here at the bank, we're a lot of hats.
Great. Evan I'm Gregg Tewksbury with New Hampshire mutual bank, or we're headquartered in the center of New Hampshire. We have three mutual banks under our umbrella throughout our state, as well as a chartered trust company. We're about 3. 7 billion in assets and about a billion and a half of assets under management with our trust operation.
So we're, we're, we're in this environment where, as I talked about, we have this kind of lack of customer awareness about what exactly a mutual is. I think, and, you know, there, it It kind of sounds nice. It's part of not just banking, banking not just banking, bank names, but insurance companies and other companies that have used this in their name to identify the kind of business that they are or perhaps used to be.
And, and, but what what, what in your experience sets mutual, sets mutual banks apart as institutions, as tight as a type of bank and, and what do you, what have your customers understood the value of banking with mutual to be?
I'm happy to take a shot at that, Lori. And in our neck of the woods, mutual banks, it's really the horizon, the time horizon for decision making. In that we think about things in such long term perspectives as our governance and ownership structure is such that we think about perpetuity and and keeping our banks for the benefit of the communities and customers we serve for ever. And as such.
Decisions that we make take on such a long long term horizon that differentiates us from banks that oftentimes are pressured for shorter decision making based on ownership needs and interests.
Yeah, and I'll just fill in there a little bit. When we make our decisions here at Chelsea we, we really think about who's in the room with us, who it's going to impact, and it's really that three legged stool, our customer, Our team and our community members. There is no shareholder members in that decision making. So we're not influenced differently because of having also to provide shareholder value.
And I think that makes our model very different because everything we do is very impactful for those three stakeholders. Stakeholders, those groups.
Yeah. You know, we, so I talked a little bit about the lack of consumer awareness. What, what have, what did you, what did y'all decide, do to kind of help identify We go to help say, Hey, we people don't fully understand what this is. This is unique to this is unique within the banking system. How can we how can we help people better understand it? What was your, what was your reaction to that?
We've all known right along, you know, there's a reason why we're doing this is because of the lack of awareness about what mutual banks are and whether it's with our existing customers. Potential employees, community members, even our regulators and trying to explain to them, but no, we're a mutual bank. And then going down the path of explaining what a mutual bank is and why we exist. There's so, there's aha moments.
People are like, Oh my gosh, I had no idea I would have made it a different decision or I would have, you know, contacted you sooner. We have customers that will say, and that's why I bank with you. So I think we've all been fighting really this, um, identity crisis or opportunity where we all need to be on the same page and speaking about the same value to our community members because we feel it's a big difference. And when you experience it, people experience that difference.
You just can't say it. You have to experience it.
Yeah, to add on to that when we get together as mutual bankers, we can finish each other's sentences in terms of what we do and why we do it. And that passion that, that we have to really take care of our stakeholders, as Lori noted, Our communities and our customers that we serve is why we come to work every day, not, not just because of the people we are, that's in our charters. That's what our corporators, those in our governance models expect us to do.
And when we share that with customers or potential customers, yeah, there is this aha moment that says, I didn't know that. And, and explains a little bit in terms of the type of service or experience I've had, or now that I know that maybe that will prompt me from thinking about a different banking relationship when the time comes to, to change. So we're very aware that there's a lack of understanding out there because when we're, when we talk about it on a grassroots efforts, one on one.
It's amazing time and time again, people that you think would know the difference between different banking structures are, are surprised to learn about the uniqueness of the mutual banks. So, what we've all done, I believe, you know, over our hundred plus years of, of history individual banks have gone and, and tried to market this thing. Differentiation of what a mutual bank is. And we fail.
The numbers that you just shared with you with the survey by American bankers and mutual consult proved that we have been ineffective in educating the communities on a bank by bank basis about what mutual banks are.
So what we decided to do is perhaps come together as a subset of the banking industry and have the mutuals come together full resources and see if there's an opportunity to educate the communities about mutuality and mutual banking versus, you know, one of our banks or Lori's banks in particular.
Yeah. And what we have found have been in even in our community, we have, I think, nine or ten mutual banks in the state of Connecticut. We don't really compete with each other because when you look at one mutual versus the other and their mission and their vision and their goals for their community is where we're so similar. If someone is walking to a branch door and they say, "gee, I'm leaving this mutual bank for your mutual bank or this bank for yours. And we know we're both mutual."
We know that something is behind that decision. And it is most likely that the, their other bank may have said no to them, or maybe they were mishandling their accounts, you know, not managing them in a satisfactory manner. Very seldom do we see that happen. Because we, we compete on value. We don't really compete on rates. Our rates are very similar. Our products and services are very similar. Our delivery mechanisms are similar.
We all have the brick and mortar branches still in our communities. We're not pulling out of our communities. So we kind of chuckle, you know, internally and say, " if they're leaving that mutual bank for another mutual bank, something else is going on in their, in their banking world, right?"
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Visit transunion. com slash extra credit or search extra credit a card and banking podcast by transunion on your favorite podcast app So you've got this this opportunity to, to educate people collectively as a mutual sector. And and that brings us to the Mutuals Matter campaign, which we've talked about in ABA daily Newsbytes. So our listeners hopefully are familiar with it and and, and the campaign they all have developed.
Can you walk me through what went into this campaign and what are the key messages you're trying to get across through it?
I'll let Gregg take the lead on that.
Sure. We brought together four founding banks to pull some resources, hired an ad agency to do some research about what a target audience would look like for a message from mutual banks. And, and through that research targeted a younger generation, which is very different than what a lot of mutual banks typically would advertise to.
And. Looked at the creative, worked with the ad agency to come up with the creative and invested in a lot of collateral that presents a message about what mutual banks are and who we are. And it really comes down to ownership. And, and as mission based organizations that exist, you know, for, you know, they're the customers that they serve and only for the customers and communities where they live. And that message. That was created resonates well with audiences and we've tested that.
So what we've done is we've taken these pieces of collateral, put them on an online website and, and have been. Through whether it's ABA Newsbytes or other mechanisms invited other banks to come in and take a look at is this, are these messages something that they feel like they would want to join together as an industry, a mutual banking industry, and, and, and get to the community as an educational campaign.
And so far we're off and running, and we've got some really good interest in, in banks coming together to have a common message. You know, we, we, we're calling it a little bit of our, our Got Milk moment. If you remember the dairy farmers coming together instead of advertising their, their own brand, they were advertising milk, you know, as a competitive alternative to the soft drink industry at the time. And that's what we have. We've got a different way of thinking about.
The ownership of banking and feel that if the communities understood what our ownership structure is, it may be a differentiator for them in choosing a bank that's mission based and having them understand that through this Mutuals Matter campaign, we think could be a competitive advantage.
Yeah. Can you talk a little bit about some of the collateral that you've built out to to help convey that message?
So you know, this is just the beginning of the campaign assets as we have more mutual banks join us. Obviously we'll be able to build out more and continue this because this is not a one and done activity. This is something that will continue to build on.
So we, you know, we have digital ads, we have print ads, we have billboard, we have radio we have some b roll and you know, we're using those assets and the participating mutual banks can use them and co brand them, which is something that we highly recommend that they co brand these ads so that people start to recognize the messaging. And the Mutuals Matter logo in conjunction with our own financial institution advertising and logos.
Some of our financial institutions, some of our members are already using the campaign assets for recruiting purposes. I think Gregg had shared at the ABA conference. That his financial institutions were using it at college fairs. Well, the rest of us in the room quickly wrote that down and said, Oh, my goodness, that is exactly how we should be using these. So but I just want to add.
Not only are our members getting these assets, they're getting the advice from our marketing subcommittee on how to use these assets because we have mutual banks around the country, Evan, as you know, that are very, very small. They don't have marketing departments, you know, you might have someone running their retail branches and also doing their marketing. And so what, you know, members are getting more than the assets.
That's they're getting the advice and the support and the best practices that we're all doing along with them. So there's a lot of value added here.
So and then you talked Lori about the importance of using this as a recruiting tool to make sure, you know, potential employees, you know, I think, how are you using this to help your current employees better understand and convey to their, to their partners and clients and stakeholders the value of mutuality.
So I've been on a little road show throughout the bank talking to our retail branch employees and then through our intranet you know, really kind of discussing our campaign and why we're doing this. We're also going to be doing an internal lunch and learn. So people can sign sign in and they'll be hearing from myself and Barb Curto. Barb Curto was our marketing manager and she volunteers. We're all volunteers from Mutuals Matter, but she is on the marketing subcommittee.
And we're going to be talking about why we're doing this. Why are we spending our resources and our time and the importance of doing this? So we really are focusing kind of inside out.
Likewise at our banks, Evan, we have. We have an intranet and we've got an entire section of our intranet denoted devoted to mutuality and Mutuals Matter. The content that's been created has been an incredible supplement to help educate our employees about what a mutual bank is, giving them tools to be able to talk about it more easily to customers.
It's a complex Governance structure to be able to synthesize it down to give you talking points has been really important and Mutuals Matter is put a really a spotlight on Who we are as an organization and internally created such buzz about the not only the company that they work for but the this sub industry within financial institution markets I just met with a younger employee who's been at the bank for about four years did not come to our bank because it was
a mutual, didn't know what a mutual was at the time, but has really been has leaned into the aspect of mutuality. Mutuals Matter came out. He was just in my office and how can I put a team together in our organization to not only help educate all of our staff a little bit more about what mutual banking is, but how can we help our marketing departments elevate this message and get Mutuals Matter out to the general public.
So it's created really a buzz within our organization that I think is going to be very helpful in both understanding more about mutuality, but also the aspect of marketing it.
And the campaign, you know, the messaging, Evan, does it matter who you bank with? Well, you know, that translates to our internal team members. Does it matter who you work for? And it should matter. You spend so much time at work, and if you really believe in the mission of your organization, it should matter. And so I think what we're doing is we're we're fostering, we're becoming less transactional and more relationship driven as a, as a, an industry. And I think that has a lot of legs.
I think people really do care more today than they ever have. About who their relationships are with.
Well, this is, this is fantastic. Where, you know, I will put a link in the show, in the show notes on the Banking Journal website, but for, for those who are listening, where can they go to learn more about Mutuals Matter?
We've got a website set up at mutualbanksmatter. com. Consumers and bankers can find more about what mutual matter is, but more importantly learn more about what mutual banking is all about.
Great. Well Gregg and Lori, thank you so much. You know, as we were here at the get coming into the holiday season and which is always a reminder of the America's favorite mutual community banker, George Bailey. And and it's a wonderful wife. And so we've got a new campaign here to reeducate a, a new gen, new generations of Americans about the value of the mutual banking franchise. So thank you so much for being on here.
And for our listeners, you can find this in previous episodes at aba.com/banking journal podcast. If you go to that website, we'll have a link to the mutualbanksmatter. com web page where you can find out more about the campaign. And if you are a mutual bank, learn about what you can do to, to join and get access to some of the resources and educate your own your own clients, communities, and employees. So thanks for you. Thank you both, both for joining us.
Thanks for having us.
Thank you for having us.
And thanks to you for listening. Thanks again to TransUnion for sponsoring this episode. We'll be back with you again very soon.