For the Long Run: Leveraging Reflexive Opportunities

Your credit union can build life-long member loyalty by creating opportunities for members to reflect on their relationship with the credit union. These “reflexive opportunities” tap into members’ self-identity, enhance defining moments, and support life-changing events that bind members more closely to your credit union brand.

Melissa Archpru Akaka

Associate Professor of Marketing, Daniels College of Business

University of Denver

Hope Schau

Eller Professor of Marketing at the Eller College of Management

University of Arizona

Report Number 497

From the Center for

Consumer Decision Making

Executive Summary

When Filene fellow Hope Schau was nearly twenty years old, several employees of her family’s credit union arrived at her home bearing casseroles and sat with Hope’s mom to help her complete the paperwork required when someone dies. This moment of empathy from credit union folks impressed Hope so much that she recounts this story often, and it has become a key moment of reflexivity that connected her identity and life journey to her credit union. This moment shaped her work as a leading scholar of marketing for credit unions.

In an effort to maintain engagement with customers, firms are paying closer attention to consumption journeys and how brands contribute not only to what people do, but also to who they are. The extent to which a consumer’s identity and sense of self in the world can come to overlap with a brand increases perceived value and connection with that brand.