Executive Summary
This report provides a guide for implementing a new way to engage with and better understand credit union members using Photovoice. Photovoice puts cameras into participants' hands so they may capture aspects of their daily lives and experiences in order to share photos with others. Photovoice provides decision-makers with powerful data about the lives of their members and allows credit unions to identify areas for member and product growth, to tailor marketing campaigns, and to measure community impact. Photovoice may also further inform diversity, equity, and inclusion practices by uplifting voices of historically underserved communities and surfacing insights for how to best serve them.
Hosting a Photovoice project allows credit unions to:
- Elevate their marketing through direct testimonies from their members.
- Identify systemic problems faced by their members and potential members that inform product innovation and opportunities for further product penetration.
- Build community presence to increase brand awareness for membership growth and find strategic philanthropic partnerships.
Credit Union Implications
Photovoice allows credit unions to receive thoughtful, real-time commentary and data from their members. Credit unions can adapt and customize Photovoice to fit their objectives and goals. Specifically, credit unions can use Photovoice to:
- Understand members’ financial needs and preferences to aid product development.
- Identify systemic problems and or barriers their community faces and address these problems and barriers, which can lead to membership growth and greater product reach.
- Elevate their community outreach and member connection with well-crafted marketing language and visuals based on the insights gained from photovoice participants.
- Create and measure impact in historically underserved and underbanked communities.
Download the report to learn more about implementing photovoice at your credit union.
Filene’s Center for Emerging Technology is generously funded by:
