After 23 years with one company, spreading the word about the credit union option is one game Glenn Barks refuses to lose.

In the world of banks and credit unions, one thing not lacking is competition. As companies vie for a larger piece of marketshare, consumer choices can be overwhelming and seemingly impossible to separate. But in several counties in Missouri and Illinois, First Community Credit Union’s president Glenn Barks is winning the fight to prove that in the St. Louis area, there is one financial institution putting community first.

Glenn Barks, President

“We’ve done some branch expansion over the last six or seven years, bringing us to almost 30 branches. You have to be convenient, or no one is going to come to you,” Barks said, adding that the company has also emphasized expansion of its online service. “We also believe the Internet is going to be a major part of the future of this industry, so we spent money on Internet banking, and we give it away free to our members. It was a high-tech investment that has paid off.”

Beyond opening new branches or bringing new services online, First Community established some highly lucrative vendor relationships. It has an office in United Van Lines’ headquarters and a similar partnership with Pfizer. But the coup d’gras came when First Community established a partnership with Wal-Mart that will put branches in 12 Wal-Mart stores by the end of 2009.

“Wal-Mart called us to gauge our interest in getting into a new location they had built in Maplewood, an area where we had no branch, and as soon as we got in, the business just soared,” said Barks, noting that the company is currently located in six Wal-Mart stores. “About 1,000 people go into a Wal-Mart every day, and I’ll take that kind of traffic any day.”

Bulking up
The company is keenly aware of the importance of marketing and brand recognition. It has a new 78,000-square-foot company headquarters on highway 40 in a high-traffic location. This investment not only helps to build the company’s image, it also serves a more practical purpose.

“We were growing so fast at our old location, and our phone center was in another building, making communication difficult,” Barks said. “Now we’re all in one place with plenty of room to grow.”

First Community also ramped up its advertising activities, reaching out not only through TV, radio, and newspaper ads, but also in the yearbooks of the St. Louis pro-sports teams like the Cardinals and the Rams. But brand exposure can only go so far if a company’s reputation does not live up to the image it markets. With this key concept in mind, Barks and his team have put a great deal of resources into getting involved in community and charitable affairs.

“We are getting more involved with schools. We recently had more than 300 students from a local elementary school come in, and we let them visit all of the departments,” Barks said. “We want kids to get the idea that you need to start saving now to help this generation figure out how to save money because we’re not doing a good job of it as a nation right now.”

The credit union created a Rising S.T.A.R.S club for kids, rewarding youngsters in the club with $1 for every A they earn. Fist Community sends managers out to speak at area schools, with Louie the Loan Star mascot in tow. And although it doesn’t yet have the resources to throw money at charities like larger banks might, First Community actively promotes giving through its internal culture.

“We have dress-down days, where our staff can dress down and give money to a charity, and the company matches employee contributions,” said Barks. “We do that whenever we can, and it is a critical component of our marketing strategy.”

Reading the game
First Community is fortunate to have an experienced board of directors who are aggressive in pursuit of growth, but not at the expense of stability. It invests plenty of time and effort into educating and training its staff, favoring retention over recruitment. And although the Midwest is somewhat insulated from the housing crisis, that doesn’t mean the company is about to take unwarranted risks.

“We do no sub-prime lending, and most of our portfolio is still auto loans. It makes it difficult to grow because car loans turn over every 22 months, so we’ve gotten into the mortgage business,” Barks said. “We’ve also recently gotten into business banking, but we only make sound loans—we stay true to our cause of showing the public what credit unions are all about.”

One challenge First Community will have to face are changes in state regulations passed by the Missouri legislature under pressure from the big banks. No longer can credit unions move easily into additional counties by seeking permission from the state commissioner. Now the company is limited to growing within the counties it already serves. But Barks is not as concerned as one might think.

“I’m not as upset as other credit union leaders. There’s great potential where we are in St. Louis alone,” said Barks. “If you really want to be an impact player, you’d better have at least one branch every 30 miles, so we have a lot of room to grow in the counties we’re in.”

With more than 150,000 members and growing, First Community is pushing its message about the credit union option onto the collective consciousness of the St. Louis area. The company is striving to prove it is not only equal to the big banks when it comes to savings and loans, but can offer more than those banks by using earnings to bring better services and rates to its members. That’s what putting community first is all about.