Community bankers and credit unions are currently congratulating themselves about stealing away depositors from wounded megabanks like Citigroup. But with so many depositors ripe for the plucking, some consultants wonder why aren’t we seeing more marketing campaigns aimed to draw those dissatisfied customers in?

Peter Harvey, head of Hingham-based marketing association Intellidyn, said community banks – largely safe and financially healthy, compared to their giant rivals – are mostly sitting on their hands when they should be shouting from the rooftops.

“Bankers are not very good marketers,” he said. “When an opportunity comes like this, where there is this need in the marketplace for people to secure their assets – you’d think you’d see a lot more marketing activity out there.”

A few institutions have jumped into marketing themselves as the stable alternative to beleaguered giant banks. HarborOne Credit Union, for example, recently announced an extension of an advertising campaign that touts the company as community-focused and stable.

The HarborOne campaign originally launched in mid-January, and included newspaper print ads, TV and online ads, including radio spots using a tongue-in-cheek jingle called “My Money Lies Over the Ocean,” that parodies the folk song “My Bonnie Lies Over the Ocean.”

It’s perhaps too early to give definitive evidence that the HarborOne campaign has drawn in more depositors, but spokesman Jim Rice said new checking account openings were up 28 percent during January and February, as compared to the last two months of 2008.

Not So Reticent To Jump Ship?

Rarely, if ever, are depositors willing to switch banks, Harvey said; usually, they’re only willing to do it when they move long distances.

But now, with so many enormous banking institutions in trouble, depositors are ready to make the switch, and Harvey said community banks should be there to nudge them along.

“It is an opportunity that has not been here in 40-plus years, and may not be here for another 40-plus years,” he said.

Susan Nelson, head of marketing for HarborOne and president of the New England Financial Marketers Association, said her organization plans to make the issue part of the agenda for its next convention.

While HarborOne’s $100,000 campaign is going well, she said: “I’m not sure what’s going on with other banks, but it is an opportunity that they could be missing out on.”

North Shore Bank is a few months into its own ad campaign, and marketing senior vice president Christopher Pesce said customer response has been overwhelmingly positive – existing customers like being reassured, and new customers have been coming in the door. North Shore and HarborOne are the only institutions that he knows of with such marketing campaigns, and he doesn’t understand why more haven’t leapt at the opportunity in front of them.

Carol Kaplan of the American Bankers’ Association disagreed with Harvey’s assertion, saying banks around the country have been working to get the word out about their stability.

The ABA has even distributed generic marketing materials that individual banks can plug their name into and distribute; basically, they send the message that “insert bank name here” has been your neighbor for many years and we’ll be here well into the future, she said.

National analyst Mary Beth Sullivan, managing partner with Washington, D.C.-based consultant Capital Performance Group, said the advertisements are out there, with many community banks playing up their safety in a time of turmoil. Much of their activity has been in reassuring current customers, but some are reaching out to non-depositors in the hopes of drawing them in, too.

And of course, now is not a time when bankers – or anybody, really – wants to be spending money.

“Let’s face it, the industry is in cost-containment code, but the messages, I think, are absolutely out there,” she said.