Posts by Kent Dicken
Is your brand in the cart, or still sitting on the shelf?
You’ve seen products on store shelves that look like they have for the last 20, 30, even 50 years. They’re dusty, and a bit worn around the edges or label because they keep getting shoved around the shelves instead of taken home. Unfortunately, your credit union’s brand may be looking a lot like that dusty, battered…
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Creativity: only the story we want to hear?
I’ve always been high on creativity. My whole life has focused on the well-designed, the interesting, the entertaining, the cleverly crafted. I read a lot of books by others in the creativity field, from small nuggets of marketing insights to essays to way-too-many-page tomes on the subject. I enjoy watching TED talks to see how…
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If you work in advertising, are you “being paid to lie”?
I believe in honesty. Not just in my personal life, but in business too. Of course that might be difficult to believe since I work in advertising/marketing. After all, it’s a business I’ve heard described as “being paid to lie.” And trust me, we’ve had clients who’ve wanted us to do just that. Mostly though,…
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What if your credit union isn’t the best financial option?
I know that CUs are great, and for most people they offer a much better deal on almost anything financial-oriented. But for most credit unions, you simply can’t offer everything to everyone and do it all well. You may be able to go after more business accounts now, but you may not have a very…
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Dream big for your next community event
ArtPrize is a chaotic, jumbled mess of classic and pop, amateur and professional art surrounded by mobs of people and spread out over (mostly) downtown Grand Rapids, Michigan. It’s creative, kitschy, classy, unorthodox, and I loved every grass-roots moment of it. For 19 days every year, Grand Rapids turns their downtown into an oversized art…
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Are you telling stories or storytelling?
My brother-in-law tended to exaggerate things a bit when he was a kid. From what I hear, there was always some truth behind his tales, but it was the embellishments that made everyone grin and shake their head. His family knew he wasn’t lying, he was “telling stories” – which, of course, isn’t the same thing…
Read MoreIf I weren’t in Marketing, I’d probably be…
I never thought I’d be creating marketing for credit unions when I was growing up. I had no idea what advertising was, or a logo, or that people got paid for designing the cereal boxes I looked at every morning. Heck, I didn’t even know what a graphic designer was when I went to college.…
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Incredibly bad marketing advice
We’ve always tried to give you good marketing advice in order to help you grow your credit union. But where’s the fun in that? Besides, it’s late, and I want to go home, so here is some incredibly bad marketing advice instead. Enjoy. 1) Your logo isn’t sacred. Tweak it as much as you want.…
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The epic battle between Marketing and Accounting
Some things just don’t mix: Light and dark. Fire and Ice. Marketing and Accounting. But why has there always been this constant struggle between the two sides? Why does Marketing see Accounting as a miser with an iron grip on the budget, while Accounting sees Marketing as a wasteful spendthrift with no sense of ROI?…
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You assume too much
You have a wonderful product that is going to revolutionize the way things are done. It’s fun to use, easy to use, and doesn’t cost a lot. You’ve been talking about it with all of your friends, and they’re super-excited about it. So you refine the product, put as many resources as you can behind…
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