Credit Union Branding
Taglines are like short stories that no one understands.
Taglines may be the most difficult part of branding. And provide the least value. Why? Because a tagline has to convey as much meaning as possible in as few words as possible. Brevity usually trumps content, turning what was once a meaningful thought into corporate jargon. Don’t believe me? Take a look at The Financial Brand’s…
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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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Mission Statements are boring. What’s your Manifesto?
When we start on a branding project, one of the first things we usually see is the credit union’s “Mission Statement”. About 99.999% of the time, a committee has very carefully stripped it of any concrete meaning or use and it says the exact same things as every other mission statement. What I’m more interested…
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Being “in the know” makes you feel special
During Prohibition, speakeasies were supposed to be secret. You had to be “in the know” or know someone, in order to get in the door. Today, prohibition may be long gone, but speakeasies aren’t. There’s a speakeasy in East Village New York that’s hidden behind a phone booth in a hot dog joint. You heard…
Read MoreIt’s not just a Name Change, it’s a Game Changer.
Download our free white paper, and you’ll learn how to survive and thrive when pushing the rebranding button: • Why your staff, members and Board need to be part of the process • How to work with outside experts to get the quality brand you deserve • Why you need to build a Brand Strategy…
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Do a few things really, really well
It was a perfect St. Pete Beach day. Blue skies, white fluffy clouds that matched the sand, small crowds since it was also a Monday, and enough of a breeze that you didn’t feel the sunburn building. A great day and a great way to wrap up a vacation. Our nephew, a local resident, finished…
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Would you work at your job for free?
This very question was posed to a large group of Southwest Airlines employees who responded by giving their boss a standing ovation. That shows their dedication. Their belief in their boss. Their love of the company. What if you posed the exact same question to the employees at your CU? Over several anonymous surveys (CUCheck)…
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How deluded management almost diluted a brand
Anyone that has gone on the Kentucky Bourbon Trail (yes, it does exist), has probably visited more than one of the participating distilleries. My wife and her sister have used the trail as an excuse for a weekend getaway more than once, and one of their favorite stops was at Maker’s Mark. Why? Because Maker’s…
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Your brand is a collection of stories told by others about you
There are two basic branding lessons that every credit union needs to learn: It doesn’t matter what you say your brand is. It matters what everyone else says it is. You can talk about how wonderful, caring and helpful you are to your members, but no one will believe it until they hear about it…
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Credit unions: not for everybody
Credit unions aren’t for everyone. There, I said it. And it’s true. The latest numbers bear this out – according to Callahan, credit unions hold 6.6% of assets and 8.7% of deposits nationally. That’s a niche group if I ever saw one. Logically, a whole lot of people – the majority of consumers, really – could benefit…
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