People would rather join a cause than a club

8 AHA! Moments from Austin | #CUatMAC

Those AHA! moments — quotable lines by interesting and unique speakers — that make a conference worth attending. Add in smiling, friendly marketers, vendors that actually get along, and a city that is known for its live music, a social conscience and being a bit weird, and you might just have the perfect combination for a credit union marketing conference.…

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Every credit union has a unique local flavor

Can you taste the local difference?

Last week, I noticed a cool new package in the freezer at the grocery store. No-nonsense, retro-yet-high-tech, and irresistible next to the generic plastic bags. Priced only a little bit higher than the generic sweet corn from who-knows-where. What it contained was sweet corn. Indiana bicolor sweet corn. I visited the company’s web site (huskfoods.com),…

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It's creative, kitschy, classy, unorthodox, and I loved every grass-roots moment of it.

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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what my generation wants and needs from credit unions, and the world in general.

Five things credit unions need to know about my generation

  As a college student, apparently I am a demographic that lots of credit union marketers are eager to reach. So I have been asked to write about what my generation wants and needs from credit unions, and the world in general. Okay. You asked for it: 1. We want to be treated like adults.…

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To succeed, you have to amplify the differences.

Five ways to be more differenter

Remember those Kraft Macaroni and Cheese commercials a while back, where kids exclaimed “It’s more cheesier”? I cringed every time I heard this phrase, and so did thousands of other writers and English majors. Painful grammar aside, the Kraft marketers have a point. To succeed, you have to amplify the differences. Crank up the cheese…

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Sure, it's a self-centered attitude. It also offers a few insights.

WIIFM (What’s in it for me)?

With all of the marketing messages being broadcast every day, people have been trained to ignore anything that does not benefit them. In fact, What’s in it for me? is a phrase that has gotten so popular that it has it’s own acronym. If you don’t have something that interests me, I’m gone. So get…

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