Posts Tagged ‘Membership’
The pain isn’t enough to make the switch
About every week someone calls us “on behalf of AT&T” to try to give us a better deal. We just hang up on them. Why? Because it’s painful. They’re third party resellers, and their “deals” are almost as confusing as the those from AT&T. Why AT&T seems to be actively supporting them, I have no idea. …
Read More
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…
Read More
Would your members pay a premium?
We’ve written before about the idea of charging for CU membership – what you’d have to do to make yourself feel like an exclusive club worth joining, a la Costco and Sam’s Club. We know people will pay club membership fees – AARP, AAA, social clubs, professional associations – as long as they feel they’re…
Read More
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…
Read More
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…
Read More
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 More
80% of your credit union’s members are blood-sucking parasites
Okay, that may be worded just a bit strong, but it’s certainly one way to look at the idea that the vast majority of your profits (80%) come from a minority of your members (20%). Obviously this isn’t a new idea. Most CEOs & CFOs are well aware of the 80/20 Rule, and are among…
Read More
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…
Read More
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…
Read More
Lemming let down
Never tell my mother I said this, but…I was a lucky kid. You see my father was the director of a state agency in South Dakota through the eighties and early nineties. When the State of South Dakota decided to upgrade their technological infrastructure, they allowed employees to purchase PCs on their bulk order. Because…
Read More