Last weekend I was buying several bits and pieces of plumbing at Home Depot. And then I saw something unexpected, simple, and sort of brilliant.

It was a simple question on the keypad: “Would you like to have your receipt emailed to you?”

Read more on Would you like a receipt with that?…

I recently met up with a friend who works at a local credit union to get his take on all the changes that CUs have experienced over the last few years. He listened to what I had to say, agreed with some of my observations, and challenged my thinking on others. It was a fun evening and I enjoyed hearing things from his viewpoint and picking his brain. Hopefully someday I can return the favor, because I definitely got the better end of deal, and walked away with more than I gave.

Read more on On ditching RFPs, picking brains, and drawing lines….

You’ve probably heard of Abercrombie and Fitch. They sell regular clothes – shirts, jeans, shorts, hoodies, underwear – at very, very upscale prices. Despite the crazy prices, people (read: parents) pay them because their teenagers want “the look” A&F is selling.

Read more on It’s 11:00. Do you know where your brand is?…

Are you really good at something you’d rather not even do in the first place? Maybe you’re a champion dish washer, or a nimble-fingered diaper-changing ninja.

I have the same problem with domain names. I’ve been building credit union web sites for a long time, and over the years I’ve developed a lot of unwanted expertise in the area of untangling domain name and DNS messes. It’s never a pleasant process — the rules are insanely bizarre and the stakes are high.

Read more on Divert domain disasters…

I could never lie as a kid. At least not successfully. I was so bad at it, all you had to do was take one look at my face and you’d know. Every time I tried to cover something up, all I managed to do was get deeper in trouble.

Read more on I could never lie as a kid…

At iDiz, we’re all about, well, ideas. So it should be no surprise that we are also interested in finding out where great ideas come from. Interestingly, it seems everyone has their own idea how ideas happen.

Read more on How ideas happen: eureka! or slow hunch?…

Are you investing in high quality marketing or just throwing money away? With creative work (concepts, copy, and design) it’s sometimes hard to tell the difference until you count the results. But creative quality is vitally important — excellent creative multiplies results, while poor quality creative can waste money and seriously damage your brand.

Read more on Are you investing in high quality marketing or just throwing money away?…

In a brilliant move, Snickers and AMV BBDO decided to put a twist on its “You’re Not You When You’re Hungry” campaign to reach the office crowd. With Google’s help, they identified the top 500 search terms and used an algorithm to develop 25,000 misspellings of those words.* By buying ads on Google that appear when people mistype their searches, a viewer would see their misspelled word next to the web address youcantspellwhenyourehungry.com. In less than 2 days, they reached their target of a half million people. Genius.

Read more on YouCantMarketWhenYoureBored…

The world needs heroes. Your Credit Union needs heroes. We all need someone to solve problems and make the world a better place. The question is, what kind of hero?

According to author Cassidy S. Dale*, heroes can be either Knights or Gardeners. It depends upon their worldview; the lens with which they see problems and conflicts.

Read more on Why Knights fight the alligators while Gardeners drain the swamp…

Over the last week or so, you might have seen a few rumors, articles and alerts about DDoS attacks on credit union web sites (for more information, see here and here). We’ve had some questions from our clients, and we thought the answers would be of interest to many SharediDiz readers.

Read more on DDoS and web site security: what CU marketers need to know…

I just got a new puppy. Brenda is 8 weeks old. She’s a purebred yellow Lab and she’s a service-dog-in-training. She’s the 10th puppy I’ve raised for Canine Companions for Independence.

Read more on Your marketing needs a puppy…

cuSoup has a special Summer Kickstart Offer that you’re not going to want to miss!

Get started immediately on any of our cuSoup Starters – you don’t have to wait for other CUs to join in! And best of all? If someone signs up after you’ve started, we’ll give you $500 off your next cuSoup campaign.

Read more on Kickstart your summer marketing plans!…

Self Help FCU should be applauded. They seem to embody the true spirit of what it means to be a credit union. They’ve made it their mission:

To create and protect ownership and economic opportunity for all, especially people of color, women, rural residents, and low-wealth families and communities.

Self Help FCU, a community development CU, has stepped in to help many of those people traditional CUs turn their backs on. While most of us think of our checking/savings accounts as tools that help us live our lives, many people see them as not only unnecessary, but as untrustworthy. In fact, according to this article on nbcnews.com, about 8% of US households don’t have a checking or savings account. And not surprisingly, that number rises to about 20% for minorities.

Read more on Kudos to Self Help FCU…

It doesn’t seem to matter what the topic, people sure are quick to give you their opinion. Often at top volume.

I can’t look at Facebook without seeing friends rant and rave about something – gun control, the economy, gay marriage, Congress, the President, you name it.

Read more on Heated discussions? All that energy has to go somewhere….

Our weekly polls continue to enlighten us. About 6 months ago, I wrote an article about the interesting things we’d learned about our readers. Mostly it’s fun stuff.

Two weeks ago things were a little different.

Read more on Great customer service? Big deal….