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Remember the “plain label” craze from the late ’70s and early ’80s? Everything from cereal to beer (really!) was packaged in plain white containers, labeled in black, and sold at a discount. The products were usually, well, tolerable. Plain label products died out quickly — there’s a limit to how many boxes of funny-tasting cereal kids will tolerate.
From the bizarre goings-on at NCUA to the expensive “consumer protection” legislation coming online, the only thing that’s certain is that things are changing fast for CUs. Sources of fee income are shrinking, expenses are rising, and margins are squeezed tighter than ever. Things are getting Weird with a capital “W”. It’s time to think the unthinkable and mull the outrageous.
Sugar cubes started it all. The product was the same, but the packaging changed to something easier to handle. And it was something that you did not have to be rich to be able to afford. Sugar cubes were the first example of average consumers buying a product based on a desire to show off, to have an early social status symbol, to have something only the elite had previously. That made it an act of social rebellion.
I’ve lost count of all the great credit union product ideas that have been strangled in their cradles because of technical limitations — “uhhhh… our system can’t do that.”
That creates a problem  – if all you have to sell is the same old products as everyone else, they’re commodities, with no differentiating features. Even worse, you’re stuck in a race to the bottom, competing on price alone. You’re letting the competition, inertia, and tradition define what your credit union can and cannot do.
I just read a very powerful book, one that I recommend to any ambitious, sleep deprived, workaholic like me. It’s Chasing Daylight, an autobiography of Gene O’Kelley, CEO of KPMG, who suddenly discovers he has an inoperable brain tumor. The story is about his decision to make the best of his last days. The message is profound:
Has your credit union ever gone through a rebranding? Were you a part of it? How did it go? We hope it was successful.
We’ve written a number of posts about rebranding – both the highs and the lows. Ultimately it makes no difference if you’re a small credit union or a ginormous Fortune 500 company. The rule of thumb is still the same:”A successful rebranding involves overhauling a company’s goals, message, and culture — not just changing a name or a logo,” according to this article entitled Make the Logo Bigger: 10 Rebranding Disasters. And a bit of good news: the size of your budget doesn’t guarantee success.
“Maybe the reason it seems that price is all your customers care about is that you haven’t given them anything else to care about.”
-Seth Godin
I always find it interesting the kinds of answers you get when you ask people what makes a credit union different. It usually comes down to something about having better service and better rates (infer…than banks).
When you think about it, credit unions are one of the rarest types of organizations — outside of being self-sufficient, they have absolutely no purpose other than making things better for the people around them. Whatever you call it — Goodness, Quality, Grooviness, or Positive Mojo — credit unions sure do manufacture a lot of it.
Ever wish you could read SharediDiz just about anywhere, without the pesky computer or tiresome clicking? 
We’ve put a selection of articles from two and a half years of SharediDiz into this handy portable wireless format, featuring recyclable thin-film permanent display technology (ink on paper) with lightning-fast browsing and navigation (flip it open and start reading)!
Nine years ago I answered an ad in the paper with the hopes of moving closer to my family. The ad was for a Marketing Director position at Call Federal Credit Union. I wish I knew then how much my life would change, just how passionate I would feel towards something I knew so little about at the time. It’s funny to think of it now, but I didn’t know what a credit union was then or even have a clue how I might market one, but the decision has been one of the best and luckiest of my life.
We live in a world bursting at the seams with new web sites. Each of these sites offers to transform our lives in unimaginable ways but very few maintain any lasting power after the hype has subsided.
Over the past several years, more and more credit unions have eliminated certain words from their marketing and identity. Words like “member”, “join” and even “credit union” are now taboo in a lot of places, and internet account access is almost always called “home banking.” And when was the last time you heard “share draft”?
“Make bananas cool.”
That was Chiquita’s direction to designer DJ Neff, according to an interview on design:related.com. Sounds like a dream assignment for a designer, right? No limits, no preconceived notions, just make bananas fun.
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.
I’m always a little sad when the holidays are over. There’s just something magical about them. I think it largely has to do with the sheer number of traditions, customs and quirky weirdness. When you stop and think about all the rituals from trees to tacky lights, comfort foods to countdowns, and resolutions to religion, the holidays get packed with an abundance of vested practices.