The Story

You hear a lot of talk in the bank marketing and credit union branding about differentiation. And much of it sounds like this:

“What differentiates us is our _____ (choose one: people, service, community commitment).”

Now, this isn’t inherently a problem. But when that same statement (or a close variation thereof) comes from nearly ever bank or credit union, you get “The Irony of Differentiation.”

In other words: So many banks and credit unions are trying to “differentiate” themselves on the same attributes, that the more successful they are in achieving this differentiation, the more the same they become! And last time I checked, that’s the exact opposite of differentiation.

I consider that ironic, don’t you? Stay tuned for The Irony of Differentiation Part 2: What to do About It.”

This entry was posted on Monday, July 30th, 2007 at 11:31 am and is filed under Bank Branding, Credit Union Branding, Bank Marketing, Credit Union Marketing. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.