The Story

I recently read an article in Fast Company about a 17-year old CEO who has single-handedly grown an internet company from nothing into a million-dollar business. Ashley Qualls’ company, Whateverlife.com, offers free MySpace page layouts to hundreds of thousands of young girls, and she makes her money through ad revenue. What’s impressive about […]

I know you folks are always looking for new tips on marketing bank products and communicating with customers, so listen up.  It’s hard to believe that there are more effective and personalized ways to communicate beyond e-mail, IM, texting and blogs. But soon everyone will be Twittering.
Here’s how I was informed how a Twitter works […]

Banks and credit unions are good at selling money. But money is the only thing that most banks sell. Why not “sell out”? Why not take a proactive stance and sell like your life depends on it—sell until you’ve got nothing left.
Here’s a bank marketing idea for you - don’t wait for customers to walk […]

I was looking at some photos from a friend’s recent trip to NYC when I came across some pictures he shot at the Fifth Avenue Apple store. As a devotee to modernist architecture I first admired the building from a purely aesthetic point of view. My next thought was wow, that’s cool because it looks […]

One of our recent posts made me think about how even the smallest expectations, if not met, can cost you a lot. What about just the opposite situation – what happens when you go above and beyond meeting your clients’ expectations?
I went to Blue Moose Cafe for lunch the other day and was pleasantly […]

Our final discussion from the recent ABA Bank Marketing Conference is about branding banks across business units and market segments. As Brady mentioned in his post on the Grow Your Bank blog, this question was raised by a bank marketing person who was essentially posed the “should I develop a different bank brand for […]

It was inevitable. During the branding roundtable discussions at the ABA Bank Marketing Conference a couple weeks ago, the topic of “bank branding and ROI” came up. I can’t say I was surprised.
I won’t pretend like I have a magic formula for guaranteeing, for instance, that your bottom line will increase $256,975.34 if […]

When, at the recent ABA Bank Marketing Conference, a participant in the roundtable discussion on bank branding said that she was concerned with “developing a message to appeal more broadly,” it occurred to me what a dangerous desire this really is. As we at CBC see it, developing a broadly appealing message is NOT […]