The Story

I came across a quote recently that made me think. Ken Simms, Avidia Bank’s senior vice president of marketing, was quoted in the Worcester Business Journal in reference to his bank’s recent name change following a merger. He said:
“You don’t want a long, involved name, or a name that doesn’t readily come to […]

brass is the magazine about young adults and money. Fresher than Forbes or Fortune, this publication targets Gen-Y with articles, interviews, and statistics that are relevant for them. Not only is the content original – so is the marketing. At brass, they know that the under-30 crowd doesn’t respond well to flat […]

As business people, we talk a lot about “managing expectations.” That’s a fancy way to say, often, “let’s set the bar low enough to make sure we jump over it.” You know what I mean…gotta make sure you don’t over-promise and then under-deliver.
But there’s a whole different side of expectation management, I’ve come […]

Hotels get it…and slowly, banks and credit unions seem to also.
At last week’s MAC Conference, we were lucky to be in a pretty nice, swanky hotel - one that understands the impact of multi-sensory marketing.
When you walk into the lobby of the Newport Beach Marriott, you instantly notice a distinct aroma - a calming, mellow […]

I’m pleased to introduce a new mini-series within The Story, called “Amusing Yet Disturbing.” In this series, I’ll share with you some of the “amusing, yet disturbing” questions, discussions and comments I come across from bank and credit union marketing folks. Why are these items both amusing and disturbing? Because they often show […]

I’m here at MAC with Jeff, promoting experiential brand building and multi-sensory marketing to some pretty cool credit union folks. This is my first trip to MAC, so I’m not sure if it’s the audience or us, but they really seem engaged by what we’re talking about.
Hearing about multi-sensory marketing, they ask, what does […]

If you’ve talked with me for more than about 10 minutes, you’ve discovered I like analogies and metaphors. A speaker here at MAC 2008 today used a metaphor as she talked to credit union marketing people about member satisfaction surveys. She was talking about how little those membership surveys actually mean. To […]

It only took about 10 minutes to get our wrists slapped at MAC this morning. After all, we did kinda hijack the event, taking a lot of the attention…even if just for a few minutes. Oh wait, that was the point. Mission accomplished.
So what was it that garnered so much attention? I […]

The booth is set up. Anticipation is high. And CBC is about to drop some experiential guerrilla marketing on these credit union marketers here at the 2008 Marketing Association of Credit Unions (MAC) conference.
That’s right–it’s go time.
Throughout the day I’ll be live-blogging to give you a taste of what’s up here […]

Good news–after a bit of drama, I’m happy to follow up to my previous post, It’s Hard To Eat Your Own Dogfood, and report that we did the right thing. We’ve separated from a client who was not a good fit. Does it hurt revenue? Yes. Is it frustrating as hell? […]