By John Mathes

Posted by Jeffry Pilcher, guest blogger

Here are nine questions you should ask to test and see if branding is part of your credit union's DNA.

1. Can I articulate our brand’s essence in three words or less? Can our brand be distilled down to a short, distinct statement?
2. Have we captured the core tenets of our brand in one simple document and presented it to everyone in our organization?

Posted by Jeffry Pilcher, guest blogger

When trying to build a credit union brand, there are only two types of messages that matter: antes and drivers.

By Wendy Cleveland, CME

No, this isn't a bad joke. And in most cases, the only similarity you might consider between hernia surgery and filing an auto insurance claim is that both can be rather painful.

By Jim Devine

More than 2,000 credit unions now offer member business loans for a total dollar volume of more than $20 billion. Most of these CUs initiated their MBL activities during the last five years.

Posted by Christopher Stevenson

A couple weeks ago, I wrote about Zoomii, a new way to browse Amazon.com, and dreamed a bit about online banking with a Zoomii-ish platform. Today I saw a demonstration of PNC Bank's Virtual Wallet, which seems to be moving in the direction of more intuitive, easier-to-use online banking. 

Posted by Lisa Hochgraf

Mary Arnold and I have noticed a trend. Last week, we got several press releases from credit unions promoting their safety and soundness. And we saw a blog post that did the same. It seems credit unions are seizing the day to talk about their financial and structural (cooperative) strengths.

Posted by Christopher Stevenson

One of the principles of good blogging is to respond to people who comment on your posts. I haven't done that. I've been negligent and I'm sorry.

Starting today, I am going to try to respond to every comment made on my posts. I will do my best to fulfill this promise.

Go ahead and test me. Leave a comment. I'll respond.

Posted by Christopher Stevenson

Sporting events are great with kids. I've taken my kids to football, basketball, soccer, and hockey games, but I've resisted taking my kids to a baseball game for years. The thought of trying to occupy three kids under ten years of age for nine innings of ball was too much. This week, though, the Madison Mallards showed what can be done.

Posted by Lisa Hochgraf