Deal or No Deal: Citibank considers flipflop on its “A Deal is a Deal” slogan

@Gen X: Charles Schwab unveils Gen X web site

Loan Sale: Credit union does $149 million in four days

Overhaul: Citi reorganizes it half-billion dollar marketing group

Summer Celebration: TD Canada branches giving lots of cool stuff away

Baby Marketing: CU gives stuffed monkeys to new moms

Brought to You By: American 1 FCU spends $150K a year in event marketing

Blogorama: Beehive CU launches 8 separate community blogs

No Tanks: People are now walking away from SUV loans

I Can’t C.U.: “Thank you for being unable to try Mint”

Triple Shot: Three CUs doing different cool things online

Light it Up: Belgian bank creates light show out of its corporate skyscraper

Fat Pig: Picture of pig with big booty wins award for Ontario CU

Unintended Irony: Banks welcomes new credit union

Gone Fishing: The Financial Brand is on vacation in Alaska

An employee of Maine State Credit Union says in his blog that “people should be able to see your credit union’s name and know if they are eligible for membership, without ever opening your membership brochure.” This is especially important, he adds, if you expand your field of membership.

So he takes issue with his employer’s choice to switch from ‘Maine State Employees Credit Union’ to ‘Maine State Credit Union’ when it got a community charter – in only two Maine counties:

“When we expanded our field of membership we dropped the ‘Employees’ from the name…who do we serve now? Looking at the name it would be easy to think we served the whole state, but I’d be wrong. We now serve the Kennebec and Somerset counties, but our name doesn’t tell me that. I have to search through the membership brochure to find out what towns are included in our coverage. I don’t like that.”

He also offers this advice: Credit unions shouldn’t drop the term “Credit Union” from their names (by replacing it with “Financial,” for instance). It robs them of a key point of distinction, he reasons.

Key Question: Do you know what your employees are saying about your organization online?

Bottom Line: Google Alerts. I found this post through my Google Alerts. If you set up the right Google Alerts, you can stay abreast of just about everything that concerns you and your organization. “Fine tuning” your Alerts to eliminate irrelevant garbage can be frustrating, however.

Marketing: Blessington & District CU gives a car away at every annual meeting

Marketing: American Airlines FCU gives away 5 cars in ‘Road to Success’ campaign

Advertising: A regular guy notices and comments on Think Bank’s billboards

Gen-Y: Commonwealth CU picks ‘Young & Free’ blogging contest winner

Branch Retail: SunWest CU gets a Starbucks inside its new branch

Marketing: Financial institutions stepping up ‘green marketing’ efforts

[Editorial Note: This article is a reprint of an article that originally appeared in an OpenSourceCU post on August 23rd, 2007.]

I haven’t picked up an issue of Adweek in quite a while, because what’s happening on Madison Avenue with the Budweiser account doesn’t really affect me. But I picked up an issue today and thumbed it all the way through. Boy oh boy, has that publication changed in the last few years.

Adweek used to be all about global agencies and massive TV ad campaigns. Now it’s almost all about new media, or at least that how it seems.

Here are three articles from this week’s current issue:

• Why Barbie can have a social website, but not Coke
• YouTube, politics and “Obama Girl”
• Advertising in video games

The story about how Coke — the world’s biggest, most valuable brand — couldn’t sustain its social website, “The Coke Show,” was the most interesting. From the article:

“‘The Coke Show’ joins a growing list of cautionary tales, including Wal-Mart’s ill-fated social network ‘The Hub’ and Anheuser-Busch’s ‘Bud.tv,’ showing it is far from easy to tap the same kind of sharing vibe that’s fueled the rise of MySpace, YouTube and Facebook.”

Relevance:

1. Learn from Adweek. They see which way the wind is blowing. Marketing — even advertising — is increasingly becoming a dialogue with consumers. Traditional media still has its place, but the days of one-sided, one-directional marketing are numbered. It will be more and more common for consumers — not advertisers — to control the discussion and pick the venues.

2. Success isn’t guaranteed. If big brands like Coke, Budweiser and Wal-Mart can’t find success after applying all their might and muscle, others are sure to fail also. The rules are still being written and no one has all the answers. Can your credit union’s CEO handle this level of ambiguity and uncertainty? Especially when the ROI is fuzzy (at best).

3. Don’t rush into the Web 2.0 world blindly. Some organizations seem to think “if you build it, they will come,” but it’s not that simple. You need to know your target audience and what they want to talk about BEFORE you launch a blog or a MySpace page. And don’t underestimate the commitment it takes once you’re up and running. You’ll need to devote time, energy and focus to your Web 2.0 initiatives every day (hint: hours of writing).