Changing your brand is a major decision, whether you’re an established corporation or a small non-profit. At Creative Co-op, an important aspect of our work is helping clients look at that decision objectively. Do you really need to reinvent your organizational story from top to bottom, or would you be better off pursuing a brand evolution? This simple framework of four questions was created long ago by a top brand strategist for Fortune 500 companies throughout...

Credit union and bank brands are often stereotyped as staid and predictable. But with millennials ages 18-34 now making up the country’s largest living generation, financial institutions large and small are stepping outside their comfort zone to win the hearts and minds of 75 million consumers with $1.3 trillion to spend. Here are four trends to watch for: Omni-channel brands For millennials accustomed to Uber, Airbnb and Mint.com, automated self-service channels are an essential part of most...

Effective salespeople never forget their ABCs – “always be closing.” Similarly, these five Cs can help spell success online, paying off advertising and email campaigns with a high-powered landing page that turns interest into action.

A critical part of brand strategy is positioning – the unique attribute or identity you want people to associate with your brand at a gut level, in just a few words. Helping clients position and differentiate themselves is what we do at Creative Co-op, and it’s especially important when the only thing separating competing financial products is a tenth of a percentage point.

Positioning for banks and credit unions draws upon some 15 basic themes. If you haven’t updated your positioning in a while or aren’t sure what it is, here are some popular examples.

In traditional print media, a 7” x 10” ad is always a 7” x 10” ad. But social media and other online channels often make it hard to know the “right” message length for optimal effectiveness – especially since each new channel that emerges has its own rules.

Here’s a helpful overview from the content experts at Buffer, covering many of today’s most powerful online marketing tools:

As a brand laboratory, public utilities offer unique and unrelenting challenges. Expectations are high, perceptions are often negative and years of reliability can be forgotten in the wake of one unforeseen storm. So it is vital for utilities to implement more effective brand strategies that work with customers of every demographic and ethnicity.

Here are five best practices to consider, based on our decade serving water and electric utilities.