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Building a brand in the marketplace is the necessary foundation for long term success in the financial services marketplace. But a brand can't do the job alone. You need to capitalize on your brand by developing an ongoing, detailed plan for growth.

"Credit Unions: Where Membership Matters." Great slogan; too bad we cannot prove it. Many members refer to their credit union as their bank and themselves as customers.

Thanks, Nationwide! You're on our side!

The Credit Union Journal encourages feedback from readers, whether in the form of letters to the editor or as opinion columns. Contact Lisa Freeman at lfreeman cujournal.com or 888-832-2929.

On the morning of August 29, 2005, the lives of millions of Americans living along the central Gulf Coast changed forever. Hurricane Katrina, the worst natural disaster this country has experienced, resulted in the loss of over 1,500 lives and the destruction of public and private property of all types and descriptions along the Alabama, Mississippi, and Louisiana coasts.

With just three months remaining on the legislative calendar, Alabama Congressman Spencer Bachus, a one-time credit union opponent turned supporter, has emerged as one of two favorites to chair the House Financial Services Committee in the next Congress.

Management guru Stephen Covey said: "I don't see the world as it is. I see the world as I am." What he meant was that everyone has largely unconscious mental models that influence behavior. It follows that training and marketing programs will best succeed in altering the behavior of others-whether staff, members or potential members-when they address and change people's thinking.

The once-powerful S&L lobby, which retreated into the background for more than a decade after the financial debacle of the 1990s, is flexing some of its lobbying might these days and has convinced Congress to weigh in on the controversial proposal to raise capital at the Federal Home Loan Banks.

I would like to thank Editor in Chief/Co-Publisher Frank Diekmann for letting us in on his insightful conversation with Jim Hughes and Gerald Verdi in his piece entitled "Unconventional Ideas from an Unconventional Source" found in the June 19 edition of The Credit Union Journal. Hughes states that "one aspect of working with credit unions that is enjoyable is the willingness to experiment and pilot different delivery approaches across the entire enterprise."

MADISON, Wis. - (05/18/04) -- A new study by the Filene ResearchInstitute reinforces public perceptions by concluding that moreaffluent households are more likely to use banks than credit unionsfor their financial services. The study, 'Who Uses Credit Unions?'finds that households using banks but not credit unions are moreaffluent in terms of income, financial wealth and total wealth. Thestudy found that households that use credit unions only have amedian income of $34,948; households that use banks only have ahousehold income of $37,004. Households that primarily use creditunions had a median income of $52,423, vs. $60,646 for householdsthat primarily use banks. Release of the study comes as bankers arearguing that credit unions are losing their focus on low- andmoderate-income households and have shifted more towards servingthe affluent. The study also found that young people, those under35, have the highest percentage of households using only a creditunion; while the elderly, those 65 and older, have the highestpercentage using just a bank. Also, African-American households aremore likely to use a credit union than any other ethnicgroup.