The topic of branding credit unions always gets too complicated and too emotional. You hear about Super Bowl ads. You hear about it being a big vs. small CU issue. You hear disputes about which message is best. That's all noise. It's simply improving awareness of what credit unions do and how we can help consumers. We need to keep it simple.

We don't need all consumers to understand that we are nonprofit financial cooperatives owned by the membership, that we have volunteer board members, or that we use the terms like share draft. None of that inside baseball is vital for telling our story. If we don't mainstream our value proposition, we will be stuck talking to each other.

Job No. 1 is for consumers to understand that they can do their banking at a credit union. Too many consumers still confuse us with labor unions, think we only offer certain loans or savings products, and that we're an exclusive club for certain segments. In New Jersey our consumer awareness campaign centers on the theme "Banking You Can Trust." Those four simple words quickly tell consumers what we do and convey the value proposition we offer. At a credit union, you conduct banking. Credit union purists that don't like to use the word "bank" are kidding themselves. "Banking" is a universal term for financial services and it's what we do. "Trust" of course is the value proposition of credit unions.