Claiming present-day blogs and trade media fail to provide "real-world examples of branding and marketing cases" among credit unions, Pilcher said the publication and Web site (www.thefinancialbrand.com) will contain "all kinds of ideas and practical advice."
Pilcher has played a role in some of the major CU rebranding projects in recent years including the successful Red Canoe rename of 2006 at the former Weyerhaeuser CU of Longview, Wash. as well as those for Arizona State CU, Interra CU, Advantis CU, Achieva CU and Financial Partners CU among others.
Operating under his own consulting firm, ICONiQ, Pilcher said the Financial Brand will be targeted to both banks and CUs and is being built "for the next generation of blog readers--the people that aren't really utilizing blogs today--which is why the site is clean, super-simple and less intimidating to new visitors."
For one thing, the blog eliminates the "conventional clutter you see on most blogs."
Topics for the blog and publication include branding, naming, general marketing and advertising. Financial Brand, he said, will not "compete with the other thought leaders already in the credit union blogosphere" but rather there will be "more nuts-and-bolts reporting and analysis than philosophic musings and prognosticating."
Pilcher said he will remain under contract with Weber Marketing "as their brand strategist" but as an independent can pursue a consulting business.
--jrubenscut@aol.com
