I found a couple of head-scratching marketing promotions in my travels recently:
- On Interstate 680 in Concord, Chase Bank has a billboard featuring their various debit and credit cards (we have half as many cards that do exactly the same thing all their cards do) along with a list of retailers accepting the cards. Among those on this list was BJ’s, which is a warehouse store similar to Costco. The problem is that the closest BJ’s is in Ohio, a mere 2,450 miles away.
- PenFed Credit Union is a common advertiser in many of the local newspapers. This credit union was originally chartered for employees of the Pentagon but now is open to anyone worldwide in the military, belongs to a military organization, or is related to someone in the military. That pretty much narrows down the field of membership to any American that can fog a mirror.
PenFed had an ad in one of the San Francisco newspapers promoting their loan rates. The small print discloses the estimated payment on a $250,000 single-family residence in Alexandria, Virginia and is within Fairfax County, Virginia. For those of you not well-versed in Virginia geography (and I wasn’t until Googling it), there is a small sliver of land within Fairfax County referred to as Alexandria, but the City of Alexandria is outside of Fairfax County. Yes, I’m officially confused, but wherever PenFed is talking about is roughly 2,800 miles away.
We pride ourselves in being locally owned and operated and believe we know our members better than entities who literally serve the world. We may grow but will always stay local. In other words, don’t look for us in Ohio or Virginia, in or out of Fairfax County.