Can you strictly define your credit union’s business model and your competitive advantage?

If you say, “We’re a full-service credit union and our competitive advantage is your member service,” then you’re missing the boat.

Being a credit union isn’t a business model, it’s a financial cooperative formed under a certain charter.

Being “full-service” doesn’t really answer anything. Offering great member service with the best price is a worthy goal, but many experts characterize those traits as almost mutually exclusive.

Let’s delineate five business models and competitive advantages:

1. Convenience model (McDonald’s). Convenience is the trump card in banking services. Bank of America and Wells Fargo have inconsistent service and only moderate pricing, but have gigantic market share.

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