I continue to hear new accounts of the pulverizing of the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau. The news focuses on funds and employees, each of which of course are pivotal. But less reported on is the administration systematically shutting down the various portals created to allow citizens to report abuses, the systems for monitoring of key agencies in response to complaints, various materials created to educate citizens about how to protect their rights in the financial world. It’s all collectively awful. But it reminds me of issues tied to branding.
The CFPB is more than a decade old and I’m a bit shamefaced to admit that I still often forget the precise order of the initials that function as its de facto name. This may be its relative youth or my own neurology. I remember NLRB and NIH more or less well. But it reminds me that the name of the agency and how it is discussed in the political space is half the battle and one that its supporters in the political space (as opposed to the people who work there) have more or less conceded. Any politicians discussing this should never be referring to the CFPB or even the spelled out four word name. It’s more like the National Consumer Help Line. Or the National Business Complaint Line. ‘Line’ dates it a bit. I hear there are now computers too. Some version of “Financial” should be in there to specify its focus. But ‘financial’ is a bit arcane. National Bank and Credit Card Complaint Line? I’m sure others could come up with something snappier. But everybody but everybody has a complaint about bad service or businesses (banks, credit cards, payment processors, etc.) that are ripping them off. And you just can’t concede any ground on making it crystal clear to people that that is what this is.
