zendough - The religion of the credit score

While already operating TransUnion.com, TransUnionCS.com, and TrueCredit, TransUnion's latest gambit in the the crowded taking-up-virtual-shelf-space game is zendough (written in hip lower case), featuring the VantageScore credit score.

Somebody already did the relgion motif, but zendough (see "zendo") takes the metaphor to a higher level (of consciousness): "There is a force that surrounds me day-to-day. It is with me when I wake, when I work, when I play."

Yoga, bonsai, rock stacking, sand raking— the references go on, and on, and on. Hokey smoke.

Nobody beats Experian in the notion of multiple websites selling credit reports and scores, but with zendough, TransUnion, the Chicago-based competitor in the three-way oligopoly, is learning the same trick.

You wouldn't know it by the number of websites used to sell them, but PLUS is a score not used by lenders, and VantageScore has a 5.7% market share.

And then, there's the whole "Free" issue.

Ace advertising agency cramer-krasselt was involved in the credit cult creative.

In the last century, the first key to enlightenment was forcing the credit reporting industry to even acknowledge the existence of the once-secret major credit score. That lead to the big revelation: Disclosing credit scores to consumers. Then, in 2009, disclosure took a big step backward as one credit bureau's FICO score was hidden again.

Consumers were given a modicum of information regarding the formula. Broad information and details are meted out through the media. Some legends were dispelled, and some grew.

You just have to have faith.