Turning lemons into....

From the NY Times...


Umpqua Bank, an Oregon bank famous for nontraditional marketing and customer service, has created a clever summer campaign to promote its services to small businesses: it is offering children a kit and start-up capital to set up and run a lemonade stand.

Dubbed "the lemonaire," the campaign is aimed at children in the 96 cities in Oregon, Washington and California where Umpqua operates 144 branches. Lani Hayward, executive vice president of creative strategies for Umpqua, said 70 percent of the bank's deposits and loans came from small and medium-size businesses.

Ray Davis, president and chief executive of Umpqua Bank, a subsidiary of Umpqua Holdings, said: "Umpqua is always looking for ways to recognize and support the entrepreneurial spirit that drives community growth. Giving kids lemonade stand supplies and start-up capital is a fun and unexpected way to express our support of small business and community."

Mr. Davis, who joined Umpqua in 1994, has overseen the bank's growth from $150 million in deposits to more than $7 billion today, driven in part by acquisitions. Under his leadership, Umpqua has revamped its marketing strategy, and today considers itself a retailer rather than a bank; in fact, it refers to its branches - which offer attractions like free Wi-Fi access, Umpqua-branded coffee, sewing groups, yoga classes and movie nights - as stores, and sends its employees to training sessions run by Ritz-Carlton Hotels and Resorts.