When its time to change, you’ve got to re-arrange...


Standing in front of the sea of empty cubicles stretched out in front of us, the CMO had a moment of clarity – he realized that getting out of the difficult times his organization had been experiencing warranted drastic measures.


There were two camps in this organization: the loyal veterans who had been with the company for at least a decade or two, and the newbies – recent transplants from one of the major players in the industry. When asked about the company’s strengths and weaknesses, the overall story from the executives seemed fairly consistent, though somewhat lacking in specificity – this was a regional bank historically known for its solid commercial business and conservative lending practices, but which suffered from a lack of broader awareness. It was clear there wasn’t enough data on the bank’s (retail) customers to understand what drove them to choose our client as their primary bank, not to mention the impact its foreign ownership had on the business.


What our key client – the newly-established CMO – was looking for, was a clear and compelling articulation of a value proposition that would create an environment of change for the organization. The businesses he was overseeing needed momentum, hence the recent influx of new faces. Not only was there a growth imperative, but also the challenge of integrating disparate cultures – that of the parent company and the regional bank, the commercial and the retail businesses, the old guard and the new blood.


The first order of business, then, would be to gain a solid understanding of the target audience – their needs as well as perceptions of relevant players in the space. From Awareness and Associations to Loyalty and Advocacy, the goal was to learn about the drivers of the potential design point segments: Mass, Mass Affluent, High Net Worth, Small Business, Mid-Market, and Commercial. Even as we conducted a business strategy and financial review, executive interviews, and competitive analysis in addition to the fielding of consumer research, some of the most powerful insights from our in-depth assessment originated from a completely new (and now patent-pending) approach to consumer and competitive insights that we developed during this engagement: Brand Vulnerability.


Instead of just looking at the positive side of the story as in traditional brand research, Brand Vulnerability adds a level of competitive intelligence that makes insights derived from it significantly more actionable. In this case, Bank of America’s associations with overdraft charges and ‘nickel and diming’, as well as Wells Fargo’s associations with overselling unwanted products and services to its customers, were key inputs in crafting a uniquely compelling and ownable value proposition for our client organization. The next step was to translate this value proposition into tangible form: product development. “Build Your Own Bank” was the offering that resulted – customers would be able to select just the banking and financial services they wanted, have full pricing transparency including an all-inclusive, flat-rate fee covering the services chosen, and receive a relationship discount based on the number of products or services they selected.


The most gratifying feeling was when, at the end of a series of extensive workshops reviewing both the enterprise- and LOB-level value proposition articulations, we could see that there was a shift in the mood in the team of executives with whom we had been working – there was a palpable enthusiasm, both about the newfound insights they now shared, as well as the organization’s strategic direction. The ultimate compliment came from one of the senior leaders, who came up to us to say, “I love coming to your meetings; you guys inspire me” – this is the outcome we aspire towards, with every client!

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