01 — Project Details
A national financial institution was seeing a sustained decline in student checking account enrollment, a critical entry point for long-term customer relationships. Overall brand recognition was still strong, but growing fintech competition and shifting expectations were eroding relevance with younger audiences.
The goal was to define an integrated strategy that could restore momentum while also supporting long-term trust and retention.
02 — Strategic process
Insight Development
Research showed that the core issue wasn’t brand awareness, but product clarity. Incoming students didn’t fully understand the account’s benefits, while parents played a major role as financial decision influencers. Fee sensitivity and concerns about financial responsibility surfaced as key barriers.
Market Evaluation
The category had become crowded and increasingly digital-first, with fintech competitors leaning on simplicity and perceived transparency. Traditional institutions still held trust and scale, but struggled to communicate clear relevance at key life moments.
Strategic Framing
The strategy reframed the student checking product as a foundation for financial independence, not just a transactional account. This called for dual-audience messaging, education-led positioning, and an integrated communication system that reinforced clarity across channels.
Trade-offs were handled by balancing consumer empathy with business viability, including a proposal to cap daily overdraft charges rather than remove fees entirely.
Decision Refinement
Channels were given clear roles across awareness, education, and consideration to avoid fragmentation. The final approach prioritized cohesion and reinforcement over adding more activity, so every touchpoint pointed back to the same story and set of choices.
03 — Outcomes
The strategy established a clear framework to increase product understanding, support first-time account enrollment, and build early trust to strengthen long-term relationships.
More broadly, it gave the institution a disciplined way to respond to category decline without leaning on short-term incentives or eroding brand equity.