Challenge: A major U.S. bank was in the process of developing a new positioning strategy for its merchant services. The goal was to use this new positioning strategy as a building platform for its products, as well as future sales, marketing, and communications efforts.

Objective: Plan-it needed to explore the brand’s value proposition among key target audiences, identify the brand’s strengths and weaknesses with its merchant services, and identify key drivers of brand choice in the selection of merchant services providers.

Solution: Plan-it conducted a two-phase study. Phase I explored the mindset and behavior of key target audiences regarding merchant services by conducting focus groups and telephone interviews among those who make decisions about merchant services for their companies. From these insights, Plan-it moved to Phase II, a Quantitative study that measured important drivers in the selection of merchant card service providers, satisfaction with the bank’s current merchant services, and top-of-mind awareness with the bank’s merchant services versus those of its competitors.

Result: With this study, Plan-it was able to recommend a positioning strategy that could be used across the merchant card services division. Plan-it also recommended impactful messaging aimed at customer loyalty and value-added benefits.