Case Study

Evolving a Position to Drive a Bottom Line​

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A regional bank and mortgage lender crafts a different approach to banking, but needed help articulating their difference to customers and employees alike. Bernstein-Rein was able to get to the heart of what makes Flagstar Bank a trusted and empathetic financial institute.

At Bernstein-Rein, we believe retail intelligence comes from consumer insights, a true brand purpose, and half a century of unrivaled experience. We put these beliefs together to accelerate growth. This approach is called Retailigent™ – it's what drives our work every day.

Here’s How We Made them Retailigent
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Why The Work Matters

Consumers aren’t often in the habit of switching their primary banking relationship. And, while they might consider adding a complementary product at other banks, the selection is likely incentive or rate-driven.​

The combination of qual and quant research drove a path to evolving both positioning and qualified targeting, ultimately driving growth.​

Challenge

As a regional bank and one of the country’s top mortgage originators, Flagstar Bank aspired to increase its deposit base ($2B in deposit growth over three years), diversify its offerings and broaden consumer brand awareness within the financial services and community banking category.​

Our challenge was to help Flagstar Bank communicate their unique position while driving acquisition of customers to increase deposit base.​

Insights

Flagstar had recently taken measures to emphasize personal relationships through positioning called “craft banking.” The problem was, nobody (including employees) understood what that meant. We dug in to find out what Flagstar could actually claim, and as it turned out, Flagstar excelled at listening to customers to create tailored solutions just for them.​

This allowed us to create new brand positioning: ​At Flagstar, banking is a craft built on the art of listening.

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Independent Strivers

With this insight in hand, our data science teams created a modeled algorithm that confirmed the communities around the Flagstar branches were literally loaded with our core acquisition target:  ‘Independent Strivers.’​

These were individuals who were very open to what Flagstar was doing so well and a receptivity that made it easy to create an integrated campaign to invite them to give Flagstar a try, knowing full well they’d love what they experienced and be fans instantly.​

Solution

We created a three-phased approach to accomplish Flagstar’s goals.

  1. FOCUS: ACQUISITION, RETENTION & OPTIMIZATION
    • Profitable deposit capture
    • Volume of deposit capture
    • Avoidance of repricing risk
  2. FOCUS: CROSS-SELL
    • Growth in geography
    • Growth in call center
  3. FOCUS: PRODUCT REVIEW & CHANNEL STRATEGY
    • Portfolio optimization
    • Omni-channel delivery and communications focus

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Results

Flagstar Bank stock growth out-paced category competitors with core KPI success within the first 12 months.​

+ Topline brand awareness increased 2% YOY, despite being outspent 10:1 by their much larger national competitors.​

+ Retail banking deposits grew 12.5% YOY, and saw net new customers grow 2.1% with a 0.4% increase in share of wallet​.

+ Both retail, mortgage and wholesale mortgage business grew ​3.2% faster than the industry average, and TPO acquisition and engagement growth exceeded goals by over 15%​.

+ Account retention increased by 21%, resulting in $10MM of deposits maintained.

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