New Product Design For Checking Accounts

• Client wanted to offer new products and services for checking accounts
• Identify key drivers for Students and Premium consumer segments
• Identify students and premium consumers ranking for product attributes
• Identify students and premium consumer ranking for client product attributes
• Identify students and premium consumers ranking for the clients product  attributes vis-à-vis competitor

Quantitative, Online Survey, Length of Interview: 20-25 Minutes, N=300 Students and N = 300 Premiums, N=600 Total Respondents

• Overwhelming theme that comes to the forefront when comparing potential features of checking account services is the concept of “free”. Consumers are expecting basic services to continue to be free without extra fees being assessed to their accounts. Free checking with no minimum balance, free checks, free check card usage, free ID theft, and free ATM withdrawal all score high on relative importance for all groups.
• Brand1’s new checking products align well with what potential customers are saying is important to them when considering new checking services.
• As seen previously, Brand1’s new product features and benefits conform with what potential customers have stated are important to them when considering a checking account.  Thus it is not surprising that Brand 1’s new products outperform the top competitors products by wide margins.
• Entry/Student Checking Product; thinking about Brand 1’s Entry/Student checking product, the one benefit that seems to be a strong candidate for exclusion is the .25% off of loans and lines of credit.  This scored well below average on importance and looks to be an expense the bank does not need to take on for this product to succeed.
• Premium Checking; on the Premium checking side, a unique benefit like 24 Hour Grace (a high scorer on importance) looks to be enough to offset the exclusion of low importance scorers like Free Money Market, $250 off mortgage closing, and .25% off of loans and lines of credit.
• A benefit that should rate strong consideration for inclusion to the Premium checking product is additional interest on savings, money markets, and CD’s.  High End Consumers give this benefit the highest chance of it being the most important when considering a checking account. Free savings account may also be something to look toward eliminating in helping to streamline the Entry product.