Case Study: Putting “Checkin’ n’ Chicken” on the Map with NCBS

Client:

National Commerce Financial (NCF) (1996-2002)

Assignment:

NCF hired Jackson Spalding to promote its in-store bank consulting expertise to other banks nationally and internationally. NCBS was a subsidiary of NCF, which had $7 billion in assets. NCF was the first bank to make in-store banking (primarily supermarket banking) successful on a large-scale basis. The bank decided to sell its expertise to non-competing banks.

Strategy/Implementation:

The goal was to promote NCBS as the national in-store banking leader. We promoted the organization’s expertise to trade publications, to business and banking reporters at general-interest publications, and at trade shows. We surveyed customers in the aisles of supermarkets, categorizing their responses demographically, and turned the results into a press release that we pitched nationally. We also media-trained the president of NCBS and introduced him to banking and retail reporters. We sent information kits and releases to numerous media and attended an employee training session so we could learn first-hand the lessons our client was teaching to in-store bankers. We invited reporters to trade shows at which the NCBS president would speak, and arranged interviews for those who came. We pitched byline articles to leading banking and human resources trades, and wrote and submitted the articles when editors agreed.

Results:

Over time, NCBS did in fact become the recognized authority for in-store banking nationally and internationally. We placed numerous articles in the U.S. as well as in London and South America. The surveys produced an enormous amount of coverage in dozens of print publications. Several byline articles were placed in American Banker, U.S. Banker and other trade publications. NCBS later expanded its relationship with Jackson Spalding and the firm was hired by its parent company, National Commerce Financial.