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Commerce Bank

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Executive Summary Leadership at Commerce Bank knew what it needed to do to be successful in the banking industry. They knew from the get go that they wanted to focus on differentiating themselves from competing banks. They wanted to compete on service rather than price recognizing that their prices weren’t always the best in the industry. Their corporate strategy was set around their customers having a positive, memorable, and consistent experience when they visit any of the Commerce Bank branches. They relied heavily on research to determine why customers left their financial institutions in favor of a competitor and they made it their goal to make Commerce Bank stand out from the rest. Commerce Bank capitalized on what other banks …show more content…

The hot dog cart caught on fire and the juggler in trying to help caught himself on fire (Frei, 2006). The leaders at Commerce Bank are now questioning whether they have taken it too far with retailtainment. After building the brand and reputation on service, they are concerned about what role retailtainment plays in delivering the Company’s mission.

Analysis Commerce Bank leadership built their bank around the philosophy of creating a retail experience for every customer. While other banks were competing on price, Commerce recognized that their prices were not the cheapest in the industry so they had to differentiate themselves in a different manner. The organization’s founder, Vernon Hill, really sought out to understand what factors affected customers leaving their bank and what key reasons lead to their dissatisfaction. He used that information over the years to create a successful service model that would ultimately set Commerce Bank apart from other banks. Many other banks focused on loans as their growth strategy while Hill’s point of view was that the bank’s real value was based on deposits rather than loans. This focus on deposits meant that Commerce needed to strategize based on its products, locations, service, and promotions. While most banks offered checking accounts that were very similar in nature, Commerce had to differentiate its account offerings to drive deposit growth. To do this, they offered an overdraft protection line,

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