How competitive research exposes what’s possible—not just what is—in financial services

Competitive research gets a bad rap in financial services.

It’s often treated like a benchmarking exercise. Something you do to validate where you are—or to get permission to play catch-up. But the point of competitive research isn’t to be the best of the banks.

Competitive research isn’t about catching up. It’s about seeing what’s coming.

It’s to break out of the narrow view of what’s “expected.”

When we conduct competitive research, we’re not just looking for gaps. We’re looking for signals—of category shifts, rising customer expectations, and changing definitions of value. Done right, it’s not reactive. It’s proactive.

Because great competitive research doesn’t just show you what the industry is doing. It reveals what the industry is on the verge of doing.

We look at how:

• Loyalty programs are evolving beyond points and cash back
• New players are reframing utility as emotion (think: Venmo’s social feed)
• Frictionless onboarding is now a baseline, not a differentiator
• Digital wallets have gone from convenience to expectation (64% of U.S. consumers now use them, according to our Finsights study)

These aren’t just best practices. They’re indicators of what people will soon expect everywhere.

Copying isn’t strategy. Anticipation is.

But there’s a catch: looking at competitors isn’t the same as copying them.

Too often, we see competitive research reduced to mimicry. A chart that says, “They’re doing X—we should too.” That kind of thinking keeps your brand in second place.

Instead, we use it to push the Brief:

• If digital onboarding is frictionless, what else should be?
• If competitors are personalizing by segment, how could you personalize by behavior?
• If rewards are everywhere, how do you turn utility into surprise?

Competitive research should expand the boundaries of the strategy—not shrink it.

It should force better questions:

• What would it take to lead here?
• What assumptions are our competitors making that we don’t have to?
• What are they missing because they’re all watching each other?

Competitive insight is your roadmap. Not your script.

And it should build a roadmap—not a reaction.

Because when you see trends early, you can shape how they show up in your brand experience. You don’t just join the conversation. You help define it.

That’s what strategy is supposed to do.

Want to raise the bar on what’s possible? Use competitive research to see the shifts coming—and act before they define the category.