Value proposition research with entrepreneurs in Germany and France

01

The decision on the table

Finom builds business banking for freelancers and small companies across Europe. When it came to us, it was working with a design agency on a new brand and a sharper value proposition. Projects like that move fast, and under deadline it’s easy to design for the entrepreneur the team imagines instead of the one who actually opens the account.

Finom wanted the new brand to rest on real people. It needed to know what entrepreneurs value in the bank they run their business on, what frustrates them, and how that changes between a freelancer in Marseille and a small company in Munich. And it needed the answer in time for the agency to use it.

02

The questions

1. 01What behaviour patterns define purpose-driven entrepreneurs in Europe?
2. 02What motivates small companies and solo entrepreneurs, and what holds them back?
3. 03What do they value most in banking and financial tools, and what frustrates them?
4. 04What would a practical user portrait for Finom look like?

03

Why we designed it this way

A rebrand needs evidence the whole team can trust, delivered while the design work is still open. Three choices made that possible.

• Two markets, mirrored

  Twelve interviews in Germany and twelve in France, with the same mix of profiles and cities in each. When the two markets differ, the difference points to the market rather than to a quirk of the sample.

• Users and the people around them

  Solo entrepreneurs and small company owners explained their day. Fintech specialists and startup investors explained the market those businesses operate in.

• One to one, on purpose

  Money is private. In a one-to-one conversation people talk about cash flow, admin and the bank that let them down, things few people say in front of a group.

04

Under the hood

For the insights team who want to check the rigour.

05

What we can tell you

The findings belong to Finom. What we can share is the kind of answer a study like this gives a brand team in the middle of a rebrand.

• 01

  “Entrepreneurs” is not one customer

  A freelancer and a small company owner ask different things of the same bank. The study showed where their needs overlap and where the brand has to speak to each one separately.

• 02

  Market differences with a name

  With the sample mirrored, differences between Germany and France could be stated plainly instead of guessed, and the messaging adjusted where it mattered.

• 03

  Frustrations in their own words

  The words entrepreneurs used for what annoys them about banking gave the team language it could test in the new messaging.

• 04

  A persona the team can argue with

  One realistic European entrepreneur, built from the interviews, that the brand team and the agency could check every decision against.

06

What they received

• Long-form qualitative report

  Clear visuals and selective quantification, so the weight of each theme is visible at a glance.

• Individual analysis packs

  A radar-style summary for each entrepreneur, so the team could meet the people behind the themes.

• Prototype persona

  A realistic European entrepreneur, built from evidence, ready for the brand and product teams to use.

• Executive online presentation

  The findings and their implications, presented live to the decision makers.

07

What happened next

The results stay confidential. The research gave Finom’s teams a clear view of what entrepreneurs in two major European markets need from their bank. It informed the brand identity decisions, sharpened the key messages and supported the choice to reframe parts of the value proposition.