The First Bancshares, Inc. (FBMS): Marketing Mix Analysis [Dec-2025 Updated]

You're looking at The First Bancshares, Inc. (FBMS) right after its April 2025 merger, and frankly, trying to map its old strategy onto its new, $26 billion scale is tricky business. As an analyst who's spent two decades in this space, I can tell you this deal fundamentally rewrote the playbook for their Product offerings, their five-state Place network, their Price execution-which hinges on maintaining margins like the 3.33% Net Interest Margin seen in late 2024-and their community-centric Promotion. We need to see how this new entity balances its legacy local focus with the expectations driving the $2.82 EPS forecast for the former FBMS shares. Keep reading; I've broken down the four P's so you can see exactly where the opportunities and risks lie in this newly configured financial powerhouse.

The First Bancshares, Inc. (FBMS) - Marketing Mix: Product

You're looking at the core offerings of The First Bancshares, Inc. (FBMS), which, as of late 2025, is operating within the context of its merger with Renasant Corporation, which closed in April 2025. The product suite is centered on full commercial and retail banking services for individuals and businesses across the Southeast.

The First Bancshares, Inc. structures its product delivery around three core segments: the Commercial/Retail Bank, the dedicated Mortgage Banking Division, and the Holding Company itself. This structure supports a comprehensive range of financial tools for small to medium-sized businesses, professional concerns, individuals, and governmental entities.

The deposit side of the product offering is quite standard for a community-focused institution, ensuring access to liquidity and savings vehicles. These offerings span several key types:

• Checking accounts, including NOW accounts.
• Savings accounts.
• Other time deposits, like daily money market accounts.
• Longer-term certificates of deposit (CDs).
• Individual retirement and health savings accounts.

The lending portfolio is diverse, reflecting the needs of the regional economy. As of September 30, 2025, total loans for The First Bancshares, Inc. stood at $8.4 billion, up from $8.1 billion at March 31, 2025. This portfolio is built on commercial, consumer, and residential mortgage lending. The total consolidated assets reported at the end of 2024 were $8.005 billion.

Here's a quick look at the scale of the asset base supporting these products as of late 2024/early 2025:

The loan categories include commercial loans, which are both secured and unsecured, covering working capital needs and business expansion, plus equipment and machinery purchases. Consumer loans help individuals finance automobiles, home improvements, education costs, and personal investments. The Mortgage Banking Division focuses on originating loans for purchasing existing residential homes, constructing new homes, and refinancing existing mortgages.

To complement the traditional banking products, The First Bancshares, Inc. also provides financial and wealth management services. For the nine months ended September 30, 2025, the company generated total interest income of $144,200 thousand (or $144.2 million). Also, excluding a significant securities loss, noninterest income for the third quarter of 2025 totaled $15.0 million.

The First Bank also offers essential supporting services that enhance the customer experience, such as online internet banking, mobile deposits, commercial sweep accounts, cash management services, and credit card services. If onboarding takes 14+ days, churn risk rises.

The First Bancshares, Inc. (FBMS) - Marketing Mix: Place

You're looking at how The First Bancshares, Inc. (FBMS) brought its services to market, which, as of late 2025, is defined by a massive integration following the April 1, 2025, merger with Renasant Corporation.

The distribution strategy centers on a physical footprint across the Southeast, now significantly scaled up. The legacy footprint of The First Bancshares, Inc. included operations concentrated across five specific Southeastern states.

• Geographic concentration: Mississippi, Louisiana, Alabama, Florida, and Georgia.
• Legacy footprint component from The First Bancshares, Inc.: 111 branches across these states.

The physical network is now integrated into a larger entity, creating a financial services powerhouse with substantial scale following the merger effective in the first half of 2025. This new scale dictates the current 'Place' reality for customers.

The physical presence is augmented by digital channels, extending access beyond the brick-and-mortar locations. Customers of the combined institution continue to use existing access points during the integration phase, which was scheduled for completion in early August 2025.

• Existing customer access maintained: Debit cards, checks, credit cards, and ATMs.
• Digital offerings include: Online banking and mobile banking services.

Finance: draft 13-week cash view by Friday.

The First Bancshares, Inc. (FBMS) - Marketing Mix: Promotion

You're looking at a company that just navigated a massive strategic shift, so its promotion efforts in late 2025 are definitely focused on integration and proving the value proposition of the new scale. The First Bancshares, Inc.'s promotion strategy centers on reinforcing its foundational commitment to local economies while simultaneously communicating the benefits of its new size to the investment community.

Core strategy emphasizes a deep, long-standing community focus and local economic growth.

The First Bancshares, Inc. promotion always leans into its community roots. This isn't just talk; it's backed by a long-standing designation. The company and The First Bank have been certified as a Community Development Financial Institution (CDFI) since 2010. This status requires targeting more than 60% of banking activities toward underserved communities. Historically, this commitment has translated into tangible support; for instance, in 2019 and 2020, The First received \$2,022,665 from the CDFI Fund and leveraged that into over \$25,000,000 in direct financial services. Cumulatively, the bank has been awarded over \$5.2 million in grants to support economic growth. This history is a key promotional pillar for local customer acquisition and trust-building.

The promotion highlights the scale of its footprint, which spans Mississippi, Louisiana, Alabama, Florida, and Georgia, serving customers through 1,051 team members as of the first quarter of 2025. The narrative is about being a large, stable institution that still operates with a local touch.

Investor relations communications centered on the strategic merger and maximizing shareholder value.

For the investment audience, promotion is about demonstrating the success of the April 1, 2025, merger with Renasant Corporation. Communications focus on the creation of a new financial services powerhouse with combined assets approaching \$26 billion, up from The First Bancshares' standalone year-end 2024 total assets of over \$8.00 billion. Investor messaging directly links community investment to shareholder return, framing the merger as the mechanism to maximize that value. The forecasted full-year 2025 Earnings Per Share (EPS) of approximately \$2.82 for the former FBMS shares is a critical metric used to promote the success of the integration and operational synergies.

Here are some key financial and operational metrics that underpin the promotional narrative:

Public visibility enhanced by the May 2024 transfer of common stock listing to the New York Stock Exchange (NYSE).

The move from NASDAQ to the NYSE on Thursday, May 30, 2024, was a significant promotional event, positioning the company alongside what its CEO called the world's leading and most prestigious companies. This listing change is used to signal maturity and prestige in all public-facing materials, including investor decks and press releases. The ticker symbol remains FBMS, which helps maintain continuity while upgrading the perceived platform for trading.

Marketing leverages the Certified Community Development Financial Institution (CDFI) status.

The CDFI status is a powerful differentiator in promotional materials targeting small businesses and low-to-moderate income consumers in their five-state region. This status allows The First Bancshares, Inc. to promote specific programs and capital access that competitors without this designation cannot easily match. The promotion highlights the bank's ability to deploy capital specifically for community development initiatives, which is a direct counterpoint to the focus on merger-driven shareholder value. This dual focus is key to their messaging.

The promotional themes for the CDFI angle include:

• Mission Alignment: Primary mission is promoting community development.
• Underserved Focus: Targeting over 60% of banking activities to specific areas.
• Capital Access: Highlighting historical access to low-cost capital programs.
• Local Impact: Emphasizing job creation and affordable housing support.

Finance: draft pro-forma capital allocation plan for Q1 2026 by end of next week.

The First Bancshares, Inc. (FBMS) - Marketing Mix: Price

You're looking at how The First Bancshares, Inc. prices its financial products, which is all about setting the right cost for money-loans and deposits. For the full year 2024, the main revenue driver was Total Interest Income, which hit $370 million. That number tells you the gross return on their earning assets before accounting for what they pay out for funding.

Margin performance is key to pricing effectiveness. The Core Net Interest Margin (NIM), which strips out purchase accounting adjustments, finished Q4 2024 at 3.33%. That's a positive sign of margin expansion, moving up from the 3.26% reported in Q3 2024. Honestly, keeping that margin healthy is the entire game when you're managing both sides of the balance sheet.

On the funding cost side, which directly impacts the NIM, the Cost of Deposits averaged 178 basis points for the fourth quarter of 2024. This reflects the competitive environment for attracting and retaining customer balances. Here's a quick look at some of those key pricing metrics from the end of 2024:

Looking ahead, analyst expectations factor into the perceived value and future earnings power. Analysts forecast 2025 Earnings Per Share (EPS) of approximately $2.82 for the former FBMS shares, which reflects expected accretion from the merger activity. That forward-looking number helps set expectations for future dividend capacity and overall shareholder return.

The First Bancshares, Inc.'s pricing strategy is definitely about balancing act. They have to price loans attractively enough to win business but high enough to cover costs and generate profit, all while keeping deposit rates competitive to maintain their funding base. The strategy centers on a few core levers:

• Maintain loan yields above the cost of funds.
• Offer competitive rates on core, sticky deposits.
• Manage the balance between fixed-rate assets and variable liabilities.
• Adjust pricing based on Federal Reserve actions and market competition.

If onboarding takes 14+ days, churn risk rises, so deposit pricing needs to be sharp. Finance: draft 13-week cash view by Friday.