Huntington Bancshares Incorporated (HBAN): Marketing Mix Analysis [Dec-2025 Updated]

You're trying to map out where a major regional player stands right now, and frankly, Huntington Bancshares Incorporated's late-2025 strategy is a masterclass in blending old-school footprint with digital muscle. After years watching these shifts, I see a clear playbook: they're pushing digital engagement up to 17% via new products, expanding physically into key markets like Texas, and promoting a customer-first ethos with features like a 24-hour overdraft grace period. We'll look at how their recent drop in the prime rate to 7.00% and their aggressive 6%-8% loan growth target are supported by their Product, Place, Promotion, and Price decisions below.

Huntington Bancshares Incorporated (HBAN) - Marketing Mix: Product

Huntington Bancshares Incorporated offers a comprehensive suite of products and services spanning consumer, small and middle-market businesses, corporations, municipalities, and other organizations. As of late 2025, the holding company reports total assets of $223 billion. This suite includes core banking, payments, wealth management, and risk management products.

For the consumer segment, the product focus emphasizes digital convenience and financial safety. You see features designed to help customers manage their money proactively. For instance, Money Scout is an automatic savings tool that analyzes spending habits, income, and upcoming expenses to move funds, typically between $5 to $50, from checking to savings automatically. Furthermore, the $50 Safety Zone waives overdraft fees if an account is overdrawn by $50 or less.

Huntington Bancshares Incorporated has also introduced new niche offerings to ensure lifecycle inclusion. They are one of the first banks to offer dedicated Caregiver Banking and Teen Banking solutions. Caregiver Banking lets account owners grant trusted loved ones limited online access to monitor activity, spot potential scams, and help manage bills, all while the account owner retains control. For younger clients, Teen Banking is a joint checking account with a debit card that allows parents to set customizable limits, including daily, weekly, and monthly spending caps. The monthly maintenance fee for Teen Banking is waived if the adult co-owner maintains an eligible Huntington checking account; otherwise, the fee is $5 per month.

The bank's digital strategy is anchored by the AI-driven Marketplace, which curates personalized financial products, deals, and educational content within the online and mobile platforms. This initiative has demonstrated strong adoption, achieving a 17% digital engagement rate among digitally active customers. Early results from this platform showed 400,000 unique monthly visits, with 11% of new account openings attributed to it.

On the commercial side, Huntington Bancshares Incorporated has expanded capabilities to drive scale and growth. A key strategic move was the launch of a National Deposits business in June 2024, aimed at expanding commercial offerings, particularly within the real estate sector, focusing initially on homeowners' associations, property management companies, and escrow/title companies. The medium-term goal for this new vertical, under the guidance of Alex Tsarnas, is to grow commercial deposits by about $5 billion over a period of years. This complements other commercial vertical growth, with capital markets growing 21% year-over-year as of late 2025.

Here's a quick look at some key product performance indicators and features:

Huntington Bancshares Incorporated (HBAN) - Marketing Mix: Place

The Place strategy for Huntington Bancshares Incorporated centers on a geographically expanding physical footprint complemented by a strong digital presence, creating an omnichannel delivery model for its financial products and services. This distribution strategy is being actively reshaped by significant 2025 acquisitions.

Physical Network and Geographic Reach

Huntington Bancshares Incorporated operates a substantial physical network designed to serve its core Midwest markets while aggressively entering high-growth areas. As of the completion of the Veritex Holdings, Inc. merger in October 2025, the combined entity operates more than 1,000 branches in its network. This network expansion was directly bolstered by the addition of 31 branches in Texas from the Veritex acquisition. Prior to this merger, Huntington operated 971 branches in 13 states or 978 branches across 12 states. The combined organization holds approximately $223 billion in assets and $176 billion in deposits as of September 30, 2025 balances.

Strategic Expansion into Dynamic Markets

The distribution strategy clearly prioritizes growth in dynamic, high-growth regions. The Veritex acquisition, a $1.9 billion all-stock transaction, serves as a key springboard for growth in the Texas market, specifically expanding presence in Dallas/Fort Worth and Houston. Furthermore, Huntington Bancshares Incorporated is executing a significant buildout in the Carolinas. The bank is moving its planned expansion of 55 branches across North and South Carolina forward, aiming to complete the five-year investment plan by 2027, pulling in the original target date. This Carolinas push is supported by an aim to add more than 350 employees in the region. The bank plans to open more than 20 locations in 2026 and another 20+ in 2027. The bank also announced plans to open at least four branches in Winston-Salem by 2027.

The distribution network is being strategically layered:

• Texas Acceleration: Completed merger with Veritex in October 2025.
• Carolinas Buildout: Aiming to open 55 branches by 2027.
• New Market Entry: First South Carolina location launched in Spartanburg on May 2, 2025, and the first North Carolina branch in Charlotte on May 12, 2025.
• SBA Leadership: Huntington was the #1 SBA lender in Texas in 2024, leveraging its national lending capabilities within the new physical footprint.

Omnichannel Delivery Model

Huntington Bancshares Incorporated employs an omnichannel delivery model that blends the physical branch service with digital platforms. While specific digital customer acquisition statistics are not publicly detailed as a percentage of new customers, the strategy emphasizes digital capabilities alongside its physical presence. The integration of Veritex customers is structured to maintain service continuity initially, with account conversion to Huntington's systems scheduled for the first quarter of 2026. This phased approach ensures the physical network remains operational while digital migration occurs.

Huntington Bancshares Incorporated (HBAN) - Marketing Mix: Promotion

You're looking at how Huntington Bancshares Incorporated communicates its value proposition as of late 2025. The promotion strategy is clearly centered on a major brand evolution, a customer-first philosophy, and a forward-looking stance on technology.

The promotion kicked off with a major brand refresh in August 2025, featuring an updated logo, a broadened, vibrant visual identity, and reimagined digital experiences. This visual shift was launched in tandem with the new advertising campaign: 'Let's Get More from Money,' which focuses on the bank's responsibility to unlock the full financial potential of its customers. This campaign uses a modular creative approach, scalable across all channels, geographies, and audience segments.

The foundation of much of this messaging is the core 'Fair Play' philosophy, a concept initiated over a decade ago, in 2010. This philosophy is promoted as a differentiator, contrasting with industry norms by minimizing punitive charges. A key, long-standing element is the 24-hour grace period to avoid overdrafts, which was historically a $35 million decision that paid off through customer acquisition and low-cost deposits. The philosophy also includes other features that have since become industry standard, like checking accounts with no minimum balance.

Huntington Bancshares is actively promoting its commitment to innovation, which is now structurally embedded through a corporate venture studio partnership with Alloy Partners. This studio, announced in late 2025 and building on a 2024 relationship, is designed to accelerate transformative ventures in finance and technology. This collaboration has already resulted in the launch of one new venture. For context on the scale of the institution backing this innovation, Huntington Bancshares Incorporated manages $223 billion in assets as of late 2025, with Q3 2025 net income reported at $629 million.

The bank is also promoting its aggressive stance on emerging technology, specifically tying Generative AI investment to measurable financial outcomes. Chief Financial Officer Zach Wasserman has targeted an ROI through the use of large language models and agentic AI, aiming for 10%-15% cost reductions and a 10% to 15% revenue lift. This focus on measurable return is set against a backdrop where, over the last five years, overall expenses grew at a 5% compound annual growth rate (CAGR), while technology investments grew at a significantly higher 25% CAGR.

Here's a quick look at how these promotional pillars align with the bank's operational scale:

The promotion of the 'Fair Play' model, which includes features like the 24-hour overdraft grace period, is positioned as a driver of customer acquisition, with half of new customers acquired digitally and the other half through branches. The bank is definitely using these customer-centric messaging points to build relationships that lead to deeper product penetration across its customer base.

Huntington Bancshares Incorporated (HBAN) - Marketing Mix: Price

Price for Huntington Bancshares Incorporated involves setting benchmark rates, structuring account fees to emphasize value, and maintaining strong credit quality metrics that support competitive lending terms. The pricing strategy reflects a commitment to accessibility while managing risk exposure.

The benchmark lending rate saw a recent reduction, signaling a competitive stance on credit products. The prime rate was decreased to 7.00% effective October 29, 2025. This followed a prior reduction on September 18, 2025, when the rate moved from 7.5 percent to 7.25 percent.

Consumer pricing heavily emphasizes the 'Fair Play' concept through specific account features designed to eliminate common pain points. The Asterisk-Free Checking account is positioned as a straightforward, no-hidden-cost option. Key pricing elements include:

• No monthly maintenance fees.
• No minimum balance requirements.
• A $50 Safety Zone feature, meaning no overdraft fee is charged if the account is overdrawn by $50 or less.
• 24-Hour Grace to bring the balance positive before midnight CT the next business day to avoid fees on overdrafts exceeding $50.
• Non-Huntington ATM transactions incur a $3.50 fee, plus any fee charged by the ATM owner.

For younger customers, the pricing structure for Teen Banking is designed for zero penalty on accidental shortfalls. The policy is a clear no overdraft fees structure; teens won't be charged an overdraft fee even if an overdraft occurs. The monthly maintenance fee is $5 unless an adult on the joint account maintains an eligible checking account, in which case the fee is waived.

The bank's pricing power in lending is supported by robust credit quality, which allows for competitive loan offers. Credit quality metrics remain strong as of mid-2025. For the second quarter of 2025, net charge-offs were 0.20% of average total loans and leases. This metric slightly increased in the third quarter of 2025 to 0.22% of average total loans and leases. The full-year 2025 net charge-off guidance was revised downward to a range of 20 to 30 basis points.

The confidence in credit quality underpins the raised outlook for loan volume, which directly impacts pricing competitiveness for new business. The full-year 2025 loan growth outlook was raised to 6%-8%. This demand is supported by recent performance, as average total loans and leases increased 9.2% year-over-year for the third quarter of 2025.

The following table summarizes key financial metrics relevant to the pricing environment as of late 2025: