Do beans and meatloaf go with banking?

• Position: Brief article

After a while, the tag lines on the print ads developed by Fidelity Bank, Edina, Minn., all started to read the same. They said something like "The Bank of Business" or "Creating Business Solutions."

'That's when the financial institution, which specializes in serving business customers, decided to try something different. The bank introduced a campaign in which one of the print headlines says. "The beans can't touch the meatloaf."

The campaign was so distinctive that it encouraged the bank to create a series of spin-offs, including employee "beans and meatloaf" lunches and a trophy to recognize special service consisting of an oversized can of baked beans with a Fidelity Bank logo on its label.

The "beans and meatloaf" ad was designed to appeal to meticulous people, the kind who don't like their beans to touch the meatloaf, according to Steve Stoup, the bank's senior vice president of marketing and business development. Fidelity sees its customers as people who are particular about where they do their banking.

The "beans and meatloaf"...