The New, Wired, Deal-Makin’, Name-Takin’, Game-Changin’ World of Marketing

“I have … had a disturbing dream in which I break through a cave wall near Nag Hammadi and discover urns full of ancient Coptic scrolls. As I unfurl the first scroll, a subscription card to some Gnostic exercise magazine flutters out.” -Colin McEnroe

Gonzo denizens, in our travels we have seen the role of marketing in banks change and vary quite a bit in the last few years. In some banks, it is viewed as a necessary but limited function with mixed reputation and credibility, and one that is the first to be looked at when budget cuts start. In others, marketing is a key role that leads strategic planning and is an integral part of execution of sales and service goals at every level, a group that line of business managers always consult when thinking about their next move. This is an area where we see the widest differences in role and relevance bank by bank.

However, if you look at the incredible landscape changes in banking that are occurring now and will continue – channel changes, payments changes, branch sales culture evolution, the changes in profitability of products and services – Marketing has a huge re-invention challenge and opportunity. The “new marketing” function will need to lead and support the behavior migration banks will see customers undergo. It has to be at the core of the delivery changes required. And it has the opportunity to be more relevant and important than ever.

So, let’s look at the “new marketing” group and some of the key attributes they will need to have.

1. They will be payments data and wisdom junkies. There are very few times we get a free shot at detailed customer data without having to beg, steal or buy. Loan applications were, and still are, the first. We now have a second. The detail available from debit card and credit card transaction reports is an absolute opening of the customer kimono in the detail it provides. We learn where they shop (by store name), how often they go there, exactly when they go there, how much they spend, how much the bank makes on the spend … dead accurate information that is very actionable (I want to reiterate that I did not buy that anti-aging cream for myself. It was a gift!). This information will be the new marketing “gold” in that it will lead to specific offers and promotions that will be a lot closer to the mark than those based on more traditional demographic information. And, in the long term, it will be the Marketing group, not I.T., that cuts, dices and uses this data. I.T. has great data manipulation skills, but Marketing must add the wisdom and focus that translates data into campaigns. This is not going to be accomplished with a part-time employee who looks at an MCIF file now and again. The new data experts will likely be deep on database management and extraction skills, merciless in how they attack data, and may just have spiked hair, full arm tats, and a wardrobe that will force a serious re-thinking of the 1990s dress code. They will also be able to get to the bottom of any question or need. Go find them and get hiring. 
2. They will turn data into deals and alliances. Using the data, Marketing will become “Let’s Make a Deal” artists. Think about that payments data. Banks can take buying information for customers to any local small merchant or business in an area and tell them how many bank customers do business with them. It’s not a big reach to think about working with them to increase customer foot or click traffic through deals and offers. Getting in the middle of adding value to customers and being seen as an aggregator of buyers for business clients makes for a win-win, not to mention a good jump start for a business banking growth strategy. However it plays out, a key marketing skill will be turning payments information into deals that benefit both retail and business customers.
3. They will be experts at cross-channel marketing. Ask any bank marketing group where its customers are likely to receive the next sales offer – the branch, the call center, the Internet, or through their mobile phones – and they will answer “yes.” Customer movement among channels is regular and unpredictable. We have grown a generation of users that are comfortable with any or all channels. So, financial institutions need to plan for the next credit card offer, the next refi offer, and the next deal at the local store to be presented through any one of these channels and, if it’s a product, fulfilled through another channel. To be honest, we are still not very good at making consistent offers across channels, and we’re not very good at cross-channel fulfillment. For example, at many banks customers can’t start a new deposit account or loan application on the Web and easily finish at the next branch they visit. The call center probably can’t see the last offer made to the customer and whether or not they took action. Customers likely don’t see the pre-approval for a credit card through mobile or the ATM. However, if customers are cross-channel, Sales and Fulfillment need to be, too, and so does Marketing. The marketing group will need to be the advocates of cross-channel marketing and will need to show the specific benefits and additional business that effective cross-channel programs and systems will provide.
4. They will put meat on the bone when creating call lists and opportunities for front-line staff. Mortgage officers and investment reps always talk about the need for quality leads, not junk. Branches and call centers are no different. If you go to any front-line employee, they will tell you that the effectiveness of a call list goes up crazy high when it provides some tidbit of information they can use when contacting prospects. It could be the pre-approval information. It could be some information on their payments usage. It could just be an age or other demographic-related clue. As long as it’s something the employee can use to break the ice and start a focused conversation, Marketing becomes the hero and not the provider of another (sigh) list to get through. Marketing must be viewed in the future as the expert in providing intelligent, actionable leads.
5. They will walk the talk of social media and communities. According to recent research, the second biggest search engine in the United States, after Google, is now You Tube. The second biggest news source, after NYT, is the Huffington Post, driven largely by millenials (and it’s not a newspaper or anything like it. “The Huff,” as my millennial daughter calls it, is a big blog). It is becoming clear that you can’t deal with online communities, blogging, tweeting and other forms of social media in some academic way while standing on the sidelines. People who are expert in these areas live, use and breathe them. So, how many Marketing employees are active in online communities, i.e. daily? How many regularly tweet? How many regularly blog? How many look at and contribute to You Tube? The fact is that Marketing will have to live in this world, not just track it. Sure, some of it is going to be a waste of time. I tried tweeting and realized early on that I was boring even myself and wasting time. However, social media is a trawling expedition where it’s necessary to weed through what won’t make any difference to finally get to the one or two things that will be game-changers. It is the Marketing group that needs to lead banks into this new world and get line employees and management to actually understand and use these new tools. Marketing, in essence, is the guide.

The challenges are enormous, but there has never been a better time to be in Marketing. The bank never needed you more. The opportunity to increase marketing value and relevance is right there, and it’s big. The risk of not doing this, or not doing it well, is equally big. What Marketing manager could ask for better than that?
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Study finds ‘new online channels’ account for just 1.62% of marketing spending

While talk of social media and Web-based marketing has increased, most mid-size banks are doing relatively little with online marketing and almost nothing at all with social media, according to The Cornerstone Report: Benchmarks and Best Practices for Mid-Size Banks.

Maybe it’s time to get some serious marketing discussions on your strategic planning agenda.

For more than a decade, Cornerstone Advisors has helped hundreds of financial institutions develop focused strategic plans that result in:

• Maximized shareholder value
• New and innovative competitive strategies
• Revenue enhancement
• Operating efficiencies
• Accountability for execution
• Continued measurement through performance scorecards

Visit our Web site or contact Cornerstone Advisors today to learn more about our Strategic Planning, Facilitation and Implementation services.