Financial Services

International Financial Services

Context

Context

Our client is one of the most respected financial services institutions in the UK and abroad with an enviable reputation for straightforward financial products and services and an award winning brand. Over the past 175 years they have built considerable operational expertise but recognised that marketing was underutilised as a strategic asset.

We were asked to help quantify the efficiency and effectiveness of current marketing strategy and operations, to establish a clear direction and a set of prioritised programmes that would transform marketing.

Insight

Insight

With a diversified business unit structure managing a set of discrete products and services and a comprehensive distribution network, our client was well positioned as a product developer and distributor. In many ways this 'set up' was no different to other financial services organisations. The issue simply was that such organisation is not well suited to delivering a consistent customer experience and makes it difficult to manage customer value, access and choice.

Team of marketing staff working in different business units were not working in a common way, strategies, processes, organisation and information with respect to the customer and the customer experience were inconsistent and incomplete. The main challenges were:

  • Moving from product and service to customer focus.
  • Making marketing a strategic asset of value to the business.
  • Focusing marketing on a higher purpose.
  • Adding operational substance and depth to a great brand.
Solution

Solution

In just five weeks we examined existing business and marketing strategy, worked with senior executives and marketing thought leaders to identify strengths, weaknesses, barriers and enablers in the current operating models for marketing. We isolated the main challenges and developed six strategies to address them.

We delivered a candidate 'Marketing Way', a template model to explain what 'good' might look like, candidate 'balanced scorecards', and a range of metrics an measures that could be used to build better operational and market insight. Working with marketing leadership we reviewed innovation, insight, strategic planning, 'activation in market and learning and renewal processes.

We delivered an audit of existing marketing strategy, relationships, culture, organisation, process, information and technology and built cultural models to illustrate how marketing could be driven differently from a behavioural and attitudinal point of view.

Our work included transformations required to develop opportunities in specific market segments and capitalise on emerging regulatory reform such as FSA dissolution, formation of the FCA, MMR and RDR.

Benefits

Benefits

We are now helping our client to implement the strategies we helped develop and are beginning to see the benefits:

  • Focus on customer experience, value, access and choice.
  • More collaboration across the marketing community.
  • Clearer interfaces and relationships between marketing, finance and human resources.
  • Better metrics and measures to define operational and 'in market' performance.
  • Clear integration and alignment of strategic processes and supporting tools and technologies.
  • Significant operational efficiencies from a common way of marketing.

Financial Services

Quote

You have helped me immensely in defining the strategic direction and priorities for marketing and, have covered a lot of difficult ground in a short time. The insight and value you’ve provided along the way are exceptional.

Brand Director, International Financial Services