Digital Transformation - a blessing or a curse for Financial Services Marketers?

Speaking at the CIM Financial Services Leaders’ Summit, Scott Allen told how Microsoft has pivoted from a company whose people ‘know it all’ to one whose people ‘want to learn it all’. The change of attitude is a necessary one and reflects the fundamental shift in business dynamics driven by the evolution of the online economy, where the client knows best and truly calls the shots – requiring the corporation to always be in ‘learning mode’.  Applying this mantra directly to marketing at Microsoft, Allen has instigated enterprise-wide transformation that is digital, cultural and educational.

There is no doubt that Scott Allen’s keynote address, detailing Microsoft’s impressive transformation into a digitally charged and data-driven marketing function, captivated the audience of London’s Financial Services marketing leaders at Bloomberg.  The golden carrot of aspiration had not only been dangled, but had been given solid form, and looked within reach and had been brought into sharp focus. 

In the audience was Simon Kingsnorth, (bestselling marketing author, CMO at City Relay and former marketing expert at Citi and Fidelity) who commented that the Microsoft story had reminded him of the tendency in B2B FS to take an unnecessarily snobbish attitude towards B2C marketing, when in fact there is a lot to be learnt from, drawn on or even replicated in how retail products are marketed. Particularly in an increasingly digital context, buyer behaviour and psychology may be differentiated and determined by certain factors but rarely does the B2C vs B2B play much of a part where customer psychology is concerned.

Kingsnorth also reflected on his time building the Digital Centre of Excellence at Citi at a time when ”the private bank scarcely even had a website”. Kingsnorth was in total agreement with Allen when he stated that the key to change was in culture; in “winning hearts and minds”.

However, across the floor as the audience reflected upon Allen’s study in digital transformation par excellence, there was a palpable ripple of hesitation mixed into the enthusiasm.

An executive from a well-known French bank questioned how a tier two bank would ever have the resources and collective will to execute such transformation in marketing, admitting wistfully: “We are so siloed that one customer could well receive 20 different versions of our one organisation - 20 different approaches to marketing at them and 20 different messages.”

While such a statement may sound shockingly stark, it is scarcely surprising. After all, we know that many of the world’s biggest and best businesses, with their armies of marketing teams, are so sprawling and vast that any notion of integration would feel laughable.

Meanwhile an audience member from Pimco reflected that it was important to monitor shifting sentiment towards in the existing customer base. What’s the grace-period granted by clients on a low yield and how can marketers accurately tailor messaging and strategy to such shifting sentiment? It’s an ambiguous timeframe, but it matters in terms of engagement is understood.

Another question came later as Tom Hughes, newly appointed Head of Digital Marketing EMEA at Allianz Global Investors, took to the stage for a panel entitled “Digital is Dead! Long Live Digital!” He reflected on Allen’s Microsoft case study and wondered whether in financial services, B2B marketers really have enough data to call it ‘big’ and if therefore in his role he could ever hope to achieve the meaningful and powerful analytics that Microsoft are now benefiting from so handsomely. A comment met with nods of agreement from across the auditorium.

Hughes noted that where data is small, because the target buyer is niche, there is more call for qualitative, community-building approaches such as the World Media Group award-winning project between Deutsche Bank, The Economist and EI, targeting multinational treasurers. The principles of understanding the customer, their psychology, their profiles, the segments – all remain, but the qualitative must be there he continued, even if alongside some quant.