Warc, 30 June 2014
NEW YORK: Bank of America believes that brand building needs
to undergo a "fundamental shift", as the financial services giant
focuses on forging stronger bonds with its customers.
Dan Hopkin, svp/brand marketing manager at Bank of America,
discussed the company's new approach at the Advertising Research Foundation's
Audience Measurement 9.0 conference, held in New York.
"At Bank of America, we believe that building a strong
brand today really requires a fundamental shift in strategy," he said.
(For more, including how the company tracks brand value, read Warc's exclusive
report: Building brand value at Bank of America.)
"The firm needs no longer to be focused on pushing
products out of the door … Firms need to shift to be designed to serve the
customer, and really focus on their needs and their experiences."
Pursuing this model rested in large part on reimagining the
core function of Bank of America's products, according to Hopkin.
"It requires that products are sold … because they
solve the customer's problem or they fill a customer's need," he said.
"Secondly, we need to shift the focus from product
profitability to customer profitability. And what that means is: it's really a
short term-long term view."
Such a transition is not always easy for businesses
operating on the scale of Bank of America - which boasts more than 5,000
branches across America.
"For a large organisation, sometimes we get very caught
up in trying to detail what the production process is, and making sure that
we're efficient at the production process," said Hopkin.
"When we do that, sometimes we lose that intimate
connection, that human connection with customers. Really, that's not enough: we
need to be both efficient and we need to really be able to maintain that
connection."
Overall, Bank of America is prioritising "shared
success" by basing its key decisions on an assessment of how customers,
shareholders and communities can all "win" from the choices it makes.
Data sourced from Warc
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