Warc, 29 July 2014
NEW YORK: Many brands in the financial services category are
failing to focus on customer insights, according to a leading executive from
Lincoln Financial Group.
Jamie DePeau, the firm's corporate chief marketing officer,
discussed this theme at the 2014 Chief Marketing Officer Leadership Forum:
Spotlight on Financial Services, an event run by the Argyle Executive Forum.
"People still aren't talking to customers," she
said. (For more, including how Lincoln has pursued customer-centricity, read
Warc's exclusive report: Lincoln Financial Group learns to put consumer
insights first.)
"You have to talk to customers, and you have to talk
with them frequently. It's not just 'disaster checks' before you go into the
marketplace; you have to get that knowledge up front. Companies still don't do
it."
As a result, marketers often roll out campaigns
"without really understanding the marketplace" - and this means that,
"nine times out of ten", they end up "saying the wrong
thing".
One reason for this trend, DePeau suggested, is the
long-standing emphasis that firms have put on their products.
"Historically, the industry has pushed messages out
into the marketplace that are company-centric, product-centric, forgetting all
about the customer. And a lot of people are still doing it that way," said
DePeau.
The influence of product managers is one factor that has
encouraged marketers to emphasise features and list facts in their messaging,
rather than taking a more nuanced approach.
"I think that's part of the influence of product
development and where marketing has historically sat in financial
services," said DePeau.
Relying on old models, however, is an increasingly unwise
strategy at a time when digital media is transforming patterns of customer
behaviour.
"Your whole sales funnel is turned upside down,"
DePeau said. "And that has a huge impact on everything that we do, from
channels to messaging."
Data sourced from Warc
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