Technological disruption is shaking up the finance industry as we know it. Peer to peer lending, mobile-only banks, online investment funds, the list is growing, increasing the demands on the sector incumbents to step up

Looking at whole market when planning within Financial Services (FS), we encounter the same issues affecting the brands we work with time and again:

Relevance

Perception

Disruptive competition

You can see these issues being combated very clearly if you look at the approach of the high street banks. Digital products and services and highly emotive brand advertising are no coincidence, born of an understanding of consumer needs and perceptions. These issues however, are something that are affecting the whole sector in some way or other. With particular experience across the sector, especially with those brands dealing with high net worth customers, we’ve developed a detailed understanding of these issues and more importantly, simple strategies that lead to marketing success.

Relevance is something that we have encountered heavily amongst heritage brands in the sector. As the world has moved on, some businesses have struggled to keep up, traditional new business channels have become less successful and whole generations of potential customers simply don’t know who these businesses are or why they would need them. Our research shows that as technology-native wealth creators have emerged, they have bypassed the traditional, introduction-based new business funnel. The solution here is to establish the conversation earlier in the customer journey and demonstrate relevance and understanding. Often this means doing something in digital, something that clearly demonstrates the brands relevance early in the customer journey and begins to develop a relationship.

Perception is still a big issue. Whether your brand has been tarnished by indiscretions of the past or it’s a case of guilty by association, the general perception of the FS sector is not wholly positive. There are a number of different ways to approach this. If your budget is large, make an advert where you return a lost item of clothing with particular sentimental value, or you can focus on getting to the heart of your customers needs, passions and goals. As with relevancy, if you can position your brand as a relevant brand who understands your customer, their needs, goals and importantly their journey, you will build credibility. This will help develop the trust that naturally arises through understanding. It requires an holistic view of your customer and a detailed understanding of your brand, ensuring the activities you undertake make you stand out.

From a design perspective there seems to be a race within FS towards uniformity, particularly in terms of brand identity and web design. This kind of uniformity can only end as a negative, particularly when looking to build trust and credibility. It’s a fact that consumers buy into good design, they react to something that offers a great user experience and has an identity not identikit.

The third key problem affecting the sector is the disruptive competition. The rise of fintech start-ups is growing month on month and it’s putting key pressure on incumbents. We’ve written before about how each sector will have an Uber moment, FS seems a sector primed for this to happen in the near future. Driven by an understanding of the landscape, competition and customer solutions designed to take back customer share should focus on the entire brand ecosystem of products and services. The key is developing a strategy that works across multiple channels and can accommodate the integration of new products, digital platforms and services alongside existing offerings to create a holistic portfolio. We often use digital platforms to reach the customer earlier in their journey, building a relationship before they move into the more traditional face to face led phase. Ultimately a robust overview of the situation leads not just to successful marketing, but very often the insights uncovered identify opportunities for new products and new business directions, which can be quickly launched and scaled in the digital space.

Our services and ultimately what we deliver often blurs the line between marketing and business propositions acting as new entry points for consumers who have otherwise perceived barriers to working with our client brands. It’s not all doom though, incumbent brands do have a key advantage, especially if they can tick the first two boxes of relevance and credibility. Their infrastructure is very often geared towards lead nurturing, the problem is bringing the consumer into the funnel as we’ve discussed. Once there, a more traditional approach can be applied, traditionally a strength, of building the relationship. The key is knowing what to do and when now that the customers journey has been significantly altered by technology.

Understanding your problem is the first step to doing something about it. At DVO we apply a no-nonsense approach to the work we undertake, taking the complex and creating beautifully simple solutions that work. We do this particularly well for brands in the financial sector. We’d love to discuss how we could help with your specific challenges, call us on 020 3771 2461, or use our contact form.

Why understanding needs, passions and goals in an experience-led world is so damn important.

Omni-channel marketing, multi-channel marketing, holistic. All terms being used heavily at the moment as the world begins to get switched on to thinking about the sum of a customers engagements, their overall experience. It’s a constant topic at DVO.

There’s confusion over omni-channel and multi-channel particularly, seemingly used interchangeably by those not fully up to speed. We like the definitions provided by Lisa Mantell from Emarsys, here.

We have technology to thank for this but from a brand’s perspective, these new channels have often been added to marketing structures developed in an age where channels were limited and communication was always one way. Couple this with an empowered consumer who is bombarded with unprecedented levels of advertising and it seems like the wheels are beginning to creak.

So how do we cut through and achieve real success in this omni-channel world (sorry unavoidable buzzword).

Well, put simply, we need to dig deeper so we can better understand the needs, passions and goals of our consumer. We need to think more strategically, developing collective strategy that is shaped around our customer, adapted at a channel specific level based on where our customer is in their journey and their specific demands at that point. And we need to stop using strategy as a catch-all term for tactical channel work (pet bug bear of mine). To me it feels like we are at a tipping point, those slow to react will likely fall away and new, unencumbered entrants will step into the space, buoyed by an holistic approach to communication from day one.

Very often, and especially at DVO, this means taking a step back, rethinking strategy and how we solve problems for clients. Focusing our approach so it can work across multi-channel, not led by a particular area as this isn’t the world we live in any more. Think about it, your consumer interacts with you on the TV, in press, at a desktop, on mobile, in-store and on the phone and can do this in a blink of an eye on multiple channels at the same time. The aims of your brand are either achieved or not, through the sum of these interactions and it’s blindingly obvious that how you approach this needs to cover them all.

Better understanding your customer requires multiple research elements, integration of numerous data sources and ultimately bigger picture thinking. DVO’s approach comes very much from a strategic viewpoint but our model is different to traditional agencies in that we are entrepreneurs, our innovation core isn’t about playing with new tech and palming it off as entrepreneurship. We actively incubate start-up propositions through the agency and then, either in collaboration or under our own steam, launch new business ventures. It gives us insight at a big picture business level. This kind of innovative thinking leads to the development of products and services that blur the line between marketing and business and sit inside a brand’s portfolio of offerings, paid or free.

This is something you should definitely be asking of your agency and yourselves. How are you integrating? I personally don’t feel that huge reorganisation is needed, it’s more about sitting strategy and brand management above channels rather than being focused on above the line.

If you’d like to discuss your challenges, call us on 020 3771 2461, or drop us an email.

Integration and customer experience, how do you stack up in the next battle ground

To paraphrase Jimi Hendrix, are you experienced? Or to coin a marketing phrase, how integrated are you? In this post I’ll be exploring what this means to us and why integration is so important.

It seems to be a popular soundbite, when starting to talk about experiences and integration, to jump on the ‘advertising is dead’ band wagon. Far from it, in an integrated brand ecosystem, advertising has just as much a role to play as any other. It’s still one of the best ways to scale a message but for DVO, it’s often linked to other touch points such as digital to give the consumer a better experience.

Our philosophy is very simple, a customer experience is the sum of the engagements a consumer has with a brand along their journey. At it’s most basic level, it’s an emotional response, whether it’s good, bad or indifferent, made up over time of these individual interactions.

In order to shape that experience, to ensure it’s overwhelmingly positive, very often requires a rethink.  It requires a more holistic view of the customer and once you’ve accepted that, it requires a rethink of how you structure your brand and communications. It emphasises integration, requiring an understanding of your customers’ journey, understanding behaviours and motivations at each step so that you can meet and exceed expectations. If you can understand your architecture, you can start to shape it to deliver what you want.  Hence my statement about advertising, it still has a part to play. It shouldn’t be the source of your brand strategy, it’s just one of many channels where it’s played out.

That strategic rethink is where it starts, your brand and creative strategy needs to sit at the centre, feeding and shaping each touch point. If you can achieve that then you’re well on your way. As a note of caution, this isn’t about ensuring your logo is in the right place and your brand colours are used correctly, which we see so often in digital. It goes to the core of what a consumer feels and thinks.

In an experience-led world, all customer touch points are integrated around a brand. There are no siloes and no distinction between online/offline, before during or after a sale.  Everything works holistically.

Creating this kind of architecture requires a willingness to change, to be open to being shown the many new ways that people can interact with your brand, and hence the many new touchpoints that you can create as part of your overall architecture. It requires a move away from arbitrary KPIs and a passionate understanding of how your product fits into a every changing world.

DVO are dedicated to this approach, creating effective methodologies to deliver this for our clients. We recently discussed a quote we’ve heard a lot recently, “every industry will have it’s Uber”. We couldn’t agree more, but why should that Uber moment be restricted to new entrants. All sectors have incumbent brands, that to some extent or another, could be their industry’s Uber.

But take a leaf out of Uber’s book. They manage their customers’ experience with true finesse, they haven’t had to change the way they think and work against an ingrained philosophy, but they’ve still had to make it work.

So how experienced are you? Well if you aren’t and you want to talk to us about how we can make this a reality together give us a call.

I’m not even going to attempt to make predictions for 2016. Instead I thought I’d talk about what our business is doing and how we are tapping into the post disruption phenomenon we’re seeing in many sectors.

Continuing on from DVO’s rebrand last year, we are now starting to filter through how we as a creative business, intend to differentiate ourselves in the market. This mainly involves highlighting why we’re different and why the hell you should work with us. DVO has a clear path for clients. At the traditional end, we offer services on a typical professional services model, based around our core skills planning, creative, technology and activation. Then it gets interesting.

The other end of the spectrum sees us launch fully fledged, digital businesses into the market. We develop them from internal ideas and external collaborations, prove concept, work them through funding, staff them and watch them go into the world. A bit like sending your kids off to university.

It’s about creating options. Sure, you can continue to work with us the same way you have with agencies for years, or you can dip into projects we are incubating at various stages along their lifecycle, co-founder, collaborator, commercial partner or investor. It turns innovation into reality.

Why have we done this? Well the agency model, in fact the professional services model as a whole, is very tired and it needs shaking up. Secondly we’re really good at spotting opportunities in markets we have a deep understanding of, particularly those that have been created as a result of digital disruption. And we’re entrepreneurs and we want to show it.

We’ve started to categorise these as “post disruption” opportunities. Opportunities that have been created by the original digital disruptors who’ve changed consumer behaviours and perceptions in the verticals they work in. It’s a growing space in most sectors, driven by the new and not so new digital brands, who’ve quickly taken market share from the incumbents who’ve been slow on the uptake. But now the gaps are starting to appear and in fact we think it represents the perfect space for traditional brands to fight back. How are you taking advantage of post disruption?

2016 will see us move projects in the travel, real estate and fitness sectors forward. Get in touch if you have something you’d like to collaborate on, either a project of ours or maybe something you need a collaborator to work on with you.

The reality is the model we’ve developed plays to our strengths. We’re delivering on the same strategies through creativity and technology that we would on a traditional client project. We’re simply taking it one or two steps further into a fully fledged business proposition.

If you’d like to talk about how we can develop something for you, collaborate or you’d like to understand more about propositions we are already developing and how you can be involved, drop me an email.Contact us.