Anca nuta uni credit tiriac bank

4. Anthropological changes Social changes Technology Sheconomy MODERN FAMILIES UniCredit internal study on consumer trends: Group Stakeholder and Service Intelligence 2014

5. CONSUMER’S NEW BEHAVIOURS Personalized offer Everywhere commerce Multi-point decision journey Segmentation fluidity Increased ethical sensitivity UniCredit internal study on consumer trends: Group Stakeholder and Service Intelligence 2014

7. The 2008 crisis crippled the system. Banks were forced to learn to walk again. This time, in the customers’ shoes.

8. 1. SAMENESS & 2. DISCONNECTION FROM CUSTOMER REALITY 3. STRICT FINANCIAL REGULATION

9. Budgets Conflicts

10. If Marketing Communication & PR Communication Don’t get fused they get confused!

11. Better Faster Stronger

12. Qualitative methodology for insights exploration

13. PR vs Marketing

14. PR + Marketing

15. Advantages: SAME TONE OF VOICE, ONE BRAND Internal External Budget efficiency  position consolidation  staff reduction  less space and computers in use Communication efficiency  consistent and coherent messages sent internally and to the consumers  prevents conflicts of interest between parties  harmonizes the interests Time efficiency  direct communication with a single person in charge of both departments, without third parties  faster feedback  efficient flow of the decision making Easier collaboration  a single person in charge  higher degree of understanding external agencies and their needs

16. Internal External Risk to overload the employees  more tasks and extra efforts  risk to aggravate the proper performance of the activities Know-how limits  dealing with new situations out of the employees’ area of knowledge and expertise Laying people off Specialization in one field • might cause difficulties in understanding external agencies proposals • might need extra time for clarifications Disadvantages

17. = EMPATHY + EVIDENCE

18.

19. CREATIVITY & INNOVATION

20. CONTEXT MOBILE CONTENT STORY PR IDENTITY & MARKETING COMMUNICATION

21. Identity and Communication Brand manager Marketing Communication

22. 2 of our campaigns from this year Mortgage loans & Personal need loan Based on fundamental truths about human nature

23. MORTGAGE LOANS We are all heroes. Not mythical, fairy tale of cartoon heroes. Real life heroes. And every day of our lives is an odyssey. To lead, fight and win these daily adventures, first we need to make sure we have a place to come back to: HOME

24.

25. PERSONAL ACCOMPLISHMENTS LOAN NEED vs ACCOMPLISMENT

26.

27. Competing now in new economies is more like a journey. How we are able to repeat the success of past generations? This comes from continuous innovation and change. People get bored easily nowadays so they can be kept present and engaged with the right content, delivered in the right context, through a great story, told by creative and energetic people. Let’s keep the fusion going!

Notes de l'éditeur

It is well known that communication is a lot different than it was 10 years ago, or even 2 years ago. “A revolution doesn’t happen when society adopts new tools. It happens when society adopts new behaviors”. The fact that we spend more and more time online has created new habits, new expectations and new thinking patterns. This paradigm shift has completely redefined the relationship between consumer and brands.
To best understand the new social realities that set the tone for future communication, and influence in a certain way the banking industry, we conducted a study that has revealed several large consumer trends influenced by some major changes: Anthropological: new age brackets imply new needs to satisfy. We all live in a “you only live once” culture, when the brain is permanently stimulated through the development of technology. 2. Social changes: we have an ideological vacuum and lack of leadership. People are in search of leaders who can help offer a meaning and an interpretation of the context and of what is happening on line community. There is also a notable increase in uncertainty, a sense of ANGST that leads to incapacity to plan the future, to decrease of consumption and to reduction of liquidity. 3. Technology: Nowadays the new devices that are improving almost over night accelerate relationships, rise expectations of speed of service, multiply accessibility for everyone. 4. In 2012, in U.S., 83% purchasing decisions were taken by women and 51% of personal wealth was controlled by women. Women represent the majority of the online market and nowadays older women are more likely to be single. Modern families are replacing the traditional families: enlarged families, single parents, widows, same-sex families or even transgender families.
The changes are affecting consumption behaviors in multiple ways: - We are surrounded of commercial messages that have nothing to do with real life, that are presenting a happy, pinky life and shows how the product can amplify this happiness. This is so yesterday! Nobody has a perfect life as we see on TV. Some down to earth moist communication is key for being different. EVERYWHERE COMMERCE - mobility is no more a barrier to shopping and services. Smartphone's are like volcanoes: accelerate shopping-on-the- run. Everything can be bought everywhere! Traditional segmentation such as: men, women, teenagers, mass, affluent, private, families, individuals, all are so outdated and replaced by other segments such as the consumer of 2015: Data believers are the ones of whose behaviors are influenced by the latest technologies and gadgets. Fable seekers are the ones that value emotions through storytelling, react to emotional stimuli and are more interested in the end use of the product rather than the immediate benefit. New age artisans are the ones entrepreneurial and inventive, who are not afraid to explore new ideas.
Everyone wants a deeper connection with the consumer, and this has forced brands to take their communication approach to the next level. Banks were no exception! Once reputed for their dry, strict and rigorous corporate communication, banks lost their most valuable asset: reputation!
They needed to try even harder than most brands. 2008 financial depression that highly affected the US and Europe, with dramatic effects on the global economy even today. The entire financial system found itself in a territory of doubt, mistrust, uncertainty and negative associations. It was not a few big names that collapsed, it was the whole category! As a crisis consequence, a new era in banking communication began. We could not afford to lose time anymore! Putting together all our resources and capabilities is crucial. As brand keepers, we were forced to find the way towards people, while the new technologies offered the necessary instruments when we most needed them.
However, 3 major problems still stand, in the banking industry and I am pretty sure they are valid also for other industries: 1. SAMENESS. In terms of products everything is immediately copied by the competition. Not only products were similar, but most of them had the same approach in communication. If you are watching TV and hide the logo and final headlines, you could have easily say that the communication was belonging to only one bank, not differentiating at all the peers of the industry. 2. DISCONNECTION FROM CUSTOMER REALITY: All local peers in banking industry were talking about “real life”-like situations. However, the idealized life in their ads and the over optimistic tone shows that this world had nothing to do with reality at all. 3. STRICT FINANCIAL REGULATION: Banking industry, at least in Romania is very REGULATED by the NBR, so innovation and product time to market is very slow
Also internally problems were big: Marketing Communication and PR communication budgets are lower than ever. They are the first ones to suffer cuts in case of cost optimization within the company. Now, more than ever, structures inside the organization need truly to support each other instead of fighting over supremacy within the organizational structure. I always thought their separation caused companies to bleed money, time and energy that could otherwise be put to much better use. In the end the only one to suffer would be the brand.
It may be simple and natural, and that’s because it is. Still it wasn’t like this, and it isn’t in most companies:. Harnessing the storytelling power of PR in the service of Marketing, which now relies on good content. The two disciplines working together to deliver human content that is meaningful for the consumer and instrumental to the sales and revenues objectives.
If well implemented, the fusion of PR Communication and Marketing Communication disciplines can optimize financial, human, time and creative resources: Because two teams working as one are faster, as opposed to developing separate proposals and later trying to harmonize them. Because this would reduce decision making time, from developing briefs to deciding on communication directions and evaluating materials. Because there would be less time spent in meetings and briefings to find the common ground between marketing and PR, and more time spent on the actual development of campaigns. Because there is someone that has a global view of the communication activities and can stop the possible overlaps or anticipate miscommunication
In order to accomplish this fusion, my research was developed based on the Qualitative methodology for insights exploration, meaning In-Depth interviews. I chose this method for its many advantages: It was very useful for B2B discussions, where the target was high positioned and hard to reach It assured deep understanding and induced a good mood for the respondent The information obtained during the interviews has a greater degree of honesty because respondents are encouraged to express themselves freely and talk about their personal point of view and experiences. The discussion guide was created both for internal stakeholders (CEO, CFO, PR Manager, Marketing Manager, HR Manager), and external representatives of PR, Marketing and Advertising Agencies (PR Account Manager, Advertising Account Manager, Communication Manager, Creative Director and Brand Expert). Different industries were approached cause my aim was to demonstrate that this new organizational structuring of the Communication as a hole is feasible no matter the industry: telekom, oil and gass, banking, insurance, media, etc..
The discussions concentrated on: - The changes that have occurred in the past few years within the organizations, due to economic crisis and market changes. - How our approach to communication has changed in this period. How important it is to find ways to optimize the flows, costs, human and time resources in order to accomplish companies' common goal: revenues and profit. And then we talked specifics: - How important are the roles of PR Department and Marketing Communication Department within a company? - How much do these departments generally contribute to the company’s strategic objectives?
Finally moving on the solution I proposed: The benefits of merging the PR and Marketing Communication Departments within the company. And final recommendations: Why should companies unite these two distinctive departments (PR and Marketing) by joining forces? Why shouldn’t they?
If I were to compress my research to one single question it would be: is it worth it? I would say Hell YEAH! -this change would increase the budget efficiency by consolidating the positions, reducing the staff and requiring less space and computers. -Communication would also become more efficient: the messages sent internally and externally would always be consistent and coherent, conflicts of interest would be avoided and the interests would be harmonized. -time efficiency and easier collaboration with agencies. By establishing direct communication with a single person in charge of both departments, feedbacks would be quicker, decision making would follow a more efficient flow and a single person would keep contact with external agencies.
Because if an idea doesn’t have any setbacks it means you haven’t looked hard enough I found also some disadvantages: - overloading the employees by assigning them extra tasks. Limits of the current teams’ know-how, since this fusion would challenge them with new situations out of their area of knowledge and expertise. optimization of workflow means less people needed to make things works, which basically translates into laying off some people specialization for one domain, can cause difficulties in understanding external agencies proposals and might require some extra time for clarifications After this analysis, it was clear that the advantages, on all levels, outweigh the setbacks and I decided to go through with my vision, take advantages of the disadvantages
My vision was coming into a right brand positioning context: UniCredit brand is built on a fundamental insight of the human nature: EMPATHY that should be always proven by EVIDENCE We believe in establishing a long term partnership for real life with our customers, by showing EMPATHY for the ups and downs of life, in understanding the challenges and opportunities our customers face in their everyday life. All these supported it with concrete solutions, answers and benefits.
In an industry characterized by sameness, disconnection from the customer reality and rigid financial regulations, our prime objective was stand out from the competition as an empathic, real life banking partner focused on real customer’s needs. My team and I had one big goal: changing the tone of voice in banking communication. As Sir John Hegarty said once, when drawing our creative concept in 2009: “Great communication always touches a human truth. Ours is a very simple one. Life isn’t always a bed of Roses. We all hit bumps in the road. So whatever happens, we’ll be there to offer help and advice.” “Lifes is full of ups and downs, we’re here for both” was our positioning. A truly amazing statement that differentiates us from the competition. But I was aiming even higher…
Taking advantage of the anthropological, social, technological and economic changes that I’ve mentioned in the previous slides such as: the fact that we are surrounded of commercial messages that have nothing to do with real life, that are presenting a happy, pinky life and shows how the product can amplify this fake happiness traditional segmentation such as: men, women, teenagers, mass, affluent, private, families, individuals is outdated and replaced by other segments such as the consumer of 2015, I believed that by infusing the very core of our company with Creativity and Innovation we can stand out from the crowd. No one in the Romanian banking industry had undertaken to play the CREATIVITY and INNOVATION positioning and no other Romanian bank in the top 5 (UniCredit is number 4 in terms of assets) approached this new organizational structure.
Who is the best in exploiting the CONTEXT in the right moments through the right channels like MOBILE for example? Marketing Communication of course! Who is best to create the right CONTENT and tell it through the right STORY? PR Communication of course! Who can make all these 4 major trends: storytelling, context, channel and content happen in a consistent and coherent way respecting the brand promise? The new team of Identity & Communication.
So we made the change. The structure of the new department was very simple: 2 teams each headed by its own team leaders: Marketing and Communication. Each team consisted of 4 people including their managers. On top of it a Brand Manager reporting only to me and insuring that the tone of voice and brand consistency was insured and respected. And how did it work out? Well…
To illustrate how we changed the bank’s tone of voice as a new single-minded team, I will present 2 of our most recent campaigns. Their common denominator is that they are based on fundamental truths about human nature. For each and every one, we tried to go beyond dry demographics and look deep into the consumers’ lives, minds and souls. Only after finding such a truth can we deliver a message that is deeply relevant and empathetic to the ups and downs in their lives.
We needed to go beyond the product’s financial advantages and talk about what a home truly means to our audience, on a deeply emotional level. So we looked at our own lives and we detected a pattern: Each and every day, we wake up with a purpose and we do our best to accomplish it. Maybe it’s providing for our loved ones, maybe it’s becoming a better version of ourselves, maybe it’s simply surviving. And on our daily quest, we face challenges that sometimes wear us down. At the end of the day, a home is where we retreat, sometimes in glory, other times in defeat, but always ready to start again the next day. The home is more than a roof over our heads, it is a space where we can recharge and replenish the strength we need to carry on with our journey. And no one comfort us for dealing with everyday problems. Because it’s not such a big deal, right? Wrong. It is a big deal. We are heroes, not fairy tale or cartoon heroes, but real life heroes. Our campaign was based on this insight and aimed to acknowledge the “real life hero” status of ordinary people. Validate their daily struggle, appreciate their daily victories and reassure them through their small defeats.
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Since we had enough fuel in our carburetor we did not stop here. For the past years, we have noticed a venereal side effect of the access to crediting lines and loans: people used them, but not in the best ways. They contacted loans for perishable things, indebting themselves for things like wide screen TVs or vacuum cleaners, and then worked for months to pay off things they sometimes didn’t even want anymore. Especially in the last 5 years, in the context of the crisis, most Romanians have focused their efforts on dealing with their pressing daily needs and kept putting off their desires, personal projects and other investments that could have brought them joy in the future. So we decided to redefine loans and, at the same time, educate people on how to use them for the future, for bettering themselves, for experimenting more, rather than simply filling gaps. Since the term NEED had negative associations, we decided to reframe the product altogether, as the LOAN FOR PERSONAL ACCOMPLISHMENTS. And we told the story in a way that inspired people to think more about the future and invest rather than simply spend. We wanted to restart their mindset. And why not RESTART ROMANIA.
We wanted to use a modern, emotional and engaging way to tell a story that the audience can relate to. So the TV spot showed people in real life situations, with a twist: the voice over described their actions as heroic. And so did all the other tools and materials we used in the campaign: print, outdoor, online, social media.
Competing now in new economies is more like a journey. How we are able to repeat the success of past generations? Repeating the success comes from continuous innovation and change. People get bored easily nowadays so they can be kept present and engaged with the right content delivered, in the right context, through a great story told by creative and energetic people. Let’s keep the fusion going!
Thank you for joining me on my journey and thank you for listening today.