Pub. 9 2020 Issue 6

26 Trying to Market in a Pandemic? By Neal Reynolds, President , BankMarket ingCenter.com W hat budget is the first to get slashed in an economic downturn? As we all know, it’s marketing. As a former ad agency guy, I have lived through many a downturn. We always knew that when times started to get tough, we were the first to lose our jobs. And, when times began to improve, we were always the last to return to work. There’s an old agency metaphor for spending money in a downturn. We said it was “like shooting at ducks that aren’t there.” Well, right now, a lot of banks are looking to save their No. 2 Steel for another day. But, perhaps they’re not ready to give up entirely on bagging a few. I found Bill Streeter’s recent post on The Financial Brand 1 both informative and, well, a bit encouraging, despite the fact that the challenge he addresses is that of “pinched budgets plus tougher competition.” Why do I find it encouraging when we’re talking about an industry being in somewhat of an “unenviable position?” Because I think I can help. Bill goes on to say: “New marketing technology can bring efficiency, which helps with budgets, but you can’t just snap your fingers to get there. It requires investment in software and talent.” I couldn’t agree more. While a “new marketing technology” deficit is one of them, there are a handful of issues banks face when it comes to marketing in today’s economic turmoil. The Financial Brand interviewed Chandramouli Venkatesan, market development executive in Capgemini’s Financial Services and Capital Markets, who pointed out some of those additional issues. “Multiple touchpoints to execute a campaign, lack of standardization of campaign components and manual handling of data should be solved by a marketing resource management solution,” he said. “The problem is that many of these software tools are out of date.” He goes on to state that talent is a tougher challenge. “To have an agile marketing team, an institution needs a blend of expertise in digital See What the Experts Say