Cleaning Up

As retail financial services rapidly migrate from the physical world to the digital, the market becomes more crowded and more competitive – and the role of marketing becomes more and more important in helping consumers find what they need. Adopting a genuinely marketing-led approach is a huge challenge that firms must tackle urgently. Written by two of the UK’s leading financial services marketers and rich in real-world experience and anecdote, No Small Change questions the fundamentals of the ways that financial services firms engage with their customers, and defines all the key aspects of the new and dramatically-expanded role that marketing must play. In this challenging and inspiring book, rich in personal experience and anecdote, Lucian Camp and Anthony Thomson define the key aspects of this new, genuinely customer- centric marketing. These include: Demystifying the task of building a brand in the financial services sector Defining a fresh attitude of mind to manage consumer distrust, rather than tackle the impossible task of restoring trust Developing the type of strong, distinctive purpose essential to build real consumer engagement Learning from the fast-emerging academic discipline of Behavioural Economics to create new levels of marketing effectiveness Understanding the extraordinary power – but at the same time the inevitable limitations – of the era of digital, mobile analytics and big data Whether you’re a financial services marketer still struggling to shake off the dreaded “colouring-in department” tag, a member of senior management trying to come to terms with the marketing-centric future of the industry or just an interested observer, No Small Change is a book that will transform your thinking A 13-point manifesto for a new financial services marketing model Anthony Thomson knows a thing or two about new and disruptive financial services, having co-founded and chaired first the ground-breaking Metro Bank and then the purely digital, app-based Atom Bank. And as a financial services marketing specialist for over 30 years, Lucian Camp has helped develop more new and innovative financial services propositions than anyone. Now they’ve put their heads together to write No Small Change, a passionate, opinionated and practical manifesto arguing that the fast-changing financial services world urgently needs to rethink the whole of its approach to marketing. Most of all, they propose that an increasingly digital, fintech-driven industry needs not just more marketing, but also better marketing to make sure it’s successfully identifying consumers’ real needs, and finding powerful and successful ways to engage with them. After detailing the forces of change that demand a new approach, the book then examines in 13 chapters what the key components of that new approach should look like. It takes a broad and multi-faceted perspective, exploring areas as diverse as the crisis of consumer trust, the ever-growing power of Big Data, the importance of leadership and corporate culture and the rapid advance in thinking based on Behavioural Economics. In developing these themes, the authors don’t pull their punches. The book is fiercely critical of some of the industry’s long-established marketing habits, providing compelling reasons why it’s time to abandon the practices that have given it a bad name. Marketers will applaud, but the book is also intended for a broader audience. Thomson and Camp challenge senior management in financial firms to appreciate the real value that marketers can bring to shaping the business agenda at the highest level, and not just to label marketing with that tired old phrase “the colouring-in department.” Rich in anecdotes, comments from leading industry figures, personal experiences on the part of both authors and findings from original research, No Small Change is an entertaining and rewarding read – and, at this point in the development of financial services, a timely and important one.