A marketing team's main goal should be around customer centricity, reckons newly appointed CMO for the National Australia Bank, Andrew Knott.
Knott joined NAB as its CMO roughly six months ago and he explained to AdNews that he did so because of the bank's customer focus, with his goals being firmly centred on the customer over the brand.
“The up-tick of technology, the increase focus on digital, the evolution of the marketing organisation and the complexity that goes with that, is part and parcel of any form of evolution,” he says. “Where marketing needs to be focused, and adds the most value, is being the function that represents the customer into the organisation.”
“At the bank there are a lot of people who can think about product and distribution and so on, I think it's beholden on us [marketers] to represent the customers in the organisation. We reach more customers than any other part of the business, we have more contact with them as result, we should have better insight into what they're looking for and we should be able to steer the organisation as a result,” he added.
Knott is a self confessed “customer focussed” marketer with that being his go to, with his thinking centred around if the customer is happy, the brand health will follow.
He explained to AdNews that he's “fixated” on customer life cycles as well as “advocacy loops” because if a customer is prepared to advocate on behalf of a brand, then it's in its most powerful position.
“For me it's about making sure that we are absolutely indexed around delivering that compelling customer experience and compelling customer outcome,” he says.
When it comes to what Knott is focused on for the year ahead he outlines that mobile will be a big driver, but most importantly it comes down to engaging with the banks customers on a platform and in a way they want to engage.
Want to know more about NAB's marketing focuses? You can read our full chat with Knott in the current issue of AdNews, out print now. Click here to subscribe to the AdNews magazine or read the iPad edition here. You can now also get AdNews digitally on Zinio.
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