An Approach to an Accountable Client-Communication Mix in the Banking Industry

Book excerpt: Inhaltsangabe:Introduction: The recent decades have been characterised by the development from the industrial age towards a service economy. Knowledge and information have become the most essential production factors. When services and intangible assets are offered, information and soft factors are even more important elements of business communication. Any kind of worldwide communication between (anonymous) business partners has been enabled by the progress of information and telecommunication technology. The banking sector is one important part of a service economy. With regard to the globalisation the banking industry still faces radical changes. This paper is especially addressed to the business operations of WestLB AG (WestLB), a major German bank that primarily operates both national and international business-to-business (B2B) banking. WestLB operates in a partnership with the savings banks, which run the business-to-customer (B2C) banking of the mass market for private customers (esp. retail banking). In addition, WestLB s subsidiaries Readybank and Weberbank attend to private clients, whereas Readybank runs bulk-lending business and Weberbank offers private wealth management to German customers. In particular, this reading explores a number of relevant questions within the scope of well-managed marketing and its controlling. Latest organisational restructuring within the bank s marketing organisation have encouraged a rethink of how to better manage marketing communications to the clients and where to spend its marketing investments. One important change means that one worldwide marketing budget has been applied to the entire bank. This is the second largest departmental cost budget after information technology to be controlled at WestLB. All these present circumstances are described in detail in a separate chapter including organisational questions, marketing teams, customer and product groups. Motivation: Due to the homogeneity of the offered finance products, it is especially difficult for banks to position and distinguish themselves from the competition. Consequently, marketing success of financial services products requires communication activities such as imaging, loyalty factor, persuasion, and so on. Traditionally, the marketing department is responsible for shaping such a competitive communication on products and image towards the company s markets within an affluent society, where the customer can choose from different [...]