While we've worked with financial services clients for years, we've spent the past year building up the team, hiring talent out of leading companies in the industry, building industry specific solutions and adopting cross industry best practices to clients in the Financial Services sector
London (Vocus) October 7, 2008
MarketBridge (http://www.market-bridge.com), a leading marketing and sales professional services company to worldwide corporations, today launches its Financial Services Practice, established to meet the needs of a dramatically changing global financial services industry.
The formation of a dedicated Financial Services Practice reflects MarketBridge's growing body of work with leading companies in the industry, as well as market research and direct feedback from financial services executives. At a recent Financial Services Roundtable, MarketBridge learned first-hand the challenges faced by financial services marketers. "We saw some trends last year that led us to believe that the industry was in for significant change, which will require new thinking in how companies go to market, particularly around channel selection, product alignment and customer segmentation," said Tim Furey, CEO of MarketBridge. "The state of the industry closely resembles what we observed in high-tech years ago. In this case, different events are causing companies to dramatically rethink their traditional business models, and how they acquire new customers and keep existing ones."
Strategic Solutions
"While we've worked with financial services clients for years, we've spent the past year building up the team, hiring talent out of leading companies in the industry, building industry specific solutions and adopting cross industry best practices to clients in the Financial Services sector,"" said Mathew Stewart, VP MarketBridge Europe. MarketBridge has developed tools that will help companies across the industry better utilize the following:
- Digital Marketing: Weighing the impact of digital on the customer experience, organizational alignment and the effectiveness and adoption of new Web 2.0 tools.
- Analytics and Modeling: Combining deep customer insight with predictive analytics to better understand customer wants and needs, helping providers build multi-touch marketing programs to sell to customers when and how they want to buy.
Strategic Focus
MarketBridge has focused its initial efforts in two market segments that have complex multiparty systems and/or are experiencing shifts in market dynamics similar to other industries where MarketBridge has established practices. Those two segments include:
- Payments Industry--addressing the changing four-party model and growing influence of merchants on acquirers, processors, issuers and banks, particularly in Europe and developing markets
- Commercial Insurance-- improving small business acquisition, penetration and profitability, as well as increasing the productivity of the channel/agent
Experienced Team
MarketBridge has assembled a Financial Services Practice team with a wealth of industry experience across its lines of business--strategy consulting, execution and measurement--and global market locations of London, New York and San Francisco The team's industry vertical experience runs the gamut, from Payments and Insurance to Credit Cards and Investment Services.
Upcoming Initiatives
To jumpstart the launch, the Financial Services Practice has implemented, or is planning, several initiatives:
Payments industry: MarketBridge has been working with a leading global payments company in Europe. "There is a lot happening around merchants' payment strategies" says Stewart, who leads the initiative. "Payments suppliers who quickly embrace the merchant marketing challenge stand to dominate this market for years to come." Stewart has penned a white paper that identifies proven marketing and sales techniques which can be applied by payments industry suppliers in order to grow revenues and better satisfy merchant needs. Click here to download: http://www.market-bridge.com/_res/pdf/Payments_Merchants_WP.pdf.
Digital marketing: MarketBridge has recently completed research with financial services publisher SourceMedia on the impact of digital on the customer experience, organizational alignment and the effectiveness and adoption of new Web 2.0 tools. The "Digital Marketing in Financial Services" survey findings will be revealed at SourceMedia's Financial Services Marketing Symposium, Oct. 19-21 in Lake Buena Vista, Fla. Click on the following link for more information: http://www.sourcemediaconferences.com/FSM08/agenda.html?conf=FSM08&iter=1
Additionally, MarketBridge's Solutions Group is launching DemandStream for Financial Services in early fall. This Web-based platform will put the efficiencies and scale of the central marketing function in the hands of regions, local branches or merchants. This allows for the creation of localized, targeted and effective customer marketing campaigns that meet all brand and organization standards, through a simple-to-use application.
Analytics and Modeling: Our DemandAnalytics for Financial Services offering gives Retail Banks and Insurance companies on-demand access to analytic marketing best practices to enable "always on" customer campaigns. Click on the following link to read the white paper on how forward thinking insurance companies are measuring and optimizing return on marketing investments: http://www.market-bridge.com/Forms2/ROMI_Insurance_WP_Final.html.
Commercial Insurance: MarketBridge is currently conducting primary research with Commercial Insurance companies, brokers and agents on the impact of competitive economic trends and its effect on the industry. This research will be released in late autumn.
About MarketBridge
MarketBridge (http://www.market-bridge.com) is a global professional services firm focused on sales and marketing effectiveness. Founded in 1991, MarketBridge leads go-to-market strategies, operational transformations and managed in-market programs for leading companies in the Financial Services industry, including Goldman Sachs, HSBC, Lloyds TSB and Fidelity Investments; and for leading global companies such as Microsoft, IBM, HP, Siemens and BT. Through a combination of deep expertise, analytic rigour and industry focus, MarketBridge solves the toughest sales and marketing challenges, helping CEOs and Marketing and Sales Directors improve performance and effectively integrate sales and marketing operations. MarketBridge is headquartered in Washington DC, with offices in London, San Francisco, Seattle, and Toronto.
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