InMarketing This Week: The power of partners

Innovate > Interact > Influence

Written for CEOs, marketers and other leaders in the financial sector, InMarketing This Week is a showcase for news likely to impact them - delivered with insight on why it matters and ideas on what to do about it.

It’s published here every Sunday to give you a head start on the week.

What’s new?

On Wednesday, The Verge reported on Google's relaunch of Google Pay, including a massive set of new features effectively making it an all-in-one money app. Two days later, The FinTech Times showcased Citi's new Citi Plex, a fully digital current and savings account delivered through...you guessed it...Google Pay. In short:

• "Google Pay is now arguably a direct competitor to a wide array of other apps and services, including Apple Pay, Samsung Pay, PayPal, Venmo, Square Cash, Intuit’s Mint, Simplifi, Truebill, Shop, and also online banks like Ally. In 2021, Google will partner with some banks to directly offer fully online checking and savings accounts inside Google Pay — a service Google is calling Plex."
• "Citi's new digital bank account is called Citi Plex. It announced that it had selected Mastercard as the network partner and the accounts will be delivered through Google Pay. The powerful combination of these three global companies and the unique user data and insights that they bring will make the Plex Account an interesting advancement to watch as the platform evolves."
• "With a user experience and account management features powered by Google, the Citi Plex Account is designed to integrate seamlessly within Google Pay to deliver a richness of insights and capabilities to empower consumers with a simple, convenient, and personal banking experience."

Why does it matter?

When it started to become clear a decade ago that big technology companies had their sights set on financial services, the banks were nervous. Very nervous. But this Citi/Google/Mastercard collaboration is just the latest example of tech companies choosing to work with, rather than against, the incumbents. Just as Apple relied on a partnership with Goldman Sachs to launch its credit card, Google seems content to rely on best of breed banks and card network partners to create a complete solution.

As Meredith Spatz at Mastercard said, “the acceleration of the move to digital has also opened the door for more collaborative work amongst technology and financial players – to drive new and enhanced solutions for consumers.” The question is whether Big Tech will remain content to collaborate, or will its ambitious nature get the better of it?

The real prize is surely the relationship with the customer.

In the meantime, while each partner plays to its strengths, the prize is surely the relationship with the customer. Distrust of Big Tech is matched only by distrust of the large financial services companies. Will a Citi Plex customer feel closer to Citi or Google? Given that all 'Plex' accounts must meet a set of specifications set by Google and will be accessed via the Google Pay app (even though it will cary Citi branding), the answer seems to be the later. On the other hand, the transaction data (arguably the most precious) will remain with the bank.

Looking at it purely from a marketing perspective, the key to making all of this work in the eyes of a customer is to choose the right partners and for each of those partners to focus on its core capabilities. Broadly speaking, customers trust their banks to keep their money - and their data - secure. They trust Big Tech to design great digital user experiences. And they trust the card and payments networks to 'just work' in the background. Having the three partner up to deliver a complete solution makes sense both commercially for the firms involved while the customer instinctively understands what each is bringing to the table and why they are partners. Each brand benefits from the credibility of the others.

What’s next?

1. Take action

I chose to highlight the Citi Plex story and discuss partnership this week because I think the topic is so interesting. The truth is though the connection to marketing is tenuous. But it exists. There are two things your marketing function should be supporting you when it comes to partners.

The first is advising on which ones make sense from a branding perspective. How would a potential paartersnhip be perceived by your customers and the market as a whole? Are you complimentary not just functionally but reputationally? Will you be perceived as equals or will one brand appear dominant?

The second is to fully leverage your existing partners once they are on board. By definition each partner will have access to a different target audience and there are a slew of marketing tactics that can and should be carried out collaboratively to maximise the benefit of the partnership. Your marketing team should be putting partnership marketing on the same level as PR, content marketing, advertising or any of the other items in the strategic marketing plan.

> Choose the right partners and be sure to leverage each other's strengths and reach.

2. Get help

In the post-Covid age of depleted marketing budgets and remote teams with skills gaps, many organisations need marketing and communications support that’s agile, flexible, on demand and risk free. That’s why I founded WhatsNext Partners.

> Whether it be as a permanent member of your team or with 'on demand' support from WhatsNext Partners, let me know if you need my help.

3. Share with colleagues and subscribe

Sharing valuable content is integral to building any brand, including your own.

> If you found this post useful or know someone who would, please like, comment on or share it using the buttons below. If you would like future issues delivered straight to your inbox as soon as they're published, please subscribe.

What else?

Three other worthy articles you may have missed.

FINANCE

Finextra: Starling Bank moves into profit

TAKEAWAY: Focus on the product, not the gimmicks

Starling Bank, one of the first 'neobanks', has hit a rare milestone: it broke even in October and is on course to return monthly profits from here onwards.

• "With nearly 1.8 million accounts, ￡4 billion in deposits and ￡1.5 billion of lending, Starling generated ￡9 million of revenue and a positive operating profit of ￡0.8 million for the month of October 2020 (￡10 million on an annualised basis).
• "Operating costs have increased by 30% in the past year, while customer accounts almost doubled and fixed costs have broadly remained flat over the last 12 months."
• "We’ve never ‘bought’ customers with cash incentives, or promotions," says CEO Anne Boden. "We don’t have jazzy metal cards and we don’t offer ‘perks’ such as access to premium airport lounges. Customers join us for the features that help them manage their money and their businesses in a more effective way."

TECHNOLOGY

The Financial Times: Artificial intelligence is reshaping finance

TAKEAWAY: AI will help to determine the future winners and the next big set of regulatory risks in finance.

Gillian Tett believes that Barclays' tie-up with Amazon in Germany shows how AI is upending the sector.

• "Data on consumer and corporate digital activity predicts credit risk and provides customised services. [...] however, the biggest problem of all is opacity."
• "Companies engaged in AI-enabled financial activities must be regulated. [...] Regulators and risk managers must bridge information silos."
• "Politicians and the wider public must pay attention to what is under way, instead of outsourcing it to technical experts."

MEDIA & MARKETING

The New York Times: A Headline (or Five) for History

TAKEAWAY: Writing should be as simple, clear and crisp as you can make it.

I loved this behind the scenes look at how the NYT's reporting - and particularly its headlines - come together. Short and punchy, it turns out, takes a lot of work.

• "What we needed was simple. Powerfully simple. BIDEN BEATS TRUMP. And it took a dozen journalists only about 25 emails to get there."
• "A headline must fit, be clear and accurate, and have a certain liveliness to it, all while adhering to a long list of rules that can make the task feel a little like trying to solve a linguistic Rubik’s Cube."
• "It can take minutes, or it can take hours."

Quotable

Lao Tzu - an ancient Chinese philosopher and writer - is the reputed author of the Tao Te Ching and the founder of philosophical Taoism. 

"If you are depressed, you are living in the past. If you are anxious, you are living in the future. If you are at peace, you are living in the present."

One more thing...

I didn't have anywhere else to put it, but you shouldn't miss the Guide to Internal Communications that Jason Fried wrote for Basecamp. In many ways it's an ode to writing (which is to say, it's an ode to thinking) instead of meeting. It's full of gems, including:

• "Meetings are the last resort, not the first option."
• "If it's important, critical, or fundamental, write it up, don't chat it down."
• "Poor communication creates more work."

About

Written for CEOs, marketers and other leaders in the financial sector, InMarketing This Week is a showcase for news likely to impact them - delivered with insight on why it matters and ideas on what to do about it.

It’s published every Sunday to give you a head start on the week. Read it here, or have it delivered straight to your inbox.

InMarketing is a broader celebration of marketing that innovates, interacts and influences. It's available on Twitter, on LinkedIn, and as a Flipboard magazine.