Q&A WITH NICK BAKER, MANAGING DIRECTOR AT BAKEHOUSE COMMUNICATIONS


Posted February 18, 2021 by aliceworly12

Nick Baker, Managing Director at Bakehouse Communications, is a brand and customer experience specialist with over 30 years in the client and agency financial services environment.

 
Nick Baker, CEO of Bakehouse Communications, is a brand and customer experience specialist with over 30 years in the client and agency's financial service environment. He has held senior marketing roles for life, pension and investment companies. He was Marketing Director at Irish Life UK and Head of Communications for Barclays Investments before owning a successful marketing agency. He has been responsible for bringing countless innovative products and over 14 brand new financial services companies to market, including recently serving as NED for a Retail Investment Fund Manager. He is the founder and CEO of an online simplified protection company, called Simple and Open. Putting the customer at the center of customers' business has been his career long passion.

MEDIA 7: What inspired you to get into marketing? Please take us through your journey.
NICK BAKER: I started in the Financial Services Industry in a technical insurance role, which fortunately exposed me to the distribution and marketing team. I enjoyed the sales environment more than insurance, but not wanting to go into a pure sales role, I moved into my first startup of many early in my career. The entrepreneurial startup environment gave me the opportunity to help design and communicate new products and services so that my marketing career was born. Then I went into managing the entire marketing discipline from end to end with different types of financial services companies and helped start a few new businesses along the way.

Finding out that my side of creativity and innovation needed to be more satisfied, I left the corporate world to help run a marketing agency and set up their digital business in the early days of online before setting up my own agency. Over the years, I have worked with about 100 different companies, helped start several new start-ups and have come full circle to help a new brand called free2, as one of the founders.

M7: Which marketing channels do you use and which do you see as the most promising considering your target customers?
NB: I use all available channels and constantly mix the mix to get the right commercial results. I start with customer insights to define key channels, but then use a very dynamic test and learn the process of optimizing strategies. The new start-up brand free2 aims to break the preconceived ideas of the older demographic, and this extends to the media and delivery tactics we use.
M7: What is your approach to market research, both customer and competitor focused?
NB: Market research to gain valuable customer and competitor insight is important in everything we do. I like to look for innovative ways to gain insight to keep knowledge fresh, secure and deliver an edge. One of the best experiences I remember was spending 3 days in a hotel with a group of consumers. It was definitely a deep dive into how they thought.

M7: How do you ensure that your sales team understands and presents the products in an engaging way?
NB: I create a communication strategy that connects the brand with product and service fixed points, and which is then supported by a set of agreed and consistent messages. I am looking for ways to present the messages through innovative formats and channels, digital and non-digital. For example, in this 'zoom world' I have introduced interactive brochures that are far more engaging than traditional linear ones.
M7: What do you think are the three biggest challenges in product marketing in the entry COVID-19 era?
NB: In financial services, where human touch is important in many areas, delivery through external digital channels must be a factor in consumers' need for humanization.

Being relevant is a major challenge, as consumers' thinking, attitudes and behaviors have changed significantly. Not all marketing messages used pre-covid will continue to resonate in people's hearts and minds. For example, long-term planning suggestions may seem out of place when people are more focused on the present. Keeping a finger on the pulse of people's thinking is even more important than ever.

Understanding that life after COVID-19 will be more fluid for many consumers, so products and services may have to adapt to new patterns of income and expenditure, working and non-working. This will create additional commercial pressure in the design and delivery of products and services to meet these new living and working patterns.

M7: How do promotional tactics change for products and services launched during these periods?
NB: Online has been the huge recipient of recent times, accelerated by COVID-19, while retail has taken a hit. TV has played a very important role in targeting certain segments during the shutdown and will continue to move forward. Social media continues to grow with the introduction of new platforms. Video is a must-do promotional tactic, whether it's a pure campaign game or as part of a deeper content marketing strategy. Overall, understanding performance metrics across a multi-channel strategy is the key to delivering the business goals of any business.

M7: Words of Wisdom for Marketers?
NB: Get fresh, experiment constantly, measure everything and do not forget to talk to the customer.


ABOUT BAKEHOUSE COMMUNICATION
Bakehouse Communications helps customers meet today's marketing needs as well as tomorrow's strategic challenges by building and delivering on brand purposes. They do this across all channels for B2B and B2C clients and set themselves the goal of bringing fresh, challenging and innovative thinking to everything they do.
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Issued By Alice Worly
Country United States
Categories Advertising , Finance , Marketing
Tags banking , financial services , marketing
Last Updated February 18, 2021