29 October 2014
Marketing in a bank with no branches and whose customers are its local shoppers. Last week a group of students went along to find out about how the digital marketing teams at Tesco Bank operate in this environment.
On Wednesday, 22 October 2014, the Business School organised a Trek to Tesco Bank for both MBA and MSc students. During reading week, this event provided us with a great opportunity to experience the working environment within the Digital Marketing Service departments at Tesco Bank’s Headquarter in Edinburgh. What did we learn from this trek?
1. Working in a bank is not always rigid and stiff
At first, we had a particular image and perception of what the formal working environment would be like in a bank. Yet, when we arrived at Tesco Bank, we were amazed by how the company visualises the information they need, including the company’s values, history, strategies and progress of their projects. It was beautifully displayed on the office walls.
This visualisation shows that the company has a focus on “openness” not only to all employees but also to outsiders who visit. The atmosphere felt so warm but also productive, not quite what we had imagined before.
2. Visualisation of the information relating to progress of the project is very important
In our experience of working in companies, we have never seen so much detail of job progress being displayed on walls. This experience gave us an idea of the strong collaboration that can exist within a team. Current project, project timeline, team members with job descriptions, and strategies were updated regularly on the wall based on real time current condition. In addition, everyone in the team sees and has the same perception of the work progress instead of having to make their own notes.
3. There are many challenges to overcome in newly established digital marketing services
Dave Shaw, Head of Digital Strategy and Transformation, explained to us that at that moment in time, the team was about to launch a new look for their website with improved navigation which would lead to a better customer experience when accessing the site using a mobile phone, laptop or tablet. One of the challenges to be met was combining expectations between banking and insurance customers. Andrew from the Business and Development Team also gave a brief overview of the digital services in the bank works. Interestingly, a new company usually uses other research companies to support them in doing marketing research. We were impressed by how Tesco Bank manages the market research and analytics without 3rd party support.