Product Management and Marketing

Customer Management doesn’t only boost our understanding of our 15 million customers. It also helps us act on that understanding to create more value both for them and Nationwide.

It’s divided into a number of teams:

• Customer Reporting analyses the data produced by our marketing campaigns and generates the reports that give us a deeper understanding of our customers.
• Customer Research keeps us informed about customers’ attitudes, views and opinions. And it makes sure we take the needs, expectations and preferences of customers into account when developing products, services and communications.
• Customer Segmentation analyses databases to give us strategic insights into our customers’ needs. We use these insights to design appropriate new products and to makes existing products more relevant.
• Data Quality Operations makes sure the details we hold about customers are as accurate as possible.
• Database Marketing manages the Marketing database and works closely with Direct Marketing to produce files of customers to contact.
• Direct Marketing promotes our range of products and services through effective one-to-one marketing communications.
• CRM Marketing manages a host of different activities centred on Customer Relationship Management (CRM) systems.
• Marketing Effectiveness helps us make sound, fact-based decisions on the size and shape of our marketing budget and how to make best use of it.

Product Management works with the business to develop and deliver our range of products. It’s divided into three teams, each focusing on a different product area:

• Mortgages and General Insurance
• Savings and Investments
• Banking

As well as driving new product development, the teams make sure existing products evolve in line with customer needs. Specifically they –

• plan, develop and manage new products
• manage pricing and product features to ensure we remain competitive
• work with colleagues across the business to maximise performance and meet business targets
• collaborate with the Advertising team to deliver compelling customer propositions and promotional campaigns.

How do we make the most of our promotions and customer communications in over 700 branches up and down the country? It’s the job of Branch Marketing to decide. It constantly reviews merchandise and technological innovations, running in-branch trials and pilots to assess their impact. And it works closely both with Retail, supporting them on specific branch issues or national projects, and with Property Services, reviewing branch layouts and design.

The team also makes sure our 9,000 branch staff make a great first impression in modern, professional corporate clothing. New ranges are rolled out every two years.

Key responsibilities include:

• planning and managing projects (ranging, for example, from A frame trials or investigating local marketing opportunities through to piloting a complete new range of product leaflets)
• playing a key part in branch refurbishments
• building relationships with key stakeholders and suppliers
• reviewing industry innovations and competitor activity.

Our sponsorship portfolio is impressive. And it’s all thanks to our Sponsorship team. It identifies the most influential deals, agrees the best terms and cements ongoing relationships.

Until the end of the 2009 – 2010 season, Nationwide is the Official Sponsor of the England, Wales and Northern Ireland football teams and an Official Partner of the Scotland team. The deal also includes the England under 21 team, the England women's team, the England disabled teams and the various England youth teams.

In 2008, we’ll also be the Principal Sponsor of the Bournemouth Symphony Orchestra.

Key responsibilities include:

• planning and activating our sponsorship portfolio
• delivering additional benefits to our customers through prizes like international football tickets, VIP opportunities, mascots, signed shirts and training sessions
• building relationships with key sponsorship stakeholders and rights holders
• evaluating sponsorship research, new proposals and industry innovations
• spotting new sponsorship opportunities.

Our Advertising team decides what we say about our brand and our products. How we say it. And where we say it.

That involves masterminding our advertising on TV and radio, in the press and online. Planning and managing the production of posters, leaflets and point-of-sale material for over 700 branches. And working closely with Product Management to deliver the kind of communications that resonate with customers and reflect our brand values.

Key responsibilities include:

• planning, managing and implementing our TV and radio campaigns
• developing and delivering our creative campaigns in branch, in the press and online
• planning and buying media
• evaluating advertising research and new media proposals
• building relationships with key stakeholders and agencies
• reviewing competitor activity and industry innovations.

Our Internal Agency mainly supports the Product Management and Marketing Division by developing brand and product campaigns from initial brief right through to implementation. But it also works with a whole range of other business areas including Commercial, Internal Communications, PRIDE, HR and External Affairs. The goal is high quality, cost-effective creative solutions that meet brand and product objectives.

We recruit recent graduates with a marketing degree into most of our Product Management and Marketing Divisions.

We often need Marketing Executives for all three of our Product Management teams. You’re likely to be a graduate with some commercial experience and a meticulous approach to detail. After all, you’ll be scrutinising facts and figures before putting together proposals for senior management approval. And when their decisions involve millions of pounds, there’s no room for error.

You’d join either Customer Segmentation or Customer Reporting. By analysing the data generated by our marketing campaigns, you’d help us come up with answers to all sorts of questions about our customers. The deep insights you’d help generate will increase our understanding of our customers and underpin every strategic decision we make.

You may be a recent graduate or have already cut your teeth in a similar technical analysis role. Either way, you’ll need a sharp, analytical mind, and a genuine flair for interpreting data. You’ll also be as comfortable presenting to colleagues across the business as you are sitting in front of a spreadsheet. Experience with a structured query language like SQL, SAS or VBA would be a big plus.

Our Internal Agency team is made up of a small group of account management staff, copywriters and designers. Account Executives work with Account Managers to interpret client needs and inspire appropriate, high quality creative solutions. They also provide valuable admin support, producing everything from status and contact reports through to project timelines.

Your experience in marketing or communications will have made you familiar with design, production, the media and working with agencies. If you also have a degree, a marketing qualification or some knowledge of financial services, even better.

• A can-do attitude
• Problem-solving ability
• The desire to make their mark
• The self-confidence to interact with people from all over the business
• Commercial awareness
• Clear, confident communication skills
• The ability to put themselves in the customer’s shoes