In Conversation With Lloyds Banking Group CMO Suresh Balaji

Wolff Olins Global CEO Sairah Ashman sits down with Suresh Balaji, Chief Marketing Officer for Lloyds Banking Group, to discuss his 360 view on brand-building and his latest endeavours in the new role.

Suresh Balaji

This week I’m welcoming Suresh Balaji to my column to talk about what he is up to in his new role as the Chief Marketing Officer for Lloyds Banking Group.

His wide range of experiences has given him a 360 view of brand-building, including what it takes to connect with customers in a sector disrupted by technology and an array of new entrants.

Here he talks about his passions and learnings as a CMO and what excites him in his latest endeavour (one I’m delighted to share Wolff Olins is involved in).

Tell us what led you to build a career in marketing within the financial sector and why it excites you.

It’s simple: I can’t market things I don’t believe in. And although some people might think being a marketer in the financial services sector isn’t the most exciting or sexy, trust me when I say it is!

Financial services create real impact – finance is a way to help people achieve their life goals and ambitions. It all helps individuals, households and businesses prosper. And it’s something that’s totally aligned to my personal philosophy.

Marketing is a fast moving capability. The data and technology rich environment in financial services has certainly kept me on my toes and satiated my curiosity and thirst for learning.

If you have the ability to help people with their hopes and dreams, while fulfilling your own potential, why be anywhere else?

Having worked across continents and specifically in Europe and Asia, how different have regional needs changed how you think as a CMO?

I tell my team that the clue is in the word. Marketing is about the market. It doesn’t matter which one you are in. It is about winning in the marketplace. Marketing at its best helps unearth opportunities through customer insight, helps build experiences and helps take them to market.

I’ve had the pleasure of living across nine cities in my life, and have worked across the world. There are so many differences and nuances across these markets, but technology has definitely made the world more homogenous.

Regardless of your role or the market you’re working in, if you think customer needs, think total experience, think commercial and think curiously, then you won’t go wrong.

The financial sector is constantly being disrupted and innovating, especially with the speed at which technology is moving. How is this influencing your approach?

Mobile is where it’s all at. Like many other sectors, our customers prefer using their mobile to access our services and products. Mobile-first is at the heart of our strategy.

I have been quite impressed with the number of things you can do on the Lloyds app. Our team is constantly improving features and journeys. A brilliant app, combined with compassionate colleagues when customers need them the most, is what creates real magic.

This is also mirrored in the way we think about our marketing and our brand portfolio. Our team is now looking at ways in which we can create mobile-ready design choices. A lot of this came to life in our latest Club Lloyds campaign. One I am super proud of.

We’re both believers in brands needing to be experience-led, why is this so important as part of your CMO focus and remit?

At Lloyds we believe that brands are more than advertising. They are the sum total of all experiences. We want our customers to have kick-ass experiences that go beyond a logo or a name. That’s what builds lasting relationships.

My CMO remit at Lloyds covers all the brand and marketing activities as you’d expect, but I also have the privilege of overseeing experience design. Over 50% of my team are focused on experience so that shows how seriously we take it.

This can only come to life because we have a strong portfolio of brands, data that can be put to good use (from fast feedback loops to driving personalised content), technology that is world-class, and finally creativity (and partners) who help create experiences that benefit our brands.

We are also constantly refreshing and reviewing our brands, so they are customer insight-led and have great product-market-experience fit.

In your new role, you’re responsible for some of the most well-known brands in the UK – what are you looking to achieve and why now?

Lloyds Banking Group is a brilliant business. We’ve got a relationship with over half of UK adults and support households and businesses across the length and breadth of the country.

We have 17 brands: these include well-known banking brands including Lloyds Bank, Halifax and Bank of Scotland, and specialist brands like MBNA, AMC, and pensions expert Scottish Widows.

I’m six months into my role here and all I see is opportunity ahead.

We’re turbo-charging our efforts to modernise our brands for a mobile and digital world. I’m super excited that Wolff Olins is partnering with us to help review our brand portfolio and future-proof it for our audiences and our business.

Improving commercialisation of our marketing and experience efforts, and creating future ready capability, are the tickets to the game.

How would you like to be remembered as a leader and as a marketeer?

A curious, courageous and kind leader. I try to show up with these values each and every day.

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