Justine Fedak, Chief Marketing Officer for Harris Bank, a member of BMO Financial Group, will discuss the merits of continued investment in your brand. While the financial markets have been the most turbulent in recent times, and the market downturn devastating, she will present her own case study of how to maximize opportunities as a regional bank in tough times. Competition is at an all time high in the financial services marketing category as banks continue to consolidate and many new entrants appear in the Chicago marketplace and Ms Fedak has been at the center of the challenge and succeed. This session will appeal to a marketer that wants a better understanding of selling your brand both internally and externally, utilizing an aggressive sponsorship strategy (Harris is the Bank of the Chicago Bulls and Proud Sponsor of the 2010 Stanley Cup Chicago Blackhawks) and sticking to the same plan over consecutive years.

One of the most elusive goals in bank marketing is to know exactly what to say to a customer or prospect at the moment of truth. This session will describe a unique science award winning market research technique that gets to the visceral wants and needs of consumers. This science determines exactly what to say and what NOT to say to members of each segment in marketing, advertizing, and point of purchase interactions. Dr Howard Moskowitz is the innovator behind the science that has been used to give us products such as Prego spaghetti sauce, Vlasic pickles and Maxwell House coffee to name just a few well known consumer goods. He and Steve Onufrey, a long time retail banking customer experience consultant, have ported this from the consumer goods to the services industry – banking being one of those industries. This session will include several banking case studies that have used this science to determine the use of technology in retail banking, sales of financial services to high net worth individuals, optimization of checking account offerings for community banks, and development of credit card offerings.. You won’t want to miss this session that describes the next generation of market research which uses proven science to increase the bottom line.

Customer perceptions of your brand are built through equal parts “cause”, the brand promises you make, and “effect” -- how you deliver on them across all customer touch-points. Each interaction with the brand represents “a moment of truth” that can affect business results for better or worse. In a world of expanding footprints, proliferating channels, matrixed organizational structures, and increasingly complex customer needs, the challenge for senior marketers can be daunting. This panel will discuss strategies that leading banks are employing to ensure that the experience they deliver reinforces their brands and builds value, for their customers, colleagues, and shareholders.

In the new world customer loyalty is paramount to performance financial services. However Building loyalty-and measuring it with certainty has been an elusive challenge. Hear from the experts at the leading firms on the following topics:

• Impact of the financial crisis on consumer perceptions and expectations of financial services providers
• Critical role of two-way communication in increasing satisfaction and loyalty – hint: it’s not about giving more disclosures
• Focusing on the obvious: better personal interactions and fewer problems
• Getting it right at the initial moment of truth