Santander Brasil’s Marketing Director Banks On Digital

Mobile and social are among the tools Paula Nader relies on to better understand consumer behavior, “which is changing ever more quickly.”

In her 20-plus years as a marketer in Brazil, Paula Nader has helped to build major financial services brands, including Banco Nacional, Unibanco, and Banco Real, where she also guided the strategy for its merger with Santander Brasil, her current employer.

At Santander, Nader directs branding and marketing, B2B and B2C, for every product and service in the bank’s portfolio, across every channel, and for every customer and market segment. In addition to leading the marketing team, she works directly with an extensive network of professionals at the bank’s branches and other branding, marketing, and communications partners.

In an exclusive interview with CMO.com’s LATAM staff, Nader talked about marketing technology, industry challenges, and digital engagement.

CMO.com: How does Santander keep up with the digital transformation of its customers?

Nader: We are connected to the great social and economic changes that will impact behavioral changes. Every bank has its economic department. Changes to credit and pricing have an impact on marketing decisions. When we bring this to the brand, it is much better equipped to try to understand these changes that affect society, human behavior, and, therefore, consumer behavior.

This first look is integrated, and the digital sphere is part of this major movement of social, culture, and consumer behavior changes. This is true not only for consumption, but also for the history of content generation. At the same time that we are looking at consumer behavior and the behavior of people who use banking services, we are also looking at crowdsourcing.

We feed the organization with fewer concepts and more practical applications for the short, medium, and long term. Technology is not an end—it’s a means.

CMO.com: Mobile has become the primary screen for services and user experiences. How does Santander use mobile devices for customer relations and marketing actions?

Nader: We follow a very relevant vision: mobile-first. We’ve understood this for a few years now. From here on out, we think of cell phones first for everything. When something is well-designed for cell phones, then we move on to PCs. Smartphone screen size is a key limitation. If we can get it right for smartphones, we can adapt to other screen sizes later. When I think like an advertiser, I believe mobile marketing has a lot that still needs to be developed. It’s still a challenge to work with publicity on mobile devices.

CMO.com: How does Santander use analytics and data to provide customers with more personalized experiences?

Nader: We’ve been doing this in Brazil for 20 years. We observe and understand each customer’s behavior. The size of our customers’ digital footprints increases the possibilities of my offering exponentially. Conceptually, little has changed. Today I have infinite variables.

CMO.com: How does the bank engage customers and potential customers on digital platforms?

Nader: We have a broad view. When banks started moving into social media, we were the first. It’s inevitable for you to be prepared to give your customers the service they require. Until you’ve dealt with their requests or complaints, you cannot establish a conversation with them.

By improving our responses, we improved our overall level. On Twitter, we respond within 48 hours. And then came the question: Why don’t I do this in traditional channels? Since then, we have developed our customer-service operations under centralized, internal management.

An important second step is that social is a tool for monitoring reputation management. This is a lesson we learn anew every day. Quickly monitoring and understanding what’s going on is something we’ve gotten better at over time, which we incorporated very early.

We want people who are engaged. Every platform has its own style and type of audience.

CMO.com: What are the main challenges for marketing leaders in the digital age? And how does this materialize in the financial sector?

Nader: Our biggest challenge is understanding human behavior, which is changing ever more quickly. Predictability is near-zero. On the other hand, I have data and information about people that I need to digest. In this sense, we have a series of automated solutions that saves time so we can put people’s talent toward another type of solution. Programmatic media platforms are one example of this. They set the bar in conversations about media.

Marketing has always been a career linked to subjective issues, sensitivity, intuition, and experience. Today I have more data, but the data’s the same for everyone. That’s why it’s important to have a clear purpose for your brand. Not every problem can be solved with an algorithm. You cannot have someone in the marketing chair without this capacity. But it requires intuition.