Okay, so we have all learned about the 4P’s of marketing in undergrad: Product, Place, Price and Promotion. If not, you can open up one of your old marketing text books, blow off the dust and read about it there. The 6 C’s, however, is a not a concept that replaces the 4′Ps; rather, it just expands on the promotion element and provides a more granular approach to consumer marketing.

CUSTOMER

In this day and age, a company’s marketing strategy needs to be customer focused. It’s about understanding the target consumer; their wants, needs and motivations. Not as demographics, psychographics or any other graphics, but as real people. Its understanding why customers do what they do (or do),when they do it and why they do it. Such knowledge is critical in marketing since having a strong understanding of buyer behavior will help shed on what is important to the customer. It’s about focusing on the target customer first and then working back to the brand. It’s imperative that companies have mindshare before focusing on market share.

CONSISTENCY

Companies need to maintain consistency in their message; a practice called integrated marketing communications – from packaging and advertising to sales promotion and publicity. This will maintain and reinforce a brand’s personality and image in a real life context and avoid doing something brainless like changing the distinctive color of the UPS truck to orange. I am sure it’s been talked about.

CREATIVITY

Creativity is imperative to attract attention in a world cluttered with thousands of messages. Creativity means laying aside the rules, and engages in out-of-box thinking so that marketers can reach beyond logic and structure and tap into their imaginations.

• Creativity Informs: Marketing’s responsibility to inform is greatly enhanced by creativity. Creativity makes marketing more vivid, and many checkers believe vividness attracts attention, maintains interest, and stimulates consumers’ thinking.

• Creativity Persuades: The ancients Greeks created legends and myths about gods and heroes -symbols for humankind’s instinctive longings and fears – to influence human behavior and thought. Today’s marketers are doing the same thing; they are creating new myths, heroes and symbols like Ronald McDonald, the “Can You Hear Me Now” guy from Verizon, and more recently the Gecko from Geico Insurance.

• Creativity Reminds: Imagine using the same invitation, without any creativity, to remind people to try a particular product each day for a month. The invitation would become stale very quickly. Only creativity can transform boring reminders into interesting, pleasing marketing communications. Nike is proof. Several commercials in a Nike campaign never mention the company name or even spelled it out on the screen. Each communication told a story. And, the only on-screen cue identifying the sponsor was a single “swoosh” logo inscribed on the final scene.

CULTURE

All marketing communications needs cross-cultural research to be able to succeed. It’s to see things from your own perspective, assuming that everyone else in the world thinks exactly like you and should understand what is so great about your product or service. Just reading about all the mistakes made by massive corporations proves that even the most sizable and experienced marketers have made errors time and again.

One of the most famous examples is Coca Cola translating the name into Chinese without back-translating it (“bite the wax tadpole”), ultimately resulting in a horrible response from an insulted society. Marketing books are full of examples like these. As David Ogilvy, known as the Father of Advertising, states, “If you are trying to persuade people to do something, or buy something, it seems to me you should use their language, the language in which they think”.

COMMUNICATION

This one is basic. Consumers don’t want to be “marketed to”. Rather, they want to be “communicated with”. Good marketing communication creates value with target customers, talks in their language and tells your story. It’s about building long term, trustworthy, and profitable relationships with your customers. As Seth Godin states, it’s about reinforcing the lies that consumers tell themselves (i.e. I look much superior in these jeans from Abercrombie; they make me look sexy).

CHANGE

Marketing is not just a business function, but a process. There is a beginning, middle, but there is never an end. Marketers must constantly CHANGE as society changes. They should never be afraid to try something new. Marketing today is not what it was 2 – 5 – or even 20 years ago. Marketing needs to be an evolving process that thinks about change in the world, economy, market, consumers; as well as internal change within the organization.

CONCLUSION (not the 7th C)

So there it is; the 6 C’s of marketing – Customer, Consistency – Creativity – Culture – Communication and Change. I am sure that these will be published in every text book in the country within the next ten years and I will be a rich, well known author. Yeah right!

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Offshore banking gives retirees many reasons for utilizing it as a component in their investment strategies. There are a number of reasons why choosing offshore banking could be considered as a strategic decision. Being a retiree, perhaps you just cashed in on your entire pension fund as a lump sum, or perhaps you decided to liquidate the whole of your stock investments, or even perhaps you just sold out your company as part of your retirement. Whatever reasons you have, there are many aspects that must be thought out and carefully considered.

Dome of the considerations you may want to take into account include tax and legal considerations. You will need to consider whether the service provider your are looking at fully understands all the legal and financial requirements when using offshore accounts such as the reporting requirements of the the governments where the businesses operate. In the United States in particular there are specific requirements, and the US Patriot Act requires or rather demands the certain types of information for any business operating in the United States including all fund transfers to offshore banking accounts. These are important aspects that need to be considered.

Making the Choice of the Ideal Offshore Bank and Country

Before you start any transfers, you must consider if you are choosing the offshore banking provider that is right for you. You will have to consider the country of where the offshore banking service is and their governments relationship to the US and other governments. You must also ensure that all the tax implications are fully understood and detailed out, and that the services have the capacity and depth to service your specific needs. For Americans some the best countries that provide ideal offshore banking services may include Panama and other Caribbean countries.

Many Offshore investors, offshore holding companies and offshore financiers have found these small countries to be ideal for worldwide corporate bases and offshore banking services. This in addition to being stable and viable offshore incorporation of offshore companies, offshore trusts and offshore foundations. This would be evident from the number of such institutions that have set up shop and the number and quality of clients that they have.

The next consideration you will need to take up is finding fiduciary services that will be able to provide you with trusted service. It is critical that when you are transferring funds to your offshore account(s) that there is someone that you can trust and rely on to handle and invest your funds. This is so important that virtually all International corporate offshore consultants or consulting institutions make it their priority to be very diligent in handling such matters.

Good offshore service institutions provide professional administration of the offshore company legal affairs and formation which are connected with your offshore banking, continuously. The personnel in these firms should be very business savvy, technically skilled, knowledgeable and more importantly discreet since they will be assisting you to represent huge sums of of money and their character, integrity and work ethic should stand to reflect it.

Conclusion

In offshore banking, finding the right offshore service(s) that will allow you achieve your objectives at a reasonable cost and within the shortest possible time frame is paramount and should be considered with the utmost importance. Considering that the stock markets are continuously changing, the way that your offshore banking is handled must be in the best order, if not perfect.

The bottom line is for you to find an offshore services firm that can service your needs and, has your interests and objectives at heart since it is your retirement benefits you are most likely to use. If you are able to find this type of institution then you can rest assured that your offshore account will grow successfully and will provide your needs well into the twilight of your life.

Judging by the simple definition of Internet marketing is a key underlying web site promotion. In the world of today's fast running, no one has time to sit and watch every detail of their products and services. Standing in the highly competitive online market of today is not an easy task. This is where Internet marketing techniques reveal their potential. They teach you the ways of leverage by which you can give your visitors exactly what you are looking for. No doubt you want to make use of Internet marketing solutions that are affordable and convenient to follow for the future. Today, the competent services available from internet marketing consultants have enabled increasing their online presence and satisfaction in every way. In fact, you can get Internet marketing solutions tailored to your needs. This also helps give your personalized marketing material their own identity. A quick search on any major search engine for Internet marketing consultant or a company for internet marketing results in a huge number of possible alternatives. There is a growing buzz about outsourcing services and Internet marketing this has been growing in recent years. Whether technical or strategic need pure labor, has proven itself in the achievement of a revolution in the IT sector. You may also consider approaching any Internet marketing company renowned for creating a strong brand that customers will soon be calling you. Besides being a profitable option, which will bring the benefits of high standards of quality that meets international support, as well as reliable communication facilities. Offers online internet marketing and technical resources in advance to get a visibility site required by the highest ranking in the listings. Although anyone can start with the use of SEO procedures to seek the advice of the Internet marketing company or an Internet marketing consultant that ensures the necessary experience. However, never accelerate the process and be patient enough to compare offers from different companies Internet marketing. Beware of companies that try to connect customers with outrageous demands them overnight success.

Offshoring processes in the Banking and Financial Service sector, like most industries, is an accepted and widely adopted way of doing business. In the 1990′s the Financial Services sector quickly embraced offshoring in particular in the back and middle office. This early enthusiasm focused on standard, repetitive transactional processes such as credit card processing, and as yet the take up of offshoring more complex processes such as Finance and Accounts has been minimal. Given the current market turmoil what lies ahead for this industry? This article reviews offshoring trends in both the Banking and Financial Services (FS) and Finance and Accounting (F&A) market. I review the overlap of these two markets and establish if there is an unexplored opportunity. Finally, I intend to review how the current turmoil in the financial markets may impact the future of offshoring in the FS market.

Trends in Financial Service offshoring

Offshoring within the FS sector can be traced back to some of the early pioneering contracts of the 1990′s. Organisations such as UBS and Citigroup were quick to identify and realise the benefits of offshoring. Many FS organisations set-up captive shared service centres in locations such as Mumbai and Chennai for the provision of predominantly their IT and transactional back office functions. Other organisations such as Credit Suisse opted to join forces with a third party supplier, rather than going it alone.

Interestingly the FS outsourcing market profile has not changed significantly. In 2008 the FS offshore market still strongly reflects its heritage with IT and back office areas still equating for over 80% of the market.

The back office transactional work includes processes such as mortgage, credit card and loans processing and retail banking.

Offshoring is still popular confirmed by a recent report by FS Outsourcing who state that in 2007 the FS outsourcing market was valued at close to £25.2 billion. They also estimate the FS market to grow at approximately 25-30% per year, which is phenomenal. Indeed there is an argument that, given the current economic climate and turmoil, the estimated growth of this market may be underestimated and that many FS organisations will look to further utilise offshoring to achieve necessary efficiencies and cost savings to survive in these challenging times.

Trends in F&A offshoring

The F&A market is a multi-billion pound industry and can also be tracked back to the 1990′s with early deals such as BP with Accenture and IBM. Offshoring F&A typically starts with basic transactional processes such as accounts payable or travel and expenses. These are usually the first processes to be handed to a service provider, often under trial. Like the FS market, the F&A market place is experiencing significant growth. FAO states that in the last 5 years this sector has seen 40% growth with 107 contracts signed in 2007. As highlighted above this growth is despite its poor take-up from FS companies.

The F&A market, shows no signs of slowing down with many wide-scope F&A deals being signed including well known names such as BBC with Xansa (now Steria), Thomas Cook with Accenture and Centrica with WNS. The F&A market has providers servicing a broad range of industries, from travel to utilities and manufacturing to drinks companies, many of whom have special, individual and unique, requirements and regulations.

This sector’s growth can be split in two parts. Firstly, more organisations are realising the benefits of offshoring basic, repetitive, rules based and transactional processes. Secondly, this market is evolving. Many companies have gained more confidence in their offshoring providers, some of whom have worked together for over a decade. They are now exploring offshoring more complex processes.

The cross-over

It is clear from the sections above that both the FS and F&A markets are buoyant and experiencing significant growth in their own right, but there is limited overlap. As stated above FS outsourcing reported that of the £25 billion FS market just 2% is represented by F&A.

Our research shows that, of the banks and FS companies that have outsourced any F&A processes, most remain in the bottom third of the complexity pyramid above. National Australia Bank has outsourced their accounts payable to Accenture and Lloyds TSB have a contract with Steria for the provision of their accounts payable, employee expenses and fixed asset accounting.

This focus on just the transactional work is years behind other industries. There are only a handful of FS organisations who have taken it a step further and offshored processes higher up the complexity pyramid.

Morgan Stanley and HSBC are two examples of organisations actively utilising offshoring and who have pushed the boundaries into the middle tier of the complexity pyramid. They both operate their own captive shared service centres which provide F&A services, including statutory accounts and risk reporting, and HSBC’s also includes tax and financial analysis. Examples of FS organisations who have offshored middle tier operations working with third parties are less widely reported. In 2005, Finodis was established. This is a joint venture between Fortis Commercial Finance (FCF) and Electronic Data Systems (EDS). The joint venture provides invoicing, payments and management reporting.

Our research could find only a few, predominantly US, examples of FS organisations who have offshored higher end (top tier of the complexity pyramid) processes including financial analysis, planning and treasury. Interestingly in most cases they used a third party provider rather than setting up operations independently.

Given the success, at many levels, of outsourcing F&A in so many other industries why is there such a limited appetite to offshore these processes, in particularly in the UK FS market?

Offshore providers can offer many references of clients who have successfully off shored similar F&A processes, for example the well publicised success of BP. The original contract signed 15 years ago was worth $20 million a year this was so successful that their outsourced contracts are now worth £1.5 billion. Yet few FS clients have been convinced. So why are FS organisations not offshoring? Do they have valid reservations?

Why not F&A?

A possible reason the FS sector lags behind in F&A offshoring is that management have had other important competing priorities. Management of FS organisations have been dealing with constant change over the last few years and have had to address other major issues such as IFRS, USGAAP changes, Sarbanes Oxley, Basel II, MiFiD and other regulatory changes.

Additionally whilst recently working on a recent UK bank engagement the following issues were also cited as barriers:

o Operational Risk

o Compliance Risk

o Reputational Risk

Operational Risk

The safety and ‘lock-down’ functionality of technology, systems and data were cited as reasons for blocking offshoring. There was concern that remote offices are less secure. This location issue has however not stopped the banks detailed above so clearly this is not insurmountable. Fraud was also a concern and it was felt the increased remote nature and use of third parties extenuated the risk.

Compliance Risk

The FS industry is fiercely regulated. There is increasing pressure for the sector to be more transparent and able to provide regulators and investors with meaningful investment information. A very important point is that Chief Finance Officers and relevant account executives are personally responsible for compliance. They cannot delegate their responsibility so there is often concern about offshoring. Executives want to guard this work closely so they can ensure compliance and control. It should be noted however that compliance and regulation is an issue being faced and overcome by many industries. Compliance with rules, regulations and standards can and are being written into contracts. This reduces the loss of control and, some would argue, introduces contractual boundaries often stricter than internal governance. Other organizations have taken more innovative steps. Credit Suisse made the decision to co-manage their offshored location. They put their management ‘on the ground’ working alongside their third party provider. This relationship and contract is a success. Compliance risk can be minimized but if the appetite for offshoring is not there then this risk could prevent it from happening.

Reputational Risk

The reputational risk if something fails could be detrimental’ was cited as a major issue for FS organisations. This risk is interesting as if something fails then it could be detrimental to an organisation, but this is not necessarily increased because a third party supplier is involved. As per the point above if the appetite doesn’t exist within an organisation then this issue will become a show-stopper.

The issues and hurdles faced by FS clients are complex but every industry has specific nuances and processes and regulations that are unique to them. The FS sector’s F&A processes are not so complex or unique that they cannot be offshored, as demonstrated by those who have already done it.

The road ahead

For the last decade the FS sector has been very successful but at the current time you cannot open a newspaper or turn on the TV and fail to hear about the worsening financial state of the economy. The credit crunch and daily press coverage of the government bailing out the banks is causing major economic, financial and reputational damage. The years of strong growth are behind us. Life in the city is tough and going to get more so. In recent years success has meant banks have not had to focus on their cost base. However this is going to change and become a key priority. Over the next 12-24 months FS organisations will have conflicting pressures. There will no doubt be more regulatory changes (as a result of recent events) which will need to be implemented but these will need to be dealt with whilst also addressing cost pressures. CFO’s are going to be facing increasing cost and resource pressures and are going to have to make tough decisions. For those organisations who have not already done so offshoring is a possible option to overcome both the cost and resourcing challenges. Offshoring will be utilised not just to get the competitive edge as the likes of HSBC and Morgan Stanley did, but to ensure these organisations just stay in the game. The current economic turmoil will increasingly focus attention to parts of the FS organisation where cost savings and efficiencies can be achieved. F&A offshoring is an established market with proven track record so is a sensible starting place. The current economic situation will result in boundaries being pushed and changes that were ‘nice to have’ becoming a necessity.

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