Conference Featured Industry Thought Leaders and Futurist Watts Wacker
ROCHESTER, N.H., June 15 /PRNewswire/ — Executives from top financial institutions gathered this week to define retail banking trends at the fourth annual symposium hosted by BrandPartners Retail, Inc., a wholly owned subsidiary of BrandPartners Group, Inc. and leader in retail financial environments.
Symposium speakers included influential futurist Watts Wacker, retail experience consultant Mark Murray, and BrandPartners brand strategist John Mathes, as they explored new strategies for connecting with retail customers. The conference, which concludes today at the historic Wentworth-by-the-Sea Hotel in New Castle, N.H., has featured exchanges among attendees from 40 financial companies, ranging from successful community banks and credit unions to large regional and national banking institutions.
“We are entering the Age of Uncertainty, where the only constancy is uncertainty,” said Wacker, the founder and director of FirstMatter, LLC, and former futurist for legendary Menlo Park think tank SRI International and resident futurist at Yankelovich Partners.
“Everything is inter-mediated,” Wacker added during his presentation. “People are seeking cohorts’ opinions they can believe. They are self-selecting into organized groups based on word of mouth. This is an opportunity for banks if they can communicate in ways that enable customers to find themselves in their story.”
Murray led participants in a discussion on how experience design can ensure a tangible, consistent customer experience across all channels within retail banking. Murray has defined e-strategies for global financial service firms and driven new product launches for some of the nation’s largest credit card portfolios and has served as a management supervisor at national advertising agencies.
Mathes, director of brand strategy and vice president at BrandPartners, urged attendees to be physically different to capture the attention of customers. The branch is the place where all of a company’s advertising, marketing, products, services, technology and associates converge to deliver a physical experience of the brand. Mathes guides clients in translating brands into retail selling spaces. He joined BrandPartners four years ago after 20 years experience in retail advertising agencies.
BrandPartners, a BrandPartners Group Company, provides an integrated approach to customer environments through brand translations, business strategy, design-build services, retail display and in-branch communications products and services, from concept and design through implementation and training. BrandPartners installations are in more than 2,000 companies at more than 30,000 retail locations. The company serves domestic and international markets from its Rochester, N.H. home office, New York design studio, several regional U.S. offices, and its new subsidiary office in London, BrandPartners Europe. The company’s many strategic partnerships include Button plc of London, an international design and tradeshow exhibit company.
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