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Marketing Experience!
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Over 12 years of Marketing experience in the B2B - business field
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Work experience with European financial institutes like Credit Suisse, Bank Austria, Deutsche Bank, Hamburger Sparkasse, BW-Bank and many more.
My Employer
My company in Hamburg, Affinion Int. Ltd. was a US-led marketing company that brought the then completely new idea of value-added banking to Germany and all of Europe. In the US, this concept was already known but in Europe, especially in Germany, all bank customers simply had a bank account (many even still had the old savings book) and that was it.
The concept of value-added banking, however, promised much longer customer loyalty to their bank if they had numerous savings options in addition to the account. So as a bank customer, in addition to the normal account card, you also got a customer card with which you could go to the cinema, the local zoo or concerts at a reduced rate.
The first big client was the Hamburger Sparkasse, the largest regional bank in Germany. The concept became so popular among banks that many others soon followed. In the end, Affinion International was the most successful provider of banking value-added services in the whole of Europe.
We were able to count Credit Suisse, Bank Austria, Deutsche Bank, of course Hamburger Sparkasse, Volks- und Raiffeisenbank, BW-Bank and Berliner Bank among many other banks among our clients. And our cooperation partners, which the bank clients were able to visit at a discount in the end, included the large Cinemaxx cinema chains, McDonald's, Burger King, many large Bundesliga football clubs and the largest zoos in Germany, as well as all the large concert ticket distributors operating in Germany.
Communication Management
After a while in the call centre, I switched to communication management (then called information management) and gained my first real marketing experience. I worked in a small team of 6 people who divided all the bank clients at the time among themselves.
All banks with value-added accounts published a magazine four times a year announcing the latest offers and big seasonal events. For us, this meant that for this magazine launch we had to coordinate the magazine texts with the clients and the printer, bookable products had to be placed in the online shop, the in-house call centre and cooperation partners, as well as ticket providers had to be informed. We were responsible for the smooth booking process for clients as well as the smooth running of the respective event later on. All kinds of reports, participant lists and contingents had to be managed and communicated. We had to react to spontaneous challenges with process adjustments and meetings with the banks and cooperation partners were the order of the day.
Key Account Management
After several years in communication management, he moved into key account management for the Berlin and Deutsche Bank. Now I was responsible for a small team (including part of Communication Management) from all areas in our company and had full responsibility for turnover.
So I had to take care of the forecast, ensuring the set profit margin and client welfare. I had to develop sales strategies and promote them to the bank clients, new online shop versions had to be developed and implemented. I was also responsible for organising the annual Berliner Bank event in Berlin. We were present with our own stand and I had to develop marketing handouts, concepts and invite the cooperation partners with my team.
Many other workshops, team meetings and client events were essential to strengthen our relationship with our clients.
After many years, when the company was facing its third restructuring and many employees had already left, I had to take on two positions (communication management and key account management) and the work was just too much. So I decided to start a new chapter in my life and turned my back on Germany. I went to Mexico.
Country Manager for the German market
After some time in Mexico, I started working for a company from the USA that sold mobile repeaters and later vaporizers. This company already had a small international team in my new hometown in Mexico and they were still looking for a country manager to take care of the German market.
In this position I had to build an online shop from scratch and fill it with our products, I had to advise customers for the repeater sector and also organise big projects like repeater installation for large areas and buildings. Internal team meetings had to be held with our technicians, concepts created and offers prepared and communicated. I was also constantly on the lookout for new sales and cooperation partners for our products. Again, I had full responsibility for sales and profits and was constantly implementing new sales strategies. Later, I was also responsible for finding and implementing new, improved processes for our internal teamwork and presenting them to our international team.
My work with the vaporisers was very similar, although here the focus was less on the technical aspect and more on finding attractive sales partners for us.