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The GMR Interview

By Alex Malouf November 2011

Putting marketing at the centre of Al Rahji's business is paying dividends for the Saudi bank, says head of marketing Yusuf Jehangir. Alex Malouf reports from Riyadh.
Time has flown for Yusuf Jehangir, Al Rajhi Bank 's head of marketing and corporate communications. The man who heads up marketing for the largest shari'a-compliant bank in Saudi Arabia, and possibly the Gulf, has spent four years in Riyadh.

He admits that he loves the opportunities and challenges of being at the helm of a Saudi institution.

"Marketing can often be perceived here as a bolt-on, an afterthought. The product guys develop the product, do the pricing and then finally come to the marketing people to develop a campaign. The real opportunity we have as marketers in the region is to take more of a customer centric end-to-end ownership strategy. For example, when developing campaigns, starting with customer insight and analytics as the foundation for developing a concept, testing the concept, and then ensuring the ROI mindset is in place to track and monitor campaign success" explains Jehangir.

With mor than 3.5 million customers in Saudi Arabia and operations in Malaysia, Kuwait and Jordan, Al Rajhi Bank is one of the world's best known Islamic banking brands. The focus is still very much on the Saudi consumer, however.

"The international operations started in Malaysia several years back. We now have 23 branches in Malaysia. Over the past 12 months we have opened a branch in Kuwait; in Jordan we currently have two branches in Amman. In terms of significance, Saudi is well over the 80/20 rule. Al Rajhi is still predominately a Saudi brand."

One of Jehangir's long-term goals is to shift the traditional perception or marketing from business support to business driver (revenue generating). While he has a sizable marketing budget of $10m to $15m, his concern is to demonstrate to executives how marketing can deliver additional business.

"There is a challenge in terms of shifting this idea that marketing is a cost. While this is not a simple exercise, developing a single view of the customer and showing through a "show-and-tell" mindset can definitely help put marketing in the driver's seat when it comes to business strategy. Over the past couple of years we have introduced analytics into the business, in simple terms, developing a long term view of your customer's profitability and ensuring all different aspects of customer VOC are captured in a single view.

"The approach doesn't have to be complicated: start by mining your database, looking for customers with similar demographic and behavioural tendancies and developed targeted campaigns which can be tracked, monitored and learnings fed back to enhance the customer model.

"By using channels such as SMS, email and outbound calls, we have been able to demonstrate that we can get a much better return in terms of the bank's campaigns.

We have been able to show that we can bring incremental revenue at very low costs. I think that has started to shift the mindset of what marketing is as well.

These challenges are there every minute of every day. And that is what makes the job interesting here."

The second frontier that all marketers face is online. The brave new online world requires a strong risk appetite, since testing and learning is an important ingredient to online growth says Jehangir.

"In the past year alone we have successfully launched several online initiatives including: ladies painting, tell us your financing needs, and e-greeting cards. All of which have been a great learning ground, but have ultimately enabled the brand to shift from one-way communication to taking on the role of a facilitator and catalyst for customers to engage."

Jehangir, who describes himself as results-oriented admits he can be a tough boss. However, he's also not afraid to get his hands dirty.

"I am demanding, but I am fair. I don't ask anyone to do anything that I would not do myself, but I don't want people to mess around. I'm not in Riyadh to see the sights, so work is my priority. I'm demanding but fair."

Taking up the position of marketing head at Al Rajhi marked a dramatic shift for Jehangir, whose previous roles included marketing director at General Electric, international marketing and product development director at American Express, and brand manager at Unilever.

The process of offering Jehangir the job in Riyadh was completed in three weeks.

"I had only just been in my role at GE for two years, having returned to London from New York, and I got a call from this headhunter who said there's an amazing opportunity to head up one of the largest banks in Saudi Arabia. I thought it was a crank call. I met with the consultant, we went for lunch and I agreed with the family that the time was right to move, especially since I have family in the region. I saw it as a great chance to head up marketing in a bank and I have always believed that opportunities exist when you go against the herd."

The move has been a win-win for both Jehangir and Al Rajhi Bank , which has won a glut of marketing awards since his arrival. The bank has benefited from his results-oriented approach and determination to put marketing at the heart of the bank's product offerings.

There's still more that he would like to focus on, however, including building the analytics function and online engagement which will help penetrate youth and female segments, both critical for the future of the kingdom.

"We're always looking to improve our retail services. One example is issuing a loan in 30 minutes. Al Rajhi is the first bank in Saudi to be able to issue an instant debit card. This is no small feat for a bank anywhere in the world, let alone Saudi Arabia.

"There are lots of products and enhancements taking place, but we are trying to keep an eye on the future, on Saudi society, on youth and females. Over the past year we have looked to up our engagement with Saudi women. We have started the ladies painting competition which is now in its second year. We now have a quarterly bilingual newsletter. I was recently looking at some of the results from our quarterly brand index. Over the past two years when we asked 'how likely are you to recommend Al Rajhi to friends and family' the biggest improvement is in the female sector. I am not making a 100 per cent direct correlation between what we have done and these results, but it is the first time that we have gone out there and engaged with female sector and the business metrics are improving," he says.

"All of us in marketing and branding have to look forward and ask what our market will look like in the next five, 10 years? No one has a crystal ball, but it's a fairly good bet that the female segment will play an increasingly important role, along with the changing psyche of the Saudi consumer."

This, he says, relates to the fact that consumers are trusting traditional advertising less and relying more heavily on peer group endorsement.

This is even significant in Saudi Arabia due to the social constraints and a high penetration of mobile and online devices ,he adds.

"Ultimately there is little differentiation when it comes to financial services products, and the perception of the brand becomes paramount in ensuring the bank is number one in terms of top-of-mind awareness and consideration set."

© Gulf Marketing Review 2011