Cutting Edge Marketing Analytics: A Case Study with Dunia Finance LLC
This chapter is from the book
This chapter is from the book
This chapter is from the book
- Analytics function has been a true franchise builder for Dunia since our launch, driving targeted cross-sell by focusing on all three Rs of consumer banking: risk, revenue, response.
- —Ali Hurbas
Introduction
Ali Hurbas, head of the Strategic Analytics Unit (SAU) at Dunia Finance LLC (Dunia), the Abu Dhabi–based financial services company, was in an emergency meeting in Dunia’s Dubai office with Rajeev Kakar and his management team in early October 2012. Kakar, executive director and founding CEO of Dunia and, concurrently, executive vice president and regional CEO for central and eastern Europe, the Middle East, and Africa for Fullerton Financial Holdings, was a veteran of the banking industry, with more than 25 years of experience in multiple markets as regional head and CEO for Citibank’s Turkey, Middle East, Pakistan, and Africa consumer businesses. With investor pressure growing, Kakar told his management team, “We are facing a severe challenge. We need to quickly increase volumes and reward our good customers. And there is a need for speed to get this done!” He had put together a SWAT team, led by Hurbas, to perform this critical task of doubling business growth. (Exhibit 2-1 lists all members of the Dunia teams mentioned in the case.)
Hurbas had spent most of his career analyzing customers around the globe, so he knew there was a fine line between pitching new products to customers and alienating them. Given his experience, Hurbas appreciated Dunia’s approach to marketing products: cross-selling. Executives believed their cross-selling framework had helped the organization launch into the center of the competitive Emirati financial services industry in 2008 and turn a profit by 2011—an event made even more notable for its occurrence during the global financial crisis. Just as Dunia was starting out, many others, due to involvement in debt-fueled real estate investments, were crumbling.
Working closely with his team, Hurbas had to figure out how analytics could be leveraged. Did it make sense to focus on bringing in new customers, or would ramping up cross-selling efforts to existing customers offer the volume Kakar needed to satisfy investors?