Following the news General Electric plans to sell off the majority of its financial arm, Jessica McGreal sits down with Georgios Kolovos, marketing director EMEA and Asia Pacific at GE Capital, to find out how he will market the brand through the transition
On 10 April Jeffery Immelt chairman and CEO of the world’s largest industrial conglomerate General Electric (GE) announced plans to close the majority of its less known financial arm of the B2B brand. GE Capital is being sold off because of tougher rules for financial firms, which basically means it’s not making enough money.
With the spotlight now on GE Capital I caught up with the company’s marketing director EMEA and Asia Pacific, Georgios Kolovos, to find out what this means for the brand.
“We made a strategic decision to reduce the size of GE Capital through the sale of most Capital businesses, including the business in Europe and APAC,” explains Kolovos. “This will allow GE to focus on investment and growth in its industrial and manufacturing businesses and create a simpler GE that is of better value to investors.”
Despite the news, the firm is still fully committed to delivering high quality services to customers and Kolovos is determined it will continue to ‘thrive’ in its next phase. As a result it is critical the marketing department continue to execute upcoming plans. He reiterates: “Our focus is to ensure we are providing high quality services to our customers and retain our strong Europe and APAC position in the commercial finance market.”
Access GE
Going forward GE Capital will continue its focus on catering for mid-sized businesses across the region through the ‘Access GE’ campaign. Kolovos explains: “In 2012 we were just out of the recession, the mood was not particularly happy or positive. There were a lot of the companies struggling because they lost customers or market share. We did some research around how different companies were dealing with this.”
The research revealed that the mid-market contributes more to the economy than big business and employs more people than smaller companies. Despite only making up 1.5 per cent of businesses in the four largest European economies (Italy, France, Germany and the UK), these firms are responsible for a third of private sector GDP. However, the middle market receives far less attention and support than big businesses and start-ups.
“During the recession these were the companies that were more resilient, these were companies that lost less and retained their position,” explains Kolovos. “Nevertheless, when the market improved they struggled to accommodate this growth. This is where ‘Access GE’ comes into play.”
This research project allowed GE Capital to highlight the significance of mid-size companies to the public. Meanwhile, ‘Access GE’ offers businesses insights and information beyond financing. It includes a dedicate portal with best practice insights and third-party prospects to help overcome major business challenges.
The campaign proves that it’s now essential brands go that extra mile to gain and retain customers. It’s no longer enough to offer prospects your services. To stand out from the crowd B2B brands need to offer customers help and support to aid their growth and success.
Globalisation
Over the last six years Kolovos has held various marketing roles across Europe, including Istanbul, Bulgaria and Germany. However he is not professionally trained in marketing. Completing a degree in microeconomics and political science, he initially wanted to become a politician or diplomat. Yet when he began to experiment in various job roles from risk to strategy he realised marketing was for him.
Kolovos’ international experience means the marketer can quickly relate to people and understand different cultures and the way decisions are made. He adds: “I cover England to Australia and everything in between. It’s very, very dynamic, at the same time, the world is becoming more global. You see technology and digital completely changing how we work and how we interact with our customers and internally.”
He says the consequences of globalisation and digital disruption are the main challenges marketers now face. He explains: “Everything is personal. The sooner you understand that the better. You can measure the success of a B2B company by looking at how successful it makes customers. The sooner you understand that, the sooner you can impact your working life, customers, and colleagues.” And for Kolovos this is what makes his life and work interesting.
Defining marketing
While it’s vital marketers stay up-to-date with digital developments, it’s as important they remember to go back to basics sometimes. Kolovos urges professionals to really understand their department’s role in order to be taken seriously in the business and at board level. He outlines: “Everyone has an opinion on what marketing should be doing, and it’s up to each one of us to explain what marketing is.”
So, what is marketing? According to Kolovos the department’s work spans across the business and includes everything from defining the brand’s vision, implementing strategy, developing products, carrying out campaigns and more. He warns: “Sometimes when we talk about marketing we just talk about the campaigns and we forget everything else. The more we can start to build this broad vision of what marketing is the better.”
In addition, to gain further credibility within the business Kolovos believes marketers need to focus on the stats that really impact sales. There’s no point talking about likes, shares or followers unless you can link these back to real business benefits.
He stresses: “We are so determined to justify the success of every single thing we are doing. The world is moving so quickly – and it’s okay to make mistakes. I don’t think there’s a single project that I can look back and say everything was done perfectly. In every project there is a success story and something you have done wrong – willingly or unwillingly. The more we are talking about that, the better it will become.”
Going forward Kolovos plans to learn from previous mistakes and carry success forward as the company changes. Despite these turbulent times, the marketing director finishes by reflecting on the need for marketers to find a proper work-life balance: “It’s important we find a balance. It’s not physical work that we do but mental – you can get very tired. Marketers need to find a way to get inspired and re-energise themselves. I do it by drawing and writing. You need to find something like that that gives you that extra edge, or hunger.”
Kolovos’ top tips
- Know your strengths and weaknesses.
This should come easy to marketers, as it’s the same thing you do day in day out: when you carry out brand positioning or campaigns. You just need to apply this thinking to yourself. - Be ready to adapt quickly.
Things are changing at a record pace and marketers need to be ready to respond to them. Constantly stay up-to-date with the latest trends, but also remember to have a vision of where you want your business and yourself to be. - Get smart with data.
Ensure your department is making the most out of your data, not only to help your company but also to add value to customers.