CMO Council Report "Localize to optimize sales"

1. POWERING
PERFORMANCE
on a Field Marketing Level Through Localized
Content,Advertising, Promotions, Search
Contacts, and Cyber Community Connections

2. © Copyright CMO Council. All Rights Reserved. 2011
LOCALIZE to OPTIMIZE Sales Channel EffectivenessTM
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David Villaseca
Global Director, Head of Customer Management
Grupo BBVA
As a global bank that is present in more than 30 countries worldwide, BBVA has marketing efforts
that both enhance the global view of the brand and meet the needs of consumers in their own
countries. According to Global Director of Customer Management David Villaseca, their success is
contingent upon the bank’s ability to build trust in the countries where the bank is present.
Villaseca emphasizes that as long as the bank is present in multiple countries, marketers will need
to understand the financial situations of those countries and the individual communities where
BBVA is located. This will be key to understanding the consumer and promoting products and
services that will best meet their needs.
“While we must adapt our approach on a local level, we also must provide a global perspective so
that we can build trust in the brand,” he says. “One way we are doing this is through sponsorships
like the one we have with the NBA as the organization’s official bank. This is a way for us to create a
strong brand presence in the U.S. and worldwide.”
BBVA has also been working hard to build brand presence in Europe and countries where soccer is a
primary sport in order to establish relevance in those areas.
“Gaining association with soccer in these countries, as well as with the NBA in America, provides us
with a lot of success,” he says. “For example, the ESPN telecast for the BBVA NBA All-Star Celebrity
Game was the most-watched game in the event’s history, with 2.3 million viewers, and we’re
leveraging these successes with social media.”
While combining the power of a global presence for the bank with relevant, localized messaging to
consumers is crucial, it is also among the greater challenges BBVA faces.
“With more than 100,000 employees worldwide, we have to help our employees maintain a
mindset that includes both globalization and localization, and we are doing this by combining local
and global teams through different networks and centers of excellence to maximize synergies
and effectiveness at both levels,” Villaseca says. “This helps us to combine our understanding of
consumers in each country and get the best of both worlds, both on the employee side and the
consumer side.”