Chief Marketing Officer — Retail Bank

The mandate

An institutionally backed retail bank faces weak differentiation and inefficient customer acquisition. Product claims are similar to competitors, channels claim overlapping conversions and media reporting stops before approval, funding, retention or asset quality. The board needs a CMO who can protect current activity while rebuilding the commercial and brand system.

The Chief Marketing Officer will influence approximately ₹63,250 crore in loans and deposits and lead about 1,350 employees and material partners. Scope includes brand, acquisition, customer insight, lifecycle, media, creative, partnerships, communications and marketing operations.

Acquisition economics should connect exposure, channel and campaign to eligibility, approval, funding, activation, repayment, complaints and lifetime value. Incrementality tests need to account for organic demand and channel overlap. The CMO will withdraw spend from sources that create activity without durable customers.

Differentiation must arise from a real proposition and experience. Customer research should include rejectors, abandoners, detractors and people under financial stress, not only active customers. Brand promises need operational and conduct substantiation.

Lifecycle marketing should support onboarding, engagement, retention and appropriate product use. Consent, suppression and partner data need reliable governance. Marketing cannot reacquire or retarget customers whose history should change treatment.

The succession requires protected campaign, agency and talent decisions. The future team needs stronger analytics, creative standards and clear decision rights across product and distribution.

Marketing investment governance will combine brand and performance horizons. Channel tests need holdouts, attribution assumptions and an outcome window, while brand initiatives require target audiences and leading indicators connected to future behaviour. Finance and marketing should agree organic demand, incentives and shared channel credit before allocating budgets.

Product and distribution interfaces must be recut. Marketing should not create segment promises that branch, digital or service teams interpret differently. Proposition briefs will identify customer need, eligibility, evidence, service promise and economic objective before creative development. Joint quarterly reviews will combine product performance, complaints, brand tracking and acquisition cohorts. New propositions should begin with controlled audiences and explicit learning questions rather than a national launch calendar.

Marketing data needs one customer identity across channels, with privacy, preference and retention governed through the lifecycle. The CMO will eliminate duplicated audiences and unexplained agency reports, ensuring suppression reaches affiliates and partners. Experiments will record customer and conduct signals alongside conversion so efficient media cannot scale a poor experience.

Customer communication is an operating responsibility. Approval, decline, service and financial-difficulty messages should remain consistent with acquisition promises and give practical choices. Complaint and call-centre evidence will shape campaigns. Affiliates and agencies need placement transparency, data controls, claim substantiation and rapid stop authority.

The transition should leave a documented portfolio of commitments, agency scopes, campaign risks and talent decisions. Critical creative and analytical capability will be retained through evidence, while deputies receive real authority during handover.

Why this seat is open

This urgent replacement follows an accelerated transition. The bank plans to appoint within six to eight weeks while keeping the handover confidential.

What you will own

• Define differentiated brand and priority customer propositions.
• Steward marketing decisions affecting the ₹63,250 crore book.
• Build incremental funded-customer and lifetime-value measurement.
• Reallocate media, partner and campaign investment through evidence.
• Connect brand promises to product, service and conduct.
• Govern lifecycle, consent, suppression and customer communications.
• Lead 1,350 employees and partners with stronger marketing succession.
• Give the board one commercial and brand scorecard.

The first 12 months

In the first 90 days, reconcile spend, source, customer and outcome data. Meet the 30 stakeholders most consequential to marketing, including customers represented through research, product, credit, service, agencies and distributors. Protect critical activity, assess leaders and agree board gates for renewed investment.

Months four to nine should launch controlled proposition and incrementality tests, reset agency terms and stop weak sources. Fill leadership gaps and improve lifecycle journeys. The first value should appear in lower waste, better funded-customer economics, retention or brand preference.

By year end, brand preference, commercial contribution and disciplined investment should be repeatable. Delivery must remain within 10% of baseline and forecasts should reconcile demand, cash, customer and people over three quarters. Priority issues need independent closure proof; severe escalation cannot age beyond 30 days.

What the board will measure

• Incremental funded customers and lifetime contribution by source.
• Brand salience, preference and consideration among priority audiences.
• Media and partner spend redirected through cohort evidence.
• Claims, consent, complaints and customer outcomes.
• Critical-talent retention at or above 90% and immediate succession for 70% of direct reports.
• Quantified improvement in acquisition efficiency with named data ownership.

The person

You are a CMO, Growth and Brand Executive or Retail Marketing Leader with 22–28 years in regulated financial services or a comparable consumer enterprise.

Your accountable book, budget, P&L or portfolio has been at least ₹36,700 crore, and you have led 950 or more people. You can evidence a brand and acquisition reset whose commercial outcomes held across two reporting periods.

You can defend long-term brand investment without hiding poor attribution, stop high-volume weak acquisition and preserve calm through succession.

Compensation and terms

Fixed compensation is ₹2.2–3.0 crore plus performance variable. This permanent Bengaluru appointment requires onsite presence and can accommodate a notice period of up to six months.

Confidentiality

The bank, campaigns and succession remain confidential. Figures and events are blended.