In what might be a sign of things to come, Virgin Australia has redefined the role of the marketer by appointing head of brand and marketing Mark Hassell as chief customer officer.
As Virgin Australia looks to launch a renewed attack on rival Qantas, the brand is looking to bring its brand, marketing and customer service closer together.
Marketers are increasingly being tasked with not only creating communications and brand messages, but also with actually delivering to customers. While a great deal of precedent does not exist for the chief customer officer title, the changing nature of the marketing industry might indicate this job function may become more common among Australian brands.
Hassell told AdNews: “The role is very much to help reposition the company internally around brand and culture. It's a great job in the sense that I've got end-to-end customer experience responsibility and I've got the marketing folks sitting together.
“[Chief executive John Borghetti] is a huge customer champion and an experienced marketer in a number of ways. So from his perspective it is crystal clear that moving the company forward needs to have the customer and the brand at the heart of everything we do. The decisions we're making, the strategic direction we want to go is around that udnerstanding that the customer is in the middle of it.”
For the full interview with Hassell, read the current edition of AdNews (5 October), in print and on iPad.
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