VIDEO: Zurich CMO Brings CPG Wisdom to Financial Services

As global head of marketing for Zurich Insurance, Monika Schulze has a big mission: bridge the gap between marketing and sales.

“Traditionally, marketing is considered a costly activity, and few see the correlation between brand, marketing and sales,” Schulze tells ClickZ at the LinkedIn FinanceConnect conference held in New York City last week. “I personally have put lots of effort into building this relationship, gaining credibility and pushing sales.”

Prior to Zurich Insurance, Schulze had spent 19 years at Unilever where she held several senior positions. When she took the role of chief marketing officer (CMO) at Zurich Insurance in 2008, she quickly found a big difference between the consumer packaged goods (CPG) vertical and the insurance industry. The latter is less consumer facing, she notes.

“You have to adapt to the culture of an industry where marketing, consumer and brand [are] not in the center,” Schulze says.

Regardless of the industry vertical she works for, Schulze aims to build high-performing teams to accelerate business growth.

How does she utilize her B2C marketing experience at Unilever to drive business growth for Zurich Insurance? How does she assemble solid teams to bridge the gap between marketing and sales?

Watch the video interview below to hear what Schulze had to say.