Birmingham Midshires hires marketing boss

Birmingham Midshires, the building society recently bought by Halifax for &£630m, has appointed a chief for its new group marketing department.

Fran Hayes, a former marketing manager at Birmingham Midshires’ savings and investments division, took up the role as head of marketing earlier this month.

Hayes will oversee Birmingham Midshires’ marketing campaigns and will look at strengthening the brand through the branch network. This will include a review of branch design, customer service, promotions and point-of-sale devices.

The group marketing department was created by merging the marketing for Birmingham Midshire’s three divisions – savings and investments, mortgages and loans, and general insurance – into a single operation.

Hayes says: “The restructure will create a more consistent brand and make the operation more efficient. In the past, the same customer may have been targeted by each division.”

The restructure has also split marketing and product development. They were previously handled by the same department within each of the three divisions.

Hayes reports to Paul Baker, who has overall responsibility for corporate communications, database management, new media and marketing.

No jobs have been lost in the restructure, which has led to about 25 people going into the unified marketing department.