Are you experienced?

There might not be many vacancies for financial services marketers available through recruitment consultancies at the moment, but Marketing Week still has plenty. But how many of them are looking for marketers with financial services qualifications? None.

Does it matter? I think so. Financial services marketers are asked to create clear, fair and not misleading collateral pitched at the right level for the target audience. If you aren't qualified in financial services, are you really confident you can do that?

A case in point is an advert in this weekend's press, for the RBS Royal Bond. The bond offers 5.3% per year 'without locking away your capital' and is available for investors with as little at £100. Sounds almost like a fixed rate, instant access savings account, doesn't it? Except that buried in the information paragraph it mentions a bid/offer spread, so it can't be one.

So what actually is it? A savings account? A corporate bond fund? An equity fund? An OEIC? The advert is anything but clear - yet clearly pitched at a mass market investor with very little capital to invest. The kind of audience this is really suitable for would know they needed to know this.

In mis-selling cases, the burden of proof of whether a product was properly sold or not often comes down to the collateral the customer took away. It's imperative that, as marketers, we make absolutely certain we understand the suitability and risks of all the products we sell. It's not compliance's job to check that for us.,

And I don't see how we can be expected to do that while recruiters are only looking for marketing experience.