Justin Basini - Credit cruncher with a cool head

The global financial crisis is, he says, "not an issue for Capital One", a major player among UK credit card providers. He even seems to be unfazed by Chancellor Alistair Darling's warning to banks that they need to be more cautious lenders to discourage rising consumer debt.

"We're a responsible lender," Basini says. "Our core competence is being able to predict who you can lend money to more safely than our competitors."

Basini is in the news because of his role in the ongoing project to reposition Capital One as a more discerning, less commoditised brand, and his decision to build a roster of agencies. It is two years since the bank hired its first major agency, WWAV Rapp Collins. Basini is hedging his bets this time, working with agencies on a project basis before inviting them to join the roster.

"At the pitch process you tend to get a limited view of what an agency is like, and the way you test the relationship is by doing work together." He stresses that only WWAV is on the roster so far. TMW has been handed a corporate rebranding brief, and could be asked to join.

A multi-agency approach is "part of our desire for best-in-class agencies and the best creative," he says. "Now we have a successful relationship with WWAV, we want access to all of the great thinkers".

There are few hints of who these might be. "I do believe agencies have different specialities - and understand different target segments, media and channels than others. There are lots out there doing terrific work by channel and by segment."

For a credit card company to talk in terms of segments may smack of pretence at sophisticated targeting. But Basini has been working hard on Capital One's channel mix, armed with insight about consumer behaviour and an imperative to develop new products that enhance the brand.

"The UK financial services market is highly segmented with lots of different needs out there. (For instance) there is a segment that is high-spending on cards - their needs are very different from people who are building balances, paying them down and building them up again."

Though media will vary depending on a product's customer profile, Basini is keen to reduce Capital One's dependence on direct mail - it was the second biggest mailer in 2006. "We track our perception of being a junk mailer - some consumers still have that view of Capital One. That will change over time. For many consumer segments, high-volume direct mail might not be the right approach to building a brand and getting them as customers."

Former colleagues from Basini's first-jobber days at P&G, where he worked as a product researcher, won't be surprised at his scientific approach to marketing. Nor at the fact that he dusted himself off after the dot.com crash of 2000, when the internet branding consultancy he co-founded hit the buffers. He took a job in the City "because I needed to make some money", and ended up as head of marketing for global banking at Deutsche Bank.

Lured back to the world of consumer finance at Capital One in January 2006, he vows to see out the repositioning which, he acknowledges, "takes time".

The cautious approach has worked well so far. Basini ran the London Marathon this year and found it "incredibly difficult" due to the heat. "My time was four and a half hours and I didn't stop, but I did take it slowly," he says.

- Justin Basini will be speaking at Marketing Direct's Green Conference on 9 November 2007.

BASINI'S CHALLENGES

- To continue the repositioning of Capital One away from commoditised credit cards and an association with junk mail

- To find the right media mix for the bank's growing product range.