Subscriber Exclusive 
Too often marketers forget their customers are people, not ‘targets’
Brands’ internal language dehumanises customers and lacks respect, which risks causing costly errors as with NatWest’s treatment of Nigel Farage.
The verdict is in. Last week, law firm Travers Smith published the findings of its investigation, commissioned by NatWest Bank, into the treatment of Nigel Farage by the bank and its subsidiary Coutts.
The report opined that Coutts, in summarily closing Farage’s account, had acted lawfully but had “communicated poorly”. About former NatWest chief executive Dame Alison Rose, it concluded that she had “conveyed confidential customer information” when passing on details of Farage’s financial situation to a prominent BBC journalist.
