In this monthly Q&A segment, Bank Innovation directs five questions to executives and industry thought leaders who highlight technology and innovation trends in financial services, exploring strategy and best practices in leading financial institutions.

Dustin Cohn didn’t come from a financial services background when he stepped into his role as head of brand and marketing for Marcus by Goldman Sachs — but that was the point.

When the 150-year-old Goldman Sachs launched its consumer banking business in 2016, Cohn — whose marketing career spans stints at apparel manufacturer Jockey International, Gatorade and Pizza Hut — was tapped to build the brand as the product was developed from scratch. The fresh approach he brought to Marcus by Goldman Sachs has helped the heritage bank bridge the gap between the legacy affluent culture synonymous with it and the fintech startup culture of a neobank-like brand.

As the 20th hire of Marcus by Goldman Sachs, Cohn has seen the division evolve to clinch market opportunities with a focus on banking as a service and grow to more than 1,300 employees. He spoke with Bank Innovation about opportunities and challenges in retail banking, tools and features the bank is prioritizing this year, and how his non-banking background has helped Goldman Sachs withstand headwinds felt by other incumbent financial institutions launching digital-only brands. What follows is an edited version of the conversation.

Bank Innovation: What’s the biggest opportunity for Marcus by Goldman Sachs in the retail banking space today?

Dustin Cohn: I would say there are two major opportunities. One is the challenge of consumer inertia. Oftentimes people ask who our competitors are, but ultimately there is a certain level of consumer inertia, mostly because consumer finance is somewhat intimidating for many people, so it’s difficult for some people to motivate themselves to explore their options. Whether that’s how to better manage debt or lower your interest rate, or if it’s “I’ve had the same savings account for the last 20 years, it’s too much of a hassle to make a change,” and not even look to see if you could get much more interest, it’s really that consumer inertia. And that’s rooted in a lack of confidence in one’s ability to manage their personal finances. So that’s a real opportunity for the retail banking space today.

The other opportunity, which is a whole other territory to explore, is many people bank with traditional banks and have had brick and mortar as an option to do face-to-face banking. Interestingly enough, with the COVID crisis people really had to rely on the digital experience and are finding, in many cases, that traditional banks don’t have great digital experiences. That’s where Marcus by Goldman Sachs and more of the fintechs have really benefited, because now people see how easy it can be. People are now realizing that there are retail banking options that are digital, and our savings business has certainly accelerated during the COVID crisis in light of that.

BI: What about the market challenges? In the past year or so we’ve seen big legacy banks struggle to get their stand-alone products off the ground, what’s your approach to overcoming this trend?

DC: We’ve had the best of both worlds really, where we’re part of a large financial services institution — so we have that brand recognition and brand awareness — and are known as being experts in the space, having been around for 150 years. But we combined that with the entrepreneurial startup nature of Marcus by Goldman Sachs just three years ago, when we started with a blank sheet of paper. We were able to design our product, our customer experience, our brand and marketing, all with the help of consumers and staying very consumer-centric.

Building it from scratch was a real advantage because oftentimes you are strapped with legacy technology or legacy products, which could potentially disrupt doing it the right way. With the support of Goldman Sachs, we really built it from scratch, so it was having the stability, backing, resources and expertise of Goldman Sachs with this entrepreneurial startup spirit and a blank sheet of paper.

BI: Marcus by Goldman Sachs has partnered with two of the biggest tech companies — Apple with Apple Card last August, and Amazon for small business credit lines just last week. How do you see this overall trend of FIs backing tech companies entering financial services evolving over time?

DC: The way we think about it is banking as a service, so Marcus by Goldman Sachs builds the chassis and then we can work with partners, like Apple or Amazon, which we just recently announced a partnership with, where we are going to be providing loans to small businesses that work with Amazon. So banking as a service is a strategy of ours that we can leverage with different partners.

The other aspect of partnerships is partnering with organizations like AARP, where AARP leverages the Marcus by Goldman Sachs Online Savings Account with their members and provides them with the access to open up an account with us, so introducing what they think provides more value to their membership.

BI: What’s a specific tool or feature you’re prioritizing this year and, as the marketing lead of Marcus, how are your overall objectives changing through time?

DC: We announced at our investor day back in January that Marcus will be launching a checking account next year in 2021. A big part of what we’re working on right now is not just launching any other checking account but creating a checking account that provides more value and improves the customer experience. So, while I can’t comment on the specific features or benefits of the checking account, I can say that it will be consistent with every other aspect of Marcus. We’re building this with consumers hand in glove, and our brand values of transparency and simplicity are cornerstones of it.

From the very first launch of personal loans, a good example of transparency and simplicity is no fees ever and for us to say “no fees ever,” that was not about having fine print somewhere else or having an asterisk. That was about absolutely, positively having no fees ever. As we start to roll out other products, like checking or the investing platform we’re going to launch as well, we’re going to follow those same tenets of simplicity and transparency.

BI: You don’t necessarily come from a financial services background. How has this outside view helped you to build this brand?

DC: The leadership at Marcus really wanted a brand head that did not come from financial services, knowing that we’d have plenty of people that came from financial services within Goldman Sachs with many years of financial experience. They actually were looking for someone outside of financial services to bring best practices into the organization across different categories.

I’m a classically trained marketer, which means putting the consumer at the middle of everything that we do. If that’s your philosophy, then it really doesn’t matter if you’re marketing in apparel, financial services or a sports drink. If you understand consumer behavior and you understand the insights that motivate them, that’s really what’s key in marketing your value proposition to consumers.