The Whole Picture

Marketing Financial Wellness: A Conversation With Voya Financial’s Chrisinda Mowrer

Chrisinda Mowrer, Vice President of Consumer Marketing at Voya Financial, joins The Marketing Stir to discuss financial wellness, consumer behavior, multichannel marketing, leadership, and the importance of creating accessible financial experiences.

As Vice President of Consumer Marketing at Voya Financial, Chrisinda Mowrer helps transform complex financial products and workplace benefits into approachable, relevant experiences.

In this episode of The Marketing Stir, Chrisinda speaks with Stirista’s Vincent Pietrafesa about her career journey, Voya’s evolution from ING, the company’s B2B2C marketing model, and how marketers can build trust by understanding the full context of a consumer’s financial life.

Vincent Pietrafesa: Ladies and gentlemen, welcome to another episode of The Marketing Stir. I’m your host, Vincent Pietrafesa, Vice President of B2B Products and Partnerships here at Stirista.

Today, we’re joined by an amazing guest from an incredible company. She is the Vice President of Consumer Marketing at Voya Financial, Chrisinda Mowrer. Chrisinda, welcome to the show.

Chrisinda Mowrer: Thanks for having me. I did some research on the podcast before joining, and there is so much to learn from your conversations. I feel honored to be here and share my journey.

Vincent: Some listeners may know Voya Financial by its former name, ING. Tell us a little about the company and your role.

Chrisinda: Voya Financial is a workplace benefits organization. We offer retirement benefits, wealth management services, and employee benefits to organizations and directly to consumers.

My team focuses on how people engage with the benefits provided through their workplace. We think about questions such as: How are employees using the benefits their employers offer? How are they planning for their complete financial lives? How are they preparing for retirement?

Our job is to transform complex financial and investment products into experiences that feel simple, relevant, and actionable for people across America.

It is not simply about pushing a product. Our consumer marketing is focused on influencing behavior and helping people take the next best action. We are constantly considering the small moments in a person’s financial life that can make a meaningful difference.

Vincent: Take us back to the beginning. How did you get started in marketing?

Chrisinda: I may be a bit of a unicorn because I have been a marketer throughout my entire education and career.

My undergraduate degree was in business economics with a concentration in marketing. I then went directly to graduate school to earn an advanced marketing degree.

I began my career in the agency world, which is a great place to learn. It gave me exposure to many different marketing strategies, technologies, industries, and business challenges. I worked with consumer packaged goods, healthcare, automotive, hospitality, and travel brands.

That breadth of experience helped me get my feet under me early in my career.

My approach was also digital-first before “digital-first” became such a widely used phrase. At that time, digital marketers were often fighting for dollars that would otherwise go toward large television campaigns. That taught me a great deal about influence—not only marketing the organization or its products, but also marketing myself and the value of my skill set.

Whenever I speak with someone interested in beginning a marketing career, I encourage them to consider an agency with a variety of clients. It is a great way to explore different disciplines and gain broad experience.

I eventually moved to ING about 15 years ago. I began in the brand organization, and within my first five years, the company completed an IPO and rebranded as Voya Financial. It was a unique way to enter the financial services industry and an exciting point in my career.

Vincent: I remember ING and its orange savings accounts. What was it like to help transition the brand from ING to Voya?

Chrisinda: It was a complete reset and, in many ways, a marketer’s dream.

We knew we were heading toward an IPO, and a small but mighty team was responsible for defining what the new brand could become.

That involved much more than creating a new visual identity. We had to establish the company’s values, voice, personality, and organizational purpose. Being able to help shape all of those elements was an incredible experience.

Vincent: What channels do you use to reach consumers?

Chrisinda: Much of our work reaches consumers through intermediaries, including employers and financial advisors. Because of that, we rely heavily on a B2B2C model.

We need to have many different levers available to us. In that sense, we are fairly channel-agnostic. The channels we choose depend on the strategy, the audience, and the type of access we have to the employee.

Email is certainly important. We have found that journey-specific, multitouch email campaigns can be especially effective. Increasing frequency can also help.

We use text messaging, social media, and other channels that allow us to meet people where they already are.

I would even consider the employer itself a channel. Employees often take notice when information about a benefit comes directly from their employer.

What I have consistently found is that frequency matters, and multichannel communication tends to improve conversion. Reaching someone in multiple places makes the message more likely to stick.

Vincent: Voya serves people across a wide range of income levels. How do you make the messaging accessible to everyone?

Chrisinda: That is one of the reasons I have stayed at Voya for 15 years.

If you had told my 25-year-old self that I would spend this much of my career marketing financial services, I probably would not have believed you. But Voya made the decision easy because of the purpose we live every day:

Together, we fight for everyone’s opportunity for a secure financial future.

The words “fight” and “everyone” were selected very intentionally by our senior leadership, and we try to live that purpose every day.

We do not begin with income. We begin with confidence.

Financial uncertainty exists across every salary level and every degree of financial understanding. We keep our communication simple and use plain, natural language. We want to feel like a person’s savviest best friend when it comes to their complete financial life.

At the same time, we can provide deeper information when someone needs it. People can decide how far they want to go.

The goal is to remain accessible without oversimplifying or speaking down to anyone.

We also test our messaging extensively. Voya has a Behavioral Finance Institute that helps test messages, experiences, and visual approaches. We conduct research upfront to understand consumers’ perspectives, and then continue measuring throughout execution.

We are always asking what is resonating and how we can further segment our communication to make it more relevant.

Vincent: Many people may not fully understand something like a 401(k). What are some of the most common financial literacy gaps you see?

Chrisinda: The biggest gap is not necessarily intelligence. It is context and an understanding of the complete picture.

People can often understand a savings account, a bank account, a 401(k), or their individual healthcare costs. The difficulty comes when they need to understand how all of those things connect.

Benefit choices are frequently the second-largest expense in a person’s budget. We want to help people understand how to choose and use their benefits, as well as how those choices connect to their financial futures.

The choices someone makes can affect their ability to save or cover an unexpected emergency. That complete-picture view is more valuable than educating someone about only one small part of their financial life.

That holistic perspective is one area where we believe Voya is different.

Vincent: You have experience working both at an agency and within a brand. What lessons did you bring from agency life, and what did you have to unlearn?

Chrisinda: One of the most important lessons is to remain completely customer-obsessed.

At an agency, you work in service of your clients. You must understand their problems, organizational nuances, and the outcomes they are trying to achieve. Your value comes from bringing them the right solutions.

Financial services is not very different. We serve a broad range of clients and work to provide the right financial products and benefits to their employees.

A customer-first mindset is invaluable in almost any marketing position.

The primary difference is that when you work inside an organization, you have a broader view of how that organization functions.

Launching a major initiative often requires significant influence and collaboration. You need to connect with teams beyond marketing, including product, technology, and data.

Learning how to build those relationships and move work forward is essential. The exact process differs from one organization to another, but understanding how to influence and connect teams is a major part of working in-house.

Vincent: What surprised you most as you moved into leadership?

Chrisinda: A career is not unlike life. If you are not continually learning and improving, what are you doing?

That applies whether you are an individual contributor or a people leader.

Teams constantly evolve. They must adapt to changes in the industry, the organization, and the broader world.

One of the things I enjoy most is encouraging my team to remain curious and helping people advance their careers. I get a lot of satisfaction from understanding what motivates someone, where they want to go next, and how I can help them get there.

Being a strong listener is also important. I learn a tremendous amount from my team. I work with best-in-class marketers, so asking questions and learning from them makes me a better leader.

It is also important to build a team whose members complement one another. People should bring different skills, working styles, perspectives, and approaches.

Leadership may provide direction from the top, but there should also be meaningful influence from the bottom up. When people feel empowered and have a sense of ownership, the team can work faster and at a much higher level.

Creating that environment is a major focus in my leadership journey.

Vincent: Generational differences can affect how people think about financial services. Beyond age, what other segmentation methods do you use?

Chrisinda: We are currently operating within a five-generation workforce, which is more generations than we have ever had working at the same time.

Communicating relevantly across those generations is something we think about constantly. However, age is not the only predictor of a person’s choices.

We also consider life moments, financial stress, health issues, job changes, marriages, divorces, children going to college, and parents moving into the home.

Those signals can be much more predictive of the message someone needs than age or generation alone.

When you design communication around what someone is experiencing right now, your marketing feels more helpful and less promotional because it has context.

Of course, gaining access to that information—and ensuring it remains accurate, timely, and secure—is not easy. We are continually working to improve our capabilities while protecting each individual’s data.

It is a challenge that will only become more complex.

Vincent: You oversee communications related to benefits, retirement, and holistic financial guidance. How do you prevent those messages from competing with one another?

Chrisinda: We begin with the employee’s frame of reference and the information that person needs at a specific moment.

A person’s financial life connects their benefit choices, retirement savings, and broader wealth plans. Showing those points of integration is important, but the information also needs to appear when the person is ready for it.

We help people make simple decisions quickly so they can begin saving, participate in their retirement plan, and select the right benefits.

We then continue communicating throughout the year so they understand how to use those benefits effectively.

Vincent: How do you see the financial services industry changing over the next year?

Chrisinda: I see two major areas of focus.

The first is consumer expectations.

Consumers do not lower their expectations simply because they are interacting with a bank or financial institution. They expect financial brands to perform like the best brands they interact with every day.

That means the experience must offer clarity, speed, personalization, and transparency.

The organizations that succeed will be the ones that can evolve their experiences in ways that genuinely resonate with consumers.

The second area is trust. That is not necessarily a new concern, but it remains as important as ever.

People may approach financial services organizations feeling wary about fees or uncertain about whether the organization has their best interests in mind.

We are working to shift from product-first thinking to experience-first thinking. We want to build trust one exceptional experience at a time so consumers recognize that we are looking out for them.

Financial services will continue evolving by meeting consumers’ expectations in ways the industry has not always done in the past.

Vincent: How do you think people’s understanding of finance is changing?

Chrisinda: There has been a great deal of financial volatility during the past 25 years.

At the same time, people are increasingly thinking beyond themselves. They are considering their children, parents, families, and broader responsibilities.

Interest in self-care has also grown significantly during the past decade. But self-care is not necessarily selfish. It is about caring for your whole self in relation to your family and responsibilities.

It involves reducing stress and considering physical, emotional, social, and financial well-being together.

Employers increasingly have permission to participate in this space. People do not always go directly to a financial advisor. There is also an expectation that employers will support their employees’ physical, emotional, and financial well-being.

Finance is not only about spreadsheets, bottom lines, or red and green outcomes. It is deeply emotional.

Marketing has to reflect that shift. It requires less bravado and less emphasis on forcing a conversion. It requires more guidance, empathy, and understanding.

The financial actions someone takes are important, but marketers also need to connect with the person behind those actions.

Vincent: You likely receive a lot of sales messages on LinkedIn. What types of messages get your attention?

Chrisinda: I generally do not respond to messages that attempt to sound personal but are still generic.

For example, someone may say, “I noticed you went to Florida State University for graduate school. Go Noles!” It technically references something personal, but it does not feel especially meaningful.

A recent invitation did catch my attention. I was invited to a small dinner in Atlanta at a great restaurant with a group of people I would genuinely be interested in meeting. The dinner was centered on a topic I wanted to discuss.

The event was hosted by an organization interested in doing business with Voya, but the invitation offered a thoughtful, in-person experience rather than simply requesting a phone call.

The restaurant was appealing, the attendees sounded interesting, and it was clear that someone had put thought into curating the group.

I could not attend that particular dinner because I was out of town, but I would consider accepting a similar invitation in the future.

Vincent: Tell us a little about your life outside Voya. Are you originally from the Atlanta area?

Chrisinda: I was born and raised in Northeast Tennessee, but I moved to Atlanta more than 20 years ago, so Atlanta is home.

I have a child entering middle school and another entering high school. My weekends are usually spent taking them to baseball, tennis, and volleyball.

It is a busy life, but a lot of fun.

I have also recently embraced what my family calls a “grandma hobby”: embroidery. My grandmother taught me and gave me some of her old embroidery patterns that she had never used.

I do not have a great deal of downtime between work and my children, but when I do, I enjoy making something with my hands. I love cooking, and embroidery has become another enjoyable creative outlet.

Atlanta is a great city. I enjoy the South and the weather, and I hope you make it back soon so we can have coffee.

Vincent: As we close, is there a final thought you would like to leave with our listeners?

Chrisinda: Thank you for having me, for asking thoughtful questions, and for being curious. This has been a lot of fun.

The idea I return to every day is Voya’s purpose: fighting for everyone’s opportunity for a secure financial future.

One initiative I am especially proud of is that Voya provides every employee with 40 hours of volunteer time off each year.

We are preparing for our National Week of Service in May. Employees throughout the country will volunteer in their communities and support causes they care about.

Some volunteer events focus on financial education and awareness. Others may involve serving at a soup kitchen or supporting another local organization.

It is something worth celebrating, and I hope other companies may be inspired to introduce similar programs within their organizations.

Vincent: That is a wonderful message and a great cause.

Thank you for spending time with us, Chrisinda.

Ladies and gentlemen, that was Chrisinda Mowrer, Vice President of Consumer Marketing at Voya Financial.

This has been another episode of The Marketing Stir. Thank you for listening, and we’ll talk again soon.