Jos Birken of KatalystM, a sponsor company at the marcus evans CMO Asia Summit 2016, discusses how the marketing function is changing today. Interview with: Jos Birken, Chief Executive Officer, KatalystM

1. Interview with: Jos Birken, Chief
Executive Officer, KatalystM
“Marketing is changing profoundly -
moving away from product-centric
approaches to more customer-centric,
customer-focused marketing. It is not
just about „My product is the best, buy
me‟ anymore. Now it is increasingly
about „Let me tell you why my product
is more relevant to you,‟” says Jos
Birken, Chief Executive Officer,
KatalystM.
KatalystM is a marketing agency
attending the marcus evans CMO Asia
Summit 2016, in Kuala Lumpur,
Malaysia, 26 - 27 May.
Tell us how the customer is in
charge today.
Basically, we put the customer in charge
of our marketing. What we market and
how we market it, is determined by the
customer‟s own behaviour and no one
else‟s. Ideally, it is not the marketer
anymore who decides what is being
promoted and how. It is the customer‟s
behaviour that triggers a specific kind of
communication or offer. In an age of
increasingly educated and jaded
consumers, this is a necessary way to
catch and keep people‟s attention.
This trend has been present in
marketing for a long time, but is now
speeding up. The reason is it is getting
a lot easier and more affordable to do
so.
What is the most efficient way of
tailoring marketing campaigns to
individual behaviours?
Most organisations have thousands of
tens of thousands of customers. In B2C,
millions of customers. Tailoring our
marketing campaigns to individual
behaviours cannot be done without
some serious automation. This is where
Marketing Cloud platforms come in.
These have become increasingly
capable, user friendly, and cloud based.
The latter means they do not require
large IT projects to install, and it is in
the CMO‟s remit to acquire them and
integrate them in their marketing
approach.
The combination of increased competi-
tion for the attention of evermore
demanding consumers, advances in
available technology, and cloud making,
all of this more approachable for the
marketer, provides enormous opportu-
nities for fast adopters.
What issues do CMOs encounter
when trying this approach? How
could they mitigate some of these
risks?
CMOs have certainly two risks to
manage and they should have the skills
to overcome them. The first one is
related to measurability and account-
ability. In the boardroom they are
increasingly challenged to proof that
they add real value to the business. So
a good understanding of data and
analytics is required. The second risk is
the management of all the stakeholders
that are involved in the acquisition,
implementation and change manage-
ment of the solution. This tends to go
across many departments. This requires
CMOs with great team management and
people skills.
What are customers looking for
today?
Customers are looking for relevant,
personalised messages, tailored to their
needs in the specific phase of the
engagement process with a brand. This
should be delivered cross-channel and
they do not care about how you do it
technically.
How can the marketing function
become more customer-focused?
Using data coming from all the touch
points a brand has with a customer and
using it to achieve a high level of
relevance and personalisation is the
only way to achieve this. This requires a
marketing infrastructure that allows
omnichannel analytics with the objective
of delivering relevant personalised
communication.
It is
not the
marketer
anymore
who decides
what is
being
promoted
and how
How Marketing is
Changing Today

2. The Marketing Network –
marcus evans Summits group
delivers peer-to-peer information
on strategic matters, professional
t r e n d s a n d b r e a k t h r o u g h
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About the CMO Asia Summit 2016
The CMO Asia Summit is the premium forum bringing elite buyers and sellers
together. It offers top marketing professionals, agencies and consultants an intimate
environment for a focused discussion on the key drivers of marketing effectiveness.
Taking place at the Hilton Kuala Lumpur Hotel, Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, 26 - 27 May
2016, the Summit includes presentations on agile content marketing, optimising
marketing spend, predictive analytics technology and reinventing B2B marketing.
www.cmoasiasummit.com
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About KatalystM
KatalystM is a modern marketing agency, specializing in helping organisations increase the lifetime value of their customers with
Lifecycle Marketing.
We recognised the importance of technology platforms in marketing very early on, starting out with Responsys which is now part of
Oracle Marketing Cloud and moving on to become a multi platform company in 2010. We grew and evolved into an independent
and diverse agency which focuses on Total Lifecycle Marketing and rebranded as KatalystM in 2010.
KatalystM is headquartered in Singapore with offices in Bangkok, Hong Kong and the Philippines.
www.katalystm.com
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To view the web version of this interview, please click here: www.cmoasiasummit.com/JosBirken