1. MAR ETING
EVENTS
And the key to becoming future-ready is to
keep the customer experience at the heart of
it all. Customer centricity is the key in making
sure customers remain loyal to brands
"Marketing in the last five years has changed
so much, it is exciting and scary at the same
time " Wong said, adding that what makes it
exciting is that analytics and data can tell brands
so much more about a customer now
Brands now have the ability to track
exactly how far their customers have interacted
with them - when a customer has logged in,
checked out the website, left the website at
what point, or how much time they spent. All
this data is a gold mine for marketers
Also, as a result of the boom in digital
and social media consumption, unstructured
data has also proliferated. "If brands are able
to combine this with the company's existing
CRMs, they have the power to look at the
entire customer journey - that will be a key
differentialor going forward, " Wong said
However, all of these goals can be achieved
if brands have the right talent in their marketing
departments. Citing a Harvard Business
Review, Wong said the study identified that
there were three categories of employees in
Economic turbulence across markets be the biggest priority. In the olden times, the marketing team which shape the bench for
continues to grow. China's slowing growth and the spray and pray strategy worked for many growth - thinkers, feelers and doers.
"Thinkers are skilled at analytics, customerEurope's ongoing struggles are putting markets brands, but that strategy is grossly dated in
segmentation and scenario analysis. Feelersglobal Iy at peril. Businesses, therefore, are today's times
"We talked about awareness, above-the- connect to customers and communicatenaturally playing it safe, marketing budgets are
being revaluated and prudent ways to measure line campaigns and so on, and with that one internally. Doers execute marketing initiatives,
the effectiveness of every dollar are being put big marketing push we would hope the brand which is essential in today's 2417, always-on
awareness goes up, but that doesn't work economy, " the study saidin place.
In an organisation, depending on the need,It's time to ask marketing the tough anymore, " she said
"Now it is all about being targeted - creating a brand has to configure a mix of these threequestions for the road ahead. In economic
"That's how you come up with agile teamsuncertainty how can marketing properly justify brand awareness isn't the real deal. Creating
There is no one-size-fits-all solution to talent, "
its place in the bottom line? And how can you awareness among the right audience is what is
Wong saidsafeguard your company from the risks of an imperative. "
At IBM, Wong said every marketing dollarunpredictable market place?
Content at the heart of new-age marketingTo answer these questions, Marketing was tracked
"Marketing ROl is a serious discussion These transformations taking place inmagazine, together with the BBC, organised a
for us. What levels of interest/lead marketing marketing also means the era of one-offhalf-day event
In a conversation with Karishma Vaswani. activities have generated - through events or massive campaigns are over and the need is
the Asia business correspondent for BBC otherwise - is something we track very closely. " for brands to be always-on. or at least engage
This is one big change that has happened audiences consistently. It has underlined theNews, Susie Wong, CMO for IBM ASEAN,
spoke about the realities of marketing in today's from the past owing to the economic
uncertainties and the realities of global marketsturbulent times
Another massive change brands are"The pressure on marketing to be effective
is real, more so in Asia. It's a no-holds barred dealing with is technology. Technology is a
conversation we have at IBM, where we track major disrupter and new-age tech-based
every dollar we have spent on marketing and companies are proving to be a threat for
the vatLie it has added, " she said adding that established players' Citing the examples of
Uber and Airbnb, Wong said brands who weredata is at the heart of it all
For marketers to operate optimal Iy able to deal with the "unknown unknowns"
becoming data and consumer centric should were the ones who would thrive
the
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need for compelling content marketing more
than ever before. How are marketers organising
themselves to generate, disseminate and
amplify content? The second half of the event
focused on this topic
Sock Hwee Tan, director of marketing and
communications for Asia Pacific at Ups, said
in the past marketing teams were focused
on channels or products, but that structure
doesn't make sense anymore because lines
have blurred
"Instead of looking at channels and products
we are looking at what content will resonate with
our audience and who in the organisation is best
placed to create it, " she said
Content marketing has forced brands to
look inwards - find great stories from within and
share with the target audience - but what does
it take to realign the teams to meet the current
The BBC has recently come up with BBCwere the hardest things to break - whether itneed?
Story works which brings editorial insights toHe Iene Blanchette, digital marketing leader, was product silos or departments
Fuji Xerox has embarked on its content corporate storytelling helping brands createregional digital marketing and business support
for Fuji Xerox Asia Pacific, said anyone working journey with much seriousness. Although, "not content tailored for their audience.
"While media agencies are well entrenchedin a large corporation would agree that silos quite there yet", she said it has a sound strategy
in the process of content creation andin place
It has crea ed the role of a content manager production, publishers are beginning to have
who sits in the new digital marketing team. The direct conversations with clients as well, " he
prerogative of the team is to oversee all digital said, adding that one of the foremost factors
efforts and fully align digital with other marketing for the success of content marketing is having
a clear objective of what the piece of contentstrategies
"We want to make sure digital and the should do for the brand.
There are three key factors which determinephysical world are not looked at as two separate
things. We are conscious of the fact that we the success of content marketing for brands -
access, assets and approval.don't want to build a digital island, " she said
"These determine how well their contentFuji Xerox also created a hybrid team
internally, with people from different strategy will work, " he said
Content marketing is way too critical forbackgrounds and departments slowly moving
into the digital team. This is to ensure the team it to be outsourced, speakers on the panel
fully understands all aspects of the business discussion said. While agencies and vendors
could come to add value and help amplifyand creates content that is robust.
Given the enhanced role content is plying content, the process should be led from within
in marketing, client structures were evolving, the client organisation.
"If we ask agencies to create contentsaid Ajistair MCEwan, SVP of commercial
externalIy, they will do it, but it will be superficialdevelopment for Asia and ANZ, at BBC
- especially in the B2B space where client
relationships are fairly deep, " Blanchette said
Content marketing, idealIy, should play
the role of a unifier within the company - be
it leveraging employees for content or global
counterparts to source for relevant content and
adapt it to local markets
"There are new dynamics at play when it
comes to content and brands are in the process
of figuring what is best for them. There is a need
to pull in employees as they are a brand's true
asset and this involves the breaking down of
silos, " Tan said
60 MARKETING JANUARY - FE aRUARY 2015
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DATE=
Wednesday, 2 December 2015
AR ETI G
EVENTS
VENUE:
PARKROYAL on PickerIng Singapore
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WWW MAR KETING -INTERACTIVE COM JANUARY - FEBRUARY 2016 MARKETING 61