Harvesting opportunities in the digital grapevine

With my mobile phone and Wi-Fi, I will never miss my favourite TV programmes or updated news, especially Martha Stewart’s new book. The best thing about it is the power at my fingertips as I can choose when and where I want it. I can get a sneak peek and read reviews from various sources before making a decision and, after all, I can share my view with hundreds, if not millions, of people through social networking sites like Facebook and Twitter.

The digital revolution has changed our lifestyle and is really transforming the global marketplace.

As a marketer myself, I find the findings of the 2011 Chief Marketing Officer (CMO) Study really striking. The study reveals the massive impact the digital era is having on chief marketers and the teams they lead. The four major challenges CMOs said they are facing are: increased use of social media, the explosion of data, growth of channels and devices and shifting consumer demographics.  

This new landscape has led to a critical and permanent shift in the way organisations engage with customers. In the past, an organisation’s marketing approach focused on the “transactions” with their customers. Now, the focus is more on the ongoing “relationship” with customers, who may share their experiences with a product, service or company on a social networking site. The marketing strategies need to be adjusted to connect with customers in new ways – use data much more extensively throughout the entire customer lifecycle to stimulate awareness and desire and build advocacy after the sale. To succeed in the marketing arena, organisations must move beyond traditional marketing practices and adopt new digital tools that forge deeper connection with individuals.  Likewise, organisations must become adept at using social media to extract new insights from real-time, on-line interactions, and then expertly use those insights to enrich the individual customer experience.

Some say that “mass markets don’t exist anymore” and I truly believe so. It would be wonderful if we can serve the needs of each consumer individually but the big problem is that there are billions of them. 

Fortunately, there are steps CEOs, hand in hand with CMOs can take to strengthen their organisations and themselves by considering improving these three areas. They are: 

_ Deliver value to empowered customers: 

The digital revolution has forever changed the balance of power between the individual and the institution. If they are to understand and provide value to customers, they will have to concentrate on getting to know individuals as well as markets. They will also have to invest in new technologies and advanced analytics to get a better grasp of how individual customers behave. 

_ Foster lasting connections:

To effectively cultivate meaningful relationships with their customers, they will have to connect with them in ways their customers perceive as valuable. This entails engaging with customers throughout the entire customer lifecycle, building online and offline communities of interest, and collaborating with the rest of the C-suite to merge the internal and external faces of the enterprise.

_ Quantify marketing results: 

The survey found that nearly two-thirds of CMOs think return on investment on marketing expenditure will be how they are measured for success by 2015. CEOs should support CMOs in attracting new skills into the marketing function by expanding the digital, analytical and financial capabilities of existing employees and by hiring staff or partnering with specialists to fill the gaps. And since it’s important to lead by example, CMOs will need to invest in enhancing their own expertise in these areas. 

As I lead business, the findings help me better understand the challenges and the level of complexity CMOs have to deal with in today’s marketing arena and how well they are prepared to cope with it. The inflection point created by social media represents a permanent change in the nature of customer relationships.  Approximately 90 per cent of all the real-time information being created today is unstructured data. It is the leadership support CMOs will need to harness this new source of insight so as to be in a strong position to increase revenues, reinvent their customer relationships and build new brand value.

In marketing industry, influence over technology is growing. An industry analyst report indicates technology spending by the marketing industry globally was reported to represent about US$5 billion (Bt155 billion) per year, growing at 15 per cent annually. Obviously, there are tons of mellow opportunities for businesses in the digital grapevine. But the ones who can harvest the most, are the ones who exploit these areas the most.

 

Parnsiree Amatayakul is the managing director of IBM Thailand. Her article is published every third Friday of the month.