The THINK BIG Entrepreneurs Convention 2014 – Know Today’s Customer
The THINK BIG Entrepreneurs Convention 2014 – Know Today’s Customer
Customers in this day and age are a whole different breed. They are tech-savvy, have easy access to online media and are constantly on the move. How do we reach, convert and retain them? How can businesses engage them more effectively, keep pace with their evolving needs and deliver greater value? With the right marketing strategies and productivity tools, we can better understand the customer journey, as expounded by speakers at the recent Canon’s Think Big Entrepreneurs Convention held on 10 October 2014.
Where People and Technology MeetMelvyn Ho, Senior Vice President and Head of Domestic Operations of Canon Singapore Melvyn Ho, Senior Vice President and Head of Domestic Operations of Canon Singapore, set the tone for the convention with his opening address. He stressed the importance of listening to the needs of customers in today’s customer-centric world. It is about making the best use of digital technology to optimise customer engagement and adding value to create a memorable experience. |
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Will Today’s Customer Please Stand Up?Dr. Chung Tuck Siong from the Nanyang Business School and Institute on Asian Consumer Insight laid the foundation for the convention’s theme with his profiling of the ‘online’ customer. Compared to traditional customers, they have become more vocal in the proliferation of online reviews, more choosy as product and company information are at their fingertips, more discerning in the face of peer influence, and more demanding with the increasing expectations for speed that come with real-time delivery. He aptly summed things up when he emphasised that it is not just about ‘hip’ technology, it is about marketing done right to ‘constantly improve the way value is delivered’. |
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The Engine DriverThe second speaker of the morning, Mr. Ghislain Le Chatelier, Regional Director for SMB South Asia & Greater China at Google, highlighted that small and medium enterprises (SMEs) are the engine of growth in the mobile era. To Google, ‘small is big’. Small businesses can thrive as long as they are connecting with their customers at the appropriate touchpoints. Online advertising is all about measurability, discoverability, pricing and simplicity. It allows businesses to scale, expand their reach and have access to new countries, new clients and new markets. The takeaway from his speech: to truly understand and improve the customer experience, we have to ‘reach into the pockets of customers’ – where their mobiles are. |
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A Sound MoveFor Mr. Sherwin Siregar Tien, Deputy CEO of Atlas Sound & Vision, ‘if there is no strategy and clear digital customer journey, digital will just be a fluffy theory’. It has been a fruitful experience for the company since breaking into the world of e-commerce last year. Their brand proposition to ‘help music lovers realise their potential’ has taken on a new meaning in terms of customer engagement. In the digital age, the fact that not all customers are the same is even more pertinent, as their needs are constantly changing. Even within the same demographics, personas can differ much from one another. It is important to understand each customer’s journey and their needs at each point of that journey, and being relevant to those needs, concluding that one should not go ‘digital for digital’s sake’. |
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Real Time Hit (Or Miss)A basic rule of digital marketing: an exchange of value between marketers and consumers. That is what Mr. Jeffrey Seah, Starcom MediaVest Group’s CEO, South East Asia and chair, Asia Digital Leadership Team abides by. He quipped: “It’s no longer business as usual”. He talked about changes in the way business is structured in the digital realm. As consumer behaviour changes the collection of data, business planning and the measurement of success have also changed. Mr. Seah further explored his digital rules of engagement, namely, moderation is key – what to use, timing is everything – when to use and sequence is success – how to use. How effective is our marketing mix? Are we leveraging current events and trending topics? ‘It’s about putting customers, feelings and meeting their needs first before selling’. |
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The Human-Centred Habits of Innovative SMEThe last speaker, Ms. Angela Koch, Chief Ideas Facilitator of Invitro Innovation touched on the emotional aspect of customer engagement and using technology to build empathy. Business is data-rich but insight-poor. It has under-appreciated the value of the emotional brain. “To discover new opportunities, we need to innovate from the heart”, she told participants. Brands tend to be product-focused but not focused on the how-tos, in truly creating and delivering new value to customers. When mapping the customer experience, we should take a ‘customer journey view’ rather than a ‘product view’. Only when we have a change of heart do innovation opportunities thrive. It could broaden to include a new product or service, a new customer segment or a new communication channel. |
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Coming Together As One
The enriching seminar rounded up with a lively panel discussion among the members, Nanyang Business School’s Dr. Chung Tuck Siong, Ms. Jeannie Ong, Chief Marketing Officer of Starhub, Atlas’ Mr. Sherwin Siregar Tien and Geoff Tan, Head of Strategic Marketing at SPH, together with moderator Ika Ibanez, Director of PricewaterhouseCoopers.
On how the rise of new media has impacted the way people do business, the panel reached the fact that traditional and digital media can co-exist. Media should not be viewed as silos, but part of an integrated marketing strategy that works in synergy with products and services to bring delight to the customer.
In the evolving digital landscape, the customer experience transcends all. The Canon Think Big Entrepreneurs Convention widened perspectives in understanding, acquiring and retaining customers. Ultimately, it is about constantly building innovative marketing strategies and managing new technologies effectively to meet the rapidly growing expectations of customers.
