The Singapore Marketer (Oct-Dec 2017)

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marketer knowledge for marketing excellence

oct-dec’17

BRAND STORYTELLING in a Nutshell

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18 How content marketing can win hearts and boost sales remarkably 34 Exclusive Interview with Professor Philip Kotler, Father of Modern and Future Marketing The Official Publication of the Marketing Institute of Singapore, the National Body for Sales and Marketing

Editor’s Note Dear Readers, We are drawing very near to the end of the year, which means Christmas is around the corner as well. Since Christmas is a season of giving, every retailer and brand are concentrating their last-ditch efforts of the year to grab a share of this festive market and to entice customers to shop, shop and shop!

THE SINGAPORE MARKETER

October - December 2017

Editor Mickey Hee Contributing Writers Daniel Heerkens, Poonam Kumar, Seah Fiona, Chan Yiwen, Oskar Toerneld & Robin de Rooij, Martin Ross and Kristy Castleton MIS EXECUTIVE COUNCIL President Roger Wang 2nd Vice President Dr Roger Low Honorary Secretary Mark Laudi Asst Honorary Secretary Dylan Tan Honorary Treasurer Gerry Gabriele Seah Asst Honorary Treasurer Freddy Tan Council Members Edmund Lau Lee Kwok Weng Co-opted Council Members Angie Low Douglas Koh Kew Sion Design & Layout Kelvin Wang Production, Advertising & Circulation Joreen Yee joreen.yee@mis.org.sg Publisher Marketing Institute of Singapore 51 Anson Centre #03-53 Singapore 079904 Tel: (65) 6327 7580 Fax: (65) 6327 9741 Email: singaporemarketer@mis.org.sg Website: www.mis.org.sg

One of the most effective ways of drawing customers to you is to tell a brand story.

The key is, how do you tell a story, in a matter of seconds, that will convey to consumers why they should buy your products? Telling the brand story is more than just asking the consumer to click on the “About” link on a company’s website. A leather bag is a leather bag, apart from the different grades of leather and perhaps quality of workmanship. Why would someone carry a high-end luxury brand bag when you can get a no-name or unknown brand name leather bag that looks just as aesthetically nice? How good can the leather be to justify a price point difference of hundreds or even thousands of dollars?

You are buying the story, that’s the important thing. You pay the dollars because you are buying into its history, the heritage and what that brand stands for.

In this issue of The Singapore Marketer (TSM), we will be mainly addressing ‘Brand Storytelling’. Storytelling is one of the most powerful ways to inject life into a brand. Gone are the days where marketing involves aggressively pushing products or services to consumers. It has evolved to a stage where consumers will come to you if they can relate or feel connected to your story. Read on to learn about the strategies of brand storytelling, and let our writers share with you some secrets of how Brand Storytelling can create marketing success.

We apologise that this issue came later than usual as we had to prepare some very interesting interviews for you!

Disruptive innovation and strategies are especially a ‘hot topic’ this year. Many companies and even government organisations are already adopting digital payment platforms and embarking on digital transformation to stay ahead of the game. If you are still lacking behind and keen to find out about the how-tos, you will definitely gain from the ‘TSM Special – Marketers’ Q&A’ towards the end of the publication.

In the ‘TSM Special – Marketers’ Q&A’ section towards the back of the publication, we are very honoured to interview the Father of Modern and Future Marketing, Professor Philip Kotler and Mr Hermawan Kartajaya. They have co-authored five international books, including Marketing 3.0 and the current edition, 4.0. Other interviews include the ‘electric guitar speaker’, Professor Salvador Lopez, and Professor of Marketing of the National University of Singapore, Dr Jochen Wirtz. It’s a rare opportunity to hear from the real guru on new marketing strategies in the evolving digital times, isn’t it?

We hope this issue serves in advance as an awesome Christmas gift for you. Happy reading!

Mickey Hee

Editor

The Singapore Marketer is a quarterly magazine published by Marketing Institute of Singapore.

The views expressed in The Singapore Marketer do not necessarily represent those of the Marketing Institute of Singapore. No responsibility is accepted by the Institute or its staff for the accuracy of any statement, opinion, or advice contained in the text or advertisements, and readers are advised to rely on their judgment or enquiries, and to consult their own advisers in making any decisions which would affect their interest. All materials appearing in The Singapore Marketer is copyright. No part of the publication may be reproduced without prior written permission of the Marketing Institute of Singapore. The Marketing Institute of Singapore welcomes contributions and letters. These might be edited for clarity or length. Articles, letters and requests to reproduce articles appearing in The Singapore Marketer should be sent to the Editor, Marketing Institute of Singapore, 51 Anson Road, #03-53 Anson Centre, Singapore 079904 or write to singaporemarketer@mis.org.sg or joreen.yee@mis.org.sg.

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Content Page

04 COVER STORY Brand Storytelling in a Nutshell

FOCUS

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Storytelling - the power to change the world

FEATURE

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Brand Storytelling: Have You Cast Your Actors Right?

GURU TALK

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How content marketing can win hearts and boost sales remarkably

BUSINESS SCHOOL

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Why marketers should own the “fourth P”?

DIGITAL DIGEST

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Increase Eyeballs and Engagement with Video

LEARNING SITE

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Tomorrow has Arrived – the Future of Events

TSM SPECIAL MARKETERS’ Q&A

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Interview with Prof Philip Kotler

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Interview with Hermawan Kartajaya

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Interview with Dr Jochen Wirtz

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Interview with Prof Marc Oliver

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Interview with Prof Salvador Lopez

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Cover Story

Brand Storytelling in a Nutshell

» Daniel Heerkens As children, our parents used storytelling to put some colour on simple life lessons. As a result, we remembered these lessons well and kept them in our hearts and mind.

Content marketing professionals also use storytelling to bring life to a brand and consider it as one of the main components of a content marketing approach.

1. Make it Personal The most amazing stories in the world are uplifting, exciting, and even terrifying, if all the details in the story are condensed into a human struggle.

One great example of making it personal is Nike’s “Equality” Campaign. It features a 90-second commercial starring LeBron James, Michael Jordan, Victor Cruz, Dalilah Muhammad, and others sharing a strong personal stance on equality.

Often, they tell stories focused on a company’s rise as a prominent industry icon and what motivates it to pursue its goals. Brand stories will allow your target audience to see you as an actual organisation of people rather than a boring corporate figure. They prefer connecting with humans who are why brand storytelling is the yellow brick road for marketers.

Creating a good brand story requires a more emotional approach.

Don’t make it solely about your company; go personal and beyond mere publicity. Here are the five must do’s for a great brand story.

(Screenshot taken from Nike’s Youtube channel)

A behind-the-scenes video was also released to show what equality means for them. LeBron James said, “At the end of the day, we’re always just trying to find a way that we can all feel equal, we can all be equal, have the same rights, have the same feelings, being able to be in the same place no matter the colour.”

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A storytelling campaign should focus on the person, not on selling the product or service.

A personal story can be a consumer’s positive experience using the product or service.

2. Create Relatable Characters Characters act and respond, making them the force that drives the narrative. Making audiences empathise with his or her struggles makes the story more compelling and memorable, and can coincide with the reasoning of a particular target market.

Jollibee’s 2017 Valentines Ad Campaign did this, plus more. The Filipino fast food chain released a series of video each telling a different story that put viewers into a whirlwind of relatable emotions all ending with the conclusion that love comes in many forms.

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(Screenshot taken from Jollibee Philippines’ Youtube Channel)

One of the videos titled “Vow,” tells the story of a guy who met “the one” in one of the Jollibee branches he frequents. He and the girl spent plenty of time together and fell madly in love. He vowed to make her happy no matter what it takes. However, there was a heartbreaking twist at the end. The video instantly became viral and currently has more than 15 million views.

The whole ad series raked more than 30 million views in Facebook and the fast food chain’s burger sales quadrupled after the ads were released, as reported by GMA News Online.

The brand became more trustworthy because the values the character exhibited guarantee the quality of the products or services the business offers.

Cover Story

3. Be Honest

4. Make a Flowing Story

Stories become famous because they are unique or tell a story that mirrors that of their audience. However, going for a fresh story that could be exaggerated can be entertaining, but it will lack the strong emotions that make brand storytelling inspiring and memorable.

In an advertising video’s 30 seconds, brands can tell their stories in chapters as long as they introduce an amazing narrative with characters that audiences can empathise and care for.

Another way to introduce honesty is not to take the brand too seriously. Self-deprecation, if it suits the brand, is helpful because it is entertaining and funny to audiences. It also helps introduce a casual and approachable identity. Adweek listed Apple’s 2007 “Stuffed” advertisement for being a hilarious but concise way to promote their new product, and it still does its job.

The best way to do this is to use the three-part scenario of most storylines: the beginning, middle, and end.

The beginning shows the characters and introduces them and their current predicaments. In this scenario, building up the character’s appeal and the audience’s empathy for them is important.

In the next scene, problems arise. Here’s why this section is special: brands can promote their products or services as a solution to resolve the character’s conflict. If the story is compelling enough, audiences will look past the product and just want to see the resolution.

The last scene will show whether the character’s efforts in the middle had worked out with the help of the product or service. In the resolution, brands can inject emotion and an exceptional resolution that will encourage audiences to share the story over and over again to others who may be interested.

(Image taken from Digital Hytop’s Youtube channel)

The ad was built on two funny archetypal characters (Justin Long as the Mac and John Hodgman as the PC) where the bumbling PC always complain to Mac about being slowed down by so many pre-installed trials.

Showing the positive and negative aspects of a specific character makes them human and removes the “super” quality that makes them just a simple protagonist or inspiring figure. And in the case of Apple, they did it in a very funny and memorable way.

(Screenshot taken from Tigerbeer’s Youtube channel)

Just take a look at Tiger Beer’s “3890 Project.” The main character of the campaign are the tigers left in the wild, which is estimated to be just a measly 3,890.

Together with WWF and six street artists, the Asian beer brand made six documentaries exposing the illegal tiger trade and what people can do to help.

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In an advertising video’s 30 seconds, brands can tell their stories in chapters as long as they introduce an amazing narrative with characters that audiences can empathise and care for.

5. Tease Your Audience

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Teasing is a great way to gain attention; if you’ve ever watched your favourite series, the last scene in the episode is another problem that needs to be solved in the consequent episode. This is a “page-turning” device in novel or story writing.

Hooked audiences will want to know more about the events in the next part of the story. In advertisements, stories can use a narrative technique: foreshadowing, which shows an event that will be clarified in the middle or the last scene.

(Image taken from DBS’ Youtube channel)

Cover Story

DBS actually made a mini drama series on their website with each episode ending in a cliff hanger. The first three episodes garnered more than 12 million views and 510,000 engagements according to a report

by Marketing Interactive. Each episode has successfully reinvented the brand into a company that will go above and beyond for each customer.

Wrap Up In a world of fast-paced competition, companies lose their appeal to who matters most: their customers. Connecting with customers in a personal, human way helps them remove the stigma of an “official” or “big company,” and it helps them show that they understand and empathise with the struggles of their audiences.

Television advertisements in the past have done so well to elicit emotions and empathy from consumers. Today, the Internet still uses video to tell stories that inspire, entertain, or make audiences laugh and push forward their business’ personality as something akin to the advertisements. If you are not sure which emotions to focus on, the Harvard Business Review has a great article on the emotions that drive straight into any audiences’ heart.

However, certain target markets like to read up on solutions. Blogs are a great answer to these audiences.

Social media is also a great network to incorporate narratives. By using all these mediums together, a solid brand storytelling campaign can guarantee great results.

ABOUT THE WRITER

Daniel Heerkens is a Dutch entrepreneur and marketer who has been featured on the BBC. He has always been interested in Sustainable Products and Digital Innovation. With previous experience working for FMCG Multinationals (Danone & Royal FrieslandCampina) in The Netherlands, Malaysia and Singapore, he is now the Digital Marketing Strategy Expert at 2Stallions.

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Focus

Storytelling - the power to change the world

Âť By Poonam Kumar

The in-laws are coming for dinner and Cindy is in a frenzied panic.

What can she do to ensure that she lives up to expectations? She has heard often enough that his mother was an amazing cook and hostess.

Enter the brand as a hero that helps her get the evening right. The scene closes with the critical motherin-law grudgingly expressing appreciation while the husband looks on with proud approval.

Louise watches wistfully as laughing, happy couples glide across the dance floor at the wedding reception. She wishes she was among them instead of having to watch from the sidelines. Not easy being alone as all her friends are getting married. Enter the saviour brand – that magically transforms her into a glowing confident woman, by lightening her skin and banishing

unwanted blemishes. We then watch Louise as the belle of the ball surrounded by many admirers and finally as a radiant bride.

Every day we consciously and sub-consciously watch hundreds of these short stories. Most have happy endings. Stories that we are told by brands with their implicit promises that they can make us better, happier and more successful. Like all stories, they become a part of how we make sense of the world, find meaning in our lives and make choices.

That is the kind of power brand stories can have on the lives of people. Through the stories brands tell, they sell values, images and ideas. They sell concepts of love and sexuality, of success and relationships, but perhaps most importantly they sell the concept of normalcy. To a large degree, they tell

us who we are and who we should be. They lure us with messages of heroism and power, of friendship and loyalty, of desire and seduction.

They also tell us stories of horror and rejection, of fear and failure. We respond to them not just with our wallets but with our hearts and our minds.

Brand stories can have an immeasurable impact on our lives, so it is, therefore, essential that brands use this power responsibly. When deployed as a positive force, we feel the powerful impact. Nike has always strived to disrupt and bring attention to societal flaws addressing issues of race, gender, diversity, beckoning everyone to find their inner greatness. Coca Cola with their amazing communication gives us a glimpse of a beautiful, harmonious world and possibilities of a better

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Some brands are challenging the age-old prescriptions and taboos – those that have gone unquestioned...

reality, Dove challenged the bloody battlefield of beauty, urging every woman feel rightfully beautiful.

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Sadly, these brands are the exception. Most brands targeting women have not been as inspiring as storytellers, reinforcing age-old patriarchal codes and resulting gender stereotypes. For years, most advertising to women was about finding legitimacy. The expressions of patriarchy have been neither subtle nor apologetic. The domestic goddess was put on a pedestal, evaluated, condemned or appreciated for the role she plays in running her home, supporting her husband’s success and children’s well-being. It was not unusual to shame a woman for her child not growing tall enough, or her husband’s shirt not being white enough. It was not uncommon to show a husband expressing disappointment, frustration and even anger at a household chore not done optimally. Girls were instilled with the

fear of rejection from a young age – the tyranny of conforming to social norms, of beauty and behavioural choices. They were never thin enough, fair enough, well-groomed enough- and unless they complied, they were threatened with dire consequences.

The last decade has seen change.

Some brands are challenging the age-old prescriptions and taboos – those that have gone unquestioned, even by the women. The new narratives are bold and often wander into forbidden territories.

U by Kotex boldly challenges the way a woman is labelled as having premenstrual syndrome (PMS) if she is angry or upset, often dismissing her effectiveness at the work place.

Always’ ‘Like a girl’ campaign unapologetically makes us confront our prejudices. Ariel’s ‘Share the load’ campaign questions why men don’t play a bigger role in household chores that are mundane but necessary.

Focus These campaigns are acclaimed and award-winning, but they remain the exception. Although the storytelling has certainly shifted and there is relief from the shackles of household drudgery, the new stories now place debilitating constraints of another kind. The emphasis on looks and hankering after ideals of unattainable perfection is stronger than ever before. Perfection has moved a few notches higher as models staring at you are the miracles of computer retouching.

Brands compete with each other to surround women with these images, inducing guilt, low self-esteem and shame.

No one has greater power to drive a different narrative than brands that women love and desire. This is even truer in Asian markets that are experiencing their first blush of consumerism and are looking towards brands for guidance. Brands must have the courage to challenge regressive, deeply held beliefs created by centuries of dominant patriarchal societies. They must be unafraid to confront practices and

norms that implicitly or explicitly erode a woman’s confidence, her sense of equality or identity.

Brand stories must show women (and men) the possibility of different truths. Truths where differences do not mean inequality, less respect, damaging stereotypes, objectification and limitations. Instead, differences create better relationships, better workplaces and ultimately a better society. Great brands create powerful stories that challenge social norms, aiming to inspire women and strive for an equal world.

Finally, these brand stories cannot just skim the top layer of society.

Equality is meaningless unless it is democratic. All savvy marketers understand that to succeed in Asia, one has to resonate with the emerging consumer class. These are women in their twenties, thirties, forties and fifties. They live in the cities, towns and villages. They work at home, in the offices, in the factories and the bazaars. They are ready for a new story. Ready for a different truth. Ready for you.

ABOUT THE WRITER

Poonam Kumar is the Regional Director of Brand Strategy, Kantar TNS. He has worked over 20 years and is a recognised expert on Brand Development and Strategy in Emerging markets. She has held advised regional and global clients like Danone, Unilever, Motorola, P&G, Diageo, Kraft, SCA and the Tata group. She set up and managed a pioneering effort on kids and teens research. In the last few years, Poonam has been working on archetypal branding, adapting for cultural adequacy.

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Feature

Brand Storytelling: Have You Cast Your Actors Right?

» By Seah Fiona

Brand stories aim to sell and there is no better strategy towards conversion than casting the customer as the narrative lead.

Yet, countless brands still make the innocuous mistake of featuring their founders and products as the main actors than paying for mind-share. In fact, the best brand story is centred on life-share – how customers’ lives are enriched by the brand from their point of view; here’s how:

point of view? In a sea of similar “benefits”, is this portrayal sufficient for competitive advantage?

Marketing 101: Sell benefits, not features.

Mid last year, Uber launched its “Get there with Uber” outdoor campaign in the UK, casting real users with “the most intriguing and approachable stories”. Getting “there” encapsulated anywhere from getting home, to arriving at a lifelong aspiration. One trendy rider was featured with her reason for using Uber: “18 minutes from great night to goodnight”; and a driver: “587 miles closer to opening a restaurant”.

Every marketer knows this mantra by heart. Hence, CCTV ads feature families smiling in their sleep and insurance companies depict loving couples under red umbrellas in the torrential rain. And of course, the ubiquitous puppy in toilet paper ads.

While they have checked the box for “benefits”, are these constructed from the brand’s or customer’s

The taxi industry is a case-inpoint. For over a century, its only apparent benefit was to get you from Point A to B. Feature. Enter Uber, digging deep into how it can be of use to customers in their daily lives and even aspirations. Benefit.

In its thorough localisation strategy, Uber does not stop at translating languages.

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When customers lead in the narrative, they have vested interest to advocate for the brand.

Suddenly, private-car hailing was everyone’s buddy. These customerfocused messages were replicated recently in time-starved Singapore at MRT stations: “If your boss has a 100% punctuality rule, Uber.” Very relatable. In India, Uber crashed the party for the Hindu festival Makar Sankranti, which features kite-flying, by partnering a kite shop to deliver kites for free.

When customers lead in the narrative, they have vested interest to advocate for the brand. When the Hong Kong transport ministry recently pressured Uber to conform to the standard taxi model, more than 12,000 positive testimonials were posted on SupportUber.hk in a thinly-disguised petition as part of Uber’s #IChooseUber campaign.

Customers protect a brand because without it, their lives will be affected.

Sell experiences.

In the hospitality industry, hotels go to great lengths to detail individual luxury. Ironically, by focusing on itself, each hotel becomes limited by its own potential. Conversely, by wrapping an entire concept around the customer’s wants, Airbnb expands its offering beyond an apartment to an entire locale with an enhanced bundle of resources it doesn’t pay for (passionate hosts, hole-in-the-wall attractions etc.).

Last year, Airbnb launched the highly-experiential “Live There” campaign which promoted its core product through eyes and the mouths of real customers. It featured an innovative cinema ad that simultaneously portrayed two different perspectives depending on how the 3D glasses were tilted: visiting like a tourist versus living like a local. Plus, more than 1,400 guests visited its #LiveThere House – a local townhouse transformed to host a range of local entertainment, to “uncover the best-kept secrets the

city has to offer”. This was amplified by the #DingDong Twitter outreach which encouraged many others to share their own tips, extending the brand’s reach to an astounding 12.3 million. Meanwhile, a collection of real customers’ stories on its website tells others about the exciting possibilities it offers worldwide.

According to Fortune, Airbnb’s profit is expected to top $3 Billion by 2020 which would be more than that of 85% of the companies in the Fortune 500.

Sell values.

With more people scrutinising what companies stand for, some brands are transcending the material world by staking out a moral high ground.

In the 1990s, Subaru studied its customer demographics and discovered that lesbian customers loved its all-wheel drive. Since then, they have actively courted this segment with playful lesbian

Feature and gay-targeted text codes in its advertisements and openly supported LGBT causes. By defying the norm of its times and embracing the value of freedom to love, Subaru won the LGBT community’s support which has driven its growth and which now sets a precedent for other companies in addressing this segment.

Of course, this gamble is not without risk since values are subjective. While Dove has enjoyed commercial success with the “Real Beauty” campaign, its antithesis Abercrombie and Fitch has festered. Its portrayal of overt sexuality and exclusivity which appealed to youngsters in the past is now interpreted as discriminatory exclusion by its current audience – Millennials who value diversity and inclusion. Its earnings continue to tumble as it frantically rebrands.

What happens to arrogant brands?

When a brand leaves customers at the periphery, its 4Ps can turn against its own customers.

Complacent on a wave of popularity, Netflix learnt this the hard way when it split its service structure and raised prices overnight. While the calculation made business sense, Netflix had disregarded the emotional connection customers had with the existing media format.

The resulting upset caused its share price to plummet 30% and it was estimated to have lost 1 million customers.

Closer to home, online forums have been rife with customers’ complaints about being held ransom by the three telcos: aggressive monetisation of data plans, unattractive contracts and features such as SMS and call-time that customers no longer needed. Enter Circles.Life. which recognised and sold to customers the exact value they needed. Today, the incumbent telcos copy its value format in

a desperate bid to defend their market share. Clearly, not centring the customer in the brand story increases vulnerability to external shocks.

Review your brand story.

True branding ensures that every arm of the marketing plan works together to tell a coherent brand story about, and to the customer in tangible forms: product format, price structure, communications etc.

Especially in crisis, remember who the brand serves. When Lulemon had to recall yoga pants that ran too sheer, its chairman put the blame on “some women’s bodies”. The PR disaster resulted in its stock tumbling and the stepping down of both chairman and CEO. Above all, remember that audiences evolve.

Periodically update your storyboard and adjust the 4Ps around the customers, not around the product with a link to the customers as an after-thought!

ABOUT THE WRITER

Seah Fiona is an advocate of big ideas that touch lives. Director of Chrome Beak Training & Consultancy, she has worked extensively across B2B and G2C on diverse key projects such as ministry-level blueprints, change management and quality assurance projects. She triple-hats as an adjunct business lecturer and corporate trainer. Fiona is contactable at seahfiona@chromebeak.com.

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Guru Talk

How content marketing

can win hearts and boost sales remarkably

» By Chan Yi Wen

Screenshot of Goldheart Jewellery’s ‘Daughter’ campaign featuring Singaporean actress Rebecca Lim as the bride-to-be.

(Photo taken from: Goldheart Jewellery’s youtube channel)

When Goldheart Jewellery, one of Singapore’s largest fine jewellers wanted to sell their new range of “Si Dian Jin” (a traditional custom that is commonly practiced by most Chinese. Translated as ‘4 touches of gold’), they anchored their marketing campaign with a touching story about a mother’s relationship with her daughter-in-law. “Si Dian Jin” is a traditional Chinese betrothal gift comprising four pieces of gold jewellery given to the bride by her mother-in-law.

In the campaign video, the motherin-law shared how her daughterin-law won her over by following traditions such as making an effort to learn her recipes. The campaign perfectly captured Goldheart’s key message of how traditions remain relevant to the modern bride.

The resulting campaign generated a high return on investment (ROI).

Specifically, Goldheart garnered more than 400,000 views for their Youtube video in a mere two months, a click-through rate of 40.1%, 1.7 million Facebook impressions and drove sales up by a whopping 400%.

Goldheart is not the only company that appreciated the power of content marketing.

Mark Ong, the designer behind homegrown clothing label SBTG hand-painting sneakers.

Ong is one of the personalities featured in Singapore Tourism Board’s 2017 campaign.

(Photo taken from: Thedrum.com)

This year, the Singapore Tourism Board (STB) jumped on the bandwagon with their new campaign titled “Passion Made Possible” which showcased stories of Singaporeans pursuing their dreams. These include a young Chinese opera singer and a lawyer who deejays at night, among many others.

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Increasingly, companies are using content marketing to generate sales and win over consumers. In 2016, Forbes declared content marketing as the “new strategic imperative of business” due to its ability to affect consumers emotionally and get buy-in on the brand’s products and services.

So, what is content marketing?

The Content Marketing Institute defines it as “a strategic marketing approach focused on creating and distributing valuable, relevant, and consistent content to attract and retain a clearly defined audience — and, ultimately, to drive profitable customer action.”

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The term “content marketing” is often used interchangeably with “visual storytelling” and “brand storytelling” by marketers.

Compared to countries such as the United Kingdom and the United States, content marketing is in a nascent stage in Asia.

Standing out from the crowd with content marketing In a crowded marketplace, content marketing can help companies distinguish themselves from others.

Traditional advertising such as pop-up advertisements and banner advertisements are becoming less effective as ad-blocking software becomes more sophisticated. In 2015 alone, around 200 million people all over the world installed ad-blocking software, according to pagefair.com.

Coupled with the fact that consumers are facing information fatigue from being constantly bombarded with information, smart marketers have to find ways to circumvent this.

Given this challenging climate, content marketing allows companies to differentiate themselves from their competitors and connect with audiences in a relatable manner.

Research by American neuroeconomist Paul Zak provides insight on how content marketing works. Zak conducted a series of experiments which show that compelling stories cause our brains to release Oxytocin, a “trust hormone” that fosters social bonding and empathy. When applied to businesses, companies that create a great story can engender trust in the brand thus, driving sales.

Winning hearts, minds and wallets As the saying goes, content is king. Good content can help a brand win fans and influence people.

When used effectively, content marketing offers companies the following benefits.

1. Establishing your brand as authority Needless to say, when companies devote time and effort to creating useful, relevant and engaging content for their target audience, they will be seen as a credible and authoritative source of information.

Take for instance Singapore

insurance service provider NTUC Income. The NTUC Income team created easy-to-understand blog posts to educate consumers on how to spot bogus insurance policies and ways in which parents can help to manage their kids’ finances better.

Given that the content is useful to parents, it is no surprise that the latter article is one of the blog’s most popular articles.

When companies continually produce such high-quality content, they will inevitably create top-ofmind awareness in their consumers since the latter will appreciate the useful content and even share it with others.

2. Driving traffic Content marketing also helps companies to increase their visibility in search engines. Google indexes all the content created on a website, including blog posts. If the content created is deemed high quality, it will rank higher on search queries, which will undoubtedly increase traffic to the site.

Statistics from HubSpot 2016 shows that high quality blog posts can generate a considerable amount of traffic for a company. In fact, 1 out of 10 blog posts enjoy cumulative traffic through organic searches over time. Called ‘compounding posts’, these posts generated 38% of overall traffic for a website, despite making up 10% of all blog posts only.

And content marketing does not just stop at increasing traffic. It has the power to generate leads as well.

Guru Talk 3. Generating leads Hubspot’s 2015 data indicated that B2C companies that blogged regularly, at around 11 times monthly received more than four times as many leads as compared to their counterparts that blog only four to five times per month. The effect is even more pronounced for companies that published around 16 blog posts every month – they had 4.5 times more leads than those that published below 4 monthly posts.

The evidence speaks for itself; content marketing is an effective tool for lead generation. But the ‘how’ is worth looking at as well.

Content marketing allows companies to create content tailored to specific groups of high-value individuals that already have an interest in the service or product that they are offering.

This is best illustrated by an article published by UOB Singapore for its People InBusiness series. Rather than creating an article that speaks to the masses, UOB honed in on SME owners with insights on the importance of embracing change

amongst traditional businesses by a Key Opinion Leader (KOL).

The article is accompanied by a video which incidentally, garnered 18,000 views organically.

Quality content that answers questions, provides solutions, and educates can also be used as an avenue to show off the company’s expertise in its field while subtly weaving in the benefits of engaging specialists and experts without coming off as being too pushy.

4. Increasing conversions All marketers have the same end goal of increasing conversions and content marketing can help to do that.

According to contentarketinginstitute.com, statistics show that companies that adopt content marketing had conversion rates that are almost six times higher than their competitors.

One reason could be because custom content resonates better with consumers. A study by Time.

Inc which surveyed 17,000 people

across different age groups showed that 90% of the respondents liked it when brands engage them with personalised content. Additionally, 89% felt that personalised content could help brands differentiate themselves from others.

Furthermore, since content marketing costs relatively lower than traditional marketing, marketers can continually test and optimise their content so as to convert better.

Given the sea of content available online, it is not easy to attract the consumers’ attention. As such, to get the most out of content marketing, it is important to work with subject matter experts who understand the business well. This will allow the created content to be authentic and connect with their intended audience.

Lastly, as marketing anthropologist Clotaire Rapaille puts it “People don’t drink the wine.

They drink the story.” The power of content marketing lies in the subtle way it captures our hearts and makes us willingly part with our hard-earned money to consume the product or service of a brand.

ABOUT THE WRITER

Chan Yi Wen is Content.co’s Co-Founder and Head of Strategy. A former journalist at The Business Times, Yi Wen has developed content strategies for a portfolio of brands including Unilever, UOB and Huawei. She has been featured in the inaugural Forbes 30 Under 30 Asia for Media, Marketing & Advertising. She is contactable at contact@content.co.

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Business School

Why marketers should own

the “fourth P”? » By Oskar Toerneld & Robin de Rooij

In any given organisation, who claims ownership of pricing is often a topic of debate. Whether you work in consumer goods, healthcare, telecom, finance or technology, price strategy is not always top-of-mind, nor is it owned by a single department within a company. However, Having the right pricing strategy is one of the best ways to positively impact a company’s bottom line.

Sometimes marketing takes responsibility for pricing strategy, while other times it’s the bailiwick of finance. Often there is no clear pricing strategy at all, and thus, no clear ownership of pricing responsibility.

We’re all familiar with the four P’s of marketing: Product, Place, Promotion and Price. For many of us, it seems natural for marketing to own or at least be involved in the first three, but pricing is usually

left to other functions. Maybe it’s because the first three are a more natural fit for someone with a creative marketing background, while price is seen as more quantitative in nature – more fitting for someone who loves analyzing spreadsheets.

Why marketing should own pricing For a pricing strategy to make sense, it must work for consumers or they will stop buying the product. When this happens, it doesn’t matter if a theoretical profit model is being satisfied – focusing on consumers should always drive decision making, regardless of which P we’re talking about.

There are 3 big reasons why marketing should get involved and take ownership on that last P of marketing.

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Pricing strategy is part of brand communication and it has to be in sync with the rest of the message.

1. Market research has the pulse of the market, particularly in terms of how to talk to consumers.

Pricing strategy is part of brand communication and it has to be in sync with the rest of the message. We can’t communicate luxury in our advertising and price at a discount, or perhaps even more risky, communicate value and charge a premium. While the temptation might be to let profitability restrictions dictate the pricing strategy it’s important to also take into account how consumers would react to a price or change in price. Ad hoc research is often necessary to gauge how consumers might respond when launching new products, or when predicting what might happen to consumer interest when you increase price. While mark-ups and profit margins might help calculate theoretical profitability, it doesn’t say anything about

whether consumers will continue to buy your product or choose to switch to a better priced competitor.

2. Building on the first point, more retail sales are moving to online, and the online environment is changing a lot faster than traditional brick and mortar. All decisions must be made quicker, including pricing strategy. Digital and real-time conditions are driving real-time pricing moves. Pricing strategy decisions should be made by the people that observe and understand the digital consumer, and no one understands this consumer better than marketing.

Access to big data, better and more intuitive analytics tools, and marketing’s ownership of other monitoring tools such as web traffic and social media means that marketing can constantly tap into the experiences of consumers.

3. Finally, marketing becomes a team of heroes, as taking control of pricing will turn marketing into a profit centre. All the other P’s require risks and often fail to yield high returns. Optimised pricing strategy can make a tremendous positive impact, especially when you’re in a highly competitive market. Big data analysis has become the backbone of contemporary pricing over the last five years. That said, modeling prices based on historic data alone is not sufficient. Customer opinions still matter, and these can be obtained through any number of means, such as customer panels, surveys and even mobile phone apps. Combining traditional and contemporary pricing methods will yield insights that represent the best of both worlds.

It is of course important to tap into the expertise of all the functions in a company, and

Business School it is important to do the backend calculations to ensure that products are profitable at the price at which they’re being sold.

There is a solid case to be made for having marketing take the lead in order to drive a pricing strategy that puts consumers first to drive an overall cohesive strategy.

A product portfolio can contain many items addressing a diverse collection of consumer needs.

Some products perform well, others less so. Many times, markets have changed since a portfolio was put together and the strategy was outlined. And pricing changes have likely occurred in the category – perhaps driven by changes in the cost of goods.

Because markets are constantly changing, brands are re-evaluating constantly, adapting portfolio strategies to maintain financial goals and positioning. Portfolio adjustments can have short-term and long-term consequences, so addressing all options, along with the pros and cons to each, is necessary to finding the best option. Marketers have a unique point of view within the organization, and their insight is absolutely necessary for making smart pricing decisions.

For a pricing strategy to make sense, it has to work for consumers. The best way to ensure success is to make sure marketing has a seat at the table when portfolio decisions are made.

ABOUT THE WRITERS

Oskar Toerneld

Oskar Toerneld has extensive experience consulting with large multinationals, helping them build strong portfolios of products and services. His expertise includes conjoint and other quantitative methodologies to drive strategic recommendations.

Prior to SKIM, Oskar worked at Nielsen BASES where he specialised in sales forecasting and development of new products for clients across telecom, technology and consumer packaged goods.

Robin de Rooij is Director Asia Pacific at SKIM, having set up the regional office in Singapore to bring specialised solutions in choice and decision making behavior to this rapidly growing market. With over nine years of experience at SKIM, Robin is at his best when translating business problems into customised research solutions; integrating conjoint models with other traditional and innovative techniques effortlessly.

Robin de Rooij

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Digital Digest

Eyeballs and Engagement

Increase

with Video

» By Martin Ross Have you noticed a number of videos filling up your Facebook or Instagram feeds, or have you watched a live feed of an event, or maybe you find yourself watching YouTube shows from your favourite YouTube personality?

Thirty million people watch almost 5 billion videos every day and over 400 hours of video are uploaded every minute on YouTube. In January 2016, CEO Mark Zuckerberg said Facebook Users watch 100 million hours of video per day. If that doesn’t give you an idea of how huge video is today, Cisco predicts that by 2019, 80% of all global internet traffic will be video.

Online users are watching digital videos at an unprecedented rate.

More than 50% of people use their mobile phones to access the internet. However, the mobile platform is not ideal for long-form written text when one is on the move. Digital video content, on the other hand, requires much less

effort and delivers audio, video and the opportunity to inform, entertain or persuade at the same time.

According to @MediaPost, videos are great for audience retention and can increase purchase intent by as much as 97%.

What does it mean for brands?

For some time now, brands have been using their TV commercials as a pre-roll before existing video content, e.g. on YouTube; or embedded in rich media ad banners as part of a display ad campaign. This becomes a costly exercise as brands are typically required to purchase media to garner exposure and there is little guarantee that people will engage with these ads. Then, there is the question of ‘will people watch the videos?’. A Launchleap survey (Dec 2016) found that 59% of millennials skip ads.

Brands see more success with digital video when it constitutes

part of a carefully orchestrated content marketing initiative rather than serving as a standalone campaign. It is especially useful when the video addresses customers’ needs and questions they may have at each stage of the sales funnel. Customers today don’t read long newsletters sent via email. However they will click the play button when they receive a video newsletter via email.

According to getresponse.com, emails with a video link receive about 96% more clicks!

VIDEO CONTENT FRAMEWORK For content generation, YouTube recommends in its “Playbook for Brands”, to use one of three possibilities: the brand’s own creation, creation in collaboration or the curation of existing content.

Then for actual content creation, one ought to structure three types of content in the following framework:

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Hero: Draws people in and builds awareness for audiences who want to be entertained and intrigued or interested. Think key activation events in your marketing calendar.

Hub: Sits on your own channels like Facebook or YouTube. Users come to your page and view this content to learn more about your brand. Here you can have longer form content designed for the people who are actually engaged and have subscribed to your channel because they’re already interested in your brand.

Help: Customers are always asking questions and you can’t be on the ground all the time to help them out. Help oriented content is a constant two-way conversation with your audience.

For consumers, ‘how to’s’ are an increasing search query and necessary for your SEO strategy.

Help oriented content is a constant two-way conversation with your audience.

Here are some of the types of videos being created by brands: a. Explainer videos b. Educational / How to videos c. Product videos d. Customer testimonials e. Company story, event videos f. Internal / External Video Newsletters What is the Objective Before you run off and hire yourself a video production company, define your KPIs right from the start. These could be: • Awareness (measured in reach, or views), • Advocacy (sharing and word of mouth), • Action (user performing a direct task such as requesting a callback, a clickthrough, other form of engagement), • Attention (time spent with the brand and completion rate).

Ronald Yeo, a producer at Starburst Productions: “Its easier to create a story if we know what the objective of the video is. From a basic story-line we can then flash out the script and the tone of how the video should be delivered.”

Once created, these can be distributed via your website, across social media, YouTube, partner sites and provided as syndicated content. The best part - the more video content you produce, your website SEO ranking will improve as well!

Production Costs Production costs of digital video content can vary from vendor to vendor. It’s important to engage a production house that can develop a video content calendar that covers Hero/Hub/Help content over at least a 12 month period so that you can develop a strong story with your brand and reinforce it along with the customer journey.

Digital Digest

On the low end of the scale, you can expect to spend about $500 for a DIY solution (software, voiceover, music, images, etc.)

This excludes the hours you spend developing it on top of your other responsibilities as a marketer.

There are cheap and cheerful DIY services like GoAnimate, Wideo, Animaker or RawShorts but there is often a steep learning curve; and if you’re not into content production, you may end up with a very unsatisfactory end product.

If you decide to outsource it to a small production studio, you could be looking at $5,000 and upwards as a reasonable budget.

This may include an onsite shoot and edits of different durations to suit social media platforms such as Facebook, Instagram or Twitter on top of a longer form video that goes on your website or YouTube channel.

Then there is the fully-fledged production houses where you

could be looking at $20,000 and upwards for something fully bespoke. These could include the cost of models/talents or studio/ onsite shoot with the expectation of a classy finished video - great for your big hero videos!

These prices apply to either live shooting, animation or a mixture of both. Sometimes animation can work out costlier depending on the finish you are seeking. Animation has been broadly recognised as an effective and entertaining way to communicate information on the video, and deserves careful investigation for those seeking to enhance their marketing efforts with quality video content.

My recommendation is to work with a production house that can shoot on site and/or has an animation team as part of their offering, deliver a good production quality. They should understand many of the nuances of how users consume video

online and then be able to edit and cut the video in a way that will grab attention and meet the set objectives. For example, 85% of Facebook videos are watched without sound, according to digiday.com. As mentioned by Visible Measures, you can expect to lose 20% of your audience within the first 10 seconds of playback. Understanding this data and producing video content that is in line with users consumption patterns will serve you well.

Lights, Camera, Action!

Videos are fast becoming the best medium to tell stories in a way that can bring the right level of excitement and emotion to a brand.

The opportunity for local video content is still pretty high as there are not many brands competing for eyeballs. So now is the time to get out there and grab viewer interest and engagement with your brand story.

ABOUT THE WRITER

Martin Ross, founder of Division Bell Group LLP, is a Digital Marketing Coach and Trainer. He works with clients to create brand strategies across various marketing touch points including purpose shot digital video content.

You can connect with him on Linkedin at https://sg.linkedin.com/in/ martinrosssg.

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Learning Site

Tomorrow has Arrived – the Future of Events

» By Kristy Castleton The recent Cannes Lions saw partnerships with Immersion Corporation to bring haptic technology to the event and Greenfly Inc. to help power the content strategy. At the festival itself, innovative campaigns featuring Virtual Reality (VR), Artificial Intelligence (AI), and wearables walked away as big winners. It’s clear that as the world gets more digitised, events would benefit from becoming more automated and digitised as well.

Not because it’s cool or because it’s the du jour, but because it helps drive a significant ROI on marketing spending with data.

While several areas of businesses have undergone digitisation, such as introducing automation for reporting, websites being optimised for mobile users, offering app versions of services and more, most brands have yet to digitise their events. This means they are unable to leverage or

work out how to integrate data captured at events in real-time within their marketing and sales, losing valuable information on their audiences along the way.

Here are the top three reasons why even automation should be your new best friend:

your sales people can better identify potential leads to nurture, and all in real time too. Spending less time spread betting on the sales potential of your average Joe means more time to engage real opportunities more quickly, leading to improved conversion rates.

1) It makes you money through higher sales conversion Imagine being able to collect data and draw hard targeting sales insights from the hundreds of attendees at your event.

Well, there’s no need to imagine anymore, as automation technology makes it a reality.

Brands are now able to capture signals from event attendees that demonstrate interest or purchase intent. For example, when an attendee has multiple booth visits and tracks sessions pertaining to a particular topic, it shows high-level interest. Having this insight means

2) It increases the value of brand insights holistically Being able to leverage on event data gives you another major part of your buyer persona’s journey. When that data works in conjunction with your marketing or CRM software, you get an even more holistic view of your customer (or prospect) across all their interactions with your brand. This 360-degree customer view can then be used to help your marketers create tailored campaigns with a stronger segmentation of customer across your entire marketing mix. Beyond

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that, it also helps you measure the effectiveness of your event and ROI. We all know and appreciate that events can be costly to run or participate in. Being able to prove a healthier ROI means you can decide how much of your marketing spending to dedicate to events for your next financial year.

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3) It’s a great way to build brand awareness and relationships Events provide the opportunity for face-to-face interaction and are fully immersive, which is something that online user experiences still lack. While digital campaigns provide the ability to track clicks, it is impersonal and doesn’t tell you why users get engaged or dropped off in the

process. Digital marketing alone can often lead to disengaged customers as they are unable to relate to a brand due to the lack of a personal touch. These days, customers stay with a brand not just because of how effective a service or product is, but also because of how it makes them feel.

Events provide the perfect platform for these personalised interactions that help humanise your brand, and this is especially so for companies within the tech space. Not only that, but by beginning with an event and then opening up the event feedback floor to social media, your attendees immediately become brand ambassadors with every picture, like, share and hashtag.

And that’s a lot of free, “influencer” advertising that you can then track and study, to create improved experiences both online and offline.

So the next time you’re planning an event, don’t just opt for the usual cookie-cutter template.

Where possible, leverage on technology and automate your events process. Provide your attendees with fun, and more immersive experiences with technology and tailor make these experiences. By implementing the right steps, automation strategies and technology, your brand can overcome the challenge of personalisation on a mass scale, while gleaning useful insights that help increase your bottom line.

ABOUT THE WRITER

Kristy Castleton is the Founder and Managing Director of Rebel & Soul and Co-founder of Calyx Global, a socially conscious business which produces highly memorable events for global brands like Heineken, HSBC and Chanel, with the use of event technology. Connect with her via: Email: kristy@rebelandsoul.com Twitter: twitter.com/RebelandSoul LinkedIn: sg.linkedin.com/in/kristy-castleton-74a7371

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TSM SPECIAL - MARKETERS’ Q&A

Interview with:

Professor Philip Kotler Founder & Convener, World Marketing Summit Group Philip Kotler is the Founder Convener, World Marketing Summit Group, and the S.C. Johnson & Son Professor of International Marketing at the Kellogg School of Management, Northwestern University, Evanston, Illinois. Kellogg was voted the “Best Business School” for six years in Business Week’s survey of U.S. business schools. It is also rated as the “Best Business School for the Teaching of Marketing”. Professor Kotler has contributed significantly to Kellogg’s success through his many years of research and teaching there.

Professor Kotler is the author of: Marketing Management: Analysis, Planning, Implementation and Control, the most widely used marketing book in graduate business schools worldwide; Principles of Marketing; Marketing Models; Strategic Marketing for Nonprofit Organisations; and more. He has published more than one hundred articles in leading journals, several of which have received best-article awards.

As someone who laid the foundations of the study of marketing, how do you view the changes in the marketing landscape over the last decade?

Marketing basics have not changed. Marketers continue to see their mission to be one of creating, communicating and delivering value (CCDV) to chosen target markets at a profit. All the planning, strategy and tactics aim to meet and satisfy the needs of our target customers.

What has changed are the tools of marketing. We are not abandoning marketing research, 30 second TV commercials,

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radio and print advertising. We are adding capabilities in using the tools of digital and social marketing. We are gathering more microscopic data on the needs, wants, and profiles of our numerous target customers. We are using big data that captures their buying behaviour to spot new insights that will direct our marketing strategy.

In our most progressive companies, the chief marketing officer (CMO) is not only managing sales, advertising and promotion.

The CEO has assigned the CMO to be responsible for growth planning.

Marketers are charged with the responsibility of discovering new opportunities, identifying new markets, and uncovering new customer needs.

Given how marketing has evolved over the last few decades, where do you think the Four Ps model of marketing, the bedrock of marketing study, stands today especially in this digital age.

The 4Ps – product, price, place and promotion – remains the bedrock of marketing planning.

Every marketing plan must state what will be done with each P.

However, my colleagues and I want to expand the 4Ps with three elements that need to be made more visible.

1. The first is Service, usually included in Product, but now more important to consider explicitly because services are a growing part of every economy.

2. The second is Brand, which contributes additional power to the company’s existing products and services and lays out a vision of future product and service opportunities.

3. The third is Incentives such as price promotions, coupons, trade promotions. They are part of Price but play additional roles in affecting demand, costs and profits, and they need explicit planning.

With over 50 years of experience in your field, what are some of the main challenges facing marketers today?

A company’s major challenge is to incorporate and assimilate digital and social media capabilities into its marketing and operational departments. Most senior marketing managers have excellent advertising capabilities

but did not grow up with digital experience. They can learn digital but their marketing group needs to recruit “digital natives” to bring a new perspective. They will help transform marketing from a set of monologues sent to customers to an interactive set of dialogues with customers. Today a company such as Procter & Gamble might spend as much as 35 percent of its marketing budget on digital vs. traditional media.

The second big challenge is to measure ROMA (return on marketing activities). The CEO and the CFO want the CMO to show evidence of which marketing activities produced which results and whether each should be expanded, contracted or dropped.

The question is: How is Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, Snap-Chat, etc. actually performing.

How do marketers maintain a leadership role in the face of rapidly changing times?

Marketers need to use the tools of trend analysis, scenario planning and forecasting to help the company get a clearer vision of changes and opportunities.

The company needs to keep its

TSM SPECIAL - MARKETERS’ Q&A

eyes on what is happening, or likely to happen, to each of the five C’s: company, customers, collaborators, competitors, and the context. The context describes the surrounding marketplace made up of five trends to watch: socialcultural, technological, regulatory, economics and physical.

Going forward, market disruption will bank heavily on technology, as technological innovation has become a significant part of the disruptive marketing thought process. What do you think are the marketing rules in disruptive times?

Two rules. Rule one is to watch for any technologies that can impact your company’s marketing, finance, operations, or human resources in either a negative or positive way. Rule two is that if you spot a technology disrupter that will hurt your business, be the first to disrupt yourself. Don’t sit and wait for this to happen!

What are three things Marketer must do to remain flexible in disruptive times?

First, focus on what is selling and what is not selling. Interview former customers of what is not selling and find out why. Decide whether you should drop it. Don’t stay with legacy products that no longer appeal to its target market.

Second, ask your target customers, your employees and your collaborators for continuous suggestions on how to improve all of your offerings and operations.

Starbucks, for example, has set up a system that not only welcomes suggestions but also rewards participants for excellent ideas.

Third, search markets that are adjacent to your own market for possible entry, especially if you have a strong brand name that will give confidence to consumers in adjacent markets that your entry is legitimate.

Going forward, what else are you working on and how does that tie in with your past research?

I recently published two books to advance marketing skills and ideas. I published Marketing 4.0 (Wiley, 2017) as a follow-up for Marketing 3.0. The book has drawn very favourable reviews about it being the best statement of the New Marketing. I also published Social Media Marketing to update marketers on the tools and techniques of competing in the digital world.

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TSM SPECIAL - MARKETERS’ Q&A

Interview with:

Hermawan Kartajaya

Co-founder of Asia Marketing Federation Founder & Chairman of MarkPlus, Inc. Hermawan Kartajaya is the co-founder of Asia Marketing Federation, President of Indonesia Council for Small Business (ICSB), President of ACSB (Asia Council for Small Business), and President of Indonesia Council for Small Business. In 2003, he was named by the United Kingdom’s Chartered Institute of Marketing on the list of “50 Gurus Who Have Shaped the Future of Marketing” that includes the likes of Philip Kotler, David Aaker, Gary Hamel, Tom Peters, and Seth Godin.

You have co-authored the book Marketing 4.0 Moving from Traditional to Digital with Professor Philip Kotler. Can you share some challenges Marketers face in the transition from Traditional to Digital Marketing?

We are quite excited to receive a phenomenal response on our book Marketing 4.0 which has so far been licensed into 21 various languages globally. As we have explained in the book as well, marketing is undergoing a fundamental transformation with the advent of digital technologies and to be able to identify, understand and leverage this transformation has been a marketer’s biggest

challenge. In the pre-connectivity era, the customer path was a 4A funnel-shaped process, where the 4As represent the 4 stages that customers go through in their decision-making process. These stages are – Aware, Attitude, Act, Act Again. As customers become aware of a brand, they develop an attitude towards the brand, in terms of like or dislike. Based on this attitude, they act by purchasing the brand and if they are pleased with the purchase, they ‘act again’ by repeating the purchase.

The 4A customer path assumes that the only influence cast on customers’ purchasing decisions is through a company’s intervention at

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various touch-points. For example, it is assumed that awareness would result from communication by a brand, such as TV ads or a billboard; salespersons would be instrumental in the Act phase; or that service centres would influence the ‘Act again’ decision. Moreover, it also factors a decline in the number of customers as they move from one stage to another. People who like a brand are naturally aware of it, people who make a repeat purchase have obviously bought one before.

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In the connectivity era, we believe that the 4A customer path has modified into a 5A process – Aware, Appeal, Ask, Act, and Advocate. The ‘Aware’ stage involves customers getting exposed to several brands, which is made even easier with all the digital platforms at play. The next ‘Appeal’ stage occurs when a customer is attracted to some of those brands. A brand’s clear positioning and strong differentiation are critical for ‘Appeal.’ The attraction towards a brand could potentially result in a customer’s elevated curiosity and they would look up for more information on the brand, either from their family or friends, in the media – both online and offline – or by contacting the brand directly – this is the ‘Ask’ stage.

Depending on how they assimilate that information, customers decide to ‘Act.’ A positive experience with a brand over time may result in the customer developing a strong sense of loyalty towards the brand, which means the customer will not only repurchase the brand but also recommend it to others. This reflects the ‘Advocate’ stage.

The challenge for marketers in Asia and elsewhere today is to recognise this transformation of the customer path in the digital era, and optimally make use of the opportunities at every stage to WOW their customers, not only by touching their hearts and minds but also their spirits.

What is the next wave of marketing in the next 10 years? What do you foresee are the future developments of marketing?

If we look at the past two decades, there was a focus on meeting customers’ expectations in terms of Quality. Customers’ requirements defined the standards of quality and there was a universal appeal to products marked with high-quality standards. Toyota, for example, came to be known in the world as a hallmark for Japanese

quality in cars. These cars were more reliable and soon American businesses were hard-pressed to reconsider their definitions of what a quality product is.

But a higher quality also came to be associated with higher Cost. And gradually from quality focus, we saw the lens zooming in on the cost concern. A rise in competition and customers’ price-sensitivity further pressured businesses to keep costs down to keep profits up and even pass some of the benefits to the customer. We have seen that over the last ten years as companies continue to actively eye cost reductions to fuel growth initiatives.

With technology revolutionising the business landscape, marketers are struggling to imagine what the future holds for them. Of course, mobile is going to be big as consumers spend most of their times on these devices. Content will drive the future of marketing as brands create and curate interesting, relevant and meaningful content for the audience – as we also discuss in our book Marketing 4.0. In my opinion, regardless of the technology marketers use or the platforms they market on, the focus should now be on Delivery.

Not just service delivery but how

TSM SPECIAL - MARKETERS’ Q&A

the product itself is delivered to the customer – whether it is picked by a customer from a store, shipped to his doorstep, or 3D-printed at his home. Delivery presents a unique opportunity for marketers to optimise this experience. In case of e-commerce for example, delivery is the only aspect which presents a real, tangible customer touchpoint. Marketers should make the most of it. The human touch is very important. So, I think from quality, to cost, to delivery – that’s where the next wave of marketing should turn to.

How is digital marketing done differently in Asia as compared to other regions?

In Asia, what strikes me as unique when it comes to digital marketing is the way it is being used by customers as a means to ‘chat’ with brands and businesses.

Digital marketing channels are often used by consumers to interact among themselves as well as with brands. As a collective society, Asians also tend to put more trust in the recommendation from family, friends or perhaps even an online

review from a personal user than a digital advertisement from a brand.

It is also quite unique the way a lot of e-commerce is done through social media in Asia – customers like a product and instantly chat with the seller on a messaging application, apps like WeChat are even making payments possible through messaging apps. And finally, striking the emotional chord with consumers, whether you are marketing traditionally or digitally is very important in Asia. More and more marketers are doing that today using meaningful content marketing.

What are five things Digital Marketer must do to remain flexible in disruptive times?

I would derive my answer from the 5A Customer Path process.

From the 5A process, we can develop a Bow-Tie customer path, which reflects an ideal situation in that, all the customers who are aware of the brand would advocate that brand. A brand, while aiming for the Bow-Tie path, can still optimise its customer’s 5A

journey by using ACCA: Attraction, Curiosity Commitment and Affinity.

If a customer is aware of a brand and yet to show any interest in the brand, the brand needs to develop ‘Attraction’ and that can be done using ‘human-centric marketing.’ For customers who may have shown some appeal in a brand but are not keen on knowing further, Curiosity needs to be fuelled and one way that can be done is by using relevant and interesting content-marketing. If customers are appealed and also keen on knowing about a brand, but are not interesting enough to purchase your brand, that reflects a problem with ‘Commitment’. The way to address that is using omnichannel marketing, and finally if your brand users shy away from being advocates, that represents a lack of ‘Affinity.’ A marketer needs to cultivate this affinity using engagement marketing. Our book Marketing 4.0 has more on this subject.

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Interview with:

Dr Jochen Wirtz Professor of Marketing, National University of Singapore

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Jochen Wirtz is Vice Dean, Graduate Studies, and Professor of Marketing at the National University of Singapore (NUS).

Further, he is an international fellow of the Service Research Center at Karlstad University, Sweden, an Academic Scholar at the Cornell Institute for Healthy Futures (CIHF) at Cornell University, US, and a Global Faculty of the Center for Services Leadership (CSL) at Arizona State University, US. Previously, Dr Wirtz was the founding director of the dual degree UCLA – NUS Executive MBA Program, an Associate Fellow at the Saïd Business School, University of Oxford (from 2008 to 2013), and a founding member of the NUS Teaching Academy, the NUS think-tank on education matters (from 2009 to 2015).

TSM SPECIAL - MARKETERS’ Q&A

Is it impossible to achieve service excellence while keeping cost low?

Yes, it is definitely possible.

Service excellence and costeffectiveness are seen to be in conflict, yet there are organisations that achieve both. Great organisations like Google and Singapore Airlines are among the leaders in their respective industries in terms of both productivity and customer satisfaction.

What are the key strategies to achieve cost-effective service excellence?

There are three strategic pathways available to achieve cost-effective service excellence (CESE. First, the Dual Culture Strategy which aims to provide high levels of service (including costly customisation) at top quality and low cost. This strategy is mostly driven by the organisation’s leadership and its culture. Second, operations management (OM) approaches reduce customerinduced variability and thereby reduce potential conflicts between productivity and service

excellence. These OM approaches typically require some degree of change in the customer interface.

They include (1) isolating and industrializing the back office, and reducing the front office, (2) modularisation of service, and (3) self-service technologies. Finally, the Focused Service Factory strategy enables cost effective service excellence (CESE in short) through a highly specialised operation, typically delivering a single type of service to a highly focused customer segment. That is, the focused service factory features tightly-defined and industrialised service processes targeted at a highly homogeneous customer base. As a result, the focused service factory delivers reliably exactly what its target customers want. It also reduces customerinduced variability to a minimum— customers tend to receive a single, highly standardised, and excellent service offering. This may sound a bit abstract, but I will explain these approaches in my talk in more detail, or you can see the academic version of this article on my website at www.JochenWirtz.com.

Singapore Changi Airport is voted as the World’s Best Airport for fifth consecutive year. With Terminal 4 that opens to public on July 2017 and featuring start-to-end self-service systems, how does leveraging of technology and innovation help in the aspect of service excellence?

Tehnology is a fantastic game changer. Careful adopters can reap immense improvements in both productivity and service excellence.

Think of biometric passport controls – they are safe, fast, convenient and pleasant (if they work) and are much cheaper to operate than having a lot of immigration officers.

I look forward to trying out all the self-service technologies available in the new terminal, I am sure they will be cutting edge.

In disruptive times, marketing is often done differently with the inclusion of technology and automation, how can companies keep up in terms of service excellence?

Customer centricity is key, especially when innovating new technologies to serve customers. It requires a customer-centric culture and a culture for innovation. Both are hard work to implement, but once achieved, employees and customers love the organisation.

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Interview with:

PROF Marc Oliver Opresnik Marketing Professor, Luebeck University of Applied Sciences, Germany

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Professor Marc Oliver Opresnik is a distinguished Professor of Marketing and a member of the Board of Directors at SGMI Management Institute St. Gallen, in Switzerland, a leading international business school.

He is President of Prof. Dr. Opresnik Management Consulting.

Since January 2008, Professor Marc Opresnik is a professor of Business Economics, in particular Marketing and Management at the Luebeck University of Applied Sciences, and a visiting professor to other international universities such as the East China University of Science and Technology (ECUST) in Shanghai, and European Business School in London.

With his extensive years of international experience as a coach, keynote speaker and consultant, Professor Marc Opresnik is one of the world’s most renowned marketing, management and negotiation experts.

TSM SPECIAL - MARKETERS’ Q&A

What is Disruptive innovation?

Can you provide a prominent example of Disruptive Innovation?

Disruptive innovation is a term which has been coined by Nobel Prize winner Clayton Christensen.

It describes a process by which a product or service takes root initially in simple applications at the bottom of a market and then relentlessly moves up market, eventually displacing established competitors.

According to Christensen, disrupters create a market where none existed before. Put simply, they find a way to turn nonconsumers into consumers. An example Christensen provides is the photocopying industry: In the early days of photocopying technology, Xerox targeted large corporations and charged high prices to provide the performance that those customers required.

School librarians, bowlingleague operators, and other small customers, priced out of the market, made do with carbon paper or mimeograph machines.

Then in the late 1970s, new challengers introduced personal copiers, offering an affordable solution to individuals and small organisations—and a new market was created. From this relatively modest start, personal photocopier makers gradually built a major position in the mainstream photocopier market that Xerox valued.

Why would a business want to be disruptive?

Simply because they could explore uncontested market space and outperform competition.

What does disruption in digital marketing look like?

Christensen provides the example of Netflix as a company which utilised digital technology to disrupt a market: When the company launched its initial service in 1997 in the US it wasn’t appealing to the customers of their main competitor Blockbuster.

Netflix had an exclusively online interface and a large inventory of movies, but delivery through the U.S. mail meant selections took several days to arrive. However, as new technologies allowed

Netflix to shift to streaming video over the internet, the company did become appealing to Blockbuster’s core customers, offering a wider selection of content with an all-you-can-watch, on-demand, highly convenient approach.

And it got there via a classically disruptive path and caused Blockbuster, failing to respond effectively to the trajectory that Netflix was on led it, to collapse.

How can brands derive value from striving to be disruptive?

Like already explained above being disruptive can help exploiting uncontested market space.

Christensen mentions the iPhone as one high-profile example of using an innovative business model to effect a disruption. The product that Apple launched in 2007 was a sustaining innovation in the smartphone market: It targeted the same customers coveted by incumbents, and its initial success is likely explained by product superiority. The iPhone’s subsequent growth, however, is better explained by disruption—not of other smartphones but of the laptop as the primary access point to the internet. This was achieved

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...marketing team have to design an advertising campaign with disruptive messages that either challenge the conventional thinking in an existing market or speak to a new one.

not merely through the product itself but also through the introduction of a new business model. By building a network connecting application developers with phone users, Apple created a new market for internet access and eventually was able to challenge laptops as mainstream users’ device of choice for going online.

How can one keep ahead of the trends in the area disruption?

That is a tough question to be answered generically. In principle, I would state that it is paramount to establish and foster a culture of innovation which remains adaptive to environmental trends and everchanging customer needs.

How can a brand find its disruptive opportunities?

By continuously looking at customers and engaging with them and maintain a culture of innovation.

Why should content marketers care when it comes to disruptive technologies?

I believe that content marketing is a feasible strategy and approach to provide additional value to customers and thus nurture customer intimacy which is a prerequisite for disruptive innovations.

TSM SPECIAL - MARKETERS’ Q&A

Interview with:

PROF Salvador López

Professor of Marketing, ESADE Business School of Barcelona, Spain

Salva Rock (Salva López) is the “rockin’ speaker” or “the electric guitar speaker”, a reinvented professional who lives in the intersection of several worlds: the entrepreneur and business professional (Economist with almost 15 years of international experience), the academic (innovative and disruptive teacher of marketing, innovation and creativity at ESADE Business School, and the musician (singersongwriter with two published albums).

Salva Rock gives high impact talks in an edutainment style, using his electric guitar. He aims to deprogram and transform the audience, pushing them to ask new questions and think differently.

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So much has changed and evolved in the music industry. Would you say the industry has evolved for better or for worse? Did you see more raw talent and artistry before digitalisation or is it more abundant now?

Talent is better spread among people than we normally think, in every aspect of our natural human being. The democratisation of technology, home studios and social networks has pushed the irruption of new talents in music vigorously, loaded not only with interesting music, but also with modern and useful skills in audiovisual arts, appealing communication and networking.

As it normally happens, the industrialisation of art, music in our case, brings good and bad things.

Democratisation gives a chance to everybody, but don’t forget that this is an industry that wants to maximise the revenues and minimise the costs. Some music out there is absolutely wonderful, from an artistic point of view (I’m

thinking in John Mayer, Foo Fighters, Coldplay, MUSE, Adele and etc), some other music has barely any value from an artistic point of view, but sells millions of copies and will torture your ears every time you turn on the radio.

Forgive me if I don’t mention any name in this category alright? The true music lovers will appreciate the true musicians. The regular listener will have a good time dancing to anything the industry is interested in, without actually carrying about the truth behind.

How do you think digitalisation is affecting the Music Industry?

Let me distinguish between music digitalisation and what we now define as “digital transformation”. The digitalisation happened years ago when CD’s were invented. Everybody accepted the idea that digitalised music in a CD format was superior in quality to the old vinyl. In some aspects, it was superior (it’s much more convenient) but

sonically speaking, it wasn’t.

When someone figured out how to separate the digitally written music from its physical format (the CD) and how to share it in conjunction with the new peer-topeer (P2P) platforms (Napster and its evolutional clones). Then the music industry suffered a massive earthquake.

The Digital Transformation we are experiencing now is an entirely different thing. It starts with Social Networks and smartphones, as the leading parts of this revolution.

Thus, the user or consumer has already transformed digitally. Their usage behaviour and consumption patterns have changed dramatically. Now the challenge is for the organisations to follow the pace and to adapt to our digitally transformed customers. And the same to the musicians and the music industry. Now, if the CD is an oldie… then where’s the value right now? Does it make sense to keep complaining about the P2P behaviour?

TSM SPECIAL - MARKETERS’ Q&A

My vision is that online platforms are the new distribution channels, and I’m not talking about legal or illegal downloads. I’m talking about the capillarity of the channel.

I’ve released two albums so far with my songs (last one under the name “Flames Blanques”). I would be happy if two million people download my music tomorrow, even if I earn no money at all. But two million people would have listened to my music. And that’s important to me as a musician.

And after that, I can announce a live concert, and maybe the room will be full of people, just because they had the chance to listen to my music. To enter the venue, they had to pay for a ticket. So, in the end, I will earn some money.

On top of it all, the social networks enable musicians to build more intimate, more frequent and stronger communication with

their fans. They can broadcast what they do in the backstage right before jumping to the stage.

They can broadcast when they’re training or songwriting at home in between tours. The possibilities are endless.

How has technology enabled musician to do even more?

Technology saves you time and multiplies your capabilities.

Musically speaking, the capabilities we have today in our living room are just amazing.

You can only be given a guitar, a microphone, a computer and a regular software, and, with your creative power, you can reach for the stars.

And then Internet enables you to arrive at the right know-how, to contact people for your project and to build your fans community.

It’s simply fantastic. You can create your own learning itinerary and select what you want to learn. Composition? Technique?

Recording? Edition? Promotion?

The sky is the limit (and your available time).

Music streaming services have fundamentally changed the music industry and the way that audiences consume music. What are the pros and cons of this shift?

Years ago, in times of vinyl, we bought the new record of, say, The Police, The Who or Bruce Springsteen. We simply put the vinyl on the turntable and it could stay there for days. We dived into the whole record, once and again. We captured the whole experience, all the details, and that music entered our hearts and even our souls. It was like a meditation.

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Now we have zillions of songs in our smartphones, and the listening behaviour has changed dramatically. Now our attention is more jumping between different songs from various authors.

Even before a song ends, we are jumping to the next one. So, I guess our listening experiences has turned much more superficial, less meaningful and as a result, less transformative.

That’s the drawback of this massive access to music. We listen to more music than ever, but it means less for us.

What I do on the stage is called Edutainment, that’s the combination of two words: education and entertainment.

What has inspired you to use music as the way to teach Marketing?

I live in the intersection of both worlds. From this point of existence, everything seems so clear to me than ever. I try to inspire the audience with my musical examples and my live performance because I always bring my electric guitar with me on every stage. The marketing concepts are endless when I think of artists or bands such Madonna, Lady Gaga, Coldplay, Queen, MUSE, The Beatles, Ed Sheeran and Bruno Mars. I see the link without effort. What I do on the stage is called Edutainment, that’s the combination of two words: education and entertainment.