KUALA LUMPUR, Malaysia, May 24, 2016 /PRNewswire/ -- "Marketing is changing profoundly - moving away from product-centric approaches to more customer-centric, customer-focused marketing. It is not just about 'My product is the best, buy me' anymore. Now it is increasingly about 'Let me tell you why my product is more relevant to you'," says Jos Birken, Chief Executive Officer, KatalystM, in an interview with marcus evans on how the marketing function is changing today.
KatalystM is a marketing agency sponsoring and attending the marcus evans CMO Asia Summit 2016, in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, 26 - 27 May.
Birken continues to share his views on how marketing is changing:
1. Tell us how the customer is in charge today.
Basically, we put the customer in charge of our marketing. What we market and how we market it, is determined by the customer's own behaviour and no one else's. Ideally, it is not the marketer anymore who decides what is being promoted and how. It is the customer's behaviour that triggers a specific kind of communication or offer. In an age of increasingly educated and jaded consumers, this is a necessary way to catch and keep people's attention.
This trend has been present in marketing for a long time, but is now speeding up. The reason is it is getting a lot easier and more affordable to do so.
2. What is the most efficient way of tailoring marketing campaigns to individual behaviours?
Most organisations have thousands of tens of thousands of customers. In B2C, millions of customers. Tailoring our marketing campaigns to individual behaviours cannot be done without some serious automation. This is where Marketing Cloud platforms come in. These have become increasingly capable, user friendly, and cloud based. The latter means they do not require large IT projects to install, and it is in the CMO's remit to acquire them and integrate them in their marketing approach.
The combination of increased competition for the attention of evermore demanding consumers, advances in available technology, and cloud making, all of this is more approachable for the marketer, provides enormous opportunities for fast adopters.
3. What issues do CMOs encounter when trying this approach? How could they mitigate some of these risks?
CMOs have certainly two risks to manage and they should have the skills to overcome them. The first one is related to measurability and accountability. In the boardroom they are increasingly challenged to prove that they add real value to the business. So a good understanding of data and analytics is required. The second risk is the management of all the stakeholders that are involved in the acquisition, implementation and change management of the solution. This tends to go across many departments. This requires CMOs with great team management and people skills.
4. What are customers looking for today?
Customers are looking for relevant, personalised messages, tailored to their needs in the specific phase of the engagement process with a brand. This should be delivered cross-channel and they do not care about how you do it technically.
5. How can the marketing function become more customer-focused?
Using data coming from all the touch points a brand has with a customer and using it to achieve a high level of relevance and personalisation is the only way to achieve this. This requires a marketing infrastructure that allows omnichannel analytics with the objective of delivering relevant personalised communication.
Author: Sarin Kouyoumdjian-Gurunlian, Press Manager, marcus evans, Summits Division
About the CMO Asia Summit 2016
The CMO Asia Summit is the premium forum bringing elite buyers and sellers together. It offers top marketing professionals, agencies and consultants an intimate environment for a focused discussion on the key drivers of marketing effectiveness. Taking place at the Hilton Kuala Lumpur Hotel, Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, 26 - 27 May 2016, the Summit includes presentations on agile content marketing, optimising marketing spend, predictive analytics technology and reinventing B2B marketing.
For more information please send an email to SitiK@marcusevanskl.com or call +603 2723 6748 or read more here: http://unbouncepages.com/cmoasia/more/
Please note that the Summit is a closed business event and the number of participants strictly limited.
About KatalystM
KatalystM is a modern marketing agency, specializing in helping organisations increase the lifetime value of their customers with Lifecycle Marketing.
We recognised the importance of technology platforms in marketing very early on, starting out with Responsys which is now part of Oracle Marketing Cloud and moving on to become a multi platform company in 2010. We grew and evolved into an independent and diverse agency which focuses on Total Lifecycle Marketing and rebranded as KatalystM in 2010.
KatalystM is headquartered in Singapore with offices in Bangkok, Hong Kong and the Philippines.
About marcus evans Summits
marcus evans Summits are high level business forums for the world's leading decision-makers to meet, learn and discuss strategies and solutions. Held at exclusive locations around the world, these events provide attendees with a unique opportunity to individually tailor their schedules of keynote presentations, case studies, roundtables and one-to-one business meetings. For more information, please visit www.marcusevans.com
