'Back To Marketing Basics' September 2018
Last week I had the pleasure of attending the second edition of “Back to Marketing Basics”, organised by Marketing Directo. I want to share with you some of the insights that I gained from the event and make you reflect on the marketing transformation that we are experiencing:
The day started with Amaia Ansoategui from NIVEA, who went over some marketing essentials such as listening to the customer to provide relevant solutions whilst remaining faithful to their values. One of the current challenges, Amaia said, is to transform a functional benefit into something relevant for young adults, something that the new ‘influencers’ can help achieve. She also exemplified the benefits of utilising different touchpoints and real-time data to develop effective 360 campaigns. These campaigns should successfully put over brand values to consumers through the digital world, making the most out of a very direct contact with the consumer.
Next on the agenda with a talk on personalisation was Javier Pérez, from Accenture Interactive. With 48% of consumers feeling overwhelmed by too many options, Javier pointed out how increasingly important is to provide consumers only with relevant information. Indeed, he stated that “91% of consumers are more likely to shop with brands that recognise them, remember them, and provide them with relevant offers and recommendations”. Hence the reason why, according to Javier, we need to shift from a ‘customer-centric’ to a ‘persona-centric’ mind-set, arguing that “traditional approaches focus on what customers choose, but now uncovering why leads to an understanding of preferences, needs and passions”. To get there, it is worth noticing that 74% of consumers “would find “living profiles” valuable if they could be used to curate the experiences, offers and products they receive”. Equally important is that “profiling is not personalisation”, Javier stated, with the latter consisting of a 2-way communication and “giving the control back to the consumer”.
Cristina Burzako (Telefonica) identified corporate culture as a marketing essential and a critical feature of differentiation, arguing that in today’s complex environment, where the internet is forcing companies to become completely transparent, culture can aid in giving both value and revenue to companies. Bill Derrenger, from Grupo Osborne, later added to that point by saying that “good marketing is honest marketing”, and that delivering the best customer experience requires authenticity, patience and courage, always remembering that there are people behind every product and brand. On her part, Ruth Henríquez from Mattel expressed that “emotion leads to conversion”, with “60% of millennials being loyal to the brands they connect with”.
A panel discussion consisting of Pedro Oliva (Fiesta Colombina), Esther Morell (Samsung) Sandra Sancho (Mytaxi), José Luis Ferrero (Signify, Philips Lighting), Pierre Saisset (Eulerian Technologies), Javier Zorita (PHD), Jorge Madrid (Condé Nast Studio), and Alberto Córdoba (Lukkap Customer Experience), discussed whether the ′customer-centric’ approach has always been around or, in contrast, is a recent trend. Sandra Sancho believed that “we always have kept the consumer top of mind, but the new technologies have changed the way in which we do it”. They commented on the several new tools available to reach the customer and the importance of understanding their KPIs to utilise these tools effectively. They also mention how the ‘new players’ in the market, like Netflix, are demonstrating that the customer is truly the king and can provide a good reference point for other brands to follow.
álvaro Brutague?o, representing Everian Technologies, explained how “attribution models allow us to know what the customer is doing throughout our interaction with them”, for which we need to make the most out of our data. He encouraged us to understand and pay more attention to the ‘customer journey’ to maximise our digital ROI, uncovering how our costumers interact with our brand and what are our various customer touchpoints.
A second roundtable discussion closed the day with Félix Mu?oz (Expert in Marketing and Communications), Mónica Moro (McCann Spain), Gonzalo Figari (Dentsu Aegis Network), José María Rull (DDB Spain), Chacho Puebla (LOLA MullenLowe) and César García (Sra. Rushmore). Chacho Puebla mentioned how creativity should not be undervalued, and that adopting a short-term approach to it can be prejudicial since good things take time. They all agreed that even better things, or in this case campaigns, emerge from a close collaboration between the agency and the client. Monica Moro put the question to the brands: “What do you want to talk about? Does anyone care about it? What people really want to talk about is how they feel”. We need to build, in a relevant manner, brands that people remember, bringing products and services to life that have values associated with them. A key final conclusion was the need to ‘think outside the box’ to reinvent the future with the essence of the past.
I encourage you to leave your thoughts about the above on the comment section. You can find more information and videos about all the topics covered at the event at MarketingDirecto.com
Thank you for reading and have a good day!
