CMO Guide NOveMber 2014

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Social, Mobile & Analytics.The new frontiers in Marketing

Creating a data-drivenorganisation to improve the customer experience

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CONteNts

Creating a data-driven organisation to improve the customer experience

14 Analytics

6 view PointAnother executive fired over social media remarks

10 OverviewThe top 5 mistakes that email marketers make

11 OverviewStudy confirms that a slow website is the best way to lose m-commerce sales

Market trendsReport suggests thatAsian CMOs have it tougher

Study: Users in Singapore, Hong Kong, own an average of 5 digital devices each

Strong growth expected for mobile broadband in Asia Pacific

Advertisers quietly shifting TV ad money to the Web

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MobileUndersranding how mobile is changing everything

soicalThe top social media mistakes made by marketers

OutlookChief digital officers on the rise in HK

verint AdvertorialThe Importance of Improving Customer Engagement

Improving Customer Engagement through Analytics

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MArket treNds

new global research report by digital marketing agency Razorfish shows that Asian consumers are not only reporting higher owner-ship and usage of technology, but also hold higher expectations of brands, e-commerce experiences, mobile apps and technology.

This means that CMOs and marketers in the region must be more innovative and forward thinking in order to meet the technology-driven expectations of consumers in this region, according to Razorfish.

“CMOs need to match the technology tenacity of their consumers by creating useful and engaging consumer-centric experiences to meet the expectations of Asian consumers,” noted Erik Hermanson, senior vice president of Business Consulting, APAC at Razorfish. “In the case of mobile and ecommerce, smart marketers are ensuring their branded experiences are directly linked to revenue.”

Below are some snippets of key findings from the report.Early adopters: The study found that Chinese consumers are at the

top of the list in terms of being tech-hungry, as well as welcoming of technological advances and lifestyle changes into their day-to-day lives. Indeed, consumers in China are more likely to wish they could control their household devices through the Internet. (84% of Chinese versus 52% in the U.K.)

dults around the world remain hooked on TV, but the consump-tion habits are changing rapidly, according to a study by research consultancy TNS. While it found a significant number of people who still watches the TV, the growing appetite for content is driving the growth of online media and what it calls “screen-stacking”.

The study involving more than 55,000 internet users around the world found that almost half of those (48%) who watch TV in the evening simultaneously engage in other digital activities, such as using social media, checking their emails, or even shopping online--activities pegged as screen stacking.

The Asia Pacific (APAC) region is ahead of this trend, with 54% of people across the region taking part in screen-stacking activities, which is higher than the global average. Here are some statistics for the countries in the region, namely Hong Kong (72%), Malaysia (50%), Singapore (61%), Taiwan (59%) and Thailand (66%). Falling below the global average would be Indonesia (38%), Philippines (41%) and China (37%).

The study also found that the average number of digital devices per

Report suggests thatAsian CMOs have it tougher

Study: Users in Singapore, Hong Kong, own an average of 5 digital devices each

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Brands: Asian consumers show a strong preference for useful, rather than interesting brands. Useful brands preferred over interest-ing brands. (U.K. 79%, U.S. 51%, Brazil 81%, China 88%)

Ecommerce: The vast majority of Asian consumers would prefer to do all their shop-ping online. Consumer preference to shop online in Asia is almost double that of U.S. counterparts. (82% of Chinese shoppers wish they could make all their purchases online, compared to just 49% of those in the U.S.)

Mobile: Mobile commerce via branded mobile apps drives loyalty and could be the key to fighting losses from showrooming. Most Chinese shoppers believe their phone is their most valuable shopping tool while they’re in a store. (Less than half of U.K. consumers prefer using a brand’s mobile app, compared to almost 80% of Chinese shoppers)

user cross the Asia Pacific stands at four devices each, fuelling the trend of screen-stacking. Indeed, users in countries such as Australia, Hong Kong, Japan, New Zealand, Singapore and Taiwan, were found to own an average of 5 devices each.

“It’s no surprise that we are seeing such a big trend towards screen-stacking in Asian markets--the appetite for online content is huge and growing all the time,” said Joe Webb, Head of Digital, TNS Asia Pacific. “What’s clear is that media multi-tasking is here to stay and the implications for adver-tisers are significant--there’s a real opportu-nity for those that understand how to really integrate their activity in our increasingly connected world.”

CMO Guide l 5

MArket treNds

he total mobile services market rev-enue in A sia-Pacific region will reach US$271.4 billion by 2014, according to IDC. While voice services will see slower growth, data connectivity and

mobile broadband revenue are expected to experience a strong growth pace.

“From 2012 to 2017, International Data Corporation (IDC) projects that the growth rate for voice services revenue in APeJ will slow down and achieve a compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of 2.5%,” said IDC in its press release. “However, data connectivity or mobile broadband revenue will grow at a CAGR of 19.3% from 2012 to 2017.”

dvertisers are quietly shifting their TV ad budget to the Web, according to a new report published on The Wall Street Journal published in May 2014.

Conscious that viewers are more frequently watching video online, several major advertisers such as MasterCard and Verizon Wireless have in the past year moved a portion of the money they previously spent on television to online outlets.

Verizon Wireless, for example, was under-stood to have a shifted more than 10% of its TV dollars to online video last year, according to a person familiar with the matter. The ma-jority of these dollars are going to online ad portals and online video ad exchanges.

Starcom MediaVest says it shifted more than $500 million out of TV over the past 12

Strong growth expected for mobile broadband in Asia Pacific

Advertisers quietly shifting TV ad money to the Web

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The growth in data connectivity and mobile broadband was attributed to three key areas, namely smartphones penetration due to their afford-able prices, rollout of 3G and LTE licenses, and mobile user behavior towards what is termed as “Over-The-Top-Players” (OTTP) services.

IDC defines OTTP as the delivery of instant messaging, video, audio and other media over an open Internet/broadband connection directly to user.

While the report focused on the impact of 3G and 4G infrastructure deployment on traditional messaging services, there is no doubt that access to faster mobile broadband will play a large role in increasing the use of mobile devices.

The message is clear: The potential for mobile engagement is huge and set to grow larger, and CMOs need to put a mobile strategy in place now, not later.

months, three quarters of which went to online outlets. Put into perspective, this isn’t likely to put the networks out of business, considering that the ad-buying firm buys roughly $40 billion in ad time and space annually on behalf of marketers.

And while the major TV networks remain appealing for their ability to draw mass audiences, it is clear that ad executives are conscious that younger consumers are gravitating towards online content.

Don’t expect the dam to burst soon though, given the lack of pre-mium online content at the moment. However, that shift in thinking marks an important start to what could eventually become a flood.

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view POiNt

t has happened again. A public relations and media executive from Chow Tai Fook, the world’s largest jewellery chain, had re-signed in the wake of a public outcry over inflammatory comments that was posted

on social media.As reported on the South China Morning

Post, Joanna Kot had earlier mocked some pro-democracy protestors in Hong Kong who had complained that they were victims of violence and sexual assault.

Among other comments, Kot responded to a female student protester who had been indecently attacked with: “Molested? Remem-ber do not go to the police; revolution requires sacrifice, fighting for democracy is beyond ev-erything. They (anti-occupiers) are ‘peacefully’ molesting you. Be considerate! LOL!”

Not the first time this has happenedThis is hardly the first time that executives

were fired, or forced to leave after ill-conceived remarks on social media. Of course, some would argue that Koh should have known better as a trained PR professional.

For example, Amy Cheong, an assistant director with the The National Trades Union Congress (NTUC) in Singapore was fired after

she posted a racist comment on her personal Facebook page in 2012.

Cheong had directed her annoy-ance at Malays who were holding a

wedding ceremony in the void deck of a public housing

block, presumably for the noise that the celebration generated. In her tirade, she told them to “pay for a real wedding” and wrote that “maybe then the divorce rate won’t be so high”.

Another executive fired over social media remarks

IIn reality, social

media networks are really publishing

platforms, even if you tag your updates as

non-public

In January earlier this year, Anton Casey, a Briton working in wealth management in Singa-pore lost his job in the wake of comments that ridiculed those who were less well to do.

It started with a picture of his son with the caption: “Daddy where is your car and who are all these poor people?” Casey later followed-up with a picture of his son in a silver Porsche with the caption: “Normal service can resume, once I have washed the stench of public trans-port off me.”

The elitist comments struck a deep nerve among Singaporeans at a time when many were grappling with increasing costs of living, and quickly went viral. The ensuring uproar saw Casey leave the country one week later, having lost his job and with anonymous death threats being made at his family.

Social media is a publishing platformSo what is it about social media that could

result in people being fired? After all, I’m sure most of us know of at least one colleague, friend or relative who hold similar types of in-flammatory opinions, and who are not at all shy about vocalizing them to friends and acquain-tances alike. Yet you don’t see them get into trouble over them, much less get sacked from their jobs.

I think the heart of the matter with such social media debacles is the misunderstanding that sharing our thoughts on Facebook is akin to conducting a private conversation. In reality, the truth is that social media networks are really publishing platforms, even if you tag your updates as non-public.

And unlike a magazine or newspaper where everything has to pass through the watchful eyes of an editor, social media networks offer no checks and balances against colossal, career-ending blunders like those highlighted above.

So the next time you want to post a rant, or go on an online tirade on Facebook or Twitter, pray stop and consider: Is what you are writing really suitable for publication?

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cmo_leaflet.indd 1 17/06/2014 11:30 AM

WHILE BUSINESSES will agree that good customer service is an important way for them to differentiate themselves from their competitors, they are faced with the challenge of effectively engaging customers with person-alized, contextual service in a world where consumers are taking to an increasing number of communication channels and devices.

Unsurprisingly, what this means is that savvy companies have to constantly explore new processes and tools in order to stay ahead of the competition and remain at the forefront of customer engagement.

“Organizations need to be enriching customer interactions, optimizing their workforces, and improving processes,” said Ryan Hollenbeck, Senior Vice President, Global Marketing of Verint. “In doing so, organizations can benefit from increased customer loyalty, enhanced performance and revenue, and reduced risk and operating costs.”

On employer and customer satisfactionWith everyone talking about becoming customer centric and improving

customer engagement, what are some common ways that businesses are failing on this front, and what are some ways that they can improve?

According to Hollenbeck, today’s enterprises find themselves orga-nized in functional and departmental silos, leading to myopic manage-ment practices across customer touch points. Moreover, organizational silos also frequently operate at cross-purposes, which increases costs and result in squandered opportunities to improve customer satisfaction. This lack of alignment ultimately results in organizations missing a holis-tic understanding of how to engage with customers effectively to achieve more profitable outcomes.

Hollenbeck also pointed to how employee expectations are also changing in that they want to have a voice as well, even as some may not necessarily be furnished with the tools they need in order to serve customers. Taken together, this can be problematic at a time where com-panies are challenged with keeping the best, highly engaged, productive employees in today’s competitive job market.

“Providing employees a way to express their opinions, collaborate effectively with peers, and the right tools to do their jobs goes a long way toward driving inspired, engaged, empowered employees,” said Hol-lenbeck, who pointed to studies that prove there is a direct correlation between customer satisfaction and employee satisfaction.

Measuring customer engagementWhat are some activities and metrics that forward-thinking compa-

nies should be looking at as they embark on their specific customer

The Importance of Improving Customer Engagement Having access to the right tools can go a long way towards harnessing analytics data to improve customer engagement.

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engagement activities? Hollenbeck outlined some best practices that organizations can consider.• Trackcustomerjourneysacrossinteraction

channels and share this insight across the organization to help create a better cus-tomer experience and increase revenue.

• Usepreviouscustomerinteractionsandpredictive outcomes to deliver contextual, highly personalized service.

• Manageandresolvecustomerissuesatany point in the journey.

• Surfaceinsightsfromdatainorganization-al silos to help determine where to focus customer engagement efforts to gain the most impact.

• Aligncustomerfeedbackwithinsightsfrom engagement tracking to predict cus-tomer behavior and help reduce churn.

Ryan Hollenbeck at Verint: Organizations need to be enriching customer interactions, optimizing their workforces, and improving processes

veriNt AdvertOriAl

CMO Guide l 9

• Deliver“nextbestaction”guidance,knowl-edge articles, and coaching to employees to help enhance responsiveness and revenue opportunities.

Harnessing analyticsIt is well known that the first step to

progress begins from being able to measure it. So how should forward-thinking companies measure customer engagement today, and what are the metrics that they should use to measure where they stand?

Not surprisingly, analytics is a topic that is increasingly mentioned when it comes to customer engagement. Yet is it the sole con-sideration here? Hollenbeck cautioned that data trapped within silos could impede even the best analytic tools.

“Customer engagement data is often trapped within departmental silos, leaving or-ganizations without visibility and understand-ing across channels, interactions, processes and outcomes,” he said. “This disconnected data makes it impossible for organizations to deliver a cohesive, omnichannel engagement, reinforcing the critical need for a consolidated analytics platform to deliver an end-to-end view of customer journeys and business outcomes.”

Obviously, having the right tools could smooth things out significantly once the perti-nent data is extricated from the various silos. Hollenbeck points to how the Engagement Analytics software within Verint is able to offer a more cohesive view by capturing seemingly disparate data such as customer, employee, transaction and interaction data, and aggre-gating it into a single view.

“[The software] then applies powerful algorithms that create cross-channel metrics, maps customer journeys and delivers action-able intelligence to understand behaviours and predict outcomes,” he said.

Deploying the right toolsHollenbeck described several aspects of

the tools by Verint, outlining key capabilities such as customer engagement optimization, workforce optimization and analytics.

Customer engagement optimization can enrich customer interactions by helping orga-nizations segment, target, and track customer

journeys across interaction channels, noted Hollenbeck. Using the direct and indirect voice of the customer, the tool can help organizations predict satisfaction and loyalty drivers across customer transactions and interac-tions to effectively engage customers and employees.

Indeed, Verint and KANA offer a desktop that can help improve the productivity of sales and service employees with its many capabilities. For example, staff can access comprehensive customer interaction histo-ries and customer-related information. And whether by phone, email, or instant messaging chat, “next best action” guidance is provided to help employees deliver fast and effective customer service.

In terms of workforce optimization, Verint allows organizations to ana-lyze customer interactions and employee activities, and use this insight to better engage them. This could range from improving employee support systems, offer targeted coaching, or as a means to gauge productivity.

“As employees grow more engaged and productive, they are more apt to deliver high-quality service that can better engage customers,” noted Hollenbeck.

Finally, the company’s product suite is capable of delivering strong analytics capabilities that runs the gamut from voice biometrics, speech analytics, text analytics, enterprise feedback management, performance management, desktop and process analytics, and social media monitor-ing.

In conclusionSo how does an organization know if they have been successful with

their foray to improve their customer engagement?Hollenbeck pointed to the presence of a customer engagement

optimization maturity model as a good guideline, which he says describes how effectively current people, processes, and technology support a customer engagement optimization strategy.

“The model cascades an over-arching customer engagement optimiza-tion strategy to key capability areas that are required for organizations to optimize customer engagement,” he said. “Relative to best practices, the model identifies capability strengths and areas that are less mature and require focus and investment.”

According to Hollenbeck, areas include strategy and alignment, organi-zation culture, as well as governance and measurement, and is all about “knowing where you stand in these areas against not just industry best practices, but also against your own internal goals, will help gauge ongo-ing customer engagement success,” he concluded.

Customer engagement data is often trapped within departmental silos, leaving organizations without visibility

– Ryan Hollenbeck, Verint

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Overview

veryone just loves to hate email, especially as a marketing tool. Yet it continues to feature heavily at work and play, and it is for this reason that it has remained a timeless platform for B2B marketers.

Certainly, there is no question that the humble email is a fast and cost-effective way to reach out to specific target segments and to get the word out.

When it comes to email marketing, a B2B email campaign that isn’t attaining an open rate of at least two percent implies a problem some-where. Below are five of the most common mistakes that marketers make.

Using a bad email list. It is crucial that marketers get their email lists from a reputable company, lest they find themselves blacklisted by irate recipients. Target the right audience by narrowing down your target demographics as much as possible, and also have your lists cleaned by a credible vendor.

When using a retention service. It is important to be careful with the emails you provide to retention services because providing fake, invalid or mistyped email addresses can end up getting your account locked. Spe-cifically, stop sending to old email addresses that have never responded, since inactive email addresses are a red flag for email providers to iden-tify senders that should be blacklisted.

Not having a process to track opt-outs. There should be a way for re-cipients to opt-out of a particular mailing list. Don’t do this manually, but

The top 5 mistakes that email marketers make

Euse a service or software that can manage opt-outs and streamline the process to facili-tate recipients who want to opt-out. This will also serve to avoid legal traps with unwanted email messages, such as in countries like Singapore with its Spam Control Act.

Not being hygienic. It is important to continually clean up your email list. Using specialized programs that can help find alter-nate email addresses when one ages off the database can be very helpful. Some of these apps can also track hard bounce records and other hygiene drops to avoid spam traps and eliminate emails associated with questionable IP addresses.

Double-check everything. The devil is often in the details, so make sure you all pertinent details are at hand and correct before hitting the send button. The subject line needs to grab the attention of recipients, the offer should be tempting, the call to action is clear, and the link takes people to the right place--and should be working.

CMO Guide l 11

Overview

onsumers in the Asia-Pacific are using their smartphones to browse and pur-chase from m-commerce sites, with 84% of consumers using their smart-phones to browse on a weekly basis,

according to a new study commissioned by managed cloud company Rackspace.

The research was conducted by Toluna and involved surveying 1,200 consumers aged from 22 and 44 across Hong Kong, Singapore and India to gain insights into mobile habits and behaviors. 24% of those polled say they make weekly online purchases, while 11% say they make purchases on a daily basis.

The study found frustration running high as 78% of consumers say they have experi-enced technical issues when browsing sites on their smartphone, affecting their purchas-ing decisions and their perception of the company.

Below are some notable points gleaned from the study.• Overaquarterofconsumers(28%)said

they would not make purchases from an m-commerce site if they experience a technical issue.

Study confirms that a slow website is the best way to lose m-commerce sales

C• Nearlyallconsumers(93%)saidtheirperceptionofabrandisaf-

fected if its website consistently has problems.• Slowpageloadingrankedasthemostprevalentissueforserver-relat-

ed technical issues, with 61% of consumers citing this as the number one problem.

• Scalingissuesinwhichwebpagesdonotlooktoscaleonsmart-phones is another major issue with 39% of consumers on average complaining of this.In response to issues such as slow page loading, poor scaling of

pages and other glitches, nearly all consumers (97%) say they have expe-rienced some level of frustration with websites. One-fifth would close the webpage and move on if they experienced a technical problem; almost one-third said they would visit the website on their desktop.

And while the majority of consumers (40%) said they would wait 6-10 seconds for the webpage to load before leaving the site, only a quarter said they would wait longer than 15 seconds for a webpage to load before leaving. Indeed, it was determined that even a five second delay in page loading could mean the difference in a sale happening, or not.

The findings are not new, but confirm well-established best practices such as need to build websites that are responsive, the importance of keeping page load times down, and how catering to mobile devices is not optional.

Businesses that fail to do that run a high risk of users moving on to other sites--and negatively impact their own e-commerce initiatives.

Even a five second delay in page loading could mean the difference in a sale happening, or not

THERE WAS a time when all it takes to ensure customer satisfaction is to establish a call center and adequately staff it with qualified operators. Unfortunately, such a strategy would be woefully inadequate today, given the evolution of the Internet and the myriad of digital platforms that it has enabled, coupled with the increasing sophistication of modern consum-ers.

For one, customers are far more proactive and often come equipped with ample information gleaned from their own research. Sources range from online forums, blogs, reviews at e-commerce sites, social networks, as well as their peers--all easily reachable with the widespread prolifera-tion of smartphones and messaging networks.

In the face of such developments, it is up to businesses to ensure that they engage with these customers across the broad spectrum of online platforms that they use, as well as to equip company representa-tives to quickly respond in a manner that delivers genuine value and low effort for the customer.

Customer engagement as a differentiatorSavvy marketers know that effective customer engagement is an

important differentiator that could be all that stands between increased sales or a lackluster quarter--or worse. And as consumers leverage mul-tiple communication channels to interact with companies, there is greater need than ever to ensure that organizations have the ability to collect, analyze and understand customer journeys across these channels and then engage customers effectively and consistently.

Indeed, Daniel Ziv, vice president of customer analytics for Asia-Pacific and global product strategy at Verint, highlighted how organizations who are successful tend to review customer experience and customer engagement as a strategic initiative, and may include the appointment of a senior chief customer officer and team that look holistically at the end-to-end customer experience to ensure the delivery of a better customer experience.

“These organizations are committed to not only listening and under-standing the voice of their customers but also acting on these insights and measuring the impact,” he said. “Once they execute a successful project they celebrate this success both internally and externally to ex-pand and scale their program across the enterprise.”

Increasingly, the challenge is about how companies can effectively engage customers across multiple communication channels, an area that

Improving Customer Engagement through AnalyticsSuperior and effortless customer engagement is an important competitive differentiator that is viewed by successful companies as a strategic initiative.

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veriNt AdvertOriAl

Ziv says Verint excels at. Companies select Verint, he said, “Because they’re looking for a unified suite that can collect and mine the voice of their customers across all channels including phone calls, emails, chat, social media and customer feedback, and translate those insights into actions that impact how or-ganizations interact and engage with custom-ers in the call center, the back-office, branch, and through various self-service channels.”

How analytics can improve customer satisfaction

So can analytics be leveraged to enhance customer engagement? According to Ziv, the answer is yes. “The strategic application of analytics can identify key areas for improve-ment, directly enhance an organization’s op-erational efficiency, help reduce risk, increase customer loyalty, and enhance revenue,” said Ziv.

Daniel Ziv at Verint: Increasingly, the challenge is about how companies can effectively engaging customers across multiple communication channels

7 steps to implement analytics in customer engagementDaniel Ziv, vice president of customer analytics, Asia-Pacific and global product strategy at Verint outlines seven steps that businesses can implement analytics in their customer engagement initiatives

1. Think big but start small: Organizations should have a holistic customer engagement strategy supported by a unified platform. For starters, try to pick an initial project that could generate impact in a short-term. This could range from singular goals such as improving sales conversion rates, reduction in cost, a reduction in customer churn, or monitoring the impact of marketing campaigns.

2. Data: Next, identify the data sources that are available to help identify the root causes and drivers behind the target objective.

3. Tools: Move on to deploy the right tools to collect and mine the relevant data identified in the previous step.

4. Analyze: Assign a dedicated team to analyze the data and recommend suggested actions. While team members do not need to be analytics experts, they should have experience and understanding of the business objectives that are being addressed.

5. Internal support: As always, obtain the requisite buy-in from senior-level executives and gain their support for this initiative. Another benefit of widespread support is how can ensure that insights are acted upon quickly across different departments.

6. Monitor: Monitor the impact of any changes made and adjust as necessary.

7. Celebrate: Success breeds further success, so be sure to celebrate successful outcomes both internally and externally--this will go a long way towards helping to ensure that the next round will be even earlier to push through.

CMO Guide l 13

Though there is no shortage of analytics tools on the market, Ziv cautioned organiza-tions against the hasty reaction of adopting the first workable point solution that they come across. An organization with multiple point solutions, for example, could result in the inadvertent creation of multiple silos that cannot be easily integrated, leading to chal-lenges down the road.

On this front, Ziv says that starting with a unified suite approach is the most frequently recommended strategy. According to him, an integrated solution also allows different departments to approach the feedback as a singular voice, and work together to improve the customer experience with no duplica-tion of efforts. Other advantages include a significant reduction in the cost of ownership, reduced time to insight and a quicker return in investment.

“By mining the voice of the customer, companies manage to identify low hanging fruit such as drivers of repeat and frustrating customer interactions that cost them a for-tune and reduce customer satisfaction,” said Ziv. “By leveraging these insights and driving them through an operational workflow--our customers are able to eliminate unnecessary or ineffective interactions and cut costs while improving customer satisfaction and reducing customer effort.”

Enhancing the bottom-lineTo illustrate how analytics can enhance

the bottom-line, Ziv pointed to TMJ Inc., a business process-outsourcing firm from Japan with operations in China and the Philippines as an example of how its unified analytics so-lutions can deliver measurable improvements.

With clients from the finance, telecom-munication and manufacturing industries, TMJ was faced with a number of unique chal-lenges with the growing age of the population especially in Japan and how it is affecting their ability to sell and service their client’s customers.

To address this, TMJ deployed speech analytics technology from Verint to mine every word and phrase in every call handled by the company. After analyzing the different topics of discussion in a sale scenario, it was discov-ered that successful sales calls focused more

on product concepts, effectiveness of service quality, while less success-ful sales calls focused more on product details and price.

These insights resulted in TMJ applying new training and coaching to their sales representatives, say Ziv. The end result is the company suc-cessfully identified a hefty 8% increase in their sales conversion rates.

Ultimately, it is evident that the requisite technology to improve customer engagement through analytics is available, and is ready for primetime use. It is really up to businesses to recognize their value, and deploy them in their organizations.

“We have over 1,000 customers around the world who use our cus-tomer analytics solutions,” said Ziv. “Early adopters of the solution have been financial institutes and telecoms, but we see an increase growth in healthcare, BPO’s, retailers, utilities and even government organizations.”

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ANAlYtiCs

he role of the Chief Marketing Officer (CMO) is not only the most varied today, and is also the most at-risk, according to Gartner research director Gareth Herschel at the Gartner Customer 360

Summit held earlier this year. Herschel pointed out that CMOs have the shortest tenure in the C-suite at the moment, at just two to three years.

So while some marketers may view analytics as another convoluted and hard-to-understand topic that they are being forced into grappling with, it is in this context that more enlightened executives will see it as an invaluable tool to quantify the value that they are delivering to their organisations. After all, executives are no doubt familiar with the adage “what get mea-sured gets managed”.

Indeed, Herschel also thinks that analytics can be leveraged to improve marketing perfor-mance as well as innovation within organisa-tions--thereby helping to extend the tenure of CMOs. We take a deeper look at the role of

Creating a data-drivenorganisation to improve the customer experience

Tanalytics in marketing, as well as how it can be practically applied to improve performance.

The role of analytics in marketing

In an interview with John Zanni, who is the CMO of the service providers business at Paral-lels Inc., he explained that the CMO has to be fairly data orienteered and analytical. “Marketing activities need to become very measurable,” stressed the executive who placed enough importance to social media to build his own in-house social team.

“The age where companies produce brochures and hope they translate to sales is gone,” said Zanni, noting that Parallels closely tracks the visitors to its website. “When we run campaigns, we look at the results from those campaigns.”

To be clear, marketing analytics is not about merely keeping a close eye on the statistics of a website or even e-commerce

CMO Guide l 15

ANAlYtiCs

In an increasingly growth oriented economy where marketing is expected to contribute to measurable results on the sales front, there is no question that analytics is becoming an essential component of the marketing skills base.

site, but tracking how actual marketing efforts and initiatives are performing. It also pays to go beyond on-site indicators to include offsite metrics and even some non-digital channels--the idea is to adopt a big-picture view to measure the marketing.

So rather than focusing only on the out-comes that could be tracked with tools such as Google Analytics and Omniture, marketers will do well to also explore the way that campaigns are executed, including the time of day they were initiated, parameters used, and the various real-life engagements that may be used by the campaign.

Improving the customer experience with analytics

One of the key challenges with analytics is translating ever-increasing amounts of captured data into strategically relevant and immediately useful action. For example, marketers can use analytics to measure the business cycle, and then use that information to calibrate to busi-ness realities.

In this context, what are some practical areas that analytics can be harnessed to make a difference? Specifically, how can analytics be harnessed to improve an important and often overlooked façade of marketing--the customer experience?• Unearthingcustomersentimentsabout

products and servicesMany customers share a great deal about

their likes and dislikes of the products and services that they come across, as well as the ease or challenges of doing business with com-panies. This could be gleaned across multiple channels such as feedback forms, call centres and online, putting the onus on CMOs to act on these insights to defuse potential customer dissatisfaction or churn.• Identifycustomermicrosegmentstobetter

meet their needsGiven that every customer is different,

analytics can help CMOs uncover similarities be-tween different niche groups of customers--such as teenagers, singles, parents, or retirees--and leverage that to create personalized offerings to meet the unique needs and interests of each microsegment.• Analysingcustomerbehaviourstodeter-

mine what they are likely to purchase

Analytics can reveal powerful insights about customer behaviours that can allow their unique needs and preference to be identified. CMOs can utilize these insights to direct targeted of-fers at them based on their past and anticipated behaviours. A well-known example of this would be Amazon’s recommendation engine.

The bottom-line here is that marketers should be involved in their organization’s cus-tomer strategy, and leverage analytics to help not just with table stakes like segmentation and audience targeting, but also by using the gained insights as a competitive differentiator. If there is one common denominator here, it would be about using analytics to deliver value to custom-ers.

And analytics do not necessarily have to be a cost centre either. For example, the cost of analytics for Tesco – the online retailer – is effectively zero as it sells its data. When one considers this, it is clear that analytics isn’t sim-ply about thinking strategically, but is also about thinking differently.

ConclusionFar too often, analytics is seen as separate

from the traditional marketing activities in most organizations. However, in an increasingly growth oriented economy where marketing is expected to contribute to measurable results on the sales front, there is no question that analytics is be-coming an essential component of the market-ing skills base.

Ultimately, CMOs who are able to leverage analytics improve their customer experience will gain an invaluable edge for their organization--and themselves. So if you’re not yet seriously looking at analytics as a means to improve performance, you should do start to do so now.

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MObile

t started innocently enough, when a busy restaurant in New York City found itself getting bad reviews for slow service. Given how service did indeed seem slower than in the past despite a simpler menu and a

higher staff count, the restaurant owner decided to hire some external consultants to investigate.

The consultants requested that the res-taurant locate old footage from its surveillance system to compare how employees behaved in the past. A surveillance tape from 10 years ago was fortuitously found, and it was quickly determined that the average time spent by a customer in the restaurant in 2004 was 1 hour and 5 minutes.

Yet a snippet from 2014 revealed that the average customer is taking almost twice as long in the restaurant today, to the tune of 1 hour and 55 minutes. So what changed? A closer examination revealed what typically transpires in a typical day.• Beforeevenopeningthemenu,customers

take their phones out to snap some photos, while others are seen fiddling with their phones. The latter spend long periods of time, often with their phones placed over the open menu, and typically asks the waiter to wait--sometimes more than once--when approached if they are ready to order.

• Sevenoutofthe45customershadwaiters

Understanding how mobile is changing everything

I

come over right away, and takes up an aver-age of five minutes of their time getting Wi-Fi working (The restaurant offers free Wi-Fi).

• Whenthefoodarrives,26outof45custom-ers spend an average of 3 minutes taking photos of the food. Another 14 out of 45 customers take pictures of each other with the food in front of them or as they are eat-ing the food. 27 out of 45 customers ask the waiter to take a group photo, while some are not satisfied and would ask for a retake.

• Wheneating,customersareconstantlybusyon their phones, and hence take an average of 20 minutes more from when they are done eating until they pay. It also takes 15 minutes longer on average for them to pay and leave after the check is delivered.If there is one lesson that brands can

glean from the anonymously posted but entirely plausible account above, it is how consumers are now spending a disproportionate amount of time with their smartphones--even during non-working slots such as their mealtimes.

With this in mind, it is clear that the suc-cessful marketer must have a strategy in place to take full advantage of the mobile phenome-non. Among others, this may entail the adoption of a “mobile first” strategy in marketing endeav-ors, which could range from tailoring advertise-ments, websites for mobile devices, and the creation of mobile apps--among others.

Of course, a mobile first approach should not be mistaken with a “mobile only” one. The former is about blending traditional marketing with an emphasis on mobile devices, while the latter approach of focusing only on mobile may or may not work depending on your brand and industry vertical.

It is worth noting that gaining an “app-hold” on a smartphone may not be as cut-and-dry as some application developers would have you believe, what with apps numbering in the millions today. Even for entrenched players, the battle is an on-going one seeing how most apps do not get launched regularly. For the winner though, the rewards in terms of increased screen time and brand awareness can be unimaginably huge.

CMO Guide l 17

sOCiAl

here is no questioning the importance of social media in today’s digital land-scape, buoyed by the strong growth of mobile devices such as smartphones and tablets in the Asia-Pacific region.

Yet what are some of the top social media mis-takes that marketers are making? And what are some ways that CMOs turn them around to be more effective and impactful?

“One mistake is that companies don’t re-ally spend time with their teams to talk about what’s appropriate in terms of social media and to create exciting and interesting stories about the brands that employees can tell,” said David Ketchum in an interview. “That often leads to the very big mistakes of employees saying things online that are directly against what the company message is.”

Ketchum is the current chairman of the Digital + Direct Marketing Association Asia, is also the president of Bite, Asia Pacific, and an industry veteran with decades of marketing and branding experience under his belt.

The top social media mistakes made by marketers

TThe crux of the issue, as explained by Ketchum, is how the “personal”

identity and “employee” identity have a tendency to get mixed up. This cul-minates in messages that may actually go against what the brand espouses or is trying to portray. “The really interesting thing about digital is not about the technology, but cultural. It’s about how you treat the people and treat the team,” he said.

Another mistake that Ketchum highlighted has to do with organizations that assert pressure on employees to meet a specific social media agenda. Rather than asking the team to tweet about a product launch, for example, Ketchum suggested organizing a memorable event to celebrate the launch with the team. “If you a hire a boat around town to celebrate a launch, people will just write about it spontaneously,” he noted.

So is it acceptable for your social media channels to be stuffed to the grills with posts exhorting your brand? Ketchum cautioned against that, and suggested that it such posts should be kept to a minority of updates. “About 15-20% should be about branding materials,” he said. “The rest should be engagement and interaction with your customers.”

Hearing it from John Zanni, chief marketing officer of the service providers business at Parallels Inc., transparency is a crucial trait when it comes to so-cial media--which is to say that companies should not be evasive online. There is always a risk when it comes to social media, according to him, because “people get nervous when you are more transparent.”

Zanni’s notion of transparency is about being forthright and honest with customers, and includes apologizing if necessary. “When somebody put something on Twitter that is bad about your company, the right thing to do is to engage them, on the same medium. If it is a legitimate problem, you apologize,” he noted.

“Having to convert one person at a time may be an uncomfortable notion for some, though companies that understand this will respond,” said Zanni. “Social is a very powerful tool that you cannot ignore anymore. Transparency is key. Any CMO who ignores it will see their downfall.”

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OutlOOk

p to 16% of companies in Hong Kong say they have a chief digital officer (CDO) which is higher than the Asia Pacific average at 11% and the over-all global average of 7%. This comes

from the 2014 CIO Survey by the executive re-cruitment consultants Harvey Nash.

The emergence of this role stems from the massive wave of digital business opportu-nities that have emerged from the prevalence of web, mobile and social media.

Businesses since the 2008 financial crisis have struggled for growth and in the most part adopted cost optimization to maintain profits. “But in the last couple of years there’s a clear shift to seek new growth,” said Nick Marsh, managing director, Harvey Nash Asia Pacific.

“This growth is coming from mergers and acquisitions but also form the drive for new revenue streams coming from digital busi-ness,” Marsh noted.

Digital visionThe belief is that through emerging and

established digital platforms, businesses can engage with new groups of customers, engage in different ways and create deeper engage-ments with existing customers. “Companies are now seeking competitive edge in this digital space so visionary CEOs are actively seeking to do something transformative around digital,” added Marsh.

This shift is creating a new challenge which demands new skills and ideas and hence the rise of the CDO.

“This is not business as usual with a few digital add-ons – this is a new way of doing business,” said Marsh.

The problem that many businesses are finding is that this role does not always sit well with existing CIOs or even CMOs, both who would seem the most suited to taking up this digital challenge.

The ideal scenario is for someone inter-nally to step up to the task and own the digital initiative but if that doesn’t happen then CEOs will have to appoint someone externally to fill

the role.According to Soni Sajnani, associate

consultant at Harvey Nash and the lead on digital business, this CDO role is essentially a transformation agent with very sound digital skills. “This person is being tasked to lead change management, be open, enthusiastic and most importantly try new things and take risks,” she said. “Digital is all new, nothing is tried or trusted so it requires people who are bold and also who truly understand what ‘digital’ business means.”

Under the CDO hoodSajnani also emphasized the point that

the study recognized CDOs as individuals who clearly had responsibility for digital business within their company and did not sit within tra-ditional IT or within marketing. Marsh added that people should not be obsessed with the “CDO” job title as there were companies that likely had very competent digital leaders but do not have a CDO job title. “CDOs could already be digital strategy leaders or even existing CIOs or CMOs.”

But what is evident is that there is a gap where CIOs and CMOS are either too busy to assume this role or the skills are such that the new role is created to acquire the unique mix of skills that businesses need in this posi-tion. The study found that 50% of CIOs today are active in digital strategy which is actually down from last year (56%), while marketing is increasingly trying to own the digital strategy too.

“There’s a land-grab between marketing and IT for this digital space but not all existing leaders are suited to driving this,” said Marsh. Interestingly the study found that most CDOs reported directly to the CEO (40%) while only 22% report to the CIO and 16% to the CMO.

Both Sajnani and Marsh agreed that while the role required digital skills, it would not be a role for the tech geek. “The person has to be very self-driven, confident and engaging as they work to break down siloes but also lead others along on the vision,” said Sajnani.

This is not business as usual with a few digital add-ons – this is a new way of doing business

There’s a land-grab between marketing and IT for this digital space but not all existing leaders are suited to driving this

Chief digital officers on the rise in HK

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