Page 12 - index

RESEARCH, ANALYSIS & TRENDS

New APJ study maps

operational gaps in marketing

claims, business practices

and customer experience

ployee empowerment that is driven by real-time market
Asia-Pacific and Japan (APJ) companies may want to insights, more personalized engagements and higher-
take heed of the famous quote by American actress value, actionable information and analytics delivered
Mae West—“An ounce of performance is worth pounds across the organization.
of promises”—particularly as it relates to delivering on
brand promises made to Asia’s 4.3 billion consumers.
From a benchmarking standpoint, the CMO Council
study, entitled “Maximize How You Individualize,” re-
In a new study on the state of customer experience veals that the customer experience lacks measure-
across APJ, the Chief Marketing Officer (CMO) Council ment, accountability and dedicated resources through-
reports that only 26% of marketers surveyed believe out APJ based companies and multi-nationals operat-
their back office systems and operational structures en- ing in the region. This is surprising considering that
able their companies to live up to brand promises and 45% of survey respondents represented companies
marketing claims. with $1 billion or more in revenue, and 30% held posi-
tions at companies with annual sales between $100
The CMO Council, in partnership with SAP, gathered million and $1 billion.
insights from 245 senior marketers in 16 Asia-Pacific
countries through an online audit during the third and Ownership of the customer experience is seen by sur-
fourth quarters of 2013. Findings from the audit show vey participants to be fragmented and distributed
that only 10% of respondents felt there was strong across multiple titles and areas of operational respon-
alignment and synergy among functional heads when it sibility, including the CMO (31%), head of service and
comes to ensuring a seamless experience across all support (10%), vice president or director of customer
customer touch points and business operational areas. sales and service (9%), chief operations officer (8%),
chief sales officer (6%), and chief experience officer
With the voice and influence of Asia’s mobile device- (6%). Only 39% of marketers feel these individuals
connected, socially active and brand-conscious con- have the authority and budget to really influence and
sumers mounting, regional marketers feel they need to impact CXM.
step up their game when it comes to ensuring that com-
panies live up to marketing claims and brand promises “it is easy for marketers to get caught in a conversation
on an operational, after-market support and back-office- about who owns the customer experience. In reality,
systems level. everyone across the enterprise bears a responsibility
to deliver consistent, relevant and delightful customer
“There is no point in wasting marketing resources on experiences. However, marketers have the unique op-
seducing customers with offers, incentives and captivat- portunity to become the true champion of customer
ing branding if there is a big disconnect on the product, centricity by adopting customer-listening strategies and
business policy or service experience side,” noted Do- data-driven approaches that aid customer experience
novan Neale-May, Executive Director of the CMO Coun- transformation,” noted Grace Ho, Managing Director of
cil. “You’ll just see churn, disaffection and bad word-of- Marketing for SAP Asia-Pacific Japan.
mouth that can be quite damaging in a socially connect-
ed region like Asia.” “Today’s marketer is in a position to empower the or-
ganization with deep knowledge of the customer’s
The CMO Council notes that just 23% of marketers sur- wants, needs and expectations. Social listening is an
veyed in APJ have calculated how customer experience excellent way to glean customer sentiment about a
has directly impacted business performance through product or service. Customer sentiment can be cap-
lost or gained revenue, retention, defection, detraction tured in real-time and then shared across the organiza-
or advocacy. tion to help adapt and shift customer experiences to
maximize business outcomes. Insights from predictive
APJ marketers believe customer-centric cultures require analytics can foster understanding of the level of loyal-

CEO mandates, management commitments and em- ty and attachment a customer has for your brand and
12 Asian eMarketing March 2014 - Social Media Marketing