Marketing and data innovation: Next Practice is Best Practice

Best practice and next practice were both being discussed at MINT Global 2017 in Amsterdam today – an event drawing together marketers, innovators and business leaders to debate the key issues facing businesses today.

Speaker Michael Bayler (founder/director The Whole Equation and author) pinned his audience to their seats when he declared: “The great paradox is that we have never had access to more information in the world than we do now, yet business leaders are finding it harder and harder to make key strategic decisions. And this will stall their growth.

“Why? What’s changed? We must go from digital to network thinking . . . that’s what innovators like Amazon, Uber or Snapchat are doing and they are winning.” Another example given was Spotify; an innovator and disruptor that has changed the music industry forever.

Out of a Jurassic age with next practice

So, it’s tough times for the CMO or CEO in today’s fast-paced and terrifying world – Bayler used an analogy from Jurassic Park, with actor Jeff Goldblum getting away (phew) from T-Rex:

So, while change is the new norm, Bayler also said 80 per cent of the billions of dollars spent by companies on digital transformation projects have been ‘thrown out of the window’ as only 20% of them have proved to be successful.

“Chronic turbulence, perpetual uncertainty, there is no port any more – only the storm”, he announced, but added: “Businesses who use this to their advantage will survive, those that don’t, won’t. A five-year strategy plan is too late, not immediate enough for change – those who adopt this strategy will just be really good in five years’ time at what they thought of five years ago. Move from this evidence-based strategy to a confidence-based one and work on what is happening now and in the next three months.”

Discussion moved to Purpose and how a resilient enterprise should underline its purpose – its reason for being – to be more powerful in building relationships between companies and customers. An example of ideal branding used by Bayler was the New Zealand All Blacks rugby team: “The most successful sports team – of any sport, in any part of the world – of all time. The sport is violent, fast, fluid and strategic – the players are clever or they get beaten up!” The team captain Ritchie McCaw said, ‘great people make great All Blacks’. Bayler added: “Leaders must be cheerleaders of the team for the cohesion and morale of management, staff and partners; the steward of a consistent connection with customers.”

He concluded, darkly: “The challenges facing businesses right now are unbelievable, scary.”

Panel members continued this theme, with moderator Ian Hughes (CEO, Consumer Intelligence) saying: “So what do we do next? What does innovation mean to you?” Stephen Corlett (MD, 180 Amsterdam) said: “Innovation is about creating a culture in which people can grow. Clients come to us and we talk first about creating that growth environment.”

The innovation and growth theme was picked up by Diane Perlman (Global CMO, MassChallenge), who said: “Embracing failure and moving to a mindset of getting beyond that, making changes, is what innovation is about.” She referred to the book ‘Mission’ by Michael Hayman and Nick Giles, which gave three types of defining purpose for successful brands: 

• Carers (such as Ella’s Kitchen baby food brand)
• Sharers (AirBnB)
• Darers (Uber – “which stopped at nothing to put their vision into operation”).

Bob Nieme (CEO and co-founder of Adversitement) cited a focused data strategy and entrepreneurialism as the main drivers of business growth: “Data is a very important ingredient to success as is disrupting your day-to-day operations and building on opportunities – that’s entrepreneurialism.”

But brands can’t operate without the brains behind them – and speaker Mèv Betrand (consultant, Neuro-Insight) said: “Platforms, channels, marketing methods change, but the one thing marketers can rely on is human behaviour. She said scientific evidence had revealed seven brain principles to be aware of in a digital world:

1. That our brains dislike being sold to and subtle branding can sometimes be more effective than over branding
2. Memory response is sparked by storytelling so your brand message should be a fundamental part of your story: “This ad [which was hugely appropriate given that we were all listening in the Heineken Brewery!] was very effective”:
3. That memory-triggers such as patterns and repetitions can guide people onto your story-telling path (using the amusing ad from Kmart:)
4. That emotional context can be very powerful
5. Human interaction and personal relevance  – making a personal connection — drives memory
6. New technologies provide new opportunities
7. Marketers should steer clear of the ‘uncanny valley’ – use of ‘real’ rather than creepy animation sparks a greater response – “people show a negative reaction to ‘almost real’ or ‘impossibly perfect’ people or animals in ads – they want to be amazed, but not completely freaked out by what they see!”

The customer experience driving next practice: summary

MINT Global 2017 incorporated the main topics the western world revolves around these days: digital and social. Or, as it proved to be by the end of the day, a sociable digital world that is designed by the customers themselves (Magda Grama reports).

The digital era is no longer a future perspective, it is the only way of life some of us know. It is the reality we consume and the one we shape. Through our likes, shares, comments and choices, we influence the order – the ranking – of preferred companies. As Mèv Bertrand commented: “When people can relate, they remember” and this is a crucial decision-making factor.

Participants from different countries agreed at a roundtable discussion chaired by Ian Hughes (Consumer Intelligence, see video below) that ‘the customer experience is the consolidation of a company’s culture’ and that data, good websites and apps are secondary to the consumer: “Treating them like a human being comes first.” This is fundamental for senior leaders and millennial tech savants alike. As the world is changing, so is the way we interact with it, but not the grounds on which we respond to incentives and form memories which, in turn, define our behaviour.

Customer experience is no longer just the emotional outcome of the buying process, but the experience must be understood in a wider sense and approached accordingly, as an integrated purchasing process, a chain of high-quality services to satisfy multiple needs. The ability to associate customers’ backgrounds with their intentions enables businesses to not just respond, but predict and influence the next steps. It is called networking and translated as the affiliation of reliable sources to successfully complete the buyer’s journey.

At the heart of it all is brand reliability –– another strength for marketers to build – since it provides the feeling of comfort and trust, spurring repetitive action. However, the delegates agreed, it must be remembered that reliability is not an asset to be developed, but the true core of any business culture that aims at long-term commitment.

‘Generation I Don’t Care’, as the newest consumers are called, have high demands and brands need to keep up, in order to survive. Businesses must be very careful with how they treat and relate to their clients because, once expectations have been set, they must be met. This is why businesses should position themselves honestly within the market and be transparent – customers know to adapt and interact, but when they are disappointed they search for something better.

Customer experience will always be a hot topic, since it directly impacts business results – so always being up-to-date with best practices and trends will improve not just short-term sales, but long-lasting partnerships.

MINT Global event speaker Mel McVeigh – who is responsible for transforming the digital customer experience for Photobox in the UK, Europe and Rest Of The World – presented a case study on the customer experience, saying: “At Photobox, we are swimming in data; we know a lot about our customers – what they create, what they share and many other elements and our good product design comes from striking the right balance between ‘empathy’ and our ‘gut feeling’ with our data.

“With that, we create a customer journey map and, using marketing metrics to see what our customers do, where the problems are and where the ‘leakiest parts’ of the product are, we aim to fix that leak, using customer service feedback and understanding the metric for each part of the customer journey.

“Then it is down to Test and Learn. Be prepared for it to fail, but plan to optimise and move forward – you would be very lucky to get it right first time! Evolve the metrics over time, review regularly and use those metrics to drive performance.

“As Mèv Bertrand said earlier today, experiences forge memories and help make the connection between consumer and company memorable.”

Read also: 

Social media channels impact on business growth . . . are you listening?

The changing GDPR: how will it affect you? Live from MINT Global event