I asked the senior marketing consultants of Mansmith and Fielders Inc. to share some key trends happening in their fields. I am providing a condensed list of their inputs below.
Chiqui Escareal-Go, Anthropologist.
Mansmith Chief Behavioral Strategist and Chair, Women’s Business Council Philippines.
1. Chief Customer Experience Officer – The constant and inevitable call for customer centricity as a source of competitive advantage, and now, more importantly than ever, as a font for continuous innovation ideas, has brought about the creation of corporate positions with the tag Chief Customer Experience Officer – no longer as a support position but as a primary lead placed at the highest level of management.
2. Behavioral Economics – More companies are looking for tools to help deconstruct or even demystify consumer behavior, seeking out real reasons why consumers buy or get involved, stay or leave, beyond what data can show. This requires perspectives from multiple disciplines with knowledge in humanities (such as from history, linguistics, socio-cultural anthropology, psychology among others) rising as a critical aptitude needed in business. Aligned with this is the realization of the important convergence of technology and psychology, where one allows for patterns to surface quickly and substantially especially needed in this agile world, and the other providing explanations for such patterns, thereby leading to customer-centric innovation.
3. Emotional Coding – Market research methodologies are fast evolving with the availability of tools and technology that can provide data anytime, anywhere – such as mobile ethnography, emotional coding, VR, etc.. As research attempts to capture the right profiles of target markets (via incentivizing opt-ins), collecting the correct data and connecting the dots for targeted activation and execution will be the constant test for agility, focus and performance.
Rowen Untivero, Negotiation Jedi.
Mansmith Chief Sales Strategist and
Chairman of Connecting Mavens, Inc.
1. Retail Shop Professionals – With increasing online sales, companies are realizing that a satisfying human interface in the store will have greater value to the customers, driving differentiation and even repeat purchase.
2. Field Salespeople as Strategists – In highly competitive markets where products and services are commoditized, companies are retraining their sales force to gain higher competency to include negotiation and account-level strategy to deal with their client counterparts.
3. Partnership Negotiation – Progressive retail buyers realize that old school ‘mafia’ techniques don’t apply anymore to a good segment of core suppliers. A partnership-oriented relationship is required where both strategic and tactical approaches to negotiation coupled with suave influencing strategies and skills come to play to help attain retail buyers’ key performance metrics.
Frances Yu, Shopper Expert.
Mansmith Chief Retail Strategist and
Consultant of Rustan’s.
1. More Consolidation in Retail – With the entry of international chains and hyper competition, the trend of retail consolidation will continue. In the supermarket industry, the top 4 players will grow even more dominant as they race to acquire more and more medium-sized chains. This trend will continue even in the specialty fashion segment. What we will see will be a polarization in the market between the biggest and most cash rich players, on one side, and the niche, unique, small-scale retailers (both online and brick-and-mortar) on the other side. It is the mid-sized players that are most at risk for marginalization.
2. Conspicuous Consumption of the Luxury Chinese Tourist – Cash rich and ready to spend on luxury goods, the luxury Chinese tourist is a very attractive segment to target. High luxury taxes in China make purchasing luxury goods more attractive abroad. Many Chinese tourists are becoming the biggest consumers of luxury products — bags, luxury cruises and trips, jewelry, and other luxury products are consumed while traveling abroad. Here in the Philippines, the luxury Chinese consumer is often seen in the hotel/resorts casinos and high-end retail stores.
3. Generation Z Consumers – Born starting mid 1990’s following the demographic group Millennials, members of Gen Z encompass children, tweens, teens and young adults. Gen Z has never known a world without the internet. They have short attention spans, are digitally fluid, globally aware and they are politically, environmentally and socially conscious. Of all the generations, they are the most averse to advertising. Gen Z wants transparency and “realness” from brands. This generation is re-writing the rules that favor liberal views on race, gender, identity, and sexuality.
Emilio Macasaet III, Sales Coach.
Mansmith Chief Channel Marketing Strategist and Bestselling author of ‘Distribution Management’ and ‘Key Account Management’ books.
1. Sales Information Technology –With the evolution of big data and artificial intelligence in collecting data, CRM and sales management technology tools will increasingly become a necessity to compete, streamlining work process and allowing companies to analyze customer behavior pattern across channels to improve business relationships and market standing.
2. Sales Training Academy- Companies regardless of size are building their own sales training academies. These companies are realizing the need to develop their own salesforce DNA necessary to optimize productivity and to exploit opportunities in the market place. The trends in practices include: online self-paced training modules using company curated videos and audios; developing training champions from the sales ranks; subscription in Massive Open Online Courses (MOOCs) as well as tapping external resource partners.
3. Services On Demand (SODs) – We see the rise of services on demand by companies utilizing hybrid cloud model, providing more accessible, affordable and reliable services than brick-and mortar counterparts. From transportation, SOD model has attracted new categories like Health and Wellness on Demand (HAWOD), and even pawn services.
Malu Dy Buncio, StratPlan Expert.
Mansmith Chief Business Development Strategist and
Former Country Head of Avon.
1. Singularity – Millennials and subsequent generations have confidence to ‘do it alone’ without waiting for their friends or family to explore the world. They can travel alone and ‘Adventure’ will become a key word. They are willing to relocate disconnecting from their roots and quickly develop new roots and relationships in search of work and adventure. They are also willing to work away from the traditional office set up.
2. Work Process Redesign – Complete change in culture, norms, and process will require new marketing and people management techniques/skill sets. Corporate loyalty will continue to erode and teamwork will be at risk. This requires business process (inclusive of office set up) redesign as well as management training, retention and procurement redesign.
3. The Great Unknown – The true potential and implications of artificial intelligence and the internet is still not all known. Because of this, sources of influence will continue to evolve. A steep learning curve is required to ensure a business remains relevant. New examples of this are the medical profession due to Dr. Google and the field of education. We will continue to see the decline of market leaders if they are unable to modify their current business model.
Donald Lim, Digital Guru. Mansmith Chief Digital Strategist and
Country CEO of Dentsu Aegis Network.
1. Social Media Meets Artificial intelligence (AI) – After years of acquiring social media fans and creating content for audiences, brands will now have the opportunity to efficiently communicate, promote, and sell directly to their customers through automated response, like Facebook messenger chatbots, helping brands gather data, earn points for customers, and even allow them to order online. Finally, brands can now close the loop on social media, from fan acquisition, all the way to product purchase.
2. Social Media Micro Influencers –Becoming mainstream, brands are increasingly tapping micro influencers for product demonstrations and promoting to their social circle to generate interest and sales, rather than getting mainstream celebrities promoting in TV commercials. Metrics on social media influencers will become part of creative and media strategy and planning.
3. Customer Data Becomes Gold – Personal ad targeting becomes the norm as programmatic advertising and remarketing allows brands to customize messaging through data acquired from digital behaviors and actions. Data privacy and rules of engagement between brands and customers will also be of primary concern not only by regulators but also by IT and marketing departments.
To add to these marketing trends noted by the Mansmith marketing team, I am also sharing my observations below.
Josiah Go. Mansmith Chief Innovation Strategist.
1. Acceleration of the Fusion Era – We have been seeing digital companies adding brick-and-mortar stores, while brick-and-mortar companies adding digital. Ultimately, companies will realize they cannot organize the two in silos and need to follow the path to purchase of consumers for their convenience.
2. The Rise of Chief Innovation Officer – As companies try to future proof their organization, a dedicated group will be tasked not just to discover new products and services, and improve processes throughout the value chain but to transform business model for today’s business as well as tomorrow’s new markets, before they get disrupted by competitors or other industries.
3. Entrepreneurship is Cool – Successful entrepreneurs are sought after, even Tinder ranked entrepreneurs now as one of most often right-swiped jobs (doctors are no longer included!). Their perceived drive, their financial and personal freedom, and their ability to get things done despite scarcity of resources make them an attractive breed to emulate. Expect more people to explore entrepreneurship earlier, especially with the ease of doing business online.
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