Day: November 25, 2019

 

Over the past three years – according to Gartner – marketing budgets have declined from 12.1 per cent in 2016 to 10.5 per cent of the overall budget today.

When we delve deeper into the findings, however, we see one area of marketing spend that bucks this trend: marketing technology (martech).

Marketers often rank martech as a top priority, with spending increasing from 22 per cent in 2017 to 26 per cent in 2019. This upward trend is reflective of how businesses are prioritising data analytics and competitive insights at the very heart of the marketing function. This is because customer-centricity is now the new business mandate.

While budgets might be declining, the output of the marketing team does not need to. In fact, with the rise of martech it’s possible for teams to increase the results they deliver back to the business thanks to the ability to be more strategic and targeted in our communications.

Slow methods in a fast world

Traditionally, businesses have relied on market researchers’ expertise to develop studies, analyse responses, and obtain meaningful insights that can substantiate and guide them in their business decisions. However, this approach to research is time-consuming, labour intensive, and can drain the coffers of organisations already struggling with tight budgets.

Also Read: How online data is transforming market research

The efficiency of traditional research also hinges on the market researcher’s level of accessibility to platforms and marketing data. More often than not, organisations can only grant restricted access to their data and resources, which can translate to inefficiencies and bottlenecks, as well as limited insights. This results in teams conducting market research on third party platforms, which curtails the overall consistency of the businesses’ research methodology.

This is where martech solutions come in, offering the scalability, speed and flexibility required for businesses to make informed decisions in today’s fast-moving world. 

The impact of martech in research

 Modern research tools have the potential to deliver a high return on investment (ROI) in the longer term. Market researchers can leverage the power of artificial intelligence (AI) to filter out low-quality data (bots, duplicates and invalid responses) too. They can now capture valuable data into the user experience faster to gather holistic and targeted insights. Intelligent text and statistical analysis tools incorporating machine learning, allows organisations to identify open text feedback. This enables quick identification, comprehension and response to customer issues.  

Data privacy compliance, traditionally one of the most complicated areas of market research, especially with new GDPR policies, also becomes less of a hassle. This is because personal data, including survey responses and projects, can be quickly deleted. Also, these platforms are easily configurable to determine the parameters of sensitive data and automatically flags questions for survey creators. With less to worry about and manage, market researchers can focus more on analysing insights enabling them to improve their customer, product and brand experiences.

Market researchers can leverage the power of artificial intelligence (AI) to filter out low-quality data (bots, duplicates and invalid responses) too. They can now capture valuable data into the user experience faster to gather holistic and targeted insights. Intelligent text and statistical analysis tools incorporating machine learning, allows organisations to identify open text feedback. This enables quick identification, comprehension and response to customer issues. 

The best part, most of these modern research tools can be easily integrated with existing enterprise applications. This helps to collect operational data (O-data) such as sales and HR data. Organisations can now benefit from more targeted marketing campaigns driven by data and analytics. 

 Embracing the future of market research

The benefits of leveraging modern tools have led companies such as Gojek, Southeast Asia’s largest on-demand service and payments platform, to invest in martech to drive data-driven customer experiences. Relying on a modern tool has enabled Gojek to collect real-time feedback and insights at crucial points of the customer journey, better identify consumer preferences and pain points, and ultimately improve their product offering based on insights around features users value and engage with the most.

Also Read: 9 things to keep in while creating a good content marketing approach for your fintech company

Modernising the market research process through technology alone, however, won’t cut it.  Alongside leveraging modern research tools, businesses should focus on building trust with customers and strengthening these relationships to generate quality feedback.

Organisations should ensure they are not bombarding their audience with endless surveys and instead, limit the frequency of study invitations in a given period. Fortunately, modern platforms can capture customers’ preferences and demographics, which help in strategic targeting and reaching the right audience for specific studies. 

Modern research tools enable organisations to quickly derive and act upon targeted, accurate, actionable insights, all while reducing costs in the long-term. However, agility and precision is only part of the recipe to succeed.

Businesses must integrate systems of record into systems of action to ensure decisions are based on tangible facts. Together, this will help companies to overcome the challenges arising from reduced marketing budgets and ensure that businesses can reach significant ROI on their martech investment

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Image Credit: João Silas

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We all know a serial procrastinator – and if you can’t think of who it might be, it’s probably you.

Even if it isn’t something you do incessantly, it’s something we’re all guilty of from time to time, right? It can be so hard to remain motivated at all times, particularly in working hours. It always seems that bit easier to procrastinate and put tasks off a little longer.

The problem with this is it stems from productivity. The more you procrastinate, the less you get done, the more stressed you become, and therefore the more likely you are to procrastinate further. However, today we’re going to explore the art of tackling procrastination head-on.

Ask yourself “WHY”

The first step to stopping procrastination is to actively ask yourself why you’re doing it. It doesn’t matter if it’s an assignment you’ve been putting off for weeks, or you’re avoiding researching it online. There has to be a reason why you’re avoiding doing the task at hand.

A lot of the time, people think they’re procrastinating simply because they can’t be bothered to do something. Although this can certainly be true, it’s often to do with a lack of planning and organisation.

It could be that you’ve left yourself an unachievable amount of time in which to complete the task at hand, or you haven’t planned it efficiently. It could even be that you know it’s a big task, and you’ve allowed yourself to feel intimidated by it. 

Procrastination is aided by one thing above all else – and that’s excuses. Once you’ve figured out why you’re procrastinating, stop giving yourself excuses as to why it’s okay, and start looking for solutions instead. You’d be surprised at how this change of approach will revolutionise your productivity levels.

Divide and conquer

Usually, an expression used when describing some strategic and unpleasant behaviours, divide and conquer can also be used for the good when it comes to avoiding procrastination before it’s even begun.

If you know you have a lot on, look at the tasks, or one larger task, that you need to do. Then, figure out how you can subdivide the task at hand into smaller, more manageable sections.

Sometimes staring at a massive list, or one large task, can be intimidating – and when you feel intimidated by something, you’re far more likely to put off doing it. 

By dividing the thing you’re intimidated by into smaller sections, you can dedicate fixed amounts of time to each section. Because it makes the task seem overall less frightening, you’re far more likely to be able to conquer it – and successfully too we might add. It doesn’t matter if it’s something for work, something practical like tidying up, or something personal like writing thank you cards after a big party. Allow yourself to divide, and watch yourself conquer.

Also Read: Leadership is not a benefit to yourself but an obligation to others

There is no right time

We’re going to let you in on a little secret. There is no right time to do the task you’re putting off. The only right time is now.

Of course, there are wrong times. Don’t do it in the middle of the night, or sacrifice an event you’ve been looking forward to for months for it. But don’t think there is a “perfect” time in which to complete a task because when it comes around, we’d put money on you finding an alternative “perfect” time instead of completing it there and then.

Instead of sitting planning when you’re going to do the thing you’re putting off, if you’re free at present, do it now! Some people will wait for motivation that never comes – and that’s a fact. Successful people create their motivation. Be your motivator, and get things done. You’ll thank us later.

Give yourself a break

Finally, both mentally and physically, give yourself a break.

Mentally, stop being so hard on yourself! you can do this, and you will do this, and you’ll do it well. There’s no reason why you can’t! Always remember that you have everything you need within you to succeed in the task at hand.

Also Read: Employees acting weird? this is the time to check your leadership skills

Physically, take a break! Every hour or so take five, ten, minutes to stand up, have a stretch, get a coffee and take some fresh air. You’ll come back feeling refreshed, and ready to get going all over again. The most productive people know the importance of breaks, so follow their lead.

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Image Credit:  Marten Bjork

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You’re tired of hearing that ‘a brand isn’t just a logo’ – which is like saying there’s more to PR than press releases. It drives you nuts that nobody has a good answer for what a brand is beyond the logo, or is able to convince you to hire a brand consultancy as large corporates do.

As an entrepreneur, your mandate is to be better than your industry, so why would you waste several months on such a marginal detail? You’ve got a point. Take MasterCard, who spent millions on what I’d term an ‘aesthetically challenged’ rebrand in 2006 – only to revert back to its old identity a few years later. You fail to see how branding would add value to your bottom line. In a nutshell, you’re wondering when you’ll come across a simple explanation of what successful branding actually entails, how it’s done in a lean fashion, and what’s in it for you. Or maybe you just don’t care at all.

Thing is, you should. A company’s brand has the potential to be its single most valuable asset. 74 per cent of McDonald’s overall valuation attributes to its brand. Even for businesses with extensive IP, such as Mercedes-Benz, that number is still just below 50 per cent; in one word – massive. You really think Nest would have sold above 3 billion US$ had it just improved the technology of thermostats, and not fundamentally invested in re-imagining the experience of using it toward something people actually enjoyed? That’s what real branding is about.

Sounds complicated? In eight years of building hero brands with start-ups, I think I found the answers you are looking for. With a little guidance, you’ll build a great brand faster than you’d imagine. To get you started on the journey, I created a handy tool that I call the Brand Canvas.

Like a business model canvas, it covers all essential aspects of your brand in a single overview. From your canvas, you derive your brand MVP, and iterate until it looks and feels just right. Blue-tack it to your office wall, know it by heart and go build your hero brand with it.

You still have no idea what branding means for your start-up? Let me surprise you – by doing what you do, you already have all the foundations of good branding. Our most valuable global icons today, be it Google, McDonald’s, Mercedes-Benz or Red Bull, all evolved from a captivating story, a disruptive idea turned into a great business model.

Few people truly believe such value can be artificially created, and it looks like history is proving them right. For a start-up like you, that’s big news. Unlike your corporate counterparts, you don’t have to manufacture a brand story: You simply tell customers why you’re here today and have the most essential part of your brand (ethos and purpose) already covered.

As brand consultants, it’s our job to facilitate that story and narrate it in the best possible way. We help associate all your operational activities into that greater something – regardless of whether you’re building a dating app or providing advice on athlete’s foot prevention. Us branding folks are no wizards, but our key skill lies in revealing what will make you stand out, and selling this at a premium to your customers. You’re not so sure anything really makes you different?

You may not be aware of it, but trust me – it exists and discovering it may go a long way. Remember the makeover shows on TV? Nearly everyone comes out of those looking sharp and feeling confident. If, say, you’re a little chubby and up for a new look, dressing well is a start, but you’ve still to undergo a lot of exercises to stand a chance of winning a beauty pageant. You’ll see real change only once you start seriously working out and change your mindset. Your brand in this analogy is the purpose you find in doing it.

So now that you know the theory, here’s a step-by-step guide to put it into practice:

1. Have a look at all the stuff you’ve created so far, and agree on a single sentence to define your company.

2. Review your existing brand assets (logo, style guide, etc.)

a. Does it correspond to what you’ve defined in step 1? Note down how you can achieve a closer match

b. Research three brands you admire. How you fare against them, and what can you improve? Keep track of all the suggestions and ideas you come up with.

c. Ask around for branding best practice publications. Does your brand withstand the expert assessment? Based on your result, evaluate how professional you communicate, and try to see which suggestions you can follow.

3. Show your brand to a handful of strangers in all age groups. What feedback are you getting? Focus on logging discrepancies between what you want to be and what people think you are.

4. Reflect on everything you’ve discovered so far. Imagine your brand was a person, and describe it in detail – strengths, weaknesses, aspirations, past life, and so on. Be sure to get this spot-on, and iterate until you get it just right. Make use of Brand Archetypes if you like.

5. Plot all the channels and stakeholders of your brand. Put yourself in their shoes and think about what they would need and want from your brand (i.e. the person you just defined), and what you currently deliver. Highlight the biggest gaps, and take a good look at what needs fixing; then design your game plan.

6. Write a short scenario of where you see your brand in year 20xx. Summarize it in a vision statement. Keep evaluating your defined course of action against it as you go about making changes and implementing improvements.

This post covers the DNA of iconic brands and a simple manual on how to go about building one. It should help you become your own brand champion and spot a savvy brand guru to give you a hand among the many fencers with dull sabres.

Think of us honourable brand samurai as a fusion of motivational speaker, style advisor and fitness coach (rather than a mix of graphic designer and chief bullshit officer). Thank you and good luck!

 

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Image Credit: Getty Images

This article was previously published on LinkedIn

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Artificial intelligence is one of the imminent technologies. While we have and use rudimentary AI for basic purposes at the moment, the further the technology is developed the more sophisticated it becomes and the more it is able to do.

There are many ways in which artificial intelligence – clever robots capable of logical thought and autonomous decision making – look set to transform our world.

One of the most talked-about changes that artificial intelligence looks set to bring is mass automation of industry and other huge swathes of our economy and society. Even managerial and jobs such as those in law could be automated. As a result of discussion around this topic and predictions as to the scale of the automatic revolution set to engulf the world economy 22 per cent of British workers fear that they will be replaced by a robot.

The technology to bring mass-scale human redundancy is not quite in place. Some manufacturing jobs are already automated but further research is needed until robots begin to take up more skilled positions.

At the moment, however, there are lots of other ways the current AI technology is being used to help human society and, in the process, enable engineers to learn more about the technology in order to aid the next breakthrough.

Some of these useful deployments of new technology are, while positive, odd, surprising, or, in some cases, utterly bizarre. And not all of them are all that useful – they just serve as a bit of fun and as a way of experimenting with the technology and demonstrating what it may one day be capable of. Here are three of those uses that are strikingly strange.

1. Robot bees

A great deal has been said about the danger faced by bees in their ongoing struggle to survive and it is a species of insect we cannot afford to lose. The animals are crucial to crop pollination but pesticides and other pressures and threatening their existence.

Also Read: How Taiwan can boost your startup in unexpected ways

To ensure that famines do not occur, researchers have developed a robot bee drone that uses artificial intelligence, GPS, and a camera to pollinate in a very similar way to honeybees.

2. Coaching football teams

Some non-league football teams, such as Wingate and Finchley FC, have turned to artificial intelligence to help break a run of bad results. The system analyses data from matches to calculate the best formation and style of play to use against the relevant opponent and then uses an amazon echo device to provide advice to coaches during the game.

The first game in which the technology was used resulted in a 1-all draw.

3. Writing books and songs

While an AI which can write books and songs may sound initially useless, the technology is actually quite brilliant and these uses merely to demonstrate its capabilities. The technology behind this is called deep learning and is all about how AI absorbs information and learn from it.

Also Read: 5 reasons behind the success or failure of a business according to popular TedTalks coach

The algorithms used are still fairly primitive, but the idea is that the more a deep learning machine is taught the more capable it is. The most famous example of this use is in “Harry Potter and the Portrait of What Looked Like a Large Pile of Ash,” a hilarious Harry Potter story is written entirely by a robot concluding with the memorable line “‘I’m Harry Potter,’ Harry began yelling. “The dark arts better be worried, oh boy!”

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Image Credit:   NeONBRAND

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When is the right time for a startup to start expanding globally?

The answer varies. Some startups believe that one should focus on strengthening the foothold in the home market first, where everything is familiar and within reach. Because who knows better about the local market than a local company, right?

While the opinion is not wrong, there are several good reasons why a young startup should consider international expansion –and showcase their ideas on a global platform– since Day 1.

Consider these reasons:

It will drive you out of your comfort zone

Sure, it is good to be in a familiar situation. It might also give you a greater chance to succeed. But then how can you and your company grow? Even if you do not succeed at first attempt, going global will give you so many great lessons to learn –that will prepare you for the next part of your entrepreneurial journey.

It can help you develop products better

Going global requires market research, and eventually, localisation. The research process allows you to learn more about your new market, and often, your own product. You can create a stronger, better product with more insights about the different type of users there are.

Also Read: Fundraising? Here are 3 reasons why joining 2020 TOP100 APAC is great for your startup

It may widen your audience

This part seems a bit obvious, but the wider your audience, the bigger your prospect is. Who does not want to be a major player in the region? Why stick to just one market when you can have the whole continent?

Now that you have your mind set on going global, the next question will be: What is the best global platform for young startups to showcase their ideas?

The answer is 2020 TOP100 APAC.

As part of the annual Echelon Asia Summit, TOP100 is a curated programme designed to discover, showcase, and accelerate the next generation of up-and-coming startups.

The programme consists of qualifying rounds that are set to be held in six Southeast Asian cities in early 2020, followed by the Echelon Roadshow events.

Registration for TOP100 is now open and we are looking forward to seeing your startup on the list!

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