October 2017 – PRWIRE Asia

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Multichannel (Inside-out) versus Omnichannel (Outside-in) Strategy

Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, October 31, 2017 /PRWIRE.asia/ -- These days, multichannel marketing and omnichannel marketing are often used to describe what many people believe is the same thing – advertising on every platform available through different means.

What this gets wrong however is the subtle but hugely important difference between the two: the perspective.

Multichannel marketing is formed by the company’s brand team, their internal view of the world and what they would like to present it as.

Omnichannel marketing on the other hand is informed by taking actions based on the customer’s view of the world, and the brand.

By flipping the perspective from inside-out to outside-in, businesses are far more capable of understanding how users experience their brand, and how that user experience affects consumer behavior. That understanding in turn informs action, which can prove transformative for business development.

Ultimately, an outside-in perspective enables businesses to be reactive to changes in customers’ needs, wants and interests.

What do consumers want?

In short, a personalized experience. Everyone has been overwhelmed by generic advertising and has developed a strong ability to filter this attention seeking, interrupting methodology. Instead, a customer focused methodology that emphasises personalisation is now coming to prominence.

This transformative process has much to commend it, not least that not being omnichannel costs more in lost customers than making the transition to this new approach, where 89% retention is possible (compared to 33% without). This makes a lot of sense because omnichannel approach better mirrors actual consumer behavior nowadays.

For example, buy online, pick up in store (or BOPUS) is becoming increasingly popular among consumers>. It allows people to browse at their own convenience online, skip any queues or wait times in the store, receive the product quicker and cheaper than having it shipped. This is a classic example of the omnichannel experience.

Personalisation can be achieved in many ways. Some use customer profiles to break down the types of experience most commonly undertaken by their different types of customer, defining these as distinct buyer personas with their own journeys through the online and physical worlds.

By understanding how people use the different channels, as well understanding what values they hold, and what processes they undertake to make decisions, brands can tailor areas of their website, social media, and stores to create different journeys through their touch points that mirror the steps different audiences go through. This creates multiple routes to purchase that each feel like a unique and personalized Customer Experience. Omnichannel allows users to define how they interact with brands, inverting the typical outbound approach. This is why omnichannel will have the biggest impact of any marketing discipline of the 21st century.

By contrast, if businesses don’t do this, and use the outdated multichannel marketing practice of using all touch points to broadside potential customers with pushed promotional messaging, they fail to deliver what customers want. Those customers will simply go elsewhere, where a more holistic experience is being provided.

How Are Brands Addressing Consumer Needs And Behavior?

Dominos Pizza has used a Growth Hacking approach and now offers more than fifteen different ways to order a pizza. This reflects their commitment to individual customer experience, allowing people to order their way. This includes a version of their app that remembers their preferred historical order details, and will automatically place an order ten seconds after the app is opened, creating a no-click ordering experience.

Oasis, a UK fashion retailer, offer a mobile app, e-commerce site and bricks and mortar stores. In store, iPads are on hand for users to interact with, or ask assistants to place orders for them for home delivery based on what they have tried on in store, even if the particular store they are in doesn’t have the item in stock. They also lead the way in returns, with postal and in-store return options augmented by a network of more than 5,500 drop off points.

Uniqlo is focusing on omnichannel development throughout Southeast Asia, with an app that remembers customer’s history and recommends products to match existing items they own, while trying on clothes in store and having them delivered to their homes. They focus on items people need, not fashion. Their aim is to provide “anybody, anywhere, anytime with the ultimate, high-quality day-to-day clothing”.

Warby Parker started out looking to sell glasses and eyewear affordably online, with people buying online, and trying on at home with free returns. They now have 58 stores in the US, and are extensively expanding their bricks and mortar footprint. Omnichannel is bringing online businesses into the real world, as well as vice versa. The stores offer eye exams, next day direct to door service, and plenty to look at through the frames, from books to local artworks.

CASE STUDY: How Starbucks Transition To Omnichannel Marketing

Starbucks has been a global leader in brand for a long time. They have championed multi-channel marketing for years, with consistent messaging across each touchpoint and platform. Now, they are beginning to shift to omnichannel marketing, where each platform is interdependent and complementary.

Their Red Cup Campaign was one of the best examples of multi-channel marketing available. By putting out the same marketing across multiple channels, they maximized exposure and consistency, while creating high engagement for the campaign. These are all must-haves for good brand campaigns, but the company knew they could go further. This approach still focused on the brand first, not the customer. So, what happens when they flip this on its head?

As Starbucks embark on omnichannel marketing, they are looking to build a seamless experience with all data shared across all platform. One crucial element of this is mobile order and pay, allowing people to place their order and pay for it on their phones while picking the finished coffee up in store. The process is so popular and successful, it has caused disruption during peak times, and they have already implemented a three waves strategy to address this shift in process and deliver the goods. Consumers have loved the mobile pay and collect option so much, the way the bricks and mortar store works must be transformed to fulfil this new way of working. Customer-led innovation.

Other features on the app include accumulating rewards to reach levels that provide different perks such as free refills, instant locations of all of the Starbucks retailers nearby, and gift card purchases for friends who have the app. All this on top of being able to order ahead and pick up a drink at a selected location means Starbucks is now with you all the time, and the bricks and mortar locations as no longer the primary touchpoint for consumers.

Prospectors Find The Gold

It’s time to get your hands dirty. Omnichannel strategy is the future, but that means the development of omnichannel is still a frontier, a lot like the wild west. There are many many risks and challenges, like the data needed to run an effective Omnichannel strategy, but it also means there are many opportunities with few rules. As customers become ‘omnishoppers’, businesses that manage to ride the wave will definitely reap a huge reward.

If you want to learn more about this augmented approach to marketing and innovation, the Digital Marketing Innovation Conference (DMICON) is a 2-Day event in Kuala Lumpur, 29-30 November. At DMICON, the emphasis will be on Innovation, Leadership & Strategy, featuring Key Strategic Thinkers representing the region’s biggest brands, influencers, industry disruptors, and business change agents across all industries, from Indonesia, Malaysia, Singapore, Philippines, Sri Lanka, Hong Kong, Shanghai and more. For the latest, please visit: www.talentcap.com/dmicon

NOW OR NEVER by Marcus Teoh Hits #1 Bestseller in MPH Bookstore

Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, October 27, 2017 /PRWIRE.asia/ -- Launched at the end of September, Malaysian entrepreneur Marcus Teoh’s first book “Now or Never” hits No. 1 weekly bestseller in MPH bookstores across the country. Since its availability in stores, “Now or Never” quickly gained popularity and shares the leaderboard with other bestselling books like “Jack Ma” by Kanyin, “Elon Musk” by Ashlee Vance and “Blue Ocean Shift” by Renée Mauborgne and W. Chan Kim.

Despite not spending a cent, Marcus has again proven that Entrepreneurs can market their products via Facebook with zero budget. Practising his own methodology, his marketing went so well that the book ran out of stock in the two largest outlets of MPH Bookstore after less than a month of its publication. “Now or Never” has won readers over with its realistic descriptions on actual business scenarios as well as the proven, purpose-designed business strategies that can be duplicated onto one’s business. In the true spirit of entrepreneurship, Marcus also discussed his own failures and setbacks on the route to becoming an inspiring speaker and business consultant.

Marcus started writing the book when he was facing one of the hardest periods of his life. Business wasn’t good and his relationship had failed. Despite being down emotionally and financially, he decided to do something “big”. He advised those who are facing major life challenges to look inside and work on oneself.

Entrepreneur and professional trainer Marcus Teoh sharing his entrepreneur journey to fans who came to the book signing event last week.

“Avoid buying expensive stuff that you believe will help you. You MUST believe that you have the power in your mind, your heart, and your hands! Believe and achieve! Dreams become reality when you say to yourself “I MUST”! One year ago, I decided to do something that will make myself, my family, and my friends proud. Today I am very happy and proud to share this very beautiful milestone with everyone.” said Marcus.

Bestselling book “Now or Never” by Marcus Teoh is available in the following locations:The Book Garden by Sinaran @ Atria Shopping Gallery, Kinokuniya Kuala Lumpur, Kinokuniya Singapore, and nationwide outlets of MPH Bookstore, Times and Borders. Or get it online at www.marcusteoh.com

“When I read it, I cried. Most of the thing Marcus wrote are exactly the truth about being an entrepreneur.” – Vera Joan Dingle, Landscape Consultant

“It’s an excellent book for entrepreneurs who don’t know how to proceed. You can’t go wrong if you follow the basic steps. It has inspired me for many years now. I even bought one for my daughter, and I hope it will inspire her as she gets older.” – Adi Affendi, TV Host.

For readers who would like to meet Marcus in person, he will be hosting a book sharing session on 25th November 2017 from 3pm to 4pm, at MPH Bookstore Mid Valley.

About Marcus Teoh: Marcus Teoh hails from Malaysia. Entrepreneurship was his passion, and after transforming multiple business ideas into fully-fledged businesses, he realized his true calling was in teaching. Today, he speaks to, consults, and trains aspiring Entrepreneurs and Start-Ups, as well as gives Motivational Talks, Facebook Marketing Training, and sharing practical takeaways from his own experience and lessons. Marcus is engaged by property companies, direct sale companies and SME business owners to help them attract business via Zero Budget Facebook Marketing (#ZBFM). The class has since attracted more than 1,000 passionate entrepreneurs. For more information please visit: marcusteoh.com/fbmarketing

Reimagining Southeast Asia’s Digital Marketing Leadership & Strategy For The New Paradigm

Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, October 24, 2017 /PRWIRE.asia/ -- Outbound marketing has held sway for more than a hundred years. Paid advertising, whether in newspapers, on the radio, on TV and billboards, or across every webpage, has been business as usual even in the 21st century. This advertising amounts to an intrusion into people’s worlds – an interruption of their activities to demand their attention and instruct them as to what they should buy, usually through manipulating what they think, feel and do.

That time is at an end. Customers have become more savvy to the existing marketing channels, and ferocious competition has meant individuals have become very adept at switching off the ‘white noise’ of paid advertising – seeing it only as nuisance, never as opportunity.

The answer to this crisis is personalization. For businesses in South East Asia, this revolutionary new attitude to advertising represents an untapped opportunity. There is still space for businesses to become pioneers in omnichannel marketing, and deliver outstanding customer experience to their audiences.

Today, DMICON will be previewing some of the latest industry insights and inspirations on how brands can redefine their identities for the 21st century, creating a more responsive approach that allows brands to be what each customer needs them to be. Drawing on real life inspiration from this market will help to establish a new mindset among SEA business, enabling a convergence around a better style of post-modern marketing.

Success Stories Of Omnichannel Marketing

L’OREAL

L’Oreal is one hundred years old, and yet their marketing looks as if it was invented this morning, across more than 30 iconic brands.

They have created Snapchat filters that apply makeup to selfies, creating an augmented reality that previews their product in use with extreme personalisation.

They have created a YouTube channel with rapid-fire tutorials, teaching people how to contour in 20 seconds, solving problems and building confidence in their target consumers.

They have shifted from solely celebrity endorsements to more relatable influencers, moving with how their market has evolved.

When you talk to their marketing teams, they refer to this as “changing the way we tell our stories”, and that’s the most important thing to be learned from them.

New touch points, new strategies, new ways of engagement, all prioritizing the relatable, personal, empowering aspects of modern marketing.

SEPHORA

Sephora are using omnichannel marketing to create new, integrated experiences. Designed like a showroom, their new Toronto store offers people free makeovers using digital apps informed by Sephora + Pantone Color IQ touchscreen tablets. This allows the company to give personal recommendations to shoppers on what shades and brands of foundation, blush, and more they should be using. There is even a Fragrance IQ to allow people to discover new perfumes.

This seamlessly blends the digital and real worlds, with products available in store, after a journey guided by technology. The company talks about evolving the experience for the client, in response to shifts in consumer behavior.

The company has also developed Sephora to Go, a mobile app that emulates the knowledge of a personal shopping assistant to provide valuable recommendations. This app was developed after consumer data revealed shoppers used their smartphones to look for reviews while in store. The app is there to provide confidence in consumer decision making.

Their “pocket contour class” performs a similar function – people won’t buy products they don’t know how to use. The class provides real value for free, while showcasing the product advantages and filling in the knowledge gap, allowing people to feel confident in using the product. This both removes fear, and creates need.

By integrating their retail and online customer experience, they are enriching the brands impact on consumers in a way that directly benefits them. Selling products is now a small part of a whole world.

DECATHLON: eXperience

Decathlon is a worlwide sports store that has just opened a new location in Singapore. Unassuming and utilitarian, the store places its emphasis on products and an open-world, sandbox approach similar to popular games like Minecraft. You can try our or combine any items available, enabling you to bounce on the trampolines and ride bikes around the store.

Singapore’s head of marketing Clarence Chew is just 28 years old. He is part of the millennial market that promises to prove so lucrative in the decades to come. Instead of buying and carting large and unwieldy sporting equipment home, after negotiating queues at busy checkouts, individuals can try out everything they like, then place an order through an integrated platform and have the items delivered direct to their homes.

This new kind of hybrid online and real-world space has been described as “click and mortar”, allowing people to browse 13,000 products for sixty five different sports without feeling utterly overwhelmed. Using data collected from user experience in the industry’s third largest R&D facility worldwide is allowing the company to change their approach based on feedback, to align their provision with user behavior informed by Growth Hacking methodologies.

The ways in which these brands are transforming their approach to consumer-focused business is making clear the revolution that is about to hit the mainstream. Businesses can learn from these inspiring examples and action similar approaches for their own products and services.

The Three Commandments Of Omnichannel Marketing

Unification and Alignment – all teams and departments, from R&D to marketing and PR to customer services, must work together to help create the different dimensions that contribute to a single experience, based on the same information about customers, the same principles, and driving toward the same outcomes.

Data Analysis – Actions should be informed by data & analytics on user behavior, experience and feedback. Use data to analyze and assess problems and generate innovative solutions harnessing a combination of technology, staff and products.

Impact – With a vision and information informing action, obstacles to action must be removed or heavily streamlined to allow for rapid results. Things are evolving more quickly than ever, and maximizing alignment between teams, insights and actions will allow companies to more rapidly express compelling experiences.

Expressions Of These Commandments In Business

RCT Comms – make sure that in addition to reflecting the tone of voice and aspirations of the brand, communication is Relevant, Compelling and Timely.

Push Relevance – relevance is the first thing on this list, and it must be the first priority informing your approach to any business challenge. In omnichannel marketing, this means catering to a customer’s shopping habits, including when, where and how they like to shop. It means tracking customer data and keeping it accessible, so order history can be used to predict future needs and behavior. It means creating new products based on an analysis of needs currently being met, and needs being fulfilled elsewhere.

Loyalty – Creating an omnichannel campaign is about leveraging every touchpoint to create a sense of community and cohesion around a brand for warm followers and new audiences alike. A brand must be a mission and a personality, as well as a solution. Loyalty programs are the classic expression of this tendency, rewarding those who keep coming back for more. But much more can be done, and personalized experiences based on actionable insights around individuals will create the engagement that is now missing from traditional marketing.

A Huge Opportunity

Omnichannel marketing is an opportunity for us to reimagine and redefine what South East Asian business looks and feels like to consumers. It is also a cutting-edge world in which this region has the potential to lead the world. This in an opportunity not to be missed.

If you want to learn more about this augmented approach to leadership and strategy in the new age of consumer marketing, the Digital Marketing Innovation Conference (DMICON) is a 2-Day event in Kuala Lumpur, 29-30 November. At DMICON, the emphasis will be on Innovation, Leadership & Strategy, featuring Key Strategic Thinkers representing the region’s biggest brands, influencers, industry disruptors, and business change agents across all industries, from Indonesia, Malaysia, Singapore, Philippines, Sri Lanka, Hong Kong, Shanghai and more. For the latest, please visit: www.talentcap.com/dmicon

McParadise set to make on-demand tour a seamless experience for everyone

Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, October 19, 2017 /PRWIRE.asia/ -- Tours and activity booking mobile app startup, McParadise, is planning for its official launch end of this year. The latest mobile app features location based on-demand activity booking, allowing travellers to book any activity nearby them at the eleventh hour.

McParadise & local operator
Formerly Tourders, McParadise work hand-in-hand with local operators to serve their customers with on-demand activity booking.

McParadise, formerly known as Tourders, has served more than 5,000 happy customers in the tours and activity industry in the past one and a half years. While previously focused on delivering customised tours, with the new identity, the Malaysian startup will now deliver location based on-demand activity booking through mobile application. This is made possible through FIT’s Mobile phone GPS with activities location database, detecting and suggesting activities around based on algorithm.

“Our aspiration is to help every traveller enjoy the best experience on ground. At times, travellers may not have a pre-planned itinerary, we fill this gap by providing them quick and ready access on-demand tours and activity.” said Joseph Toh, the founder and CEO of McParadise.

The mobile app is strategically designed as an answer to the current travel trend, where travellers have gone on-demand and made decisions “last minute”.

“We find that the travellers nowadays are very mobile-dependent, favour instant gratification and prefer last minute booking when it comes to activity planning. Hence to answer to the trend, we designed this mobile application to perfectly match this trend.” said Raymond Lok, COO of McParadise.

McParadise mobile app
McParadise makes on-demand travel as easy as clicking a few buttons on your smartphone.

“Even for travellers with an agenda, they are bound to have fragments of free time they wish to fill up. Or at times, a pre-planned itinerary may be affected by unforeseen events thus creating free time. McParadise is the obvious app to help fill up those free times.” he added.

With the mobile app, travellers can quickly find activities available around them and join immediately, allowing travellers to fill up their time whenever they feel the need to. What’s more, the mobile app also facilitates the purchase of e-ticket on many travel spots, removing the need to queue for ticket. Such convenience provides seamless online to offline experience for travellers and empowers them with a full control over their travel itinerary.

McParadise is currently in work with destination partners from popular travelling hot spots like Sabah and Kuala Lumpur to provide activities ranging from hiking, diving, cruising, local experience and many more, within the destination. “No one knows the destination better than the local providers, they are the best person to provide the most complete experience at the destination. This is also the reason why we are not entering the market to compete with them, but to connect and grow together with them.” Joseph elaborated. The mobile application will act as an active sales channel to reach out to travellers, bringing growth opportunity to the existing local activity operators.

When speaking about future plan, Joseph stated “We are working to expand across Malaysia’s popular destinations starting from Sabah, Kuala Lumpur, Penang, Langkawi and Malacca. Eventually, we will extend our footprint across the South East Asia region. We welcome all destination partners for collaborations. We would love to meet tour operators who wish to welcome more travellers to their destinations and are seeking growth to their business.”

McParadise mobile app is currently in test in App Store and Google Play. The official launch of the mobile application is expected to be in one month time. Currently activities booking can be made through their website: www.mcparadise.co

About McParadise:
McParadise is an online marketplace that connects experience seekers and local tourism providers by delivering a one-stop-shop booking experiences via its user-centric platforms.

Contact Information:
Name: Joseph Toh
Email: hello@mcparadise.co
Phone: +6014-319 7268

What Next In 2018? Riding the Wave of Digital Marketing Southeast Asia

Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, October 10, 2017 /PRWIRE.asia/ -- Digital marketing revolution has long since taken place, and companies must now compete in a whole different world. The markets are more turbulent than they have been for generations, creating both opportunities and risks, and the pace of new product and service development has accelerated considerably.

Globalization and the digitalisation of many businesses is making the market more anarchic than ever, creating fierce competition where new players enter the game every day with something new and innovative to offer. This is all happening around you right now, and that means only one thing: stagnant businesses will die.

Today, we offer a preview of how the digital marketing landscape will look in the coming year, and how businesses can effectively catch the next great wave in digital best practice to keep pace with the competition and make themselves stand out from the crowd.

Before we begin, we’ll give you the marquee term for the next twelve months: omnichannel marketing.

This will be your key to audience development, conversion and business success in the future.

What is Omnichannel Marketing?

Omni (all) channel (touchpoints) – omnichannel simply means using every platform available to you to promote your products. The mastery comes in delivering a consistent experience across all of these platforms, and making that experience seamless.

Nowadays, individuals are starting their consumer journey on one platform, but may well complete that journey on a separate platform, device, or even in person. Someone may see an ad on Facebook on their phone during their commute, check out the website on their laptop when they get home, then visit the store to make a purchase.

Omnichannel really means every channel, and that includes new and emerging channels as well. Both virtual and augmented reality have emerged into the mainstream market for the first time in 2017, and can be used to create outstanding and unique customer experiences.

Ensuring you can guide people toward these actions across all of these different platforms with a consistent tone, messaging and brand is what makes omnichannel marketing so compelling.

The key to success in omnichannel marketing is effectively bridging the offline and online world, creating a consistent and cohesive campaign across all touchpoints, and most importantly, delivering a personalised experience.

Customer Experience

The primary objective of omnichannel marketing is to create a seamless customer experience. That said, this experience must also be positive and compelling. If you feel your business has had a lapse in strategic vision, making this the center of your efforts will doubtless help you reverse this trend in the coming year.

To begin creating a compelling experience, you need to know who your customers are, what your customers buy, and why they buy it. You need to understand their needs and fears, and how your products or services fulfill those needs and alleviate those fears.

There’s a wonderful scene in The Prestige that talks about the importance of showmanship (or experience) in selling a trick (or product) to an audience. Magic excites because it feels extraordinary – more real than real. It plays on the need to believe in something greater, on our in-built curiosity and imagination. In also alleviates our fear of the banal – that life is insignificant, ordinary, and terrifying. It gives hope, and childlike wonder. People don’t watch magic for the illusions, they watch it because of what it makes them feel. The experience. That’s how magicians ‘sell’ – how will you do it?

So, how do you go about finding all this out?

Big Data and Analytics

In order to better understand the people you are providing an experience for, you need to analyse data. Before, this market research would be difficult, time consuming, expensive, and riddled with problems in methodology. Now, Data & Analytics are more accessible than ever.

The current trend is to do away with trends – stop looking at data sets as a global analysis and start breaking them down into smaller niches that will give more clues as to how to compel people more specifically.

By crunching the data down, you can begin to provide 1:1 marketing – personalised experiences for individual clients. By following a person’s path across social media, websites, stores and even phone calls, and collating that data into a journey, you can better understand how to integrate that journey using originality, storytelling, and optimization.

The technology is now available to track these journeys, using machine learning algorithms to stitch together data from disparate sources. This enables you to remove roadblocks on your path to marketing innovation. It can even help you create better products.

Growth Hacking

The omni-ness of omnichannel marketing means that the flow of information created can go both ways. As well as understanding and providing better experiences for your customers, you can also utilize their feedback, insights and responses to shape and iterate your products and services.

This is known as growth hacking – pivoting quickly in response to rapid experimentation, identifying the most efficient way to grow your business in response to user needs.

Growth hacking can help you jump-start your business from growth stalls and stagnation, by throwing away your old assumptions and starting with a blank slate, with the direction dictated by concrete results.

Growth hacking borrows a lot of cues from the scientific method of testing hypotheses to collect data, then build actions based on the interpretation of that data. As in science, there is a lot of ‘failure’, but this is seen as an opportunity to learn and redirect energy in response to feedback. Failure isn’t failure, it’s the acquisition of knowledge that better illuminates the path toward better results.

Data capture and interpretation can help streamline this process. It provides the insight needed to use growth hacking methodology when developing every aspect of the business, from campaigns to products and services.

2018’s Holy Trinity

Omnichannel marketing, data analysis, and growth hacking. These are the three keys that will unlock greater success in 2018’s ferociously competitive market. Using this unique combination can transform your company’s processes in both public facing and internal applications. If there’s one takeaway from this article I want you to remember, it’s personalisation. The more you can deliver experiences that positively affect individuals in a real and meaningful way, the more success you will have.