Mediaboss Marketing

Social media remains a double edged sword and needs skillful wielding.

By Piyali Chatterjee (Konar)

Traditionally, the role of marketing has always been about defining and introducing the brand to the customer. Today, customers are self-empowered, have unlimited access coupled with information, and are more discerning. Customers are no longer relying solely on advertising of the brand; in turn marketers are required to increase their capacity from just defining and managing the brand to also focusing on strengthening the customer-brand relationship.

It has become vital for marketers to not just understand the business, but to also understand how brand value can be delivered via customer experience. This shift has led to customer experience (CX) becoming critical to the ultimate success of an organisations marketing strategy. The pandemic has certainly changed the Customer Experience (CX) landscape. The change in CX is reflecting in what customers value, how they want to interact with the brand, and what they expect as benefits for their loyalty.

Marketers today are embracing technologies such as AI, ML, Robotics, Algorithms, etc. to ensure a superior customer experience. These tools allow brands to;

Gather and analyse social, historical, and behavioral data about customers to gain a better understanding of the customers Offer better customer service Commence digitally customer self-service tools Eliminate some of the pain points in the customer journey.

Driving Personalisation with Intent:

Brands ahead of the CX curve are driving personalisation with the intent to provide greater value to customers in terms of time savings, effort, and a better product-service fit. When there is intent, the personalisation drives customer loyalty and retention. The 2021 NPS DIGIPAY study conducted by Hansa Research puts Amazon Pay as the leader as far as Net Promoter Score (NPS) is concerned along with MobiKwik and ICICI Pockets. Market leaders like Paytm, PhonePe, Google Pay score much lower. Net Promoter Score is a trusted customer loyalty metric used by brands to measure the health of customer relationships. Amazon Pay has all the components such as easy gauging of instructions for usage, ensuring the drive of personalisation with the intent of ensuring quick and seamless transaction. The fact that the user already has established trust in the Amazon brand having used it all these years helps Amazon Pay in making inroads into creating the right CX for the customer thus boosting its NPS.

Measuring and Managing Social CX:

Social media is no longer a place just to send out information. It is emerging as a highly interactive channel between the brand and its customers. It is key to driving customer experience on the brands social media platforms through consistency, responsiveness, and transparency. Marketers need to recognise that Social media is now a valuable customer support channel and also a vital listening tool for insights. Mobikwik in recent times has faced backlash because of a rumored charge on dormant accounts being levied on its platform. Mobikwik was quick to take stock of the situation and put in corrective measures to reach out to irate customers who wanted to disengage from the platform.

Social media remains a double edged sword and needs skillful wielding. It can however play a pivotal role in enhancing the CX of a brand manifold if used well.

Include Focus on Empathy and Personal Safety to remain relevant and connected to the customer:

The new normal warrants, brands focus on being more empathetic to customer needs. This pandemic has resulted in organisations demonstrating generosity by having flexible processes, listening to customers better to resonate with them at an emotional level. Personal safety is another critical element and is now a basic expectation in the minds of the customer e.g. mobile and contactless pickup or check-in options and it is here to stay. The sudden explosion of digital payments across the country has been massively aided by the need to go contactless. QR codes at every vendor including the bhel puri wala and the kirana store has helped digital payments gain massive traction. This is in turn has helped the local vendor showcase empathy towards his customers need to stay safe during the pandemic and also helped the CX of the digital payment brand that facilitates quick and seamless exchange of money.

Keeping Human Customer Support accessible, while digitising:

While self-service tools have huge advantages in terms of costs to organisations, the human touch is still very essential in helping build trust in the mind of the customer. The value of being able to connect with a person when there is a concern or a special situation should not be undermined. Marketers need to create frictionless paths to contact their human support team. Inability to do so could lead to customers defecting in the long term. Tata Sky, a popular DTH brand of Tata is known for its great customer support. The customer service person from Tata Sky always makes sure to address all queries and assist the customer in making sure that the service runs without any hindrance. This in turn means that Tata Sky would still score high on CX and also retain the customers trust. This helps the brand in keeping a customer base that is currently disrupted by the rise of OTT platforms.

Surprise customers to delight:

Today, engaging customers is one of the challenges being faced by all brands. One great way of engaging customers is through the element of surprise. This can be a single big surprise or a steady stream of small surprises that build over time. It can be used successfully to make customers start generating positive word of mouth;After the last test in the Australia vs India test series and post Indias nail biting win in the last test at The Gabba Zomato did a spot promotion using its social media platforms to celebrate the same. Coupon codes like PANT and THE GABBA were promoted which afforded the customers to get sizable discounts on their orders that evening. Zomato was thus able to be topic relevant, showcased how cool it was and scored big points on CX by getting a cricket mad nation to flood its platform with orders to celebrate the win. This was a great example of how customers can be pleasantly surprised into using a product and generating great CX.

The author is SVP of Hansa Research (CX Vertical). Views expressed are personal.

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Trends in marketing that drive customer experience - The Financial Express

If you're running TikTok ads, or you're thinking of launching a TikTok ad campaign, this could be hugely valuable.

TikTok has launched a new Ad Library tool, currently called 'Top Ads', which enables you to search for the best performing TikTok ad campaigns, by vertical and region, in order to get inspiration from their approach.

As you can see here, the platform provides a range of search filters to navigate through the ad listings, including 'Ad Type', 'Region'and 'Industry'.

You can then further filter your displayed results by time (last 7 days or last 30 days) and by performance (CTR, Impressions, 6 second video view rate), honing in on the most relevant examples for your business.

From there, you can tap into any of the listed ad examples to get more info on that specific promotion.

I will say that the platform doesn't seem to be complete as yet, with some categories having no examples, and some of the examples also looking like placeholders.

TikTok additionally notes that the ads displayed in the library are limited to those which have been authorized by advertisers "and may not reflect all the actual top-performing ads". So it doesn't seem overly comprehensive as yet -but still, there are some interesting, and valuable examples, and if TikTok continues to build out the platform, it could be a great resource for TikTok marketers.

In addition to this, there are also separate tabs for 'Popular trends', which highlights the latest trending themes in the app, and 'Showcases', which provides a range of ad case studies to check out.

Again, it seems a little unfinished, but there are already some good examples to check out here, and the capacity to filter your results by region and industry is great for getting ideas on exactly how each sector is using the platform for promotions.

You can check out the TikTok Top Ads library here.

Read more:
TikTok Launches New Ads Library, Enabling You to Find the Best Performing Ads in a Range of Categories - Social Media Today

Should you be considering where Clubhouse might fit into your social media marketing efforts?

The trending social app of the moment, Clubhouse has seen massive growth in recent months, even with its conservative, invite-only approach. The serendipitous connection of real-time audio provides another means to stay in touch during the pandemic, when many people are lacking those regular social cues, which could position the app to become a more relied upon engagement tool moving forward.

That is, of course, unless the larger players, like Twitter,end up stealing its audience away.

Right now, it's too early to predict what the future holds for Clubhouse, or indeed, audio social more broadly, but it is interesting to consider the implications, and where the app might be of value as a marketing and brand communication channel.

To provide some perspective on this, the team from Branex recently put together this overview of the Clubhouse opportunity for brands, along with a range of other usage stats.

Read more:
Everything Brands Need to Know About Clubhouse [Infographic] - Social Media Today

The latest edition of the Chartered Institute of Marketings magazine Catalyst has a number of articles related to creativity especially involving brand, image and advertising and the overall marketing spend. However, the purpose of every business is to make money, for the benefit of the owners, the workforce and the long term future of the business. Brand, image and advertising are contributors to producing income, but they do not in themselves make money, but only spend it.

The Chartered Institute of Marketing (CIM) defines Marketing as the management process that identifies anticipates and satisfies customer requirements profitably Thus marketing is a management process and the responsibility of the commercial manager. Whether a business is large or small, its long term future will depend on the amount of income it makes and the amount of profit it retains. It is the commercial managers who have the responsibility for producing profitable income for the long-term future of the business by anticipating and satisfying customer requirements.

Sales are made when the product or service package presented to the potential customer solves the customers problem at a price they are prepared to pay. The product or service package will include not only the benefits of the product or service, but also its delivery and the manner of payment and subsequent service. Advertising, promotion, customer relationship management (CRM), are all important, but Selling is arguably its most important aspect, as it is the main interface with the customer and is directly responsible for generating the revenue on which the business depends. All marketing activities are inter-dependant and collectively contribute to support sales success. Making profitable income requires careful management of all the assets used to satisfy customer requirements.

Business is about making profit. As the late Robert Townsend said, If youre not in business for fun or profit, what the hell are you doing here? Profit is what is left when all the costs and investments involved in running a business have been subtracted from all the revenue generated by the business activity. Profit rewards the investors and provides for reinvestment to develop and sustain the business.

In recent years marketers have tended to concentrate on the customer to the exclusion of everything else. Customer satisfaction is vitally important, but sustainable profitable revenue is the prime requirement of every business, and customer satisfaction is merely the means of obtaining it. Generating profitable revenue is the responsibility of the commercial manager. Without sustainable, profitable revenue, there is no profit, and without profit there is no business.

The job of the of the commercial manager is to balance all the marketing activities to support and maximize the generation of sustainable profitable income for the long term, while at the same time, minimizing the costs incurred and the use of assets involved in its production.When evaluating the contribution of the marketing function, its performance must be measured in terms of output and efficiency. From the business point of view, the main factors will be the amount of sustainable profitable revenue produced together with a measure of its efficiency in converting marketing costs and investment into revenue. Using the CIM definition of marketing, it is soon apparent that there are many cost centres involved in anticipating and satisfying customer requirements profitably.

Here is just some of cost centres involved with customer satisfaction, with reasons for their inclusion:

* Warehousing costs Product is produced for customer demand and has to be stored before it is sold. Thus there are costs for heat, light, power and warehouse wages.* Distribution costs Getting the product to the customer involves fuel, postage, freight and associated salaries.* Advertising cost Communicating with the market includes media and production costs* Promotion costs Promotional schemes, exhibitions and PR expenditure.* Web-site costs Includes design, registration and management costs* Selling costs The salaries and expenses of all direct sales staff* Sales office costs Sales admin and marketing salaries, office running costs.* Discount All discounts on accounts and invoices, because this is a direct cost against income.* Market research costs Market research is a pre-requisite to anticipate customer requirements.* Bad debt costs Bad debt results from customer credit management* IT costs Software costs and licences, hardware rental and lease directly associated with sales and customer support.* Vehicle costs The cost of vehicles uses specifically for selling and selling support, capital and leasing costs.

In addition, the commercial manager must be aware of the value of the assets used by the sales organisation, including finished stock, dedicated vehicles and debtors.

The late Peter Drucker, is famously quoted as saying that in business if you cant measure it, you cant manage it. The performance of the commercial manager may be judged on the amount of profitable income produced, and the efficiency of its production measured in terms of the level of costs, investment and assets used, rather than the questionable value of an intangible asset such as a brand name. Ultimately, every aspect of business operations must be seen in terms of its contribution to producing income.

For many businesses, the marketing budget is still seen in the narrow terms of advertising, promotion, social marketing and other communication based activities. However, for the commercial manager, as well as the chief executive and the finance director, defining all the constituents of the marketing budget is essential, if assets are to be correctly allocated and managed profitably.

N.C.Watkis, Contract Marketing Service 10 Mar 21

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Are you confused? - Customer Think

Words by Will Brewster

Whether youre looking for a casual job to keep the lights on between gigs or youre on the hunt for a major career change, the music industrys a tough place to crack into.

To help out, weve sifted through Seek and leeched LinkedIn to compile all the best music jobs going in Australia this week, spotlighting the best new jobs from FBi Radio, Moodagent, Port Mac Guitars, RISING, Nura and Secret Sounds.

To discover more jobopportunities, head on over to Industry News.

Sydneys premier community radio station is on the hunt for a new leader to take over the role of Music Director. Based in Alexandria, the successful candidate will assumer responsibility for the sound of FBis airwaves and help spread their influence across new media platforms.

Skills /Experience Required:

Tasks / Responsibilities Include:

Findout more about this gig and apply via LinkedIn today.

With a fast-growing national presence and a unique AI-based listening system, Moodagent might just be the next biggest thing in music streaming. Theyre looking for a clever candidate with a background in music programming or journalism to join their ranks as Music Data Editor and drive digital operations.

Skills /Experience Required:

Tasks /Responsibilities Include:

Find out more and apply through Seek.

More enthused by social media and marketing than you are data? Never fear Moodagent have another position on offer that you might fancy. This ones all about making sure the platform is widely represented across Australian and New Zealand newsfeeds, and could just be a pivotal role in the story of this young company.

Skills / Experience Required:

Tasks /Responsibilities Include:

For more details, head on over to Seek today.

Port Macquarie Guitars are currently hiring for a support role to assist with their endless stream of customers. This remote role will allow you to work with one of the countrys best guitar stores anywhere in Australia how good!

Skills /Experience Required:

Tasks /ResponsibilitiesInclude:

Apply ASAP head to Seek forall the details.

Set to go down from May 26 through to June 6 this year, RISING marks the revival of Melbournes Uber-popular White Night Festival. Theyre on the hunt for an industry-savvy candidate to join their ranks as Artist and Sector Liaison in the lead up to the hotly anticipated event.

If youve got between three and five years of industry experience in artistic liaison or sector development and know how to communicate efficiently, head on over this way to apply!

The team behind the worlds first automatic-learning headphones, Nura are looking for a keen marketing graduate to join their team and compete an internship specialising in digital marketing. Ideally, youll have a working knowledge of social media and digital services, as well as a passion for music and tech.

Tasks /Responsibilities Include:

Head to Seek to get your application in today.

One of Australias largest music groups, Secret Sounds are the team behind major brand partnerships for the likes of Falls Festival, Splendour In The Grass, Spin Off and more. Theyre on the hunt for an experienced account manager to join their Sydney crew and solidify those partnerships even further as festivals return to Australia this year.

Skills / Experience Required:

Tasks /ResponsibilitiesInclude:

Find out more and apply via The Music Network.

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Mixdown's top jobs in the Australian music industry (this week) - Mixdown