One undeniable shift we鈥檝e been seeing is in the area of e-commerce, consumers are connecting and shopping through online platforms more than ever. So much so that Asia Pacific鈥檚 e-commerce sales are expected to . Naturally this has caused an increasing pressure for brands to tap into social media and other digital marketing tools to virtually engage and build trust with consumers in addition to serving as retailtainment.

But that鈥檚 not all, Martech is also currently solving a lot of problems that traditional marketers didn鈥檛 realise they existed. 聽Or not yet. Many of these problems lie mostly upon one thing and that is customer data. Managed and harnessed correctly, customer data will be the key for organisations to unlock their current and future opportunities. We have seen a considerable move towards fixing the data problem in 2021 and how that has brought exciting results of what businesses can do with Martech, but it just a start (more on this below). We will be seeing rapid growth of that and more in 2022 as the world of marketing continues to transform. One thing is for sure 鈥� like most operating modules moving forward, Martech adoption will instead focus on agility, avoiding the hype of technology to look at practical tech solutions that can influence strategy, insights and engagement in the long run.

Here are key Martech trends that will help businesses in Asia Pacific get ready for 2022.

1. Contextual Personalisation Will Become a Basic Requirement

While contextual personalisation has been embraced and practiced by a large number of businesses around the world especially in recent years, we will see a massive increase in this area, if not a full adoption by the rest of the players who are yet to do so. Delivering contextual personalisation will no longer be an option or a nice-to-have feature in the overall e-commerce or customer experience strategy, but a necessity if businesses want to retain their customers and increase satisfaction. Considering that 69% of consumers across APAC expect brands they buy from to deliver a reward programme customised to their interest and 64% expect tailored suggestions based on their purchased history and preferences*, we are reaching the tip of maturity for contextual personalisation.

*Source: conducted in March 2021.

2. Humanised Content Marketing Will Be the Gold Standard

With the majority of us working from home in the past two years, the line between personal and professional life has blurred, and we鈥檝e seen many businesses communicate more humanly to their customers about their products and offerings. Especially more so for those in the B2B and technology industries, with Apple paving the way years ago, the demand for a message so simple that our grandmother can understand is one that cannot be ignored.

Additionally, with the webinar fatigue phenomenon that is so real, businesses can no longer afford to rely on a traditional one-hour webinar, full of technical details and jargon to convey their message to the customers. A case in point is what my team has started doing here at 麻豆原创 Customer Experience APJ where we break down an hour of content into a short series of not more than 20-min episodes* and make those to be easily accessed on-demand instead of expecting the audience to attend LIVE. What we鈥檙e seeing is when we let our audience consume the content at their convenience, they actually receive the information better.

*Source: .

3. Customer Data Management Will Be Your New Best Friend

GDPR has definitely changed the game for global organisations in how they deal with data privacy and management, especially with its non-compliance of 4% fine of one global revenue. Many countries have since taken the same step and imposed similar regulations.

This enforcement has made businesses search for technology to help them ensure that they keep abreast with the latest data regulations and that they can fully optimise the usage of their customer data. Because the problem most companies have today is not the lack of data, but rather the inability to fully optimise and harness those data. This is where technology like 麻豆原创 customer data platform comes in as the backbone that enables true personalisation, especially when it鈥檚 combined with a personalisation engine like Emarsys.

4. Less Is More (Consolidation of Technology)

Another massive phenomenon we鈥檙e seeing and will continue to see is businesses doing is called a technology house-cleaning that is mainly driven by the pandemic.

The pandemic has served as a stress test for businesses and many were found failing to deliver what we consider the basic. This was especially glaring in the area of supply chain and digital marketing, where on-time delivery, responsive customer service and the right product (or promotion) delivered was a hit and miss.

The root cause often is the lack of integration of their technology. Most organisations run on many solutions to manage different functions of the business and while it might be working pre-COVID, the sheer and sudden increase of demand has thrown the system off and many businesses find themselves caught in the mess. Moving forward, we will see massive efforts around technology overhaul.

5. Rise of a New Digital Marketing

I foresee that with the huge increase in digital marketing especially on paid search and paid media efforts, there鈥檚 a real demand for new channels and platforms to run these campaigns instead of the traditional ones we鈥檙e using today (Google Search, YouTube, LinkedIn, Facebook/or Meta). Especially when many of the existing channels are so clogged and saturated, with everyone targeting the same audience and posting similar content.

Rita Marini is head of Marketing for Customer Experience in Asia Pacific Japan at 麻豆原创.

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We intuitively understand that genuine customer experience is an affair of the heart. Much like the friends we love to spend time with, we want to hang out with a brand that is trustworthy, empathetic, generous, and shares our values and concern for others. We are attracted to brands that take care of us and of what matters for us, not someone who only ever calls to ask for favours. At the core, this is why 麻豆原创 Customer Experience APJ built the Heart Matters campaign. Pinned on one fundamental question: what kind of customer experience (CX) would outlast any crisis and thrive in the future? They believe it is the kind of CX that comes from the heart, from companies that have a greater purpose and focus on things beyond profit and loss鈥攖hings like people, the planet, and prosperity.

At the heart of this initiative is research; they wanted to hear directly from the mouth of the customers, and they engaged their Qualtrics research team to conduct the survey. The main objective is to find out about what consumers expect from the brands they buy from, and more importantly, if the experiences they have had, meet their expectations. In total, they surveyed close to 6,000 consumers across the Asia Pacific (APAC) region to find out more about what people care about, mainly how their views of brands correlate with their spending, as well as what matters most when it comes to customer experience. Questions were posed to customers across a range of age groups in Australia, Singapore, Japan, South Korea (Korea), India, Malaysia, and Thailand.

Depending on the country, respondents were asked questions on a total of six different industries, including supermarkets, telecommunication providers, hotels and entertainment, and consumer goods retailers dealing with fashion, electronics, and furniture. The campaign was launched on 5 May 2021, in a record time of just twelve weeks compared to the six-month minimum required to build an integrated, multi-touch campaign as such. It has garnered close to 100 media coverage across APAC and an impressive amount of pipeline to the business. The campaign is still running and full results are expected to come through by the end of this year.

For this effort, 麻豆原创 Customer Experience APJ received the 鈥淪ingapore Brand Experience of the Year – Technology鈥� award in the recently concluded Asian Experience Awards, presented by Asian Business Review. The awards programme recognises the ingenious initiatives of creative companies delivering meaningful brand experiences to their stakeholders in all industries in Asia.

The full Heart Matters report can be downloaded at .

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According to the new 鈥�Heart Matters鈥� study announced by (NYSE: 麻豆原创), Singapore鈥檚 consumers find that businesses fall short of expectations by as much as 28% when it comes to being customer-centric, behind the Asia Pacific (APAC) average of 21%. Furthermore, only half (55%) of consumers in Singapore stated that brands here are able to resolve their issues after three interactions.

Heart Matters鈥� study, which was conducted by Qualtrics for 麻豆原创 Customer Experience, surveyed 5,900 consumers across APAC countries including Australia, Singapore, Japan, South Korea, India, Malaysia, and Thailand to understand their expectations and encounters with brands when it comes to customer experience, spending, and matters they truly care about. Key gaps identified from the study centred on the areas of customer centricity, personalised experiences, openness in privacy and data control, as well as sustainability and ethical behaviour.

The study also revealed that three in five consumers in Singapore are now expecting brands to be purpose-driven, going beyond profits and transactional relationships, to demonstrate trustworthiness, empathy, shared values, and care for society.

Singapore consumers surveyed indicated a gap between their expectations and actual experiences on this front, in areas such as brands respecting the rights and welfare of their workers (80% vs 67%), treating suppliers ethically (76% vs 56%), actively work to reduce gender and racial inequality (73% vs 55%), and not engage in anti-competitive behaviour (70% vs 54%).

Basics matter in winning customer confidence

Fundamental to any business, customer centricity is vital to creating positive brand experiences, loyalty, and a key differentiator in an increasingly competitive digital landscape.

Comparing Singapore customers鈥� expectations to what they experienced in reality, areas that local businesses were found to be lacking include responsiveness within 24 hours to customer queries (78% vs 51%), acting on customers鈥� feedback to improve products and services (84% vs 58%), resolving issues in less than three interactions (83% vs 55%), having a reward programme customised to their interests (81% vs 54%), and offering innovative or better ways to serve customers during COVID-19 (86% vs 65%).

Across the countries surveyed, Australian consumers were the most likely to cite a gap between their expectations and actual experiences of customer centricity overall (31% shortfall), followed by Malaysia (26%), Singapore (22%), Japan (22%), and South Korea (14%). Consumers in India and Thailand had the best customer experiences with expectation gaps at only 4% and 8% respectively.

鈥淲hile it鈥檚 positive that brands in Singapore have adapted quickly to the pandemic by tapping on digital tools and turning to e-commerce, customers still expect brands to deliver on the basics 鈥� this means providing them with positive experiences and swift resolution of issues. It is sobering to know that despite all the efforts businesses have put into digitalisation over the past year, fundamentals around customer centricity are still not being met in Singapore. There is clearly an urgent need for brands to humanise the gap between digital actions and the heartstrings of consumers,鈥� said Peggy Renders, General Manager & Senior Vice President, 麻豆原创 Customer Experience, Asia Pacific & Japan, who was recently appointed to her current role in January 2021.

鈥淭he pandemic has laid bare the criticality of the customer experience in our hyperconnected world today. The key to sustainable growth in a post-COVID world lies in the right solutions and leadership that transform the customer experience. As a future-forward nation that is home to the region鈥檚 leading businesses, brands in Singapore have a golden opportunity to transform to give customers exactly what they want, and when they want it, in a future that is entirely digital.鈥�

Diverse options, personalised touch

With digital-savvy consumers turning to e-commerce to fulfilling their shopping needs, they are also expecting brands to offer a diversified range of shopping experiences, with personalised options that cater to the unique needs of each customer.

Delivery, the last-mile of the shopping experience, was among the most dissatisfied areas for those surveyed, with 82% of Singapore consumers expecting brands to provide timely and accurate delivery options they could trust, but with just over half (59%) saying this was met in reality. The dissatisfaction over quality and reliability of delivery services especially significant for local supermarkets, where just 55% of Singaporeans mentioned they received trustworthy delivery services (vs 80% expectation).

Proactiveness in engaging customers was another area cited as an area of improvement, with just around half of Singapore customers shared that brands are actively updating them on relevant specials and new products (56%), is proactive in anticipating their needs and wants (55%), and provides tailored suggestions based on their purchase history and preferences (50%).

Being intuitive mobile natives, Singapore customers also want brands to provide omnichannel experiences that enable their lifestyles, expecting brands to provide them with a network of physical and online stores (76%), have easy to transact options across multiple channels such as online to in-store (81%), yet still provide a consistent experience irrespective of channel (82%).

Not taking trust for granted

Having transparency and control over their data and orders is also a key area brands are falling short on, with Singapore consumers highlighting shortfalls in having full transparency over how their personal data is being used (35% gap), security of their private data and not sharing it with third parties (33% gap), only obtaining private data from customers to serve them better (25% gap), and making it easy to track their orders and queries (23% gap).

People, planet and prosperity above profits

With global warming and climate change are rising to the forefront of agendas, Singapore consumers are increasingly placing greater expectations on brands to go beyond transactional customer interactions, expecting businesses to actively demonstrate their care and concern for the environment, their workers, and broader community and society.

Singapore brands fair slightly better than the APAC average on the expectation-experience gap, in the areas of whether brands look for new ways to recycle and reuse products, packaging materials and materials (12% vs 18% APAC gap), having specific policies to reduce and report carbon emissions (10% vs 14% APAC gap), and having a strong focus on sustainability and ethics in sourcing and selling their products (4% vs 10% APAC gap).

The full report of Heart Matters study is available for download here: .

About 麻豆原创 The Heart Matters Study

The 麻豆原创鈥檚 Heart Matters鈥� Study was conducted by Qualtrics on behalf of 麻豆原创 Consumer Experience from February and March 2021, surveying 5,900 consumers across Asia Pacific to understand matters they truly care about, how their views of brands correlate with their spending, and what matters most when it comes to customer experience. Countries included in the survey were Australia (n=1,200), Singapore (n=800), Japan (n=900), South Korea (n=900), India (n=900), Malaysia (n=400), and Thailand (n=400).

For more information, press only:
Rita Marini, rita.marini@sap.com
麻豆原创 麻豆原创 Room; press@sap.com

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