Wilfrido “Willy” Arcilla, senior advisor of Octopus One-stop Branding Shop,discuss ways on how to level up one’s brand during the CDN Conversations at the Parklane International Hotel.
CDN CONVERSATIONS
Marketing experts shared marketing strategies with stakeholders of various industries and the academe on how to level up one’s brand during the fourth edition of CDN Conversations held yesterday at the Parklane International Hotel.
Anna F. Esperanza, Organizational Development Consultant of H&Co Career, Life Management Consulting, cited the importance of elevating customer service as a way to reinforce a brand’s value.
“One of the things I’ve committed to do is to synergize marketing and experience at the store to bridge the gaps,” she said.
Esperanza stressed that experiential marketing has been a practice in the United States since in the ’90s.
“A lot of companies are trying to do bits and pieces here and there, but the thing is, they are so focused on the present. They’re just focused on the campaign, focused on the promotion. A lot of things you experience, promotions here and there, but to synergize the whole experience is what we are missing,” said Esperanza.
Fifth P
Customer experience is the fifth P in the four Ps of marketing “that needs to be managed as purposely and carefully as the product, and the price, and the promotion, the traditional Ps of the marketing mix,” she said.
“The fifth P is creating a consumer’s marketing. How to mind the gaps and align the brand of the voice of your computer. It is beyond promotion, beyond event, beyond an ad campaign,” she said.
Esperanza said traditional marketing is all about profit share, market share, but creating customer-centric means about the impact on the customer.
“It is about creating that impact to your customer, it’s about leaving an experience and letting that experience linger for them to share it with another person,” she said.
Under the experiential marketing, customers are placed in the forefront of the marketing campaign and marketing strategy.
Ad campaigns
Esperanza noted that ad campaigns are family-centric, has an emotional appeal and are relatable because the goal is to create the experience that is not just memorable but something that will linger forever.
Customers want the experience that was not just told to them but something that they encountered and it has to be consistent.
“You have this wonderful image of your favorite fastfood, your favorite banks, then you go to the store and then you get a crappy service. Now that’s where the disconnect starts,” she said.
Esperanza said it is important to become costumer-centric because it is easier to create brand ambassadors.
“Because of the social media and any other portal channels available, it is easy to praise and bash; and based on human behavior, most of the time a lot of the customers, instead of praising the products, they bash. And we don’t want to give them a reason to do so,” Esperanza said.
Delighting the customers can help create a brand ambassador.
“Build brand and product loyalty and six times likely to bring in new business,” said Esperanza.
A customer suffering a poor experience will harm the business.
Though a brand or product is doing well in providing good experience, it should continue to improve.
Go global
Wilfrido Arcilla, senior advisor of Octopus One-Branding Shop, meanwhile, gave his insights on how local brands can go global.
“In marketing, you have to know your consumers, what are their needs, what are their wants, what are their likes and dislikes, what are the market gaps and pinpoints, what are their tastes and preferences,” he said.
Arcilla cited “the Olympic marketing” for a place like Cebu to go global.
“What is Olympic spirit? Faster, higher and stronger. How do we level up Cebu in order that it becomes faster growing, higher in tourist arrivals and revenues and therefore stronger economy and a stronger city island province?” Arcilla asked.
“If you have strong people and strong brands, then you leverage higher shares and higher sales, and they end up bigger profits and bigger cash flow and finally you’ll have a higher stock price and a bigger shareholder value,” said Arcilla.
For Cebu to go global, it has to be market holistically.
“You repair your airport but you don’t repair your roads. That is not holistic.” said Arcilla. “It has to be holistic and therefore you market your products, your company, your brands and you market your city, your island, your food and your festivals.”
The purpose of business is not to make money; it is to create a customer, Arcilla reminded.
“It’s not to make money, to generate a certain amount of cash, to go on IPO, no it’s not. It’s to create a customer. It’s not even to create jobs, it’s nonsense. What will you do with the jobs if you don’t have customers? You have to fire your people,” Arcialla pointed out.