Marketing Lessons from Blackberry, The Palm &Atlantis Resort, and Jo Malone
As with virtually every facet of our human existence, technology has also transformed the marketing function tremendously. This transformation is the beginning of a new and exciting era for marketers-an age where technology tools and information allow access to extensive knowledge about the customer. The most interesting part is that in many cases, customers themselves create a large proportion of the vast amounts of information available in exchange for free services such as email, search or online networking. For brands and businesses paying attention, the benefits of harnessing tools available to mine and harness these deep consumer insights are enormous.
“Intelligent marketing” is a lot more than just another slogan or marketing buzzword. It’s a phenomenon that entails leveraging new and evolving tools to understand who your customers are, where they are, what they like, and how they prefer to be engaged. What makes a difference to the bottom line, and what makes marketing really “intelligent” is the combination of these insights with creative strategies or tactics to maximize the sales and marketing e orts.
So how can your brand or business adapt and triumph in this period of technological chaos?
ACCEPT THAT “DATA IS THE NEW BLACK”
You can choose to remain an analog Casio in a digital age, but for your business to grow, accept that times are changing. Your customer is a lot smarter now, and your business should be too.
Blackberry famously lost 1.7 billion dollars and shed 20% of its stock price in a single week, when it failed to adapt to its customer’s yearnings for innovation in its operating systems. The company had invested hundreds of millions of dollars in research that provided a specific insight customer were seeking a more adaptable OS and more innovation in their technology.
When Blackberry released its new phone, it ignored this critical insight. The company’s vertigo-inducing fall from grace is a crucial case study for many across the business and marketing landscape.
BUILD YOUR SYSTEM
Take some time out to understand what works for you in learning about your customers. Invest your time and resources to develop your own system to collect, store, analyze and interpret marketing information. Remember though, that there’s no such thing as a perfect system. Allow yourself some latitude to make mistakes and continuously evolve- even the largest corporations keep their marketing technologies malleable.
According to a 2018 report from the University of Massachusetts Dartmouth Center for Marketing Research, only 39% of the so-called “Fortune 500” firms were satisfied with their own “intelligent marketing” systems and operations, with a further 41% indicating interest in upgrading/upscaling their systems. As far as Intelligent Marketing is concerned, there’s no one ideal way or the perfect set of tools. Only do what works for you.
UNDERSTAND THE METRICS
Track the data that matters, the information that makes a difference. For example, in social media marketing, while the holy trinity of vanity metrics – “likes, shares, and comment” are pervasive, they are only a starting point.
Probe deeper into the metrics for each marketing channel to ascertain what success means for your bottom line. By setting clear parameters for every single channel, you’ll be able to build attribution models that accurately represent a tangible return on your marketing investment.
BUILD CONVERSATIONS & EXPERIENTIAL CONTENT
Video is no longer optional in your marketing. The future is visual, and videos enable immersive communications. Experiment with gifs, short stories, and animation. Remember though, that videos should not be used in isolation, but in conjunction with other tactical aspects of your marketing mix.
The Palm Dubai & Atlantis Luxury Resort filmed an unscripted short film, where targeted customers having a bad day in London taxis were literally whisked away from the streets of London for an adventure in Dubai.
The content focused on helping viewers realize how the Atlantis is a world away from the mundane. The results? More than 7 million people viewed the campaign and year on year bookings at the Atlantis increased by 35%.
TRACK PERFORMANCE
If you don’t measure, you can’t manage. With the amount of information and technology available in the world today, measuring performance has never been more critical. Track absolutely everything, so you can optimize your results or pivot to new tactics where essential. Jo Malone, a British fragrance company, maintained a very detailed series of metrics to track the performance of an email campaign it implemented between 2018 and early 2019.
Supported by artificial intelligence and big data, the company quickly realized that its target audience was too narrowly denied, and there was an opportunity to stimulate repeat purchases. It augmented its campaign and improved media channels based on this insight.
By keeping close tabs on its performance, Jo Malone increased the second-time purchase of its products significantly and earned an incremental revenue of £92,000 from only 118,000 customers in just six weeks!
The degree of options available to personalize your brand’s experience to your customer is what makes marketing truly intelligent these days. And as technology evolves at the dizzying pace it is currently growing, marketers will need to maintain a high level of agility to adapt accordingly.
Keep apprised of the changing trends and focus on the best methods for your product, brand or business.
