Why does a habit make a brand so powerful? Because once established, habits are really difficult to change. It’s like a castle with well-built defences: in order to conquer it you need ten times as many attackers as there are defenders. Build a proper castle and for a long time you’ll need to spend a fraction defending it from what your competitors have to spend to assault it.
Covid is invading our lives in pretty much the same way a new baby invades the young household. It is changing the way we spend our time and or money; where we spend it; how we do the buying. Any marketer who knows how to become part of these changing habits has the opportunity of a lifetime.
Wanida Tardivel, CDS & Jos Birken, CEO KLWTT
The reverse also applies: when habits become unstable, establishing new habits suddenly becomes a whole lot easier. When the castle crumbles, a successful attack is more likely. Everyone who sells stuff to new parents for instance, knows this. If anything changes your life and everything in it, it’s that little baby invading your household.
Your buying patterns change; you need stuff you never needed before; your budget seems to shrink with all the new needs; and on and on and on. Ask Procter&Gamble, Johnson&Johnson, Kimberly-Clark: they know this very well, and built their business models on it.
So we arrive at the sixty-four thousand dollar question. Or, as the taxi driver would ask: “Then how??” What will make you a winner in this high stakes post Covid game?
Key to the post-Covid transformation is that our behaviour will become more digital. This will happen in many ways: those with more spending power will work more from the comfort (and safety) of the homes; brick and mortar retail will become more difficult to access and takes more space; and everyone, consumers and businesses alike, will spend more time online.
So how can we profit from this? In three really big ways.
Less interruption marketing
Advertising revenue is already under pressure. Ads are essentially messages that appear when someone is minding their own business and does not necessarily have time or attention span available for the ad that suddenly pops up. Don’t get me wrong, advertising still works and will continue to do so. But we will need to start using it more sparingly, better targeted, and more relevance both in content and in timing.
Those who will master and analyse their customer data will be the winners in this new, less interruptive advertising game. The gap between the have data’s and the have not data’s will widen. Now is your chance to gain that competitive advantage, and turn it into a permanent advantage: a habit.
Send them messages instead
People behind a screen or on their mobile phone are essentially more in control of their own time. This is an ideal medium for sending them messages, be it by email, messenger app, or app notification. Messages are by definition less interruptive than ads. A message can be opened at leisure, and if the content is relevant you will effectively catch the attention of the addressee, with more and better results. The more so when it’s personalised. Everyone loves to be treated like you know them and respect their needs. But personalised messaging comes with an obligation: you need to get it right.
So not only do you need to establish this channel by getting people’s personal details (which is easier than you think, as long as you approach them with something relevant to them) but it’s also even more important to get it right. Nothing is more embarrassing than coming across as an attentive listener and then get things completely wrong.
Those who are more effective not only at the data game but also the turning-data-into-actions game, which is really what this is, will win the consumers’ hearts and minds. They will gladly make you part of their habits.
Automate
All of this sounds like a lot of work, but this is where the trend towards digital really works to your advantage. Because in the digital realm, once you work out a certain approach in a certain use case, you can automate it. There is really nifty software available in just about every price class that will help you do it. And it’s getting easier to use too. The key learning factor is not the software, but how to collect, analyse and draw the right conclusions from your data. Once you’ve got the rules in place, life becomes easy.
Moreover, once you’ve automated a certain process, whether it’s a welcome message, a promotional offer, a follow up or a cross sell, once the automation is in place you can switch your attention to the next process. The automation will keep on doing its work and you can now build the next automation on top of it.
Those who get this part of the game right will swiftly build out their advantage to the point where their competitor will have difficulty even following them. Your competitors will become small specks in your rear view mirror.
This is how you will decisively win the post Covid race. For more details, watch this space.
Read more about KLWTT, KatalystM?
Founded in 2007 as primarily a Campaign Platform Implementation and Support organisation. It has evolved into a complete end-to-end Marketing and Sales Automation Agency which provides services to many world-class Brands both here in Singapore and around South East Asia.
With strong Vendor and Consulting Partnerships and Alliances, KLWTT deploys Marketing and Sales Automation Solutions in many Business Verticals including Hospitality, Retail, e-Commerce, Travel, and FSI. The types and complexity of these solutions vary greatly and usually depends on the Client’s needs and their Business and Technology Environments.
At the core of any organisation are its people, and the team at KLWTT is comprised mainly of people with experience in Marketing, Sales, Social or Technology backgrounds. Many of them come from Marketing Agencies or Technology Consulting firms, however, what they all have in common is a passion for the delivery of best-in-class “Customer Life Cycle” based Marketing and Sales Solutions – powered and driven by high-quality technology.
Given the rapid growth of KLWTT over the past three years which has resulted in us currently having a range of Products, Platforms and Services which has expanded to include Marketing, Sales and Social Automation Solutions across the board. This expanded feature set now allows for the deployment of Integrated Enterprise-Wide Customer Experience Solutions.
By tapping into our alliance with Oracle and iClick our clients now have Marketing-as-a-Service at their fingertips. World class software, unrevealed marketing know-how. Plus, access to hundreds of millions potential customers. Collectively we have the processes, tools, people and expertise in place to transform how you’re going to market – today.
At the risk of sounding cliché – 18 months ago nobody would have believed what the world would look like today. And,its true.Team KLWTT (pronounced Kilowatt) have, like millions of businesses, had to adapt quickly. Take stock, respond and sharpen up.
Marketing-as-a-Service
Just like a best friend we are the first people our customers call when they need help. We take pride in this; we thrive on it. We have also recognised that to embrace this thing we now call ‘the new normal’ KLWTT needs to get back to the knitting and collaborate harder than ever before.
Getting back to the knitting. KLWTT are marketing engineers. Harnessing the power of platforms like Oracle’s Responsys and Eloqua we have connected our client’s people with their customers data. We have enabled and supported those connections to turn insights into actions and actions into revenue Fast.
The journey as KatalystM and through the years we have transformed our client’s ecosystems to strengthen their marketing capability and equip their teams with the capacity to nurture, convert and retain millions of customers. In recent months we have also come to recognize that this is no longer enough.
Collaborate harder than ever before. Our clients need support higher up the funnel. They need to extend their reach and connect with new markets.Now as KLWTT we want to offer our clients marketing automation that integrates perfectly with advertising automation. Seamlessly. And, that’s why we’re delighted to announce our alliance with iClick. Together we can extend your reach, increase your capability and drive up your conversions – especially in China.
As we enter the tuff year, KLWTT would like to say – welcome to the new normal.
Headquartered in Singapore, KLWTT also has offices or agencies in Thailand, the Philippines, Hong Kong and China.
The KLWTT team is proud work with some of world’s leading organizations to help them drive demand, scale operations, and increase their revenue.
STRATEGY PLANNING
We help you build relevant relationships with your audience so you can tailor your message and maximise the lifetime value of each customer.
TECHNOLOGY
We believe in harnessing technology to be able to operate at scale and in managing it smartly to meet diverse needs across channels and customer preferences
PROCESSES
We offer best-in-class capabilities to manage complex processes that start from smooth, connected internal flows to a seamless customer experience
DATA DRIVEN
We focus on data management and continuous optimization so your actions and insights are grounded on tangible and actionable data
Contact Email: Wanida@news.luxurysocietyasia.com or Wanida@Klwtt.com