Bye, Bye Bland and Boring Marketing

Rapid globalization has increased market opportunities and revenues for brands, besides reducing the costs to serve audiences across borders. 

But can brands reap the benefits without facing the challenges? Especially when you consider the fact that the localization realm is abound with obstacles. 

Every country has a different culture, belief system, cultural nuances, and needs; this poses a challenge for marketers when it comes to understanding the pulse of their audience. A  one-size-fits-all business and marketing approach doesn’t work anymore. We have witnessed numerous instances of businesses that have succeeded in one country but failed to take off in others – the recent exit of Harley Davidson from India is an example. Brands need to understand endemic nuances and strategize a Glocal approach to garner a regional market share and win customer loyalty.

Brands and marketers also have to deal with complex rules, regulations and compliances in localized markets. Laws are getting stricter and more focused on safeguarding consumer interests. A few recent ones are GDPR laws in Europe, TRAI regulations & banning apps citing data security reasons in India, recent amendments to Singapore’s Personal Data Protection Act and TRA regulations in UAE, etc.. Brands should be able to comply with these regulations and find alternative channels in order to survive in these highly competitive markets.

At the same time, customers are also increasingly becoming sensitive to irrelevant and push-based marketing and resort to blocking ads they see as an intrusion. Ad-blocking tools are gaining massive traction across the globe, with China being the leader in mobile ad blocking use with 159 million monthly active users and followed by India at 122 million users. Marketers need to understand this shift and make smarter decisions to engage their customers with intelligent marketing solutions. 

Capillary has been a Thought Leader in building unique retail solutions and adaptive product enhancements to help marketers adapt and succeed in a competitive landscape.

With the world becoming a smaller place thanks to today’s digital-first customers, the amount of data is also piling up. To give you a sense of it, International Data Corporation (IDC) estimated the global datasphere is expected to reach 175 zettabytes by 2025 wherein a zettabyte is one sextillion bytes.  Deriving insights out of this tremendous amount of data is a marketer’s nightmare. This largely unorganized data collected from various online/offline sources and customer touchpoints is a goldmine of actionable insights that can be refined and gleaned with the right AI and ML models.

Capillary aiRA is an intelligent solution leveraging AI and ML technologies to organize data, understand customer behavior, and predict outcomes based on previous behavior. aiRA delivers value at scale by gaining a deep understanding of a specific sector and its customers. It employs an intelligent possible approach to understand customer propensities and predict the most favorable offers, products, content, etc. to deliver a relevant and enriching customer experience. Marketers using aiRA have seen a considerable boost in their sales and high conversion rates.

Old school marketers usually have a ‘let’s throw everything at the audience and see what sticks’ mindset to campaigns and ads. The modern marketer, however, is aware that customers are getting increasingly annoyed and frustrated with being bombarded with promotions on the brand’s app, website, third-party apps, and other channels.

An average person is now estimated to encounter between 6,000 to 10,000 ads every single day.

The end result being customers marking it as spam, blocking the ads, and most importantly, developing a negative perception about the brand. Marketers need to carefully balance the fine-line between meaningful and relevant promotions and intrusion. 

Capillary’s communication limit on messages has been designed to achieve this objective. Marketers can restrict the number of messages a customer receives in a day, week, or month across different channels. This helps in preventing message fatigue to the customers.

An increased focus on consumer privacy has prompted governments to roll out new rules and regulations around data privacy, data security, consent capture, etc. While these regulations are beneficial for the consumers, it adds to marketers’ woes. They need to be on their toes and analyze their decisions to ensure compliance without incurring any negative impact on the revenue.  A recent regulation from the Telecom Regulatory Authority of India and UAE restricts brands from sending promotional messages to customers without their consent. Lawsuits and legal hassles, especially involving the government, is something no brand needs at this moment, so it’s a no-brainer to comply with these regulations and find alternative channels of engagement.

Capillary’s X-Engage is an AI-powered solution that reduces the dependency on single-channel SMS campaigns, increases reach and conversions while optimizing marketing costs for brands. It empowers marketers to automate the channel mix and reach customers on their preferred channels. X-Engage provides a plethora of direct channels as well as Ad networks to setup campaigns and engage customers. Start improving your prediction model of finding the best time to engage customers and create highly-targeted campaigns based on historical data, shopping patterns, and individual customer behavior exhibited at various touchpoints.

To build a  universally loved brand, companies with a global customer base should get accustomed to the glocal approach of thinking globally and acting locally. Understanding the unique needs, shopping trends, customer preferences can help marketers devise the best strategy suited for each region. The social media and messenger apps used by customers also vary considerably by each country. While LINE is the most used messaging app in Thailand, it’s WhatsApp in India and WeChat in China. It makes practical sense for marketers in these regions to target their users on these apps.

Capillary’s latest enhancements for LINE will empower marketers in Thailand to engage their audience with beautifully designed campaigns. The new update allows the use of emojis, rich media, images, and videos to capture attention and increase conversions. LINE messages designed through Capillary Engage+ now support stickers, carousel images, and multiple bubbles in a single message. This new addition will let you form a stronger connection with your customers and encourage them to click, and complete their purchase journey.

In a world beset by stricter regulations and rising consumer aversion to intrusive marketing, marketers need to equip themselves with unique strategies and intelligent tools to deliver great brand experiences. So step up your efforts and stay ahead of the competitive curve!

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Gitanjali is a marketer with diverse experience in Product Marketing, Customer Management, Research Analysis, Content, Event Marketing, and Sales Enablement. She has a keen interest in exploring and learning new trends and technologies in the marketing space. Besides this, she is an ardent practitioner of Yoga and Mindfulness.