BRANDS in the Philippines are placing social media at the heart of their strategy to have a 360-degree customer engagement, Taylor Nelson Sofres (TNS) International Ltd. said, citing its recently released study.
The results from TNS’s annual study “highlight the centrality of social media for marketers,” which TNS said “was ranked as the top element guiding the planning process, as well as the top metric used to measure the performance of campaigns.”
According to TNS—which surveyed a total of 2,250 marketing professionals across Asia Pacific (Apac), including 200 from the Philippines, businesses are using a variety of sources to inform their marketing strategy. “Insights gathered through social media monitoring have finally overtaken more traditional metrics, such as market-share data and brand tracking to become the most popular component used by marketers,” the WPP Plc. subsidiary said.
The top 5 metrics used by marketers in the region are: social-media monitoring, market-share data, brand tracking, what the competition is doing and information from media agencies.
“These findings echo the changes happening in consumer behavior across the region,” TNS said. “As people become more connected via digital channels, brands are focusing on how they can communicate with their customers in the online spaces where they are already spending time—social.”
According to TNS, for many mobile-first Internet users across the Philippines, “social is the primary reason for going online.”
“So it [social media] is a valuable environment for marketers to both connect with their audiences and build a better understanding of them.”
The study also highlighted the top priority for marketing departments this year: customer relationship management. TNS said its survey findings revealed that marketers’ sphere of activity has now broadened, as they concentrate on how to deliver the best overall customer experience, ahead of the traditional aim of increasing brand awareness.
“To achieve this, businesses are using social media across a range of disciplines.”
TNS cited as example that 43 percent of marketers are using social media for brand communications but even more (44 percent) are using it to provide customer service. “Social media appeared to be a big part of e-commerce strategy, with 54 percent using social-media advertising and one in three [32 percent] using social-media buy buttons.”
However, despite this approach to using social to support a variety of marketing goals, the results showed that businesses are not working as collaboratively as they could be. TNS said its study revealed less-than-half (49 percent) of marketers partnering with customer service teams, only one-in-four (27 percent) work with the digital team and a mere 10 percent work with the insights department.
“With marketers using social for a range of marketing objectives, it is important that they are offering a consistent, coherent experience to the customer,” Zoë Lawrence, TNS Apac digital director, was quoted in a statement as saying. “Brands need to strive to break down the siloes in their organizations to ensure that they are realising the potential positive impact that an aligned, well-executed social strategy can deliver.”
TNS said the study was based on a survey of marketers from Australia, China, India, Indonesia, Japan, Malaysia, New Zealand, the Philippines, Singapore, South Korea and Thailand. Dennis D. Estopace
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