When the COVID-19 pandemic first hit the global stage in 2020, no one could have predicted the scope of its aftermath. With face-to-face interactions severely limited, many businesses were forced to adapt to operating online in order to survive. However, with every business imaginable now on the internet, new challenges arise, and suddenly it is no longer enough to just put up a functioning website.
Great Reset
According to Ogilvy Head of Consulting Manny Gonzales, the pandemic has forced all businesses into a “great reset”, describing it as if all companies have become “startups” once again.
“During this time of going through and out of the pandemic, many experts say that for many brands and companies, nag-reset lahat. And with this reset, people are now in a race that starts from scratch because all our starting points come from a deficit or a loss,” he said.
Despite this, 2022 is shaping up to be a “promising year” of recovery, as economists project that the year will see the economy to be much closer to its pre-pandemic levels.
However, this promise of growth will remain just a promise if companies do not change the way they use data. Gonzales states that due to the adjustments made during the pandemic, brand experiences change, and thus also what the customer expects from them.
According to Gonzales, many companies assume that simply having an online presence means that they have already gone digital. However, this is not enough given that everyone is now doing business online. The challenge, he said, for companies is no longer “how do I go digital”, but rather “how do I stand out?”.
Personalized brand experience
In order to stand out amidst the dozens of other companies online, businesses now have to create unique and “personalized” customer experiences whenever they do business. For Ogilvy Head of Technology Solutions Francis Dy, this means transforming the way we use data. For everyone in Ogilvy, this means developing a thorough understanding of the consumer base.
“We have entered an era of personalized experiences because of the multiple touchpoints technology has to offer,” he said, “We have to transform the way we use data. It has to be purposive and there should be insights behind it.”
Dy also predicted that customer experience both offline and online will become a “key brand differentiator.” This is because, with the advent of technology, more and more customers are open to sharing their experiences and thoughts.
“Consumers today maybe channel and technology-agnostic, but they are never experience-agnostic. How consumers experience your brand in one channel can actually speak volumes of how they will perceive you and your business. So currently, we are seeing a shift where customer experience will now take a greater role over the price and product improvement,” he said.
Consumer First Mindset
With consumers now more willing to share their experiences with brands, both Gonzales and Dy urge businesses to look into customer feedback and build their technology from there. They encourage businesses to develop “a deeper understanding of your audience” and invest in “state of the art consumer technology.”
“Differentiation between products and price alone will eventually become less important and effective. Because everyone is now doing the same thing, what will separate you from your competitor?” Dy asked.
In essence, businesses should try to “create a universal profile” to completely familiarize themselves with consumer behavior. They should then work on “delivering a seamless and personalized omnichannel experience.”
“Today is a time of resets and we know that technology is driving growth forward. The challenge is how to use technology. Study the customer, understand them with deeper insights, and from there build technology in a creative way. Don’t put technology or what is high tech first. Understand the customer first, then build the technology around it,” Gonzales concluded.