Nippon Paint Malaysia's marketer on the future of marketing amid consumer-centricity

With emerging technologies and the rise of augmented reality (AR) and artificial intelligence (AI), it is key that brands continue to evolve themselves in accordance to the changing consumer demands to remain relevant in the marketplace. Marketing ideas and consumer engagement plans that have proven to be effective in the past, can now quickly be rendered ineffective and irrelevant to target audiences.

Many brands are now moving towards digitalisation and a “mobile-friendly” approach to engage with consumers. Every other day, technology-focused innovations are developed. Change is inevitable. Marketers need to have a shift in their mindset. Otherwise, the relevancy of their brand will be lost. Beyond that, adopting a hands on approach is crucial to understanding the shifting consumer behaviours which will affect a brand.

With today’s fast-moving digital landscape, consumers value almost instant digital gratification. More often than not, they are able to access new information on products at the touch of their fingertips with their devices, and can purchase and receive their products via just a click away. Marketers need to deliver a positive customer experience to their targeted set of consumers, ensuring a holistic end-to-end customer journey.

The evolving digital landscape has been a game-changer among industry players, adding on a wide range of factors for marketers to consider while strategising what works best for their brand. From offering interactive solutions, targeted advertisements on the digital platforms to data analysis which assists businesses to customise and curate content to be personalised. As such, marketers need to be equipped with knowledge beyond just their area of expertise, and it is critical for them to be well-versed with the benefits and disadvantages of opting for respective channels.

This will then pave the way for them to develop a holistic, integrated marketing strategy which delivers the right results for the brand. Throughout the years, paint has always remained as a low-involvement category and isn’t always at the top of the mind of consumers. Nippon Paint strives to explore innovative ways to inspire consumers to think of paint beyond its aesthetic benefits. The brand continues to embrace both the aesthetics and functional needs of its consumers to create a strong and sustainable brand affinity and loyalty to consumers.

Seeing as our stakeholders consume content via different mediums, we need to deeply analyse how best to complement their consumption habits to generate top-of-mind recall at strategic key points throughout their consumer journey. Our integrated marketing approach needs to have a good balance of traditional and digital mediums that help create a strong top-of-mind presence, ensuring the brand is presented throughout all points of the consumer’s touch-points. There’s bound to be a different composition of traditional versus digital components within micro-activations, as one size does not fit all.

However, in my view, it’s not all about going fully digital nowadays as it’s very much dependent on the nature of the product or service. Traditional strategies are set in place to effectively generate a stronger brand presence, whereas the transition to digital platforms drives further awareness in generating additional insights on the brand. Both elements complement one another and help marketers to understand the role of the media as a mean to value-add to their consumer journey.

The number one aspect which all marketers need to prioritise prior to mapping out their marketing strategy is to be clear about their business objective and a clear understanding of the specific needs of consumers. At the end of the day, it’s all about going back and thinking of the conventional 4Ps of marketing – price, product, place and promotion – which helps ensure you’re clear about what lies ahead for your brand.

The writer is Wong Meng Lee, head of marketing, Nippon Paint Malaysia. The article first appeared in A+M’s The Futurist print edition.