PART 2: Chapters 5-7

Marketing 4.0: Moving from Traditional to Digital
Concept Synthesis and Local Application:

I am a Production Planning Manager at Asurion, a leading provider of device insurance, warranty and support services for mobile phones, consumer electronics & home appliances in North America. In the Philippines, we do the refurbishing of mobile phones in Calamba Laguna and then send them back to US for our subscribers. For 20yrs, I gained my Planning experience in Supply Chain Operations on industry leaders like Asurion and Intel.

Part 2: New Frameworks for Marketing in the Digital Economy

5. The New Customer Path

1.    Understanding How People Buy (from 4As to 5As)

For the case of our company, we continuously communicate with our subscribers even after availment of our insurance (from 4As), we make it appoint that we have conversation with them, whether call them or send reminder/messages on their mobile phones. We also have FB page aside from our own web page, where they can give us feedback on top of the surveys we are sending as well. Using their good experiences from our services they share it to their friends and family wherein they became our advocate (to 5As). It was manifested on our 80% market share in American Region.

2.    Driving from Awareness to Advocacy (the Ozone3)

Since we are offering mobile phone insurance(service), which is not a one-time offering, our goal is to have continuous subscription from us by our customers. We usually start with the awareness campaign of what our company’s offering (1)replacement of damage and lost phone (2) secure and keep the handset protected against phishing, viruses and malware back-up (3)restore content of handset (4) support on mobile applications. Then, we ensure that our customer gets the excellent service from us once they claim insurance or not, by constantly communicating with them like informing them on how to maximize the use of mobile applications and reminding them if the memory of phones almost full. Having said that, our focus would be on the Own Influence, our goal was to completely satisfy them with our good service putting emphasis on building post-purchase customer experience to ensure that they will be our advocate to promote our company. From what they experienced they can share it to their friends and family and even share on social media.

3.    Summary:  Aware, Appeal, Ask, Act and Advocate

a.   How can your brand identify and leverage the most critical touchpoints in the customer path?

We make it appoint that we do walk the talk, from our name Asurion (pronounce ass Assure-ion) using the root word assure which means guarantee or promise. We ensure that the services we offered will be given to our customers. Customer experience (Act) is the most critical touchpoint in the customer path, this is to ensure that they will continue to avail of our insurance.   

b.   How can your business improve brand favourability and optimize marketing efforts by evaluating the three main sources of influence across the customer path?

          Own-this is the most important influence amongst the 3, since our company put                       emphasis on building the post-purchase customer experience so that                                 eventually they could share it and be our advocate to patronize our brand.

          Others-the feedback from our customer matters, that’s why this type of influence
                 also important, we need to ensure that they will share the good experience 
                from us, to influence other to avail of our insurance.

          Outer-awareness of having mobile insurance in US is well-known, since we are 
                 expanding globally, in some country we need to continue to build our brand 
                 but before going that, we need to ensure that the mobile insurance industry 
                 will be known to them.

6. Marketing Productivity Metrics (PAR Purchase Action Ratio and BAR Brand Advocacy Ratio)

1.    Introducing PAR and BAR

     For us to have good score in the PAR of our mobile insurance, we must ensure that our subscribers will avail once they bought their mobile phones from our carriers (like Sprint, Verizon and AT&T) or even in Amazon and Ebay and at the same time renew their insurances once it lapsed. We can do it by good brand management to make sure that all our customers were aware of our brand and should have be available and within reach everytime our subscribers need them.

     While for BAR, we need to ensure that we give excellent customer service and at the same time customer service innovation so that our subscribers will be our advocate from the service they experienced.

2.    Decomposing PAR and BAR

     We can decompose PAR and BAR by increasing brand awareness until it has appeal to our subscribers, give them the right message and right information, for them to have the right level of curiosity when they ask. Until they decided to act by availing our insurance, once they avail it, we will ensure we give them the excellent customer service, until they become our advocate.

3.    Driving Up Productivity

a.   How can your business adopt the new metrics of PAR and BAR to measure marketing productivity?

     We can adopt the new metrics of PAR and BAR by focusing on increasing commitment and affinity of our subscribers. Through the excellent customer service we will render to them, it can help to achieve the said goals.

b.   How can your business trigger favourable customer conversations in order to drive awareness without increasing the marketing budget significantly?

We can increase awareness of our brand by having and increasing their awareness through the social media, Facebook can be a good means, since this is the widely used social media nowadays. Since our business is more on technology, we can send messages on their mobile apps as well.     

7. Industry Archetypes and Best Practices (Channel, Brand, Sales and Service Management)

1.    4 Major industry Archetypes

a.    Door Knob

-     A pattern where there is great awareness, slightly lower appeal but there is low curiosity i.e. ask. Acting is leveled with appeal and advocating is at level with ask. This situation is typical for low cost products that have a lot of competitors and simple characteristics. Based on first impression, the best course to ensure phase Act i.e. buying the product, would be to just have the product look really nice. Example: Consumer Packed Goods (CPG) like softdrinks, noodles and chips.

b.    Goldfish

-     Pattern which is very problematic (at points A2, A3, A5 meaning appeal, ask and advocate). High awareness as you inform the public. Low appeal is due to high competition on the market meaning, hard to distinguish yourself from others .Hard to convey a quick message.This leads to a high Ask rate as customers try to find what customers needA5 or advocacy is also a great problem. Example : Business to Business (B2B) situations (automobile industry)

c.    Trumpet

-      When it comes to act, meaning buying it falls flat. Only slightly higher amount of customers will advocate the product. Not a lot of people can afford the product yet more people advocate it even though they never bought it. Example:  Rolex, Louis Vuitton.

d.    Funnel

-      The only pattern which involves the customer on each stage to reach advocacy as the dispersal rate of the customers is standard and steady. Customer experience is the greatest factor since they are a part of each stage. Each stage must be taken care of at all times. Example: Telecomms (Globe, Smart, Sun, Touch Mobile).

2.    4 Marketing Best Practices

   a.   High Median Bar and Narrow Bar Range – success is determined by            channel proximity and accessibility to key markets

  b.   High Median Bar and Wide Bar Range – key success factor is brand           management

 c.    Low Median Bar and Wide Bar Range - key success factor is service    management

 d.   Low Median and Narrow Bar Range- key success factor is sales-force  management

3.    Summary: Learning from Different Industries

a.   Which archetype best describes your industry?

              The best archetype that describe mobile insurance industry is Funnel. We              need to ensure that we focus on customer experience since they are involve            on each stage from awareness to advocacy.

b.   What are some of the key improvement opportunities for your business  based on that archetype?

              Customer innovation and Branding, need to have more focus on R&D                     (technology) to better understand how we can serve well our customers,                 increase commitment and increase affinity from our subscribers.

c.    What is the key success factor in your industry? How can you learn from     other industries?

              The key success factor of mobile industry is Service Management. We can                learn from other industries by benchmarking specially on services.