PART 1: Chapters1-4

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 applianIces 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 1: Fundamental Trends Shaping Marketing
1. Power Shifts to the Connected Customer

1.      From Exclusive to Inclusive

Exclusive: When we started the insurance business, we only offer road assistance which we only have exclusive interaction with our customers.

Inclusive: Our company is now offering device insurance, warranty and support services for mobile phones, consumer electronics & home appliances, wherein we will be more connected to our consumers since we are using digital resources (web page and hotlines).

2.      From Vertical to Horizontal

Vertical: When we are doing our promo before, we are only using TV and print ads, this is just a one way communication with our subscribers.

Horizontal: We are not limited on TV and print ads anymore, since we have the social media we can use to promote and at the same time get the feedbacks of customers (2 way communication).

3.      From Individual to Social

Individual: employee evaluations solely rate their leaders on how their leader perform their tasks.

Social: Unsatisfied employees post their opinions on social media wherein some of their colleagues have read their posts and might have impact on the impressions of their leaders and they even discussed it. As a result it may have impact on the ratings of leader during survey.

a.   What are the trends in your industry that demonstrate the shifts toward a more horizontal, inclusive and social business landscape?

Before, insurance were only on house/buildings, car, education, health and person, but now, almost all can be insured, like in our company, aside from mobile phones, we also offer insurance on laptop, home appliances, electronics (drones, camera, etc.), televisions. Consumers can post their feedback on social media on the experiences they have with our company whether it’s good or bad and they can send us feedback online.

b.   What are your plans to embrace these shifts in the marketplace?

My key contribution to my company is to ensure that we deliver our monthly commit (Buildplan), this is to ensure that the customer requirement will be satisfied, right phone models should be on their doorstep the moment they file for claims. I will do the possible means to hit our monthly target, both the volume and SKU (phone models) requirement. If in case we will have misses on delivery for whatever reasons (delay delivery of parts, quality, etc), I’ll make sure that we will have the immediate recovery plans.

2. The Paradoxes of Marketing to Connected Customers

1.    Breaking the Myths of Connectivity

Aside from the typical insurance of replacing the damage or lost item, our company offers other services like 1) secure and keep the handset protected against phishing, viruses and malware 2) back-up, restore content of handset 3) support on mobile applications, because of this offerings we are more connected with our customers than before. There’s like a personal touch with our service with them (specially support on mobile application. Even the senior citizens can call our hotline to ask for support if in case they are having hard time to explore the apps on their phones.

2.      Summary: Marketing Amid Paradoxes

a.     What are some cases in your industry that capture the paradoxical nature of    connected customers?

 Example of the case was the acceptance of insuring our subscriber devices since  this is not the usual thing accepted by the society. Usually we are only insuring  houses, buildings, cars and health.

b.    How do you plan to embrace the paradoxes?

We can embrace this paradox through the use of digital promotion, by increasing awareness of subscribers they will know the importance of insuring their devices, which are part of our daily lives. We usually use them in communicating our loved ones, in business, in any organizations we have. Like our tag line  “Asurion Life’s Operating System”.

3. The Influential Digital Subcultures

1.   Youth: Acquiring the Mindshare

Our product is a refurb mobile phone, we all know how active users the youth are when it comes to mobile phones and other devices (which we also offer insurances as well) like laptop and IPAD . We make it appoint that our company is present on all social media, aside we have our own Asurion page, we also have our own FB page, where we keep our subscribers updated, we also have accounts on Twitter, Instagram, Pinterest and You Tube. We will encourage them also to share their insights /views with our offerings so that we can understand their needs and how we can improve our services and products.

We will inform them on how our company is helping to do recycling (electronic waste) since we are doing the refurbishing of devices.

2.   Women: Growing the Market Share

On top of all the social media accounts we have, we make it appoint that we’re part of social group activities where women were highly involved to promote our brand. In addition, since we also offer extended warranty on appliances like TV, washing machines, dryers, etc., we make it appoint that the normal day to day activities at home will be supported in case their appliances broke down by just calling our hotlines. Some additional features we’re also offered like the linkage of their appliances to mobile phones, where they can control them even if they are not present (like turning them off in case they forgot it, and at the same time set timers to control and monitor them, even they are outside).

3.    Netizens: Expanding  the Heart Share

We will inform them how our company is a big help in recycling (electronic waste) since we are doing the refurbishing of devices.

We make it appoint that our company is present on all social media, aside we have our own Asurion page, we also have our own FB page, where we keep our subscribers updated, we also have accounts on Twitter, Instagram, Pinterest and You Tube. 

4.    Summary: Youth, Women and Netizens

   a.How can your business acquire greater mind share by leveraging youth’s roles of      early adopters and trendsetters.

 Aside from keeping them updated on the current offerings and benefits of   
 acquiring insurance on mobile phones, laptop, home appliances, electronics  
 (drones, camera, etc.), televisions. We will also share them the latest technology  and how they can enjoy using them without too much disruption if they will call  our hotlines once they avail our insurance. We can do campaign with regards to  importance of communications/connectivity to our loved ones, just like our tag  line -“Asurion, Life’s Operating System"

b.   How can your business grow market share by leveraging the household influence of women?

We will continue to invest and continue to do R&D on how we can support women’s day to day activities at home even when they are out (working moms). Like the linkages of appliances to mobile phones so that they can control it.

c.    How can your business identify and utilize netizens to win greater heart share?

          We will inform them how our company is helping to do recycling (electronic 
          waste) since we are doing the refurbishing of devices. Also, we will be involve,     
          participate and sponsor on some community activities. We will continue to  
          research and test the latest technology to help customers get the most out of 
          theirs.

      4. Marketing 4.0 in the Digital Economy (When Online Meets Offline, Style Meets  
          Substance and Machine-to-Machine Meets Human-to-Human)

1.    Moving from Traditional to Digital

The traditional way of applying for insurance before was that, the customer needs to fill up the form and submit it to insurance company, then when claiming, need to go back and fill up the form again then file and wait for the claims. But now, with the digitial age, when applying for insurance (like Asurion), customers can fill up the application online from website of the insurance company or the company they are buying the product (like Amazon and Ebay). While in claiming the insurance, customers will call our hotlines, once verified, the mobile phones will be delivered to their house (within 24hrs), the damaged phones will be mailed by customers using the envelope that we sent them.

2.    Integrating Traditional and Digital

When applying for insurance (like Asurion), customers will fill up the application online from website of the insurance company or the company they are buying the product (like Amazon and Ebay). While in claiming the insurance, customers will call our hotlines, once verified, the mobile phones will be delivered at their doorsteps (within 24hrs), the damaged phones will be mailed by customers using the envelope that we sent them.

The process of using phone to call from our subscribers we can have a personal interaction with them, we can feel to them how we are willing to serve them by attending to their needs as soon as possible and by using mail (damaged phones) were part of the traditional way, while filling up the forms online and the delivery of refurbished phone at customer’s doorstep (within 24hrs) were part of digital way, showing how efficient our company is.

3.   Summary: Redefining Marketing in the Digital Economy

a.   How can your brand develop a powerful differential based on human-to-human touch in the digital world.

For the case of mobile support application service that we’re offering, this service is useful to customer who are not savvy, or even senior citizens will call our hotline then ask our operator on how to navigate or use specific applications, in that way there will be a human-human touch even on the digital world.

b.   How can your business transition from the traditional 4Ps to the digital 4Cs by adopting co-creation, taking advantage of currency-like pricing, engaging in communal activation and driving conversation.

Since our business is on technology, we are investing on R&D and at the same time we are conducting survey with our subscribers to better understand their need on how we can simplify their day to day activities by maximizing the usage of their devices. The pricing of our service will be less compared before since the promotion is easy and less expensive in social media. We have high engagement from subscribers using social media.

c.    What are the fundamental changes required in your customer-service strategy to embrace collaborative customer care?

           Our company’s goal is to ensure that we attend to our subscriber’s need as fast as
           we can, we should be connected to them 24/7 (through hotlines and online). Since
           we are on digital world now, we should still make our customers feel that they 
           are important to us by giving our personal touch services. Like given them 
           reminders on their devices (need to back up files, the memory of gadgets will be 
           full in a couple of days, finding their lost mobile phones).