Regional head of Marketing at Adobe (APAC), Nicholas Kontopolous has over 20 years of experience in brand positioning and has a deep understanding of what makes a brand stand out in the eCommerce arena. Hear him speak about it in detail in the very first session of Meet Magento Singapore 2020.
Links
- Meet Magento Singapore event website
- Simon Kemp Chief Analyst at DataReportal
- YouTube video of this podcast’s Meet Magento presentation
Credits
- Music by Northern Dusk
- Photo by Ruddy Corporan
Transcript
Ok, thank you very much for that very wonderful introduction, and I’m super excited to be here today to definitely share some insights on what hopefully will be an engaging topic. So, yeah, really, really looking forward to today’s session. As usual, it will be pretty fast paced, so hopefully you can buckle up and keep pace with me. As introduced, you know, I’ve got the great privilege of heading up Adobe DX Marketing for the commercial business, which incorporates the Magento brand and also the Marketo brands that were acquired by Adobe several years back. You know, we’re very passionate about commerce and I still remain very passionate about commerce and really excited about, you know, the great inroads we’re making into this region. And some of the what I’m going to share today is definitely based on my own personal experience. And one thing you’ll see a lot of is a lot of passion. Those that know me know I’m very passionate about this topic, but I’m not just passionate about my work. I’m passionate about my family. As you, again, know these are, everything we do each and every day, you know, ultimately revolves around hopefully providing for our family and loved ones. But as an Aussie, again, those that know me, I’m very passionate about my sports, you know, follow the rugby. But when we’re losing, that’s when I would tend to revert back to my Greek heritage. And a lot of what I’m going to share today is also based on my own experiences, having travelled across this little blue marble that we call Earth. I’ve been there about sixty five countries now. I’ve had the great privilege of working with a number of brands, great brands, both as an employee, but also as a partner and as a customer. And during that experience have gathered a lot of insights that I’m going to, you know, have found their way into the talk today.
And one thing that does fascinate me, without a doubt is people people really do fascinate me. And I’m really also passionate about customer experiences. It’s a topic I’ve been deeply involved in. For those that aren’t familiar with me, for about coming up to nearly two decades now, something I’ve been exploring and trying to understand how we can improve customer experiences for B2B and B2C brands. So what I’m talking about today is equally relevant to B2B brands, those of you that are dialing in that represent a B2B brand. This is very much a relevant talk for you as well. I’m also very seriously passionate about my customers, but not just my customers, their customers as well. And I think we have to be you know, we need to invest in in a being that passionate about, not just about our immediate customers, but also the customers they are trying to serve. And we ultimately, obviously want them to succeed in order to do that. They really do need to understand how customer experiences are created and ultimately delivered and ultimately lived and breathed through their organisations. And this is the challenge for us today, because really standing out, you know, from all the noise is becoming increasingly more and more difficult. Think about it. There is you know, there is so many people out there saying the same thing and using the same type of messaging, using the same type of ads. You’re creative. There’s so many people out there just doing the same thing, so many people jumping on the same technology bandwagon.
And this is creating a lot of challenges for us. This video, is a video I’ve shown before and I really love it because I think it…
«Look at this, there’s a Vaporeon that spawned right there. So everyone’s running…(crowd laughing)». – There’s a what now? -There’s a Vaporeon…»
I’m sure most of you recognised that video as being obviously Pokemon go.
And that was New York Central Park about three or four years ago when Pokemon go exploded on the scene. And this is something that we continue to see is that technology is really changing everything, not just for us as business leaders or practitioners, but also as consumers. We know that, it’s changing our behaviors. I mean, that was a fantastic example of just how an app transformed behaviors across the globe. Yeah, I mean, whether you were in Singapore, in Mumbai, in Shanghai or New York, we saw a similar behavioural change taking place here. And technology’s really driving a rapid change in how we as consumers engage with brands. You know, this content is from Australia, but there’s similar stats for all over the region. You know, we look at how consumers are engaging with content and the types of channels and platforms they are using. And we’re seeing fundamental changes and the amount of time they’re spending. Again, you know, this is a data point from Australia. If I look at a data point for Singapore or Thailand, it’s a similar, if not a higher number. In actual fact, it is a higher number. So we’re spending more time each and every day, whether it’s travelling to and from work when we were able to do that or even where we are right now working from home, we’re obviously sitting in front of our devices for much longer periods of time. I mean, Statista, this data point came from Statista in two nineteen, sixty five percent of the population they estimate by twenty twenty one would be digital.
But let’s be real. I mean, this year what we’ve seen is that data point increase exponentially, without a doubt, 100 percent across the globe. Simon Kemp, if you’re not familiar with his work on that, although I’m sure you are. If not, you’ve most probably been exposed to it in one way, shape or form. He produces fantastic insights on a regular basis. You know, he does this digital 2020 global overview. And we recently engaged with him a little while back. We engaged with him and looked at, you know, data in respect to covid-19 and the impact that was having. And what was really interesting and not really surprising, but interesting to see was that people were obviously spending more time with their devices. And what was particularly of interest is when you start looking at the demographics. So actually the Gen Xers and the baby boomers, maybe those generations where there had been some latency or hesitation in fully leaping into the digital world were actually forced into that. If I even look at my own mom, you know, she’s definitely fully digital now. She does everything digitally, buying her grandchildren, you know, presents online. But even in a B2B context, you know, those that were maybe not, you know, relying on salespeople coming and visiting him have had to be forced to do more research online.
So we’re seeing a fundamental shift here, and that’s obviously cascading into e-commerce. I think McKinsey put a data point out that what we’ve seen this year in terms of e-commerce growth represents the amount of growth that’s taken place over the last 10 years. So just in 2020, we’ve seen almost the same amount of growth take place over a 10 year period. So this is a fantastic opportunity for all of us to really reimagine how we’re engaging our customers. But I really want to stress here that this isn’t just a B2B, or B2C story. This is equally important for B2B brands because the reality is B2B and B2C customers are really evolving how they’re making their purchasing decisions. I’ve said this before in many of my talks where they’re no longer following this linear process. They’re very much twisting and turning through the buying process, going back and steps and going forward two steps that we maybe didn’t anticipate in consulting with different sources, et cetera. And this is really putting a lot of pressure on businesses. And equally, as I said, for B2B brands, this is becoming an absolute expectation now. When we look at the data points for B2B purchases in that they want a similar consumer great experience being delivered to them. And as you will have heard me reference before, this idea of digital Darwinism, which was coined by Brian Solis, really is at play dramatically right now and accelerating in terms of the way society and consumers are evolving, is putting a lot of pressure on us.
And a lot of executives now are trying to play catch up, you know, other businesses that maybe hadn’t really doubled down in driving this digital transformation to customer experience transformation and marrying their digital physical worlds together, are really running the gauntlet now. Now, here’s the trick. I mean, how do you go and create an amazing customer experience that doesn’t look and feel like everyone else’s? Now, that’s the real challenge. You know, obviously, we can go, we’ve got marketplaces that are great there’s a lot of e-commerce solutions out there that you can, you know, deploy, that, you know, provide a great service but come in a very vanilla flavor. So we need to think about how do we architect our physical digital channels in a way that enable us to deliver really differentiated service that doesn’t look like everyone else’s site isn’t isn’t beige. And that’s the real trick. That’s the real challenge for each and every one of us today. And here’s another interesting data point. The fact is, what consumers are looking for is wanting a more personalized and individualized experience, and they’re getting frustrated with the lack of that experience being delivered. And what’s amazing and truly amazing is if you can get this right and we see this with our customers that are really doubling down on this.
And I’ll come to a couple later. Ninety one percent of consumers are willing to spend more money with you if you are able to deliver them products and services that are really tailored to what they’re looking for. You know, products that solve or services that solve their problems is really important. And even more importantly, 83 percent of them are willing to share more data with you. If you can use that data smartly in a way that really does help them discover those solutions, helps them discover the insights that are needed for them to be able to make an informed decision and not have buyer’s remorse at the end of the purchasing cycle. And here’s the, but here’s a challenge for them. I mean, you think about each and every day I wake up just from a B2B context. I have over one hundred emails in my inbox. Marketers who have tried to spam me and try to get me, capture my attention. There’s so much information coming at me just in a B2B context then I layer that on the B2C, and it’s just overwhelming sometimes. I’m sure you all feel that. Sometimes you just go: «Oh my God, there’s so many choices here!». So this is where, as marketers, as business owners, as commerce professionals, we need to be thinking about how do we make that purchasing decision easier for the consumer? How do we make it easier for them to make that informed decision, as I mentioned earlier? So this means stop, we’ve got to stop shouting at our customers, we’ve got to stop broadcasting to them, we’ve got to start thinking about them, really putting them at the heart of the journey.
We need to think about how do we go from this idea of personalization, which is basically table stakes now. Yeah, we need to be thinking now. The next goal is to go to this world of this capability of individualization. How do I individualize that experience for Nicholas? How do I individualize that experience? And to do that, is, requires me to really, you know, be at a craft, a clear understanding of, well, first and foremost, what is our «Why». Now, I touched on this in last year’s keynote. I’m going to bring it back onto the table today, just very briefly, because it really is important. I want to bring this message back into this talk today, because in order to stand out from all the clones, we need to have a very clear purpose. We need to really develop and shape a purpose for those that aren’t familiar with this concept or who remember this from last year. I really want to challenge you to double down on this. Really think about making sure that you guys are very clear on what is your company’s purpose, what are you trying to achieve as a goal, and then how do you create a utility capability that enables you to differentiate the brand? Now, when I say brand purpose, I’m not saying go save the world.
Purpose really is your «Why», as Simon Sinek. People buy your «Why» and really understanding and defining that having at the heart of your strategy is absolutely critical. And really then, building and shaping your web of promises. Understanding how those promises are created across your organization and how you keep those promises, are really going to be quite central to your ability to anchor that purpose and ultimately to create a service that is ultimately memorable. And this is where utility becomes really important. Remember the data points I’m talking about in terms of personalization, the willingness of consumers and B2B buyers to share data with you if you can take that data and create a service orientated engagement experience, end-to-end, and use that to inform your content creation and use it to inform the way you are, your sellers will engage a prospect the way your contact staff will ultimately engage, you know, someone who’s calling in with a service issue or who’s calling in wanting to learn more about your product is ultimately going to help you significantly stand out from the clones, you know, from the rest of the competitors who are ultimately, in a lot of cases, are going to be offering offering up generic type omnichannel experiences.
To really deliver a true omni channel experience. We really need to think about our customers through this channelist mindset and really have that anchored against a purpose, a clear purpose and a clear utility offering. And as this quote, I really love this quote here, really, «Greatness comes not from a position, but from helping build the future». That’s what our jobs as leaders, as agents of change is really to help drive that transformational change in the business. Culture is a really important part of this mix. We did a fantastic interview with Martin Lindstrom. I’m a massive fan of his work. If you’re not familiar with him, there’s a QR code here, scan it and go and watch his session. I had the great fortune of hosting him in a session. He illuminated so many new areas for me just in that 40 minutes or 50 minutes session we had with him. I really encourage you, because culture is really an important part of a lot of what I’m saying here. I wanted to also talk to you guys about, or give you guys a case study that sort of showcased some of what I’m talking here. Now, many may be familiar with the Ascent group. They own a number of retail brands in Australia, one of which is «The Athlete’s Foot». They’re a great Adobe customer of ours across multiple brands.
And they’ve created what I believe is a great example here of a end-to-end experience. You know, they’ve created a physical and digital experience that comes together beautifully. You can go into one of their stores, you know, get a foot fitting, making sure that your shoes that are being offered to you, are tailored to your specific needs. But you also can have the ability to walk out of that store, go back and do some research. Maybe I wanted to, maybe I wasn’t quite sure which of the two recommended shoes I wanted to look at. And I want to go back and do a bit more research before I press that buy button or pull out my wallet. And here, what they’ve created is the ability to go back and really dive into their product in a more rich a way. To really explore and learn more about the type of shoe that was suggested and recommended to me to make sure I’m comfortable with that purchase. But what’s even more amazing is I can really go in there, find the size, know the size I want to purchase, but also then, you know, do it quick in-store because I don’t want to wait for them to ship it to me. I’m actually going to be down at Bondi beach, you know, and I know I’m going to be able to go and drop-in to the store there and collect the shoes and knowing that they’ve got that in stock and to be able to make that engagement is a great example of brand utility for me.
This is the physical-digital channels coming together. My ability to really, you know, learn and educate myself, but ultimately, make an informed decision and an ultimately act on that impulse when I’m ready to buy and transact, you know, through a channel that I want to engage with. So this channel of experience is a really great example for me. And Athlete’s Foot have done this amazing effort across multiple brands. And they’re really seeing this translate into some really fantastic results. What was really exciting to see, and Mark Teperson, who was a former CDO there, you know, he’s now moved on, but he was, really, played a key role in driving this transformation. And ultimately, you know, what we saw this year, even when a lot of brands were really suffering as a result of covid-19, this company actually really was able to chart its way through those very difficult times and actually still remain in a positive state for their business. That was a fantastic example. Another great one for me is the DIY Beer Coopers, out of Australia as well. This is another beautiful example of a brand that has really thought about creating an end-to-end experience for its consumers, for its customers that are coming to the site, who want to learn more about their products, who want to engage with, you know, rich content about the product kits they have to offer, you know, enable me to quickly learn more about that, but also provide me access to great resources, you know, whether it was FAQs that we saw at the start there or actually the ability to tap into a community.
Again, a community is really important part of this experience, creating and harnessing the power of the community, the advocacy of that community is a great example of how you can create really rich experiences that actually differentiate yourselves from your competitors. So it’s clear that customer experience is now the new competitive landscape. And I’d love to say that there’s one technology that solves all of your problems here, but it’s not. Adobe, without a doubt, delivers a set of core capabilities that do cater to a lot of what I’ve spoken to today, without a doubt, World Class technologies. But technology alone isn’t going to solve your problems. You need to be thinking about your people, processes and technologies. You will always hear me say that. I will never stop saying that because I see a lot of projects still fail as a result of the lack of focus on people and process. Also, you’re going to come across people who really are going to push against your transformational efforts, who don’t want to get on board. And it’s really important to understand who those blockers are going to be, try to bring them on board, but also really spend time in trying to understand who the haters are going to be and try to hopefully provide solutions that turn them from haters to lovers.
You know, that’s, again, something I’ve seen and work really well for me in the past. But let’s also remember digital transformation has never been more important than today. And we’ve seen that, sadly, covid-19 has really accentuated that. But the good news is there’s a lot of learnings we can all take out of that and actually apply into our strategies going forward so that we can build a robust business like Ascent Group. As the example I gave there, that can enabled us to traverse the tough times we see. But here’s the deal. You’re going to have to create a culture that’s willing to fail. You know, willing to fail often and fail always, but always fail forward. You know, we need to embrace that. We need to be comfortable with that. We need to practice what we preach. If we say this to our teams, we need to be, as leaders, willing to also do this. Because only through that, will we be able to drive the change we need. Innovation requires the ability to fail, but also requires empathy. We need to really empathize not just with our customers.
That’s a given, but also our employees, our partners, our suppliers. We need to understand the roles that each of these people play in enabling us to drive a truly differentiated experience, because if we don’t, we ultimately end up with a clone like experience. And that’s what we don’t want. We want to move away from delivering a vanilla flavoured type or beige looking experience. I like vanilla. Actually, vanilla flavored ice cream is my favorite, so I don’t know why I’ll go there. But let’s use beige. We don’t want to deliver beige experience. We want to deliver something that’s really rich, exciting and memorable. We want to also create a signal in the noise. We want to be that brand that cuts through. Remember that image that I showed earlier with all of the information coming at us as consumers, we want to create an experience, a digital experience that really cuts through that noise and enables our customers to zero in on that signal and have that signal guide them through that discovery journey all the way through to becoming ultimately, hopefully, you know, a brand advocate. You know, as Obama says here beautifully, you know, «change will not come if we wait for some other person» so, don’t wait for your bosses to figure this out. You know, we have to go out there and actually start driving that change ourselves. You know, we are the ones that have been waiting.
We are the ones we’ve been waiting for. We are the change that we seek. So we need to be that change. We need to embrace it, see it for what it is, and ultimately see it as an opportunity for us to not only change our organizations, but also to help drive change in ourselves that ultimately enables us to get better at what we do, so with that, I want to say thank you for joining us today and on this session. And there’s a wonderful lineup of speakers that we’re going to hear from today. I’m really looking forward to having, you know, my brain just as fired up from all the other speakers. My name’s Nicholas Kontopoulos. Feel free to connect with me on LinkedIn. There’s not too many Kontopoulos› out there, but feel free to reach out and connect with me on that. I’ll do my best to get back to you through that channel. Otherwise, you know, enjoy the rest of today’s content. I really want to thank the Ranosys team and all the other sponsors are getting behind this. It’s really important that we continue as a community, as a Magento Commerce community, to stay connected, to learn from one another, to share from one and another’s experiences. And I look forward to hearing some of those insights, as I said from the other speakers today. So I’ll hand back to to the team now. Thank you very much.