Marketing & Selling

We have released the latest 2019 South African Customer Satisfaction Index for Short-Term Insurance. There is a fallacy across many businesses that digital transformation and customer experience and satisfaction are interchangeable. They are not. 

The adoption of key technologies in the South African communication, media and technology (CMT) space, can unlock R182 billion in value for the industry, consumers and society at large by 2026, we found in recent study.

There are ads in airports and on aeroplane food trays; over highways and on the airways. There are ads in hospitals, grocery stores and sports stadiums. They adorn walls in video games, they are splashed across cinema screens and voyeuristically gawk at us in public restrooms. Not even our schools or the bottom of pools are safe from calls to action.

Many companies will have to go into recovery mode once the lockdown and the restrictive measures that were put in place are officially lifted. With industries already burdened by the instability of our economy, many will have to look into ways that can help market and position their businesses as crucial entities to the masses.

Beware of the marketing experts who warn you not to cut your marketing budget, with their perennial slogan, 'cutting your budget would be an overreaction that could be costly to your company in the long run'.

The media landscape continues to shift, with consumer expectations driving innovation and new players disrupting traditional ways of broadcasting. Modern consumers now also connect with brands at an average of four to six touchpoints and they migrate from traditional platforms to digital devices to generate deeper insights before they take the desired action1.

With the Protection of Personal Information Act (POPIA) planned to commence imminently, the way direct marketing is carried out and received by South African consumers is set to shift.

Currently we all speak from a position of absolute ignorance. No one can truly know what the outcome of this pandemic will be, nor when the virus will pass or if it will ever be defeated. Even if a vaccine is developed in the next few months it’s clear that we will forever mark this moment as one of seismic significance. From now on we will talk of pre or post COVID-19. 

The prospect of another year of lack-lustre growth presents forward-thinking business leaders with the perfect reason to tap into the ‘experience economy’. The country’s lackadaisical approach to customer experience is a glaring gap that could deliver tangible results if properly filled.

Brands with purpose rise to the top. However, when employees have no personal purpose or cannot align their purpose to that of the company’s, they become disengaged and disconnected from the business. Do your employees know your business purpose? If yes, do they know how they personally contribute towards that purpose?