Consistent CX No Snap (Crackle Or Pop) For Global Giant Kellogg
A flexible infrastructure that can deliver quickly and effectively, regardless of the technological requirements, is crucial, according to Nadeem Amin, Kellogg’s ANZ/APAC/South Africa regional digital marketing manager.
Marketing and maintaining customer-experience consistency across a technology-diverse world is no small task. Such is the reality for global CPG powerhouse Kellogg, which, in business for more than a century and still going strong, clearly knows what it is doing.
For insight, CMO.com spoke to Nadeem Amin, Kellogg’s ANZ/APAC/South Africa regional digital marketing manager. Amin will be among the speakers at Adobe Symposium 2016, in Sydney on July 26. (Click here to register for the event.)
CMO.com: What will be the theme of your Symposium presentation?
Amin: I will be talking about how we are using our marketing technology platform and partnerships to enhance customer engagement through meaningful content delivered at the right time, to the right audience.
CMO.com: What are the main challenges you face as a digital marketing manager?
Amin: The first challenge is to maintain a properly skilled team, and the second is enabling the technology to deliver on the “speed-to-the-market” promise. Kellogg regularly works with teams, including agency partners and vendors, to update our skill set and knowledge base. We do this through formal and informal training on everything from applications and services to policies, procedures, and processes. This ensures the teams are equipped with the right set of tools to deliver solutions.
Kellogg’s landscape is quite diverse in terms of marketing technology and its consumption. We have countries like South Korea, Japan, and China where technology is at the top end of the graph, whereas technology is at the lower end in countries like India and South Africa. The challenge is to deliver and maintain consistency in our digital programs and consumer experiences. Technology consumption and consumer demand add to this challenge in markets where speed is critical to make an impact, but the infrastructure available may throw a curve ball, thus requiring a rethink of the digital solution.
I feel we are not alone, and it’s a challenge for global organisations everywhere to adapt scalable technology across multiple regions and markets. This requires flexible infrastructure that can deliver quickly and effectively, regardless of the technological requirements.
CMO.com: What opportunities are on the horizon for you?
Amin: There is an opportunity to manage enterprise-marketing technology with a fully enabled cloud-computing stack. Custom assets struggle to keep up with the changing technology, consumers’ consumption habits, and the demand for personalisation. They also require a constant feed of IT and marketing dollars to keep them up-to-date. We are on a journey to what I believe is absolutely essential to future-proof Kellogg’s digital marketing and enablement framework.
Another opportunity is at the execution end and how we deliver our digital marketing programs by on-demand applications backed with architecture that has prioritised modularity. This essentially means breaking the applications or information into small chunks or modules delivered to consumers on-demand, thus minimising data usage and downloads. This gives consumers essential applications very quickly so they can start enjoying the experience.
Global consumers are fast adopters of on-demand technology, so we need to deliver precise and relevant branded content without losing their interest. We are designing the framework that will enable digital marketing programs to deliver content, applications, and online promotions on-demand quickly in any market.
CMO.com: What does the phrase “customer experience” mean to you?
Amin: Customer experience is an interaction and perception between an organisation and a customer. It is how the customer feels on both conscious and subconscious levels about an organisation during an active interaction weeks, months, and years after it. I believe there are several components to a good customer experience. It starts with how we attract them, help them discover our products and offers, and make it easy for them to purchase and nourish them for advocacy.
CMO.com: How does customer experience impact the way Kellogg crafts its marketing?
Amin: It’s how we work. In my experience, it impacts marketing in a positive way to think outside the box. Customer experience is good business and is part of our marketing agenda. Our teams consist of people who are both customers and consumers themselves. They bring their personal experiences into the mix and ask questions before the marketing programs go out the door. I believe this strategy has played a part in why Kellogg has been a family brand for more than 100 years.