AMCHAM Partner Event: Marketing Trends In The Next Normal
AMCHAM Partner Event: Marketing Trends in the Next Normal
On November 30, at the Centara Grand at Central World, over 50 attendees participated in the AMCHAM Partner Event with dtac: Marketing Trends in the Next Normal. AMCHAM Executive Director, Heidi Gallant introduced guest speakers Medhee Jarumaneeroj, Managing Partner of BrandAholics and Thanat Manunyapatr, Vice President of dtac business.
Medhee who has over 20 years of experience in brand management and marketing/corporate communications spoke about macro and micro trends in marketing and shared insights on how brands can innovate and adopt new trends to stay relevant in 2021. We live in a world where consumer behaviors and interests are evolving constantly. Stating that the success of brand depends on consumer perception, Medhee shared case studies to better understand how brands can continue to listen to their consumers to stay consistent and deliver value in the next normal. He elaborated on trends that have evolved from digital transformation during Covid-19 such as e-commerce and logistics, boom in the health and wellness industry, workforce digitization, sharing economy, and sharing and collaborating.
He highlighted that since Covid-19, social commerce has been on a rise, which has also transformed the consumer journey for buying products and how they interact with brands. Brands had to transform their existing services to adapt to this changing consumer behavior and redesign the buying journey to connect with the consumer more. He also spoke about concern for cyber security and the importance of trust in a brand as more and more people are buying goods and services online, and sharing sensitive personal data. With people working from home, companies also needed to adopt digital technology at a faster pace and align their people to their managers and company goals. Medhee deep dived into key trends that marketers could expect in 2021 such as in-game concerts and home entertainment, and fast-food reusables driven by the Fast Moving Consumer Goods (FMCG) industry speaking about their carbon footprint, and the concept of sharing economy. Medhee further shared his perspective on the importance of new trends in product value such as professionalism and transparency. As an end note, Medhee mentioned that to be successful in 2021, brands need to define their priority before investing in new marketing trends and focus on innovating their core business.
The presentation was followed by a panel discussion between Medhee, Thanat and Heidi. Thanat, who has spearheaded the successful launch of dtac's WorryFree package and plays a central role in the growth of dtac's SME division spoke about how dtac continued to provide value to their consumers during Covid-19. He mentioned that they supported businesses and individuals to work from home and never stopped innovating. The panel spoke about reskilling and upskilling talent in 2021, social listening for brand success, influence of marketing, and preparing a strong marketing game plan that brings digitization to the forefront of a company's communication.
The event ended with a question and answer session where the attendees asked pertinent questions on brand messaging, consumer behavior in terms of spending money after the pandemic, and how to know what the consumer wants when their needs are evolving every day. The panel provided some interesting takeaways. Medhee mentioned that some of the trends he spoke about were emerging and some were at the tip of the iceberg. It is important for businesses to understand trends and know their business priority.
