The Singapore Marketer (Jul-Sep 2018)

the singapore

marketer knowledge for marketing excellence

jul-sep’18

The human touch –

A PERSONAL APPROACH TO MARKETING PLUS+

$5.35 incl. GST

08 What’s all this talk about brand experience?

12 Challenger brands: A look at brands defying convention and questioning category norms

The Official Publication of the Marketing Institute of Singapore, the National Body for Sales and Marketing

Editor’s Note

Dear Readers,

THE SINGAPORE MARKETER July - September 2018 Editor Gerry Gabriele Seah Sub-editor Sylvia Huang Contributing Writers Cat Williams-Treloar, Jamie Nonis, Jovan Buac, Joyce Koh, Koh Joh Ju, Nathalyn Fong & Veronica Lind MIS EXECUTIVE COUNCIL President Mr Roger Wang 2nd Vice President Dr Roger Low Honorary Secretary Ms Gerry Seah Honorary Treasurer Mr Ken Tay Asst Honorary Treasurer Mr Lee Kwok Weng Production, Advertising & Circulation Sheila Berman Sheila.berman@mis.org.sg Jane Franklin Jane.madonna@mis.org.sg Sylvia Huang author@mis.org.sg Design & Layout Kelvin Wang Publisher Marketing Institute of Singapore 51 Anson Centre #03-53 Singapore 079904 Tel: (65) 6327 7580 Fax: (65) 6327 9741 Email: singaporemarketer@mis.org.sg Website: www.mis.org.sg

Welcome back to another issue of The Singapore Marketer (TSM). We delve into the world of brand communications and explore the idea of designing brand experiences.

The customer journey has changed tremendously in recent years. Technology and social media has given rise to many more opportunities for interaction and engagement. Each touchpoint is an opportunity for a company to engage, connect and remind consumers of why they love your brand.

Brands need to think holistically about building a strong foundation for brand experiences; helping customers feel valued at each interaction in the customer journey. Marketers have to start viewing email campaigns, websites, and social media interactions as opportunities for sharing a brand experience. This requires deliberate effort and a focus on building long term relationships through each interaction, moving away from transactional relationships.

Brian Solis, renowned futurist and author said, “Experiences take empathy, thoughtfulness, and intent. We need to design experiences that people want to have, remember and share.” Jovan Buac, Director at global branding consultancy, FutureBrand, sheds light on how to think about brand experience in this issue of Focus.

Beyond brand experiences, we look at personal branding and examine techniques and practical ways to strengthen your personal brand. Jamie Nonis interviews social media influencer and marketing extraordinaire, Aarika Lee, in GuruTalk to get her first-hand account of what it takes to build a strong social media profile and her experience with brand partnerships as a result of her strong personal brand.

Industry chat sees us chatting with two industry veterans in the hospitality and food services industry about their experience navigating the changing public relations landscape, and implementing successful corporate social responsibility in a sustainable manner.

Feature looks at Challenger brands who have redefined the industries by challenging conventional norms and searching deep within the consumer psyche for unmet latent needs.

Lastly, we go back to basics and learn what it takes to humanise communications with a simple framework to articulate the brand. In an age of marketing automation, Chat bots, and incessant demand for faster, better, and more efficient, it is easy to forget the importance of warmth in personal interactions. Feeling valued is at the core of each customer interaction, and it needs to be at the centre of each experience we plan and design as marketers.

Happy reading!

Gerry Gabriele Seah

Editor

The Singapore Marketer is a quarterly magazine published by Marketing Institute of Singapore.

The views expressed in The Singapore Marketer do not necessarily represent those of the Marketing Institute of Singapore. No responsibility is accepted by the Institute or its staff for the accuracy of any statement, opinion, or advice contained in the text or advertisements, and readers are advised to rely on their judgment or enquiries, and to consult their own advisers in making any decisions which would affect their interest. All materials appearing in The Singapore Marketer is copyright. No part of the publication may be reproduced without prior written permission of the Marketing Institute of Singapore. The Marketing Institute of Singapore welcomes contributions and letters. These might be edited for clarity or length. Articles, letters and requests to reproduce articles appearing in The Singapore Marketer should be sent to the Editor, Marketing Institute of Singapore, 51 Anson Road, #03-53 Anson Centre, Singapore 079904 or write to singaporemarketer@mis.org.sg or marketing@mis.org.sg.

Content Page

04 COVER STORY The importance of humanising communications in modern marketing

FOCUS 08 What’s all this talk of brand experience?

FEATURE 12 Challenger brands: Defying

convention and questioning category norms

GURU TALK 16 Mastering the game of

INDUSTRY CHAT

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Interview with Nathalyn Fong, Ritz-Carlton

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Interview with Joyce Koh, Sodexo

influence

LEARNING SITE 20 Lights, Camera, Action!

You’re On: The new breed of spokespersons

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Cover Story

The importance of

humanising communications in modern marketing

» By Koh Joh Ju and Veronica Lind

It is not difficult to understand why cookie-cutter messaging happens.

Today’s environment offers many communications platforms for engagement with a variety of audiences within a very small window of time for responses. To further complicate matters, the line between PR and marketing is thin in areas where marketers and communications professionals overlap – branding, content, social and analytics are just some examples of these areas.

Over the years in my career, it became apparent that when PR and marketing professionals work together with their sales colleagues, brand intimacy happens, and sales accelerate. At Vermilion Pinstripes, we use a modern marketing framework developed by my colleague, Veronica Lind where it guides teams from identifying, targeting, engaging and selling to their most profitable customers.

Diagram 1: In this framework, sales, marketing and communications come together in an ecosystem with technology, mathematics, science, creativity and psychology to empower the brand’s CUSTOMERS to move to their next stage of the sales lifecycle FASTER than they would on their own.

Source: Vermilion Pinstripes.

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Brand is #1

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The brand is important for any business. In the eyes of the customer, the brand is the entity that distinguishes the organisation or product from its rivals on the market.

As a Forbes contributor Anjali Chugh writes, “By not paying attention to building brand awareness and brand equity, you’re unknowingly depriving your business of the highest potential it can reach.”

Some businesses such as startups find it difficult to articulate their brand. Why? From experience, I find that many are more comfortable talking about their products and services when faced with a customer. That’s good, isn’t it? Not really, because what every customer hears about is just a different product or service, and so they think that that business has nothing more than that particular product or service.

To break out of that box, focus on speaking to the most profitable customers. Yes, that’s one set of customers – consider their goals and aspirations, understand their needs, wants and desires, and look for the ways to establish an emotional connection.

Diagram 2: In Vermilion Pinstripes’ Modern Marketing framework, anchor your sales, marketing and communications tactics with a strong brand message that will resonate with your customers.

Source: Vermilion Pinstripes.

Strategic, Structured and Social 1. Strategic – Mobilise your sales, business and marketing colleagues for a brainstorming session to uncover the goals and aspirations of this set of customers and what your brand means to them. Some brainstorming questions include: 1. What does your brand mean to these customers?

2. What do you do better than other competing brands?

3. What are the values that your brand and these customers share?

4. What are the three words that your customers would use to describe your brand?

5. What would be the three words you prefer the customers to use when describing your brand?

2. Structured – Create the brand’s unique voice to be used across a vast spectrum of channels e.g. website, social media, email, ebooks and so on can be a complex task. The brand’s voice must be consistent and appropriate for your brand’s personality in order to communicate effectively. Follow these simple steps to help you shape your brand’s voice:

Cover Story

1. Values: Always start with the values. Be clear about what your brand stands for. Is it quality, innovation or perhaps timelessness?

2. Vocabulary: Analyse the ‘speak’ used by your most profitable customers. What is the style, degree of formality or informality, and choices of words and descriptions they tend to use?

These will give you information or ideas on how your brand could speak to them.

3. Emotion: Can you add a touch of humour? Laughter adds a human quality to your brand’s voice and gives warmth to your brand message. But always remember, laugh at yourself, not at others.

Try adding personality to your brand.

4. Repetition: Say it to everyone who works in your business as everyone needs to know about the voice you have adopted for your brand. Make it consistent across departments by creating a tone of voice guide.

3. Social - Social media is undeniably one channel that will bring massive returns when applied correctly. Social media can be extended to the entire lifecycle of the customer, helping brands to move customers from each stage of the life cycle, from brand awareness to demand generation and onward to sales enablement, customer support and even customer advocacy. Some tips for your brand message include: 1. Brand Values – social is where you can extensively share your brand values. Your brand’s voice will draw people into wanting to identify with you.

2. Brand Circle - choose influencers who share your values and are aligned with your voice to make them your allies.

3. Tell a (visual) story – your content strategy should be guided by your brand voice and messages.

Let that drive you on using the right words, images and videos to connect with your audience.

4. Increase Personalisation – understand your customers’ habits through data analysis and tailor your messages to what they need, want or desire at that point.

The future of marketing is… … being human.

In a future where chatbots and artificial intelligence (AI) are fast becoming integral components of marketing, it is the human touch that will create deep emotional connections with customers.

As modern day communicators who are well versed with leveraging technology to achieve marketing objectives, we need to stay focused on developing messages that speak to our customers’ needs, challenges and aspirations. No matter the platform or technology, humanising communications is essential to creating meaningful emotional connections. To achieve long term business growth, brands need to evolve and constantly seek ways to do that.

ABOUT THE WRITERS

Ms. Koh Joh Ju is a communications professional with over 20 years of experience specialising in B2B communications. Previously with IBM, Hill & Knowlton and Weber Shandwick, Joh Ju is co-founder of Vermilion Pinstripes, a modern marketing agency based in Australia and Singapore that helps small businesses and B2B organisations connect with MORE of their most profitable customers to grow their business and achieve ROI. Ms. Veronica Lind is the Business and Marketing Strategist at Vermilion Pinstripes. As a Modern Marketing Strategist, her dexterity with technology and her vast experience in sales, business development and marketing have attracted the attention of clients in regional and global markets. To sell without selling is a key virtue she promotes and which has profited businesses that needed a boost of confidence.

Joh Ju and Veronica will be facilitating a modern marketing workshop on 16 August 2018 in Singapore for experienced B2B marketers and communicators. More details at Vermilion Pinstripes website (https://www. vermilionpinstripes.com/singapore-workshop-august-2018).

Left to right: Ms. Koh Joh Ju & Ms. Veronica Lind

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Focus

What’s all this talk of brand Experience? » By Jovan Buac

When shelf standout isn’t the only battle, how will design agencies evolve in a world where consumers value experience over possession?

Every industry has been shaken up by changing consumer attitudes. And technology. The branding and design industry is no different. But what is the future of our way of working and how will historical design agencies evolve and find a space for themselves in a world where consumers value experience over possession?

Brand design is at an interesting crossroads. Not dissimilar to where ad agencies were 10 years ago when that digital and social media thing was gaining traction. What was interesting is that agency specialisms were respected and protected. It was touchpoint driven.

Agency X is brilliant at pack design and Agency Y is fantastic at instore POS. If you need a great corporate logo, you really should speak to Agency Z. It was about how something looks by itself. Now it’s about how it fits into a wider story. As consumers are experiencing brands long before they walk into a store, the future of design needs to consider this whole ecosystem.

Brand experience is actually very simple; it is the intersection between

a brand’s objective and a consumer’s need. The stronger the overlap, the stronger the emotional connection. And the more successful the interactions, the stronger the brand experience is at every touchpoint. When brands succeed in fulfilling this need, the transactions are seamless and the value exchange is unquestioned. Newer, service-orientated brands have been founded upon this very premise - Uber, Google, Airbnb and many more.

This way of thinking is relatively new for consumer packaged goods. In the world pre-digital, an FMCG brand had to stand out on shelf. There were often three stages of attraction – stop, engage, persuade. Can I see you, do I pick you up, and let’s close the deal. If you’re familiar with Andreas Gursky’s famous image of an American grocery store, you’ll appreciate even standing out in this environment was hard work. The journey was relatively straight forward; I see an ad on TV, I drive to a supermarket (I might see some billboards on the way), I walk into a store, I buy, I leave.

Next week, I do the same again. For decades this was the way. But the world has changed. Dramatically.

Today, I can read a brand’s social media, check the Facebook page, Google the brand and read reviews,

have other alternatives suggested to me, check the website, or be directed to a purchase platform like Amazon, click through to buy, maybe do a bit of personalisation, arrange delivery, add some gift-wrapping, share my purchase with friends – and all this while I’m on the bus to work. This is the world brand design now needs to contend with. Not just stop, engage, persuade. Of course, brands will continue to be sold in shops.

Of course, brands need packaging and identity design. Yes, this is still important, but never before has what happens before, after and around the pack been equal to if not more influential than picking up the pack itself. The exciting moment comes when FMCG brands start embracing brand experience thinking. Challenging the norms of decades past and learning from service or digital-first brands.

Ok sure, but is brand experience just a fad? No, because brands with an experience-led mindset are making the big, historical brand owners sit up and take note. Let’s look at a direct comparison. Gillette versus Dollar Shave Club. For decades, Gillette was the world leader in shaving products. Remember those sexy ads with the tag line ‘the best a man can get’? Gillette invested in three things – high-end TV commercials,

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Image 1 - Nespresso (Image source: FutureBrand)

10 technological looking pack designs with lots of swooshes on, and the product itself. It invested so much in the product, that people started to ask ‘why do I need a razor with 20 blades?’. In the background, a movement was starting.

A small, niche start-up was really thinking about what consumers wanted.

And guess what, it wasn’t a 20-blade razor. It was ease, seamlessness, convenience, not having to go to the shop, not having to massacre a plastic vac-form to get into the product – oh and something with a decent aesthetic that fits into my lifestyle. Dollar Shave Club was born and consumers said ‘yep – there’s a brand for me’. Gillette could’ve done all of the above. But they didn’t. And then Unilever, who has sold products on shelves for 89 years, bought Dollar Shave Club. The bigger question for FMCG brand owners should be ‘why didn’t Unilever invent Dollar Shave Club?’

Brand owners need to evolve their thinking and create brand experiences that are fit for purpose – that meet and exceed consumer expectations. In some ways, it’s more exciting to take an established, legacy brand and turn it into a brand that embraces brand experience.

FutureBrand has been fortunate enough to work with Nespresso for over eighteen years. Looking back, we were creating a brand experience before the term existed. We didn’t think touchpoint, we thought holistic brand.

Of course, pack and logo and pattern and photography were all part of the mix. But we also thought about route to market, how do people buy this product, creating a ‘club’ people have to join, giving the brand experience principles that means the retail shops appear on Regent Street next to Louis Vuitton, not at train stations next to Starbucks. It’s no coincidence that the figure head was

George Clooney, not Wayne Rooney.

This came from really understanding the customer journey and walking in their shoes. Highlighting each and every possible interaction the brand could have with the consumer and owning it. FutureBrand created branding and design ideas that can live on this journey and are fit for purpose at that point in the journey.

It’s about designing for the journey, not applying to the journey. I’ll say it again, because it’s a small nuance with a big difference. Designing for the journey, not applying to the journey.

This was quite an unlock for me.

Our recent work with Forever 21 took this approach too. They wanted to create a new brand for a younger audience, that blended digital behaviour with bricks and mortar. Rather than briefing one agency on packaging, one on interiors and another on digital, we approached the process by really

Focus

“

The more a brand has an experience-led mindset, the more genuine the dialogue and connection, which ultimately means consumers are more likely to commit to a brand and choose it again and again.

understanding the consumers and their journey from end to end. It makes for a more interesting brief and a more successful, cohesive end result.

To liberate this type of thinking, FutureBrand needed to create environments where teams can ‘think brand experience’ for want of a better phrase. Nick Law, vice chairman and global CCO of R/GA talked about brand experience design having the potential to save traditional brands. He said that ‘old marketing’ was about pushing a message down to consumers, whereas the future is about putting the consumer first, so that their behaviours can become the message. This resonates well with me. His view on creating high performing teams was simple – bring lots of thinkers together who think differently. A room full of creatives that think one way will create a result that is, well, quite expected.

At FutureBrand, we consciously crash together disciplines to unlock new thinking. Our brand experience responses will feature a blend of pack designers, interior designs, engineers, digital experts, strategists and provocateurs or experts, depending

on the brief. The results are really exciting. We’re finding that even the more traditional FMCG brand owners are opening up to the possibilities and benefits of brand experience thinking over silo-touchpoint thinking. A recent experience-led project for a particularly commoditised category at Danone is causing waves within the business.

So, what am I getting at in all of this?

We need to shift our thinking and our behaviour to help shift brands and businesses. Here are a few simple ones for a start: • From making things to making experiences • From distribution to engagement • From gaining share to thinking about new routes to market • From corporate brand control to brands as evolving ecosystems • From broadcast campaigns to customised control and collaboration • From measured results to co-created value By designing for brand experiences, we are not trying to become ad or PR or digital agencies. But design agencies

of the future might have to have some of these skills in the mix. We should be helping brands behave and show up in ways the modern, tech-centric world demands. The big difference is simple – the consumer journey has changed. The task is simple too – close the gap between what the brand offers and what the consumer wants, at every touchpoint. The harder part is changing the behaviours of large consumer goods organisations who have been approaching brand design in the same way for decades.

The more a brand has an experienceled mind-set, the more genuine the dialogue and connection, which ultimately means consumers are more likely to commit to a brand and choose it again and again. If we can create this change, the future of our industry (and brands) looks very exciting.

This article was first published on FutureBrand’s news page on 4 June 2018 and has been adapted for The Singapore Marketer.

ABOUT THE WRITER

Jovan Buac is currently Client Director at global branding consultancy FutureBrand. Prior to this, Jovan spent nine years at Jones Knowles Ritchie (JKR). As a Client Director, Jovan is involved with managing design at a strategic level and leads a team of account managers who alongside him build strong client relationships and deliver high levels of client servicing. During his career he has worked with Unilever, Britvic, Diageo and Birds Eye. He also led the account for luxury fragrance house Penhaligon’s, for which JKR won numerous design awards including DBA Design Effectiveness, New York Festivals and a Marketing Week Award. Jovan started his career with an internship at advertising agency M&C Saatchi and also experienced life as a client in retail marketing before moving to branding and design.

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Feature

Challenger brands: Defying convention and questioning category norms A look at how a new breed of brands have redefined their product category and harnessed the power of unmet needs » By Cat Williams-Treloar

Think back to when the world was a little bit smaller, you’d buy a brand because it was available or your Mum recommended it. You didn’t have the luxury of hunting online, following brands that inspire you on Instagram or doing some rigorous product review research on Amazon.

Today the choices are unlimited. A quick look on google shows up so many results we are hard pressed for time to make the right decision. Brands have to think out of the box and be innovative to rise above and connect with the right audiences to grab a share of that growing category.

A new breed of brands has emerged and they have managed to go beyond the convention. These brands do not aim to be market leaders nor establishment brands, although they might eventually emerge to be leaders after redefining their category. Challenger brands are categorised by a mindset which sees them have business ambitions beyond conventional resources and share a common desire to bring change to an industry. The intention of challenger brands is to disrupt the market and consumer experience.

Here are four examples to inspire you to challenge convention and bring positive change in your industry.

Image 1 - Typeform (Image source: Typeform)

1. Redefining your category In a highly competitive world where most brands end up looking like the category, how do you stand out? Brands need to search deep in their category for the unfulfilled consumer need and define their product around it. When you define and shape a brand new category around a deep unfulfilled consumer need, it provides the brand a purpose beyond the product. People purchase meaning – they connect with brands that resonate with what they stand for.

Typeform is a beautiful example of redefining the data collection process.

Born out of Barcelona, they are a web-based platform for collecting and sharing information.

Typeform bravely defines the existing category as “boring”. Their viewpoint is that “Online forms are boring – Typeform fixes that.

Beautifully designed, the forms walk through collection process by asking one question at a time, just like a real conversation”. The tone of the copy

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and questions on each form is personal and warm, emulating a personal conversation. This is exactly what their products do; every survey or feedback form you build is customised, beautiful and conversational.

The Typeform team has turned data collection into an experience. They have successfully defined the category in their own terms by identifying the specific consumer need they can fulfill – personal touch and warmth in an otherwise cold, mechanised process.

And they have delivered on this need on every level, with every product they have. The human touch and warmth comes through all their products.

What is even more inspiring about the brand is that they have managed to integrate this insight (the need for human touch) into their company culture and values. In their headquarters in Barcelona, rather than enter into a standard office reception – you enter a bar. The bar has become an essential meeting place for the team to have real conversations – this has been so successful that passersby often pop their head in and ask for a coffee.

What can we learn from Typeform?

• Redefine category and highlight what’s missing in the current world • Relentlessly build a product experience that delivers on this • The redefining goes beyond the products you deliver, it applies and extends to company culture and environment

2. Find an unanswered need and solve it Think about the job that needs to be done for your customer. How do you address this challenge in a way that no one else has? Solving a pain point faster or better than your competitors will help you deliver value to your customers.

Drift is doing this today, and they are solving business sales conversations through a brilliantly designed “Conversational Marketing Platform”.

Armed with their experience in B2B software in their time at Hubspot (a developer and marketer of software products for inbound marketing and sales), Drift was able to spot a gap in the market that traditional tools did not solve with speed or smarts.

When you review Drift’s proposition, I believe they are solving the challenge of B2B sales faster and better than everyone else. They are clear in their offering - they aren’t trying to convert B2C sales or traditional product sales. It’s clear they are using Drift to have more meaningful B2B sales conversations. The platform started initially with only chatbots and is now extended to email.

When it comes to their marketing, if you jump on their website or get an email you’ll also notice how conversational their marketing is everywhere. They are living their mission of bringing meaningful conversations at all touchpoints in the customer journey.

What can we learn from Drift?

• Focus on a proposition that gives consumers meaning, and concentrate on solving a real problem • Use speed to develop and test one product, before expanding • Living their “Conversation” platform idea in all their marketing and messaging Image 2 - Drift (Image source: Drift)

What chatbots and marketing platforms were not delivering on was the desire for good conversations in the sales process. Traditional platforms are great at automating marketing and sales, but lacked the ability to allow companies to converse with customers in real time, allowing the brand to meet customers where they are. Drift’s solutions helped to improve the ‘conversational marketing experience’ which helped to increase the quality of sale leads all by enabling better conversations. Drift simple proposition was that ‘the world runs on conversations. So why doesn’t your marketing?’

Three steps that conversational marketing through Drift’s chatbots offer: 1. Personalise sales outreach 2. Meet the customer where they are 3. Have a real time conversation that does not feel like a hard sell – helping customers instead of selling to them is key here

3. Be different. Be one of a kind.

What makes you unique? How can you be meaningfully different at every stage of the customer journey? How you bring that uniqueness to all phases of the journey is a growth opportunity today. From on the first interaction with your brand on a search engine, to connecting with you on social media, to communicating with you when someone submits a ticket or has a challenge. What is your brands secret sauce?

Zoom is my go-to for video chat. I first heard about Zoom because a client of mine in New York was using it. I was floored by how incredible the experience was jumping on to use as well as setting up meetings.

At every stage of the journey from using their free service to chatting with their chatbot, to onboarding and training is incredible. When I signed up to be a paying customer of Zoom, I had a guy in Sydney reach out for a 15-minute video on-boarding. He asked a couple of

Feature

questions about how I found out about Zoom and helped to make sure I knew my way around.

Recently, when a LinkedIn contact asked for a recommendation for a video chat tool, I wasn’t surprised when myself and dozens of others recommended Zoom. As a brand fan, I was delighted when a Zoom employee also reached out to connect on LinkedIn. These guys are doing the little human things that don’t scale but make a huge impact.

What can we learn from Zoom?

• This brand has been propelled because of referrals • Not only does their product work but their experience at every stage of the journey is human and epic • Zoom partner with you to use their product throughout the customer journey

4. LIVE YOUR BEHAVIOURS Behaviours can define a brand.

Businesses have an opportunity to create new behaviours in their categories, with their interactions within teams or when they partner with customers.

Death to the Stock Photo is a refreshing example of a business behaving differently. If the name doesn’t make you smile alone, their beliefs do.

I first heard about Death to the Stock Photo when I was hunting for stock imagery that was different and not so stocky. The team view stock photography as a “programmed mentality”. Every part of the experience

Image 3 - Death to the Stock Photo (Image source: Death to the Stock Photo)

and the way the brand behaves is the antithesis of automation. And these refreshing behaviours define them.

Their co-founder David Sherry talks about how the stock photos they create are not fake, forced or contrived. When the team takes another scene or set of images, they intend to make them more authentic than traditional stock imagery. Or just, un manufactured and not programmed.

You can spot the “non-programmed” behaviours as they offer a free group of images up front that have real stories behind them. The anti-automation behaviours continue as you experience their platform, hear from them in emails and listen to them tell their story.

What can we learn from Death to the Stock Photo?

• Behaviour can be scaled in product • Behaviours can be felt everywhere • Behaviours can define your brand and thus influence how consumers experience your brand

-Challenger brands do not aim to please everyone but are bravely enough to question convention and bring about positive change in their category. It’s about standing for something and engaging your customers consistently day in and day out. It’s about offering value to your customer in a way that no other brand can.

Like Typeform, Drift, Zoom & Death to the Stock Photo, being able to identify the change you want to bring can be your growth weapon. And if you uncover something that helps to build a relationship with your customers there is nothing to stop you from scaling across the region and globally.

ABOUT THE WRITER

Cat Williams-Treloar founded Humanisation, a Human-Centered Marketing Consultancy. Cat helps brands Go-To-Market across APAC with the right blend of human touch in a digital world.

Cat is a paying customer of Zoom, Typeform & Death to the Stock photo.

She has no financial affiliation and the thoughts are her own.

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Guru Talk

Mastering the

Game of Influence How to establish a strong personal brand

» By Jamie Nonis

New York City. May 2018.

Instagram was blowing up with stunning visuals of places in the city being swathed in the distinctive shade of robin egg blue, Tiffany & Co’s signature colour. Some NYC taxis were even spotted to have ditched their iconic yellow hue in favour of Tiffany Blue®.

In the thick of it all was social media influencer Aarika Lee, with her personal photographer in tow.

The 35-year-old songstress, copywriter and marketing director, who has a following of over 20,000 on Instagram, was flown into New York City from Singapore for the launch of the Believe in Dreams Campaign where Tiffany & Co. unveiled its new Tiffany Paper Flowers® collection. At the launch party, she got to rub shoulders with some of the hottest young celebrities, including the likes of Elle Fanning, Kendall Jenner and Zendaya.

It was an amazing opportunity and Lee is grateful for the collaboration. “The whole experience was just incredible and I’m very thankful for this privilege,” she says.

One of the factors that helps Lee attract such partnerships is strategic personal branding.

Image 1 - Aarika Lee (Photo Credit: Cherlynn Lian)

While some may dismiss the influencer game as a frivolous patchwork of pretty posts, Lee differentiates herself with a well-curated feed anchored around relatable themes such as family, conscious parenting, music and sustainability. Stories and pictures depicted around these themes are underscored by eloquent reflections and captions delivered in a positive, inspirational voice. She talks about parenting and social issues, as well as a diverse variety of interesting topics close to her heart, all while maintaining her fashionista finesse.

When it comes to cultivating her personal brand, Lee abides by a one-word mantra: Authenticity. “It’s important to be authentic because you really can’t sustain something that isn’t true for you,” she says.

Indeed, authenticity is the cornerstone of personal branding.

“It’s about building trust with your audience. Authenticity allows you to engage and grow your relationship with your followers in a meaningful way. Without which you’ll likely be moving along with trends of where you think people want you to go, and it’ll be harder to develop your values and build long-lasting partnerships,” she reasons.

This would be counter-intuitive, as “the essence of branding is to create a strong identity,” says Lee, who’s a Marketing Director at branding agency Elementary & Co. But is personal branding important if you have no desire to be a social media influencer?

Absolutely.

Just think of personal branding as a way of building and shaping your identity in the world.

As Jeff Bezos, founder of Amazon, famously said, “Your brand is what people say about you when you’re not in the room.”

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Successful businesses have Brand Manuals or Brand Style Guides that serve as guidelines for how all marketing messages should be communicated.

It is about how others perceive you, and here’s the good news: You have the power to take control and shape the narrative instead of letting it be defined for you.

While you may not be interested in being an “influencer”, developing a positive personal brand in your professional sphere will have enormous mileage and impact for your career.

A strong personal brand will help you stand out and increase your chances of getting hired by prospective employers. According to a 2016 survey by the Society for Human Resource Management, 84 percent of hiring managers use social media to hire; 96 percent through LinkedIn, 66 percent use Facebook, and 53 percent via Twitter.

In a competitive labour market, a strong personal brand can help differentiate you from other potential job candidates. Beyond basic competencies, recruiters are actively using social media to find out information on potential candidates – personal interests, background, important character traits and other clues that might give them an idea of whether you would be a good fit for their corporate culture.

Joshua Yim, CEO of human resource consulting firm Achieve Group, has this advice for people looking to get headhunted: “Stay active and cultivate an online presence. Share thought leadership articles related to your professional field on your social media platforms such as LinkedIn or Facebook.

Over time, your personal brand will come to be associated with that area of expertise and people will seek you out for collaboration opportunities.”

If you’re a business owner or solopreneur, personal branding is even more important. Customers, clients and

vendors are more likely to do business with a company whose leader has a great personal brand. Think Richard Branson and Elon Musk, whose personal brands and reputations provide enormous advantage and publicity for their businesses.

Crafting a personal brand statement Successful businesses have Brand Manuals or Brand Style Guides that serve as guidelines for how all marketing messages should be communicated.

This ensures that all brand interactions are consistent, and helps to support a cohesive brand image, aligned with the brand values.

This same philosophy applies to personal branding.

Personal brand statements focused on career objectives and work experience are great to have on your CV. I would go further as to recommend crafting personal brand statements even in the context of social media. These help provide focus and direction in content creation.

Lee agrees: “Establishing your own vision statement helps to guide you in crafting the content you want to put out there. As you craft each post or piece of content, you can always check back against your mission/vision statement: What do I stand for? How does it support my vision?”

Sustainability, for example, is a central pillar to Lee’s personal brand. “When there are partnership opportunities, I always seek out sustainability or ecofriendly angles and messages I can highlight, as my audience trusts me on this topic and I know they will appreciate that emphasis,” explains the mother of two.

On a personal basis, I recall the career objective I stated on the very first resume I sent out at the start of my career: “To inform, educate, inspire and entertain” through my editorial work.

Reflecting on my almost two decades in the business of content creation since, this vision still rings true for me 17 years later, serving to inform the type of content I create and curate, even on my personal social media platforms.

When crafting your own personal brand statement, start by asking yourself these questions: • What do I stand for?

• What are my values?

• What am I passionate about?

• Why do I love what I do?

• What are my key skills, attributes and experiences that make me unique?

Think about what you wish for people to associate with you when they think of your name. Is there a specific subject matter in which you want to be perceived as an expert on? Is there a set of qualities and core values you would like connected to your brand? Once you establish how you wish to be perceived, you can start to be more intentional and strategic about crafting, building and promoting your personal brand.

Guru Talk

6 Ways to boost your professional profile 1. Google yourself Start by conducting a personal brand audit to evaluate your current digital footprint. Google yourself and see what comes up. What articles or posts do you want to keep, and which should you delete immediately as they may damage your reputation? It may be necessary to do a clean-up, and thereafter shape your online presence in line with the image you want to project.

2. Get social Think about how much information and what kind of information you are comfortable sharing publicly. Create and strengthen your online presence.

Establishing your digital presence with a professional blog or killer website is essential if you are in business. Even if you’re not into social media on a personal level, it is helpful to build a relevant presence on the appropriate social media platforms for your industry.

For example, if you’re an interior designer or stylist, Pinterest would be the most important social media platform. If you’re a photographer, Instagram would be key as it is the most photo-heavy social media platform.

3. Share your expertise Write articles to demonstrate your thought leadership in areas of interest and position yourself as an authority in your field. Share these articles on your blog and LinkedIn account, and seek out opportunities to get them published in third-party media/sites. If you’re a business owner or solopreneur, start and distribute a regular newsletter with useful tips and insights, and always be on the lookout for other ways to offer value to your audience.

4. Invest in professional photography Get a professional head shot done.

Potential employers or clients are less likely to take you seriously with a casual mobile phone upload taken at your cousin’s barbeque.

5. Join industry associations Network, network, network. Volunteer to give talks or conduct seminars to share your expertise. Contribute to relevant industry magazines. This helps to build credibility and establish yourself as an authority in your specific area of work.

6. Give back Offer your services (marketing, public relations, accounting, etc.) pro bono to non-profit organisations and charitable foundations. This helps to raise your profile, provide exposure, and you never know who you might encounter during the course of these engagements that could give rise to other opportunities.

A strong personal brand is built on a strong narrative. Once you have established your core set of brand values and developed a narrative around them, it becomes easier to be strategic about building and promoting your personal brand. Your brand values will also provide guiding principles in shaping content for your online platforms. As you expand your digital footprint and master the game of influence, don’t be surprised as more doors start opening up for you.

ABOUT THE WRITER

Jamie Nonis is a veteran journalist who specialises in interviewing top-level business minds from global CEOs to entrepreneurs. As a content strategist, she empowers progressive companies and individuals in crafting their brand messaging and steering the narrative through the creation of engaging content. www.jamienonis.com

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Learning Site

Lights, Camera, Action! You’re On: The new breed of spokespersons

» By Julinda Mega

Advertising, check. PR, check.

Social, check. Trade show, sponsorship, promotions, check, check, check. Your marketing plan – done.

Except that you are missing a crucial element that is right under your nose.

You know it better than any of these elements. In fact, you look at it every day.

What is it? In a word, it is you.

That’s right: you.

If a mobile phone was held in front of you this moment, would you be on-brand, on-message and perfectly happy to be on that screen? Unrehearsed, unscripted and impromptu?

Quick check: What are you wearing? How are you standing?

What words tumble immediately out of your mouth? In short, does every part of you express the brand? Can you say something immediately that you’d be happy to see go viral?

Welcome to the world of the ‘Always-On’ Marketer.

Marketing managers need to live and breathe their brand and serve as natural brand advocates.

Social media demands ALL spokespeople deliver compelling but crisp key messages contribute to a positive image of the company, all while remaining authentic.

This means you have to be ready to rock and prepped for the limelight social media will throw on you at all times. You have to be ‘On Brand’, ‘On Message’ at all times. The world of social media demands that you be.

And your role requires just that.

In our ‘Always-On’ world, the role of the spokesperson is no longer just confined to the CEO. Today’s marketing manager needs to be someone who is able to articulate your company’s marketing messages in a 1 minute video, ready to be uploaded on social media at any time.

You could be in your jeans, tearing open boxes on event set-up day; and if a passing stranger asked a question, your response could find itself on Instagram faster than you can say ‘Let me rephrase that’.

You could be joking in a networking event one minute, then find your private joke ripping its way through the social network the next – with no chance of a retraction.

And the blogger who mistakenly identifies you as the CMO will not pause to ask whether you want to be identified on his post.

How does one become a credible, compelling spokesperson? Is it possible to be a good brand ambassador at all times? And what does it really mean for one to be ‘On Brand’ and ‘On Message’?

On Brand The easiest way to think about this is to imagine your brand as a person.

What kind of clothes would my brand wear? How would I sound?

How would I speak? What sort of personality would I have - am I an extrovert or introvert? Would I be bubbly or contemplative?

You can start with this simple exercise daily. At random times of the day stop yourself mid task and ask the question: am I On Brand now? If a hidden camera caught me

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Social media demands prompt and immediate responses. There is no luxury of preparation time in the world of social media. The question is posed, the answer is recorded. No warm-up, no ‘take two’.

in this moment – talking to my team, briefing the agency, walking to the lift, ordering a coffee – would my behaviour match my brand’s image?

Here’s an easy list to start with as you do this freeze-frame check: • Voice: Does the way I speak match my brand? What kind of tone should I take?

• Body language: What would an observer conclude about our brand from the way I carry myself? Do I hold myself, move and gesture in a way that matches our image? What are the things that are important to me?

Is my behaviour guided by my brand’s values?

• Expression: Where is our brand on an attitude scale, and how closely do my expressions match that?

Do I need to look more serious or lighten up?

• Wardrobe: Do I match the brand with my style and overall look? R right down to my accessories, my pen, and my hairstyle?

Being a brand ambassador requires you to embody the brand at all times. You provide visible, credible representation for your brand. A social media brand ambassador is someone who does the same on social media platforms - Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, and Instagram.

On Message Social media demands prompt and immediate responses. There is no luxury of preparation time in the world of social media. The question is posed, the answer is recorded. No warm-up, no ‘take two’. Whether the question comes to you on Twitter, from the audience during Q&A, via a LinkedIn message or over a couple of drinks, what you say exemplifies your brand message.

Invest time now!

Step one: Establish a key narrative and messages that will help support your brand. Develop a set of core phrases you can use on any occasion that will support your brand messages.

Step two: deliver them! Practice your delivery. Every experienced spokesperson will tell you that just reading the document is not practice.

You have to pull your eyes away from your script, look people in the eye, and say it from the heart.

Practice with people. Colleagues are ideal as they will not cut you any slack. If you can’t bear the thought of stumbling in front of your colleagues, do it with a family member. The key is getting used to saying these words to another person, with sincerity, while delivering all other On Brand elements (refer to the checklist above).

Learning Site

Get a trusted family member to film you on your phone. Being able to watch yourself deliver the brand messages allows for you to reflect and improve on your delivery and content. You might also want to try recording just the audio without the image to help you focus on listening to your words, your style, and your overall tone. Repeat this until you are confident in your delivery.

When the unexpected moments come, you will thank yourself for the rehearsals. The familiarity accumulated from delivering the messages repeatedly will help you deliver ‘On Message’ in a heartbeat.

This is what seasoned spokespersons do all the time. This is what you, as the ultimate brand ambassador, will have to do, in a moment’s notice.

On Screen Why On Screen? You may say you don’t intend to be a TV spokesperson; you’re the marketer not the CEO. It is helpful for customers to be able to relate and get to know the many faces of the brand in an increasingly automated world. Whether its relating a new campaign launch or communicating an apology on social media due to an inappropriate social media video, consumers want to be communicated to by real people.

While you can’t control who is filming or recording you, you can take steps to embody your brand messages and work towards being On Brand, On Message to project the very best of your brand, when the lens suddenly turns your way.

Those messages you practiced into your phone were a great start.

Now take it further. Just as you know how to put an Insta-worthy post, decide what your On Brand pose, posture and expression should be. Can you step into it naturally, the moment you enter a room?

Can you hold it onstage for a long time as you hand out awards? Can you maintain it while ascending a large staircase, chatting over cocktails or huddling with your team?

Decide now what your On Screen image should be. Curate the microelements of that image. Test out your behaviours, making sure they come across in photo and video as you intend. Critique all images of you that appear in social media, and do it dispassionately, as you would any other brand expression. Just keep asking: Is this our brand?

Conclusion The rise of social media and technology brings with it many opportunities to connect with our customers. There is a platform out there for every audience segment.

Good spokespersons connect with their audiences and provide genuine, relatable responses, while building up their brand messages. So keep practicing those messages and you will master your own style in no time. Just remember: You’re On!

ABOUT THE WRITER

Julinda Mega is a communications trainer, certified coach and facilitator. As a communications coach, Julinda helps clients develop and deliver their messages effectively to various stakeholders, including media and employees. She has trained and coached business leaders across diverse industries such as technology, media, and oil and energy, among others.

She is also a specialist in corporate communications and stakeholder engagement. With 20 years of corporate experience in multinational firms such as IBM, DHL, Temasek Holdings and Hill & Knowlton, she brings rich business insights into designing and delivering optimal communications plans which enhance corporate brand and reputation.

Julinda graduated with Honours (Second Upper) in Political Science from the National University of Singapore. She holds a Master’s degree in International Communications from Macquarie University, Australia. She has earned the WSQ Advanced Certificate in Training and Assessment (ACTA).

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PR Tips from the Pros: A Chat with

Nathalyn Fong

Director of Public Relations & Marketing Communications, The Ritz-Carlton, Millennia Singapore With a diverse career spanning hospitality, healthcare and the non-profit sector over 16 years, TSM chats with Nathalyn Fong to get insights on the fast evolving world of Public Relations in the digital age.

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Could you tell us more about how you started your career in PR and Communications?

I started my career in luxury hospitality as the Marketing Communications Manager for The Sentosa Resort & Spa (now known as the Sofitel Singapore Sentosa Resort & Spa) in 2009. In 2012, I joined Pan Pacific Singapore as the Public Relations Manager and was part of the hotel’s re-opening team, responsible for executing media campaigns to profile the re-launch of the hotel. Thereafter, I joined The Ritz-Carlton, Millennia Singapore as Director of Public Relations & Marketing Communications in 2014.

Reporting to the Director of Sales and Marketing, I plan and support both local and regional public relations and marketing campaigns designed to elevate the reputation of The Ritz-Carlton as a leader in luxury lifestyle experiences, and to profile the legendary service offered by our Ladies and Gentlemen.

Industry Chat

Tell us what a typical day for you is like.

The day starts with ‘Line-Up’, an integral and unique part of The RitzCarlton culture. Around the world, each property begins every shift with a Daily Line-Up, a tradition that helps to reinforce the importance each member of staff plays in serving our guests. During line ups, we go through the service value of the day, hotel announcements, VIP arrivals and events. Upon returning to my desk, I check the daily media alerts for hotel and industry news, followed by emails and doing necessary follow ups. Other components of my day include attending meetings with various departments and my team members about upcoming hotel events and/ or campaigns, briefing and liaising with agencies on collateral artwork, overseeing photo and video shoots, and vetting content.

How has PR evolved over the years, especially with the advent of social media? How can a PR practitioner keep up with this?

The rise of social media has eroded traditional PR outreach.

With the emergence of online Key Opinion Leaders (KOLs) and micro-influencers, more brands are leveraging their huge following to engage with their target audiences.

The Ritz-Carlton has an ongoing brand partnership with renowned travel photographer Trey Ratcliff, an online KOL who has a combined reach of over 13 million across his social media channels. Through this partnership, we hope to inspire travel and profile the luxury experiences at Ritz-Carlton properties worldwide.

In this digital world, consumers have also become very comfortable in engaging brands directly to communicate both positive and negative feedback. This means that our online channels require real time monitoring and response in order to protect our brand reputation, especially in times of crisis; we have to prepare ourselves on all fronts, ensuring all communication platforms are covered – with copy, photography and video ready to go.

The social media landscape is constantly changing. It helps to have team members who are millennials as they are usually the first adopters of new social apps that come online.

I unabashedly learnt how to use Snapchat and Instagram stories from millennial colleagues and team members.

Video content is king. People are consuming video content more than ever, and we feel the increasing need to showcase hotel experiences via this medium.

What are the trends you see on the role of PR to businesses?

Businesses are increasingly managing their own PR as social media has allowed brands to communicate directly with consumers, and to tell or break their own stories. This increasing twoway conversation or engagement also means that the onus is on businesses to effectively manage their own communications through digital and social media, which they may or may not be equipped to handle.

The Ritz-Carlton, Millennia Singapore has achieved several accolades over the past 5 years, can you share one of your most significant PR effort done for the hotel that received the most significant media coverage?

In 2015, both our signature restaurants were closed for a major transformation. To “disguise” the renovation work, we conceived a campaign called “Refreshing Our Palette”, inspired by the homonyms “palette” and “palate”, which reference an artist’s palette and our taste palate, respectively.

Leveraging on the hotel’s longstanding reputation as an art hotel, it was befitting to chronicle the different phases of the restaurants’ transformation through a series of ‘live’ art installations. From April to August 2015, a different artist showcased their craft ‘live’ in the hotel lobby for three hours daily, for approximately a week each month.

The interactive components of some art installations (we had a 3D wall that guests could pose in front of with props) and the opportunity to engage with several artists (including the famed Ernest Zacharevic known for his vibrant street art murals in Penang), also served to enhance the guest experience. To date, this campaign is one I am most proud of for helping to conceptualise and execute in my tenure with the hotel.

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Great storytelling capabilities are key to rising above the competition. Nothing is more important than being able to communicate your idea in an engaging manner that will connect with your audience.

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How does a company stand out from its competitors in the area of PR and communications?

Great storytelling capabilities are key to rising above the competition.

Nothing is more important than being able to communicate your idea in an engaging manner that will connect with your audience.

The exponential growth in volume and the channels available (paid, owned, shared and earned media) necessitates that PR professionals be selective about funneling their messages to the right audience at the right time, and via the appropriate channels, to achieve their intended outcomes.

What entrepreneurs can do if they have no budget for a PR agency or PR headcount?

Invest in attending networking events and building relationships with important stakeholders the media, agencies or internal customers. Sometimes, a single contact can go a long way.

What future PR and Marketing plans does The Ritz-Carlton, Millennia Singapore have moving forward?

We are working on a couple of exciting projects which include a hotel branded board game, and our latest brand initiative #RCMemories to profile memorable moments and unique themed programming at our hotel.

What are the biggest challenges in PR and how can one prepare for them?

Public relations is becoming an increasingly matrix environment that could encompass, but not necessarily be limited to digital marketing, social media management, influencer engagement, video/multi-media production. There is increasing pressure for PR professionals to take on or cultivate these expanded skills sets.

Use one word to describe the kind of Marketer you are (i.e. Passion, quirky, formal, and creative). Share a bit more about it.

Passionate. Nothing gives me greater satisfaction than to see a PR pitch materialise into a full page feature story, or for a marketing campaign to translate into revenue target achievements for the business unit that the campaign is supporting.

Industry Chat

Interview with:

Joyce Koh

Brand and Communications Director, Asia Pacific, Sodexo Joyce oversees the strategic Brand and Communications needs of the Asia Pacific region for Sodexo. Supporting different business segments across 18 territories, she actively collaborates with the senior leadership team to profile and convey thought leadership, develop employer branding and employee engagement strategies for greater business successes.

Her communications experience extends to multi-channel platforms including digital content development, public relations, issue management and stakeholder engagement. Joyce has extensive brand experience delivering great consumer Food & Beverage brands and has developed multiple creative retail brands and communication campaigns, enhancing Asian consumers’ enjoyment of new dining cultures and cuisines. She consults with a number of professional marketing panels and has led her teams to achieve internationally-renowned Branding and Creative awards.

Tell us a little about yourself, your experience, and your current role.

I honed my Brand and Communications expertise with a regional F&B group, heading up the Brand Development team, and looking after a portfolio of retail F&B brands across Asia. It was an allencompassing role that got me in touch with all the intimate aspects of marketing, communications and branding, before I chose to specialise in communications. I had read History and Political Science at University and looking back, that background definitely helped ignite my interests in current and social affairs which are integral to my choice to do communications. It’s absolutely interesting to see how messaging and communications are a cause and effect of what surrounds us every day.

I am currently the Brand and Communications Director for Sodexo, the French food services and facilities management company headquartered in France. Globally, Sodexo employs about 430,000 people and is present in 80 countries around the world. We provide a variety of food solutions services, facilities management and employee rewards solutions in 18 territories in APAC. I look after the Brand and Communications portfolio across the different businesses in this region.

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Being aware of new lifestyle trends, influences and factors shaping behaviour in the marketplace is critical to the way our brands evolve to keep current and continuously relevant.

My main role is to ensure that brand and communications strategies are executed well, and to achieve good profiling for our brand. We are transitioning from a B2B brand to become even more consumer centric as we recognise the growing number of opportunities for direct interaction with our consumers throughout the customer journey.

The many services that a consumer experiences with Sodexo present direct opportunities for engagement; and it is critical that we leverage on new innovation and technology to delight and excite our consumers.

Can you share some trends and important changes you have witnessed over the years? How has it affected the communications industry?

The entire communications delivery framework has changed.

More often than not, digital may now be the starting point as opposed to being just part of the mix of channels we possess at our disposal. A lot of content development needs to be developed from a completely new perspective, and the rest of the channels may then flow through in a complementary manner.

At the heart of it, you need to have an appreciation of the business context that your brand is operating in, get an understanding of consumer behaviour and shape your communications content and brand strategy to allow for meaningful and relevant connections.

As a brand owner, what is your value proposition that your customers will find relevant in their lives? Being aware of new lifestyle trends, influences and factors shaping behaviour in the marketplace is critical to the way our brands evolve to keep current and continuously relevant.

For example, in food service delivery in hospitals, we have digital apps that empower patients to order their meals. In schools and universities, we engage students by allowing them to peruse school canteen menus on their mobile phones and place orders before their class even ends.

In facilities management, how can we incorporate robotics to up safety standards and productivity? This is an example of how digital trends are incorporated in our service delivery, thereby helping to improve the quality of life for our customers.

What is Sodexo’s strength? What does it do to differentiate itself?

Our founder, Pierre Bellon, has always believed that businesses should engage with their community.

It is without a doubt our belief that for an organisation to do well, it needs to do business responsibly.

We have a strong Corporate Responsibility DNA at Sodexo. The three issues closest to our heart are on stopping Hunger, ensuring Diversity and Inclusion through gender balance, and reducing food waste.

Stop Hunger Foundation “Stop Hunger” is our corporate responsibility arm – to address malnutrition globally. Through our flagship corporate giving initiative “Servathon”, we partner with various non-profit organisations, such as Community Chest and Food Bank Singapore. Among a number of initiatives, in Dec 2017, we worked with Thye Hwa Kwan Senior Centre to put together a mini pop up supermarket at a HDB void deck to serve the needs of the elderly who may not be very mobile and had difficulties obtaining their daily grocery needs. Our employees, suppliers and clients came together to serve alongside one another. The seniors who were not so mobile, were very appreciative of this as they could pick up their needs without travelling too far.

Gender Balance is another area that we care deeply about. We conducted a study in 2016 among 50,000 of our employees and were able to conclude that gender balanced teams were linked to better business performance. The study suggested that teams with a male to female ratio (or vice versa) between 40% to 60% consistently delivered the best results in financial performance, employee engagement and client retention; reinforcing that no one gender is better than the other and that diversity is key to enhanced performance.

We walk the talk and try to implement this even at the senior management level. We have a

Industry Chat Chairwoman of our Sodexo board, with 50% representation of women on our Board, 38% women on our executive teams and women in 30% of senior leadership roles.

With regards to our recruitment policies, we ensure a good balance of candidates to select from with a good mix of males and females. We still have some way to go in achieving gender balance in Asia, however we are making good strides.

Reducing Food Waste – we work closely with our clients to reduce food waste in sites we serve. Tracking food production, engaging with students and clients to actively implement our Waste Watch program to track and reduce food waste.

Corporate Responsibility continues to be an important point of differentiation for Sodexo.

As a company, we are globally recognised for our CSR efforts and have accumulated accolades in this area, such as Fortune’s World Most Admired Companies, Diversity Inc’s Top 50 Companies for Diversity, top-rated company in its sector on the Dow Jones Sustainability Index and being awarded the Champion of Good by NVPC Singapore.

What are some of the skills needed in brand management/ communications roles today to reflect some of these changes you have witnessed? How have you tried to improve yourself to stay on top of these changes?

I take a personal interest in things happening outside of work and my industry. Popular culture, political influences, technological innovation shapes the work we do as communicators.

Communicators are the external voice internally within the organisation. It is important that we “place” ourselves outside of the organisation, and look into the organisation. We get caught up quickly with things that are happening within the company and can be “sucked in”. Above all, I strongly believe that communicators

need to provide the external perspective internally – to be that check and balance. We need to ensure that the messages we present are relevant to people receiving them outside the organisation.

What are some of the challenges you face?

There are definitely opportunities to communicate better, especially in the area of employee ambassadorship.

We have 70,000 employees in APAC and we believe they are our best ambassadors.

How can we better share with our employees the great work that we do every day, the values we hold dear and to share that with the people they meet and interact with?

Apart from a number of programmes to engage our people, from our Induction programme to training, Sodexo requires all Managers to participate in our ‘Spirit of Inclusion’ workshop. Through this session, employees are made aware of Sodexo’s values and our emphasis of being an inclusive organisation, where any one can feel comfortable and be themselves in the company. This helps our employees understand the tolerance and understanding that we need to accord one another despite the great diversity of our teams.

Reputation management is critical in the digital age. With social media, negative feedback from one customer’s experience can go viral and affect the brand very quickly.

Can you share your experience with this?

As a company, reputation management is the very basis of your relationship with your customers.

It is the reason why customers put their trust and faith in your brand.

While being prepared with a welldeveloped crisis communication plan is important, the speed at which some of the issues accelerate often require teams to think on their feet while playing catch up.

There will be some baptisms of fire and trials that you have to go through in your career to allow you to achieve improvements on your processes.

My advice is to take a very honest and transparent view of the situation and be frank about what has gone wrong.

One important point to note in times of crisis - it is not always about dealing with the media and the external audience, it is also a critical time to have to manage internal stakeholders. It is natural for the latter to go in different directions or sometimes respond taking a defensive stance. It is a fine balancing act trying to ensure complete internal alignment while managing the issue at hand; but I truly believe that taking an honest unbiased look at the situation will help guide you in your communications strategy.

Any last words of advice for marketers?

To be good brand manager, you need to have an understanding of ALL the different aspects of the brand. This includes getting the perspective of the different functions within the company. Only then will you be able to clearly communicate what the brand stands for.

Immerse yourself in the business process. Learn what makes each department tick. Keep interested in what goes on in the business, how it is run and managed. When I talk about my brand, I understand the challenges of each function and department.

If you are only communicating from the perspective of a communicator or from the perspective of the marketing function, your messages will lack depth. Our role in marketing communications is to support and grow the business. For that to happen, the deep understanding of all different aspects of the business is essential. The good grasp and rich understanding of the business will go a long way in helping you in your brand communications journey.

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