YDM has identified four obstacles challenging marketers and brands on the path to new forms of marketing. These four obstacles are a lack of understanding of modern marketing, especially among FMCG businesses; problems with data management; a lack of experienced teams; and a lack of urgency. These issues cause brands to miss opportunities to succeed in the world of Marketing 5.0. YDM also showcased results across several industries, such as helping a real estate business close a project that had been pending for more than two years within four months, increasing hospital revenue by 30% within one month, and increasing media conversion in the motor insurance business by 120% within one month.

Mr. Tanapon Subsomboon, Chief Executive Officer of YDM (Thailand) Co., Ltd., said that after YDM entered into a strategic partnership with IGAWORKS, a South Korean MarTech unicorn startup, to launch DFinery, a Customer Data Platform (CDP) that has already served more than 700 leading global brands such as Samsung, Starbucks, and SK Telecom, in Thailand, YDM has also helped brands prepare in terms of technology and data infrastructure in order to move into the stage of marketing transformation.

YDM found that more than 50% of Thai organizations face four key obstacles that hinder a successful transition to new forms of marketing, namely:

1. Lack of understanding of modern marketing
This is especially true in the Fast Moving Consumer Goods (FMCG) sector. Most businesses selling everyday consumer goods with high turnover still lack an understanding of Marketing 5.0 in four areas:

– They still conduct marketing in the form of short-term campaigns lasting only 1–3 months, whereas modern marketing requires long-term, always-on thinking and automation. This means using various technologies to help ensure marketing reaches customers accurately, with the right message, in the right place, at the right time.

– They place more importance on brand communication than on building brand experience. In reality, creating engagement between brands and consumers through various touchpoints, both online and offline, is even more important.

– They still focus on big ideas and key messages aimed at large segments of potential customers, whereas modern marketing emphasizes finding many small ideas that can target more specific micro-segments.

– They lack understanding of technology and still need a basic understanding of modern marketing tools, such as the difference between a CDP and a CRM, which most brands still cannot clearly distinguish.

2. Problems with data management
In modern marketing, “data management” is at the heart of marketing transformation. Problems are commonly found in service businesses such as finance and insurance, or businesses with many products across multiple categories, where multiple departments work together and use a variety of marketing tools such as chatbots, CRM systems, and e-commerce order management systems. Data is stored in a fragmented way—for example, advertising data is with the media agency, sales data is with the sales team, and CRM data is with the customer care team. Without systematic data tracking, the data cannot be centralized for analysis, nor can AI be effectively used to improve marketing performance.

3. Lack of experienced teams
Many organizations still do not have a team directly responsible for marketing transformation and usually assign the task to the existing marketing team instead. Because the nature of the work is different, this often leads to a lack of understanding of technology, and in some organizations there may even be a lack of proper understanding of digital marketing itself. In foreign companies, and in some large Thai organizations, dedicated teams are now being established specifically for marketing transformation, including roles such as Chief Data Officer or Chief Information Officer. These are key positions for planning work in line with organizational goals and for moving quickly and effectively toward new forms of marketing transformation.

4. Lack of urgency
This problem is found in almost every organization in Thailand. Although many recognize the importance of marketing transformation, they still view it as important but not urgent. As a result, it is pushed to the bottom of the priority list in favor of other work that may appear to deliver clearer short-term financial results but is actually less important in the long term. This causes organizations to miss the opportunity to gain long-term competitive advantage. This contrasts with multinational companies and some large domestic organizations that prioritize marketing transformation first and have already started implementing personalized marketing and marketing automation in concrete ways.

However, these obstacles have led brands and marketers across industries to place greater importance on working with expert marketing consultancies that have the know-how, understand business, and understand the Thai market, to help define strategies for moving toward new forms of marketing. YDM has had the opportunity to be part of the teams helping Thai organizations across many industries successfully overcome marketing transformation. Each sector has achieved clear target results. For example, in the real estate sector, YDM was able to help close projects within four months that had been pending for more than two years by using data partnering techniques—finding partners with databases of prospective property buyers and combining that data with Facebook and Google data to make media buying more precise.

In the hospital sector, YDM was able to increase revenue by 30% within one month by implementing entirely new data tracking for marketing, making it possible to clearly see the performance of each marketing channel. In the motor insurance sector, media conversion increased by as much as 120% within one month through the full implementation of a CDP (Customer Data Platform). YDM management believes that helping Thai organizations move beyond marketing transformation in every industry will improve the overall economy both now and in the future.

Credit : https://www.brandbuffet.in.th/2023/08/ydm-4-keys-marketing-transformation-challenges/