About the Guest

Wilson Raj is the Global Director of Customer Intelligence at SAS. Raj is responsible for global marketing to establish, evolve and evangelize SAS’ analytics-powered marketing solutions. Data-inspired and creatively-driven, Raj has built brand value, engagement, and loyalty through expertise in strategy and analytical marketing. With over twenty years of experience in multiple industries, he has engineered strategic programs that fuse advertising, branding, digital marketing, social media, relationship marketing, and public relations for connected brand experiences. He has held global leadership positions in marketing at Fortune Global 500® companies such as Microsoft, Novell. Medtronic, and Philips. He also advised C-level executives on digital strategy while at award-winning agencies that include Publicis Groupe and WPP-owned agencies—such as VML/Young & Rubicam and Wunderman. Raj is often featured in keynotes and in major media publications such as Adweek, CMSWire, CNBC.com, CRM Buyer, Direct Marketing News, eMarketer, Forbes, InformationWeek, MarTech Advisor, MarketingProfs, ZDNet, and more. He’s also the co-host of the Reimagine Marketing podcast.

Connect with Wilson Raj

Episode summary

In this episode, Wilson Raj shares his knowledge about marketing and customer experience from a career spanning over two decades. He dives into modern marketing practices, including AI, and discovers why no automation methods today can gimmick human marketing. We also talk about marketing analytics, immersive technology, and the challenges faced by the industry today. Tune in to the episode for unparalleled insights on the subject from the global marketing genius!

Key takeaways

We can see the future of customer experience a decade from now in the evolution of technology & the behavior and perceptions of consumers sometime today.
The marketing sector needs to stay ahead of consumer technologies to serve its customers better.
Data Analytics is helping businesses deliver personalized content and make better interactions with customers.
Integrating immersive technology into applications and processes can dramatically improve customer experience.
Though AI and technological growth are helping automate a lot of marketing and customer engagement practices, the role of marketers in the industry remains strongly existent.

Quotes

“The heartbeat of modern marketing, today and hopefully into 2030 and beyond, is data and analytics. But the soul of modern marketing will be the human touch.”

Highlights from the episode

What are the disrupters to marketing today?

Two forces are fighting against each other in the marketing space today. They are consumer and marketing technologies. Marketers are always behind, not because they’re not using all the channels available to them, but because they are far behind when meeting the customer in those channels, understanding them, making decisions, and serving up experiences. They are having to catch up with and adopt new technologies, with the marketing system still antiquated. Today, marketers need a new operating model to keep pace or get ahead of consumer tech.

According to you, what are the new processes and technologies to really look forward to?

I look forward to three broad categories. One is embracing innovations in data and selling strategies so that we can personalize and scale the business. Customer predictions and journeys are no longer linear or even a circular kind of cycle. From a mathematical perspective, there are infinite ways by which customers want to transact, seek help, and be informed and entertained.

The second one is to employ analytic scope capabilities to help adapt to the data in real-time and then reinforce those experiences because data by itself is useless.

Lastly, using data for analytics and making predictive decisions. It helps deliver specific content and interactions, which is fantastic.

Do you agree with the statement that says providing business stakeholders with analytics generates more questions than answers?

Yes. If you do it correctly, it should generate more questions. AI and chatbots are just a branch of analytics. What we want is an advanced, more predictable strategy that adapts to different kinds of data sources. So, good analytics will help you make decisions and generate questions that the brand may not have even thought of.

Many countries in the world are facing a complete second wave. With the online space being the complete outreach, how do customers adapt to the change?

Regardless of where your customers and brands are, digital experience has accelerated many industries, including banking and retail. What is behind this is the data, the intelligence in using immersive technologies, whether it’s IR or AR. And you are then deciding at the right moment so that you can go from need to satisfaction within four seconds.

Could you share some of the findings from your research on marketing?

We identify five drivers between the consumers and the brand. The first one is the driver around intelligent technology. To stay relevant, you must enable a mobile-first behavior.

The second one is finding an immersive technology. The headline here is how you bridge the consumer experience and integrate physical with the digital. Good examples of this are McCormick and Schmick’s. We also have examples from companies like Deluxe, a paint company that, just from your home’s comfort, helps you look at what your living room could look like without painting it. There are applications on your mobile app that help you paint your wall virtually. That is immersive technology.

The third one is digital trust. We found that trust sits at the heart of the value exchange between the brand and the consumer. The survey showed that 73% of consumers worldwide are very concerned with how marketers use their personal data. So, trust has to be at the front and center of customer experience.

The fourth one is loyalty in the digital age. And the headline here is that it’s not just enough to have loyalty programs. I believe you need to infuse engagement and participation throughout the experience.

The last one is Agilian automation. It is where the brands we’re talking about invests in data, AI, and so on. 80% of the marketers surveyed said that their ability to deliver excellent experiences is tied to analyzing data in real-time.

Learn more: Experience 2030: Future-Proof Your Customer Strategy