Page 64 - Gulf Marketing Review

D I G I T A L

DIGIT-ALL

Riad Aoun, Marketing and Communications Manager, IBM Middle East & Pakistan,
discusses how companies can digitise their customer experience successfully.

any companies in the region and across than 6,000 consumers, whose answers were digital displays in a company’s physical store,
Mvarious industries are launching digital compared with the executives’ responses to or interacting with a device or computer via
initiatives with the goal of improving customers’ determine their alignment. voice command, roughly 70 per cent said they
experiences. However, not all consumers are The study found that, while executives believe were disappointed. As a result, they decided
enthusiastic about those digital transforma- customers want to try new digital customer expe- not to use these digital initiatives regularly.
tions, according to a new study. Creating new rience initiatives, consumers are more concerned The IBV also found that executives are se-
digital ways to engage with consumers and with getting quick, convenient and affordable verely underestimating the role generational
simply expecting them to be embraced can results. In other words, there’s a disconnect be- differences play in consumer adoption of new
put companies’ investments at risk. tween what executives think consumers want digital experiences.
A study from the IBM Institute for Business and what consumers actually want. When asked if customers’ age would
Value (IBV) surveyed more than 600 executives determine how quickly they’d adopt digital
worldwide from a variety of industries that Digital initiatives. Of those survey respond- new customer experiences, only 38 per cent
are currently introducing new digital customer ents who said they tried to explore products of executives said they thought age would
tools and services. The IBV also surveyed more by using virtual reality (VR), using interactive make a difference.

64 I GULF MARKETING REVIEW I DECEMBER 2017/FEBRUARY 2018