Personalization is nothing new. But a combination of factors including increased use of digital channels due to the pandemic plus increasing customer expectations and technical innovations in the space have pushed personalization to the forefront for a lot of brands around the world. Including brands in the ASEAN region.
But are the challenges involved in personalization any different in ASEAN? Is ASEAN, as a market, mature in its personalization efforts?
We took a look at personalization in the ASEAN region to assess what challenges ASEAN brands face. How can ASEAN brands climb up from the “experimenters” level at the bottom of the personalization maturity curve?
Personalization challenges for ASEAN and the world
Personalization can take a lot of time and effort to get right. It can also be very resource intensive across a business.
But this is not a struggle unique to ASEAN as a region. In fact businesses struggle with personalization all over the world.
But why is that?
Stakeholders in businesses all over the world, not just in ASEAN, are not implementing personalization initiatives. According to dynamic yield, 64% of retailers consider personalization a top-three priority within their business strategies. But only 15% state that they have fully implemented their personalization initiatives.
So increasing personalization maturity appears to be something that all businesses struggle with. But are there factors specific to ASEAN?
One of the problems facing businesses in ASEAN appears to be martech stack maturity. According to digiconasia.net, efforts to improve personalization maturity in ASEAN have been hampered by gaps in the marketing technology stack.
The good news is that there are solutions out there for businesses who want to increase their personalization maturity.
Possible Solutions For ASEAN Businesses Who Want To Experiment
Improving your level of personalization maturity can be a long, continuous process.
But there are solutions that can help you to start experimenting quickly so you can get the insights you need to inform your wider personalization strategy.
The first thing to focus on is the data you hold. For businesses in ASEAN and around the world, data clarity is one of the biggest barriers towards improving personalization maturity. If you do not have the resources or time to focus on your data, work with an external partner who will be able to assess the data you have and suggest ways to improve and organize your data.
According to business reality check, 42% of business leaders “see the price of upgrading internal technologies as a challenge”. In tough economic times investing in technical upgrades is a challenge. But companies need to weigh that extra cost against losing the opportunity to improve engagement from existing customers and to sell to new prospects.
Third-party tools can help you to mitigate some of this technical cost. But the price of this is the loss of some control over your customer data. However, to start experimenting, a third-party solution can be a cost-effective way to start levelling up your personalization maturity level.
Talk To Beta Launch
Do you want to start experimenting with personalization in days not weeks? Then talk to Beta Launch. We can speed up your personalization experiments with an MVP approach that prioritizes insights and validation. Get in touch via sky@maqe.com