K-pop group SKarf – celebrity ambassadors for Samsung (courtesy of Samsung)
Riding on growing consumer interest to experience their mobile devices first hand, Asia’s number one brand Samsung has opened its first Samsung Mobile PIN in Singapore. A premium consumer experience space, the sprawling pop-up store will be at Ngee Ann Civic Plaza for a two-month period till 12 March 2013.
Sentosa’s WAVE ensures that guest centric values are instilled in all employees (courtesy of Sentosa)
What distinguishes service stars from other establishments? Is there a magic formula?
Well, the answer is less to do with rocket science than with investing in people.
Courtesy of Royal Caribbean International
Launching its maiden voyage from the new Marina Bay Cruise Centre Singapore, Royal Caribbean International’s Voyager of the Seas weighs 137,276 tons and can carry a staggering 3,840 guests at full capacity. At 1,020 feet long with 14 passenger decks, the colossal vessel is Asia’s largest luxury cruise ship, serviced by an international crew of some 1,176 staff.
Leading investor and serial entrepreneur J. Christopher Burch has more than 30 years of experience in various technology and luxury brands, including Aliph (Jawbone), NextJump, and Tory Burch. At a talk given at the Asia Fashion Summit recently, he shared about his experience with C. Wonder – a fast growing apparel, accessories and home décor retailer, and how he built a strong retail brand focused heavily on delighting customers and meeting their lifestyle needs.
Predicated on the concept of the customer being “our girl”, the customer experience in C. Wonder stores are predicated on “service credos” such as the following:
Not exactly award winning logo design, but it does the trick!
I’m not a shopaholic and neither is my wife. However, come December each year, we would venture forth to Takashimaya Shopping Centre (anchor tenant of Ngee Ann City) for our annual dose of gifting goodness. There is a certain magic in the way the Japanese retailer lays out its various spaces, tantalising consumers to part with their hard-earned cash in the most delightful way.
Give up? The answers, according to uber guru Tom Peters and Martha Barletta in their slim volume Trends are oodles of cash, purchasing power and huge influence.
Written in Peters’ no-holds-barred, rant-heavy and straight talking narrative, Trends provides lots of facts, figures and anecdotes to show that women and Baby Boomers are probably the two largest blindspots in the eyes of marketers everywhere. With a steely-eyed determination to tear down age-old prejudices against the “weaker sex” and “old geezers”, Peters and Barletta described how myopic views of catering largely to “White men in the 18 to 44 age group” have resulted in organisations neglecting huge markets worth “trillions of dollars”.
Social technologies and networks have driven demand for meet-ups like Social Media Breakfast
One of the greatest misunderstandings about the rise of social media platforms is that it will replace the need for being physically present at places and events. After all, it is far cheaper contacting somebody via Twitter, Internet Messaging, Facebook or Skype than to meet them in the flesh.
Now that social technologies have gone mobile, your iPad, iPhone, android or symbian smartphone allows you to plug in and participate in conversations 24 by 7. Need richer levels of interaction? Simply get a mobile broadband device or tether your 3.5G phone to your laptop and you can share documents, wikis, blog posts, presentation slides, spreadsheets and more.
Like peacocks, we all have our pride (beautifully shot by ClaraDon)
There is nothing worse in the marketing rulebook than to humiliate one’s potential customers. Or to make them look or feel inadequate, insecure, or just plain stupid.
Often, these outcomes are unintentional and accidental, but they result in an eroding of a company’s goodwill and trust amongst its customer base. They also result in negative word-of-mouth, which is an affliction that can result in untimely corporate morbidity.
Courtesy of Garron Nicholls
What is indulgence?
It is the ability to act according to one’s whim and fancy, whenever and wherever one feels like it. It is the availability of multiple choices which offer varied sensorial experiences, steeped in delicious decadence. It is about being able to savour the moment, untouched by the ravages of life.
Customers should feel as relaxed as spending a day at the beach
While browsing various blogs, websites and news feeds today, I was suddenly hit by a thought. What if we make it more enjoyable for our customers to transact and purchase from us? In other words, improve the quality of their time spent with us.
As many would have heard, time is often more precious than money. You can’t buy a day, an hour or even the second that has slipped by. As the saying goes “Carpe Diem!” or “Seize the Day!” goes, one doesn’t want to waste precious discretionary time doing something utterly boring, meaningless or frustrating. The best way to avoid the ravages of time – at least to your consumer – is to offer an experience that is so compelling and “magical” that they no longer remember that they are spending their precious days of leave spending hard earned cash on you.
