Would your brand pass Singapore’s crowd metrics?
By Katrina ChuaWhen you market your products and services in Singapore, there is one important factor you need to consider aside from pricing, marketing strategies, and methods of distribution. When it comes to Singapore, if you want your brand to be accepted by the majority of the market, you have to first pass the “crowd metrics”.
One important factor that greatly affects the buying propensity of your Singapore sales leads is whether they have family members, relatives, friends, or peers who have previously purchased your brand and offer positive feedback. These are the crowd you need to please before you can get more qualified sales leads for your business, whether it is B2B or B2C.
Word of mouth is an extremely effective PR boost in most ASEAN countries, especially in the city-state of Singapore. In fact, according to a survey by Accenture:"86% of the surveyed Singapore consumers indicated that "Information from people I know" is the channel most widely used, as they consider information from people they know as most influential in their buying decisions."
Any company owner who fails to correlate the success or failure of his brand to the conversations people have about it is missing out on a vital component for his marketing campaigns. By actively listening to what is being said about your brand in online forums, social media networking sites, and even on the streets, you can greatly improve the success of your marketing campaigns.
If your brand is viewed negatively by the masses, there is little that even your best sales representatives can do to convince your potential sales leads to do business with you. Even your own employees might have a different perspective of your brand; and if you can’t make customers out of your own employees, you won’t get their family and friends to buy, either.
It’s not just about how you appear to the general public, it’s about what specific people who have used your products and services previously tell their connections. Your company may donate to charitable organizations; be entirely “green” from using only renewable resources; or you may have the most innovative and cheapest products in the market today.
However, all this will be of little consequence if your previous customers spread the word that you have terrible customer service agents, your hold time takes hours, or you don’t offer any warranties. A critical 9 out of 10 Singapore consumers would easily voice out their discontent about a product or service if this didn’t reach their expectations, or failed to live up to the hype from advertising. This voice of discontent spreads fast, and it is definitely heard.
As reported by the statement of Accenture from the survey above, what is being said about you is far more substantial that what you portray yourself to be. This crowd-based metric is what drives most Singaporean consumers to buy or not to buy a brand’s product.
Applying methods which allow you to act immediately on negative reviews and use positive word of mouth to your advantage can help your business pivot from being barely-profitable to highly successful. Conversely, letting bad reviews run free could cost you hundreds, if not thousands, of potential sales and business leads. Make sure you satisfy your current customers to make sure you pass the important crowd metrics in Singapore.