Study: 50% of APAC marketers are burnt out, but 'Thrivers' exist. Are you a Thriver?

Half of marketers in Asia Pacific are burnt out and according to Accenture Interactive's latest research, this figure jumps to 72% in Singapore. On a global level, nearly 70% of marketing executives say that the past year has completely exhausted their employees.

While these figures are in line with the overall sentiment globally of burn out and The Great Resignation, there is still a silver lining. Titled "The Great Marketing Declutter", the report surveyed more than 1,000 marketing executives globally, of which 200 were from Asia Pacific. It identified a small group of marketers — 19% in Asia Pacific and 17% globally — whose marketing organisations are thriving despite all the change, uncertainty, and complexity posed by the past 18 months.

This group in particular is known as "Thrivers" and are focused on their customers' evolving motivations and what is needed to serve them in smarter, better ways. They are also decluttering marketing to manage complexities and focusing on what matters.

As a result, these Thrivers find greater meaning in their work. In fact, majority of Asia Pacific and Singapore Thrivers (87%) say that their marketers have been energised by a new purpose of servicing customers' rapidly changing motivations. This figure is higher than the overall Asia Pacific average of 30%, the report found.

At the same time, 38% of Thrivers in Asia Pacific noted that their marketing organisation is much stronger today than last year because they have been pushed to think about marketing entirely different. Globally, this number is at 59%.

According to the report, decluttering marketing is paying off in "a powerful trifecta". Marketers are doing more rewarding work, customer satisfaction and lifetime value have increased, and the business is enjoying a significant performance premium. This is especially over competitors whose marketers are burnt out.

Aside from Thrivers, there are also Strivers (60% in Asia Pacific) — those who have some autonomy to meet customer needs but have limited awareness of customer changes; and Survivors (21% in Asia Pacific) — those who are burnt out and are not tune in with the pulse of customer change and assume that such change is only temporary.

It comes as no surprise that Thrivers fare far better than Survivors both in Asia Pacific and globally. Thrivers in Asia Pacific are over 1.2 times more likely to perform far better in revenue growth and profitability compared to Survivors, and are also over 1.4 times more likely to do better in customer life time value. They are also over 1.7 times more likely to perform far better in customer awareness compared to Survivors. 

According to the report, the reason why Thrivers can perform well is because they know how to cut through the clutter boldly, bravely, and unapologetically. "Thrivers took the change to do what marketers have wanted to do for years -- change marketing," Accenture Interactive said.

Are you a striver or survivor looking to become a Thriver? Here are five ways you can turn yourself around and declutter marketing:

1. Reacquaint yourself with your customers

Thrivers have accepted that their customers have changed and tossed out old beliefs about customer preferences and assumptions. They rank customer satisfaction as their top measure of success and listen to customers and rewire marketing around who customers are at that moment. 

On average, only approximately one out of two Asia Pacific marketers reported using either social listening technologies and strategies (56%) or surveys (51%) to better understand their customers’ needs and values. In Singapore, this was 48% and 56%, respectively. This highlights that firms are generally falling short in terms of implementing strategies and technologies to develop a greater understanding of their customer’s needs. Thrivers in Asia Pacific report much higher numbers, with about a third (74%) leveraging surveys and social listening.

2. Find your collective difference

Knowing that delivering differentiation on customer experience takes unity and collaboration, Asia Pacific Thrivers are 17% more likely than Survivors to report that their input is highly critical to key business decisions on customer experience. They recognise that syncing all functions — product development, commerce, sales, service and marketing — is necessary to unleash differentiation.

3. Move at the pace of change

Majority of Asia Pacific Thrivers (97%) believe that customers’ behaviours are changing faster than ever. As a result, they aim to deliver messages, content and experiences that are relevant to customers’ real-time needs. In addition, they’re nearly twice as likely as Survivors (100% versus 51%) to have increased their investments to scale at speed.

4. Figure out what no one wants to do

The marketing ecosystem has become exponentially more complex due to an explosion of touchpoints, technologies, regulatory issues and partners. Thrivers in Asia Pacific have outwitted complexity by leaning into process automation and industrialising operations, and they are significantly more likely than Survivors to invest more to improve the ways of working with ecosystem partners (97% versus 39%). They are equally thoughtful about discarding tasks as they are about completing them, giving their marketing organisation the edge needed to succeed.

5. Own what you want to stand for

Asia Pacific Thrivers own their brand purpose, empathetically and authentically connecting with customers and delivering on what customers value. They are nearly five times more likely than Survivors to view the shifts in pandemic-fuelled customer values as an opportunity to rethink marketing’s role and reimagine their brand purpose.

Thomas Mouritzen, Accenture Interactive’s lead for Southeast Asia, said that by uniting their colleagues behind a common ambition and brand purpose – from the leadership to the most junior of employees, and connecting with customers through empathy and authenticity, these Thrivers are laying the groundwork for relationships that can endure even as customer preferences shift.

"This is why, instead of burning out, they are igniting a rallying cry that is changing marketing to produce greater returns. Brands today simply cannot operate from an outdated playbook,” he added.

Photo courtesy: 123RF

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