Marketing Strategies In The “New Normal”
Recently, I attended the TechInAsia PDC ‘20 virtual Product Development Conference. This four-day virtual conference took place on July 1-2nd (Indonesia Series) and the 8-9th (Regional Series) via Asia/Singapore timezone. The event focused on “How to build, scale, and pivot your product amidst the COVID-19 pandemic.
There were three webinars I want to share with everyone that I believe applies to travel, tech, and product development. These key takeaways are useful for startups and small businesses as we adapt to the current economy.
Related Article: Digital Marketing for Small Businesses
The first webinar is from AirAsia who post Covid-19 was known as a low-cost airline offering domestic and international flights.
AirAsia’s Tech Pivot
AirAsia is the largest international airline in China and Indonesia, they have over 275 aircraft in 8 airlines and provide over 11,000 flights every week. They offer more than 17+ products on their platform that include flights, hotels, and travel insurance. Their vision is to become the one-stop-shop for consumers to be able to fly, stay, eat, shop, and chat all on one platform.
Consumers Purchase More
- Personal Hygiene
- Health Nutrition
- Home Cleaning
Consumers Purchase Less
- Alcohol and Beverages
- Meat/Seafood
- Luxury Items
Products they launch immediately after lockdown orders went into place where OurFresh and OurFood. Using their airline they pivoted from cargo to parcel services. Their product OurFresh focused on offering fresh produce using the B2C and B2B (OURFARM) business model. While OurFood focused on food delivery services.
Key Takeaways
- 65% of Travelers Expect to Travel International Much Less
- Travel Decrease Expected for the Next Year
- Consumers Looking to Local Government for Safety and Efficiency
To learn more about AirAsia products and services visit AirAsia.com.
If you’ve asked yourself how are companies who sole business depended on travel prepandemic then you will want to read about the next two informational sessions.
RedDoorz ~ Managing A Travel Product
RedDoorz is a tech-enabled hotel brand that focuses on budget-friendly hotels across Indonesia, Singapore, Philippines, and Vietnam.
Some of the key travel trends that have been impacted by the pandemic are meetings have been re-invented, and new or substitute destinations are being chosen.
Their focus is to reimagine the customer and guest experience and to increase the variety of consumer interactions.
Key Takeaways (priorities shifted)
- Comfort – Cleanliness
- Non-contact Alternatives
- Flexible Policies (check-in/out, loyalty programs, and cancelation)
Their focus in the future will aim towards going beyond short stay booking to longer hotel visits. In addition, they plan on offering built-in video conferencing features, thermal scanners, and end-to-end contactless check-in.
To learn more about RedDoorz products and services visit RedDoorz.
Grab’s Best Practices ~ Product Marketing
Grab is a technology-based company located in Singapore that offers ride-hailing transport services, food delivery, and payment services.
What they’ve noticed is that human mobility has lessened from January to April of this year. The businesses that got hit the hardest were businesses that depended on foot traffic.
People turned to online shopping and delivery for their needs. How they responded:
- Partnered with New Merchants (hospitals, drivers, local community)
- Hired New Drivers
- 100 Initiatives Launched in the First 2 Months of Pandemic
Some of the ways that they transformed their products were from reading headlines. A lot of healthcare workers were frustrated because of the response from taxis, and people’s fear in the community. Grab learned about this frustration and used it to launch GrabCare.
GrabCare Product Development
Within one week they launched ride opportunities for frontline hospital workers to get to and from work. They reached out to local hospitals, and created healthcare signup and partnered with local drivers. Their belief that every opportunity stems from a need or gain helped them pivot their business to innovate new products/services during the pandemic. Since their initial launch back in February they’ve expanded their medical partnerships in Singapore, Jakarta, and Manila.
GrabMart (Pivot Service)
As part of their reprioritizing efforts, they noticed shopping online increased significantly after people started staying at home. Before the pandemic, their mart service on their mobile app offered on-demand convenience shopping. This essentially allowed customers to purchase items from a mart and have it delivered to your doorstep. After the pandemic, they changed their focus to deliver anything within 30 minutes.
Related Article: E-commerce Tips
Their focus on their customer needs and keeping their workers safe created new health and hygiene guidelines and allowed them to expand a service they were already offering.
Key Takeaways
- Encourage everyone who is a part of your team to come up with ideas
- Use products already launched or can pivot easily without writing new code
- Throw out the rule book and focus on customers needs
- Don’t have it all worked out before launching a product
Learn more about Grab products and its future relief efforts at Grab.
Final Thoughts
While attendees may not be able to attend the conference in person, being a vitural attendee is the next best thing. It was insightful to being able to see how each company is tackling the current crisis.
If you want to learn more about TechInAsia upcoming conferences visit techinasia.com
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