To grow, companies should move from a customer-centric approach to a life-centric one
THE world we live in today is faced with the prospect of a “perfect long storm” – grappling with slowing economic growth, heightened risks of geopolitical conflict, severe weather events, increased cost of living and more. In an environment of perpetual change, people are working to reconcile their core values and a sense of purpose with the demands and practicalities of everyday life.
An Accenture Song study found that 71 per cent of Asia-Pacific consumers are worried about the impact of climate change on their lives but continue to struggle to prioritise sustainability over other needs.
More than half of them say the pandemic motivated them to adopt a more sustainable lifestyle. Yet, 58 per cent say price increases have led them to select lower-cost brands on recent purchases. These two paradoxical decisions are not new, as humans have always been highly inconsistent. What has changed is the increasing frequency and comfort with which the decisions are made.
In 2023, there will be many untapped opportunities for growth in South-east Asia. Commerce is becoming ubiquitous – by 2030, contextual commerce will become a trillion-dollar market in Asia, and social commerce is South-east Asia’s second-most popular shopping format.
We will also continue to see the rise of Web3, blockchain wallets and the metaverse. If leaders want to capture this growth, they must consider the humanity of their customers, their shifting modes and the unpredictable life forces that come into play along the way – and deliver the most relevant solutions for those contexts.
See customers in their full lives
For one, companies cannot see their customers as buyers anymore. Customers now desire a different relationship with brands. They are looking for support and solutions that will help them overcome the waves of crisis globally and when their needs change.
Moving from a customer-centric approach, companies need to become life-centric – a notion that a brand is positively adding to people’s lives as opposed to just vying for their attention endlessly.
This viewpoint provides more authentic opportunities for brands to adapt and value-add to customers’ lives and consider potential ethical and moral beliefs that can also impact them.
As customers increasingly permit brands to play different roles in their lives, it’s never been a better time for companies to shed the boundaries of industry and find new, creative ways to apply technology and talent to solve new problems.
Consider the case of Robinhood, a Thailand-based food delivery app and all-in-one travel service platform. Starting as a food delivery app that prioritised cash-free, contactless payments during the pandemic, Robinhood has since evolved to become a super app enabled by a robust digital advertising-as-a-service offering that provides benefits including travel, mart, parcel delivery and soon, ride-hailing.
It has focused on prioritising profitability for small business owners and affordability for consumers. Importantly, it connects an understanding of its customers’ lives to potential new uses and expands into a continuum of experiences to meet people’s needs. All of these complement Robinhood’s long-term roadmap to expand and grow sustainably into more areas of business, including financial services.
In Indonesia, telco giant Telkomsel connected the “ketengan” – or sachet street culture – with its new data packages designed to access specific digital platforms for a short time.
Tapping the values of “ketengan” culture – think street-smart Indonesians who know what they need and want with little to no waste – Telkomsel successfully swapped negative perceptions around affordability among its lower-spend customers and brought to life a powerful solution that respected individuals’ way of life and profound habits.
It won the hearts of consumers, and Telkomsel saw more than 30 per cent growth in transactions. None of these would have been possible without deep research and a profound understanding of its customers as multi-dimensional beings.
It’s more than just private sector companies that have gained success with a life-centric approach. Government agencies recognise this value too.
Social security can be a complex affair, and Singapore’s Central Provident Fund Board (CPFB) wanted to make it a simpler and more personalised experience that could accompany users across all seasons of their lives.
Instead of simply revamping its website, CPFB rewired its organisation. It modernised its frontend and backend systems and rethought its employees’ ways of work to set up the speed, agility, and connectivity necessary to transform the user experience – one that gave individuals the control, convenience and confidence to handle important life decisions.
The transformed CPFB consistently received a high rating of 90 per cent in user satisfaction. Adopting a life-centric approach helped CPFB achieve the utility that technology promises and deliver a thoughtfully considered user experience.
Seeking business growth through relevance
Becoming a life-centric business is not easy because it’s not about taking existing best practices or learning what competitors are doing. Each organisation mentioned above found its way by tapping a new playbook for sustained customer relevance, which can only be achieved when a business widens its aperture.
Companies must not make the mistake of behaving in the same way as people do under pressure – dropping what they deem to be non-essential, like innovation and brand building. Often, the best innovation happens against a backdrop of constraint and difficulty. This requires shifting from static customer segments to understanding real-time modes of behaviour.
It’s a new mindset and a new way to operate, which is necessary in turbulent times. And for a good reason. Businesses focused on life-centricity are three times more likely to outperform their peers on speed-to-market and almost five times more likely to outperform on customer lifetime value.
Companies need to show their value through meaningful products, experiences, and services, and not through short-term gestures that can ultimately be viewed as publicity stunts, and which may cause brand backlash.
In this highly diverse region, companies must ultimately master the interplay between customers’ ever-changing lives and the external forces that influence each of us every day. Focus more on helping consumers in their lives. That’s where relevance is found, and companies will be rewarded with growth.
The writer is Accenture Song’s lead for South-east Asia
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