On the sidelines of VSMCamp & CSMOSummit 2023 in Ho Chi Minh City, Chairman of Le Bros - Vice Chairman of CSMO Vietnam Le Quoc Vinh talked with VTC News about the changes in the marketing market in the face of the development wave of artificial intelligence (AI).
- The Vietnamese economy in particular and the world economy in general are still in an extremely difficult period. Businesses must make great efforts to survive in the market as well as find new development directions. At this time, what is an effective marketing solution, sir?
When the economy is tough, consumers are no longer willing to spend money on shopping. This forces marketers to develop clear strategies to create “demand” for customers.
Marketers will have to understand customers, analyze and explain why they like this product, and why they need to buy that product.
AI will play an important role in collecting, analyzing data, and creating solutions to build these “needs” for customers. Understanding this problem, brands will have an easier time reaching users and improving marketing effectiveness.
Mr. Le Quoc Vinh - Chairman of Le Bros, Vice Chairman of CSMO Vietnam. (Photo: TK)
- So is “AI best at improving the relationship between companies and consumers”?
Do you see a huge paradox today? When human communication is increasingly lacking in humanity, communication lacks emotion, becomes dry, and does not care about the feelings and needs of the other person, machines are trying to simulate communication and understanding more like humans.
Advances in technology such as the internet, social media, OTT… then voice technology, automated support staff, virtual assistants and automated chat on websites… create more connections, but also increase the distance between companies, brands and customers as people.
le quoc vinh 1.jpg
Machines are trying to emulate more human-like communication and understanding.
Le Bros Chairman, Le Quoc Vinh
For example, there are many salespeople who make cold calls without knowing who they are talking to or what their needs are. They speak like machines. People are gradually abusing technology to connect and forgetting their own characteristics, which is emotional communication.
But AI has the potential to bridge that gap by helping marketers, through the collection and analysis of behavioral data, gain a better understanding and better define the needs, expectations, pain points, and psychology of each media audience. AI can scale personalization and customer precision in ways that have never existed before.
AI has helped businesses behave more like humans. Interestingly, this advanced technology has made marketers change their perspective and think about how they should communicate with their customers.
So we have to look back at the capabilities of AI. It can do a lot of things, free us from work, so that we have time and energy to find connections between people. AI will do all the simple jobs, tasks, and machines. As for finding ways to change the world, humans will do it better.
- With such power, will AI soon become a threat to those in the marketing field?
Technology is not born by itself, it is created by humans, humans are still the subject of technology. Therefore, it can be affirmed that, in general, artificial intelligence can hardly replace humans in general and the marketing industry in particular.
Currently, AI is being developed in a controlled and gradually optimized manner to become a useful tool to serve humans, not a "force" to replace humans. However, AI can replace humans in certain fields and jobs. For example, in the marketing industry, there are people who do creative intellectual work, and there are people who only do pure information processing work.
Currently, in some marketing strategy building processes, AI has been able to take a few positions and even handle work better, which are simple, repetitive tasks, tasks that only require data processing such as reporting or research through reading documents, translation, etc.
On the one hand, AI is a powerful “assistant”, fully supporting marketers, on the other hand, it also significantly reduces the role of marketers, and sometimes makes them feel redundant. Specifically, instead of needing a team of 6-7 content creators for advertising activities, now only 1-2 content creators and one person will be needed to review the results collected and processed by AI.
Therefore, people in the marketing industry face many challenges and pressures when AI accompanies them in their work. They have to learn how to master AI tools, instead of learning what AI can do.
- So how to use AI technology to achieve the best results? Selective or synchronous development?
AI is still not perfect in terms of emotional intelligence and cultural absorption. AI can support information gathering and provide specific solutions, but to recognize the aspect of the problem as a challenge or an opportunity, humans are still the decisive factor.
Additionally, businesses cannot replace all of their customer service with AI. Humans tend to work with people they like, creating a human touch. Machines cannot achieve this emotional aspect.
On the other hand, we can show empathy, while AI cannot. And AI cannot think outside of programs and algorithms, so it cannot find creative ways to solve different new problems because the data collected is not enough and has not been verified for accuracy.
In general, with the current trend, AI is an effective way for businesses to keep up with market developments and fully meet customer needs. However, we should not rely too much on AI because humans are still the core factor.
However, people still have to improve their understanding and update other necessary knowledge to be able to master smart tools in the future.
Mr. Le Quoc Vinh emphasized that AI is a way for businesses to keep up with market developments and fully meet customer needs. (Photo: TL)
- In the Vietnamese market at this time, when AI has not yet dominated too much shopping behavior, KOC (Key Opinion Consumer - key consumers who have great influence on the market) is emerging as a trend. What do you think about this phenomenon?
KOCs have a small influence and only target a certain group of customers. Although KOCs are a good sales solution, they cannot change customers' feelings towards the brand. Building friendliness and connecting with customers is still the job of the brander.
Brands need to realize that they cannot survive on KOCs because KOCs do not represent product quality. Each KOC has a community group and they are only strong and profitable within that group.
Therefore, KOC is just a channel creator for communication within a certain customer group, it cannot replace other professional marketing solutions.
In fact, as long as people are still following suit, and human nature is still willing to let others influence their purchasing decisions, KOC will still be effective. But that is not always true, especially in recessionary times. People will be more cautious in making purchasing decisions.
KOC is a “tool” with a limited lifespan, it will be replaced when something better comes along and cannot be used forever.
I think KOC is a temporary phenomenon, only philosophy and solutions have long-term value.
- Thank you for the chat!
Trinh Trang
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