Design Thinking, and how Marketers can use it
Majd Alsibai, Marketing Director at JTCO MICHELIN,is an experienced Manager of Sales and Marketing with a demonstrated history of working in the automotive industry. Skilled in Marketing Management, Go-to-Market approach, Distribution Development, Negotiation, Strategic Planning, Analytical Skills, and Team Coaching. What is design thinking, and how can marketers use it in marketing? Today, the global […]
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Majd Alsibai, Marketing Director at JTCO MICHELIN,is an experienced Manager of Sales and Marketing with a demonstrated history of working in the automotive industry. Skilled in Marketing Management, Go-to-Market approach, Distribution Development, Negotiation, Strategic Planning, Analytical Skills, and Team Coaching.
What is design thinking, and how can marketers use it in marketing?
Today, the global socio-economic context could be described as a complex environment for businesses to defend their survival—a landscape carried by a rapidly changing way of living and even behaviours.
Traditional marketing tools and strategic approaches proved its disability sometimes to solve the market dynamics.
Design thinking has emerged as an adapted and agile approach for startups and mature businesses, offering dynamic and agile tools to empower its operations, boost innovation, and for sure enhancing customer experience.
Before diving in its marketing applications, let’s first better understand what Design Thinking is.
Design thinking is one of the agile methods used in the design of a product or a service. It is briefly ‘’ a method that is based on understanding the context to identify a solution the best meets the needs of users.’’
The 5 stages of Design Thinking
Can you share a few examples of brands embracing design thinking to create more relevant Marketing?
If you look at some success stories like UBER, NETFLIX, ALIBABA, etc. you will find that they all understood their users and listened to their pain points and frustrations and are striving every day to meet their rapidly changing customer’s needs better.
Then they unleashed creativity using technology and innovation always to offer the best journey.
Technologies such us using Machine Learning in understanding the consumer behaviour and provide predictive and customised solution for his/her next experience like the next show on Netflix based on interests and history, or your predicted destination to Home at 05:00 PM with UBER.
But it is not only for startups; many large companies are using them such as GE Health Care and Bank of America.
Also Read: AI-Led Recommendations: 5 Secret Strategies to Unlock Personalisation at Scale
How do you see the role of marketing change in this current scenario?
Marketers focus on the product features as the pathway to acquire and retain customers and tend to forget what problem they wanted to solve with the products. Empathy is the key to tap into real customer problems. You need to have an ability to listen, observe, and immerse in the experience.
On collaboration, creativity, speed of execution, and iteration Design Thinking is now the source of some global success stories.
A lot in marketing revolves around customer journeys and insights. How can design thinking help marketers find creative solutions from these insights?
Many tools are developed to ensure a seamless customer experience such as Mapping; predicting customers behaviour will enable you to state facts about who they are and possible problems they face with which behaviours and triggers of needs to reach a goal.
Once this is done, we have the map printed out. We make it big enough that in future design thinking session, the entire team can huddle around it and collaborate.
Also Read: Your Customer Doesn’t See a Journey, They See a Brand Experience
What was the biggest mistake, and what did you learn from it?
The lesson here is that ‘’if you don’t mistake it’s a mistake’’ Understanding our customers’ attitudes, behaviours, steps and identifying their real needs and problems are not enough.
After developing your prototype, remember to be very quick in your rectification after detecting a broken ring in the journey chain. Keep moving forward.
Iterate quickly and let your customers know that you are there when it matters most.
ENDS
Majd Alsibai, Marketing Director at JTCO MICHELIN, Experienced Manager of Sales and Marketing with a demonstrated history of working in the automotive industry. Skilled in Marketing Management, Go-to-Market approach, Distribution Development, Negotiation, Strategic Planning, Analytical Skills, and Team Coaching.
A Digital passport holder and a strong sales and marketing professional with a bachelor’s degree focused in Business Administration and Management, General.
Outside the office, I am a Motorsport passionate with love of drift and power, fluent in English and beginner in French. I am currently trying my hard to brush up my digital skills through remote learning and training.
Connect with him over LinkedIn for networking, discussions, a need of tires and more!
