Utilization of design thinking tool towards solving an organizational challenge

Challenge:

I am currently working in the capacity of Strategy & Marketing manager for the ‘Center of  Excellence’ for an MNC. I primarily deal with the OTC drugs, cosmeceuticals and nutraceutical  businesses the organization has across multiple emerging markets. While direct to consumer (DTC)  promotion is a key source of business, we also derive significant value by promoting portfolio to  doctors and other relevant health care professionals (HCP) in the countries.

Prior to COVID-19, physical face to face interaction was the most popular mode of communication  with HCPs. Digital marketing was used as additional channels to increase visibility and share of voice.  Customer engagement model was predominantly based on real experiences through physical  presence at sponsored seminars, round tables etc. However during COVID, the scope for physical  interactions reduced significantly. The country marketing teams were required to quickly shift from  the physical model to a digital model of customer (HCP) interactions. The criticality of digital is now  considered supreme even in a post COVID world based on the sheer advantages it generates.

I was faced with the task of uplifting the digital skillset of the marketing teams so as to consolidate  their existing knowledge and induce necessary up-gradation to deliver their marketing goals through  digital marketing initiatives.

Selection:

Over the course of several interactions, I realized that the marketing teams had existing knowledge  about digital platforms and engagement models, however the degrees of comfort varied  considerably. Consolidation of fragmented knowledge and beliefs into a structured algorithm  delivering customer value through digital marketing was the need of the hour. So to bring things into  perspective I picked up the design marketing tool ‘VISUALIZATION’, so as to clearly explain the  interconnections of different stakeholders, concepts, customer life cycle stages and measurable  KPIs. I created process algorithms through VISUALIZATION tool to provide absolute clarity to the  internal customers.

Application:

The target audience was ready with their business objectives and they also translated these to  marketing objectives. My task started there.  The process of converting the marketing objectives to  digital marketing objectives and subsequently to customer facing touch-points based on customer  needs was demonstrated. The overlap of brand needs and customer needs was highlighted as the  key action area, which were subsequently taken up for ‘content strategy’. The final part was most  important and exciting which described sustaining a customer from the ‘awareness’ phase of a  customer life cycle to final ‘usage/advocacy/loyalty’ phase through a digital journey.

A glimpse of one of the VISUALIZATION slide:

Insight:

Over the first few interactions, when I tried to provide digital solutions to individual marketing  problems, it seemed ad-hoc and the participants in most of the cases were not being able to carry  forward the learnings to the next problem he/she was trying to solve. However when the  VISUALIZATION tool was adopted, a clear understanding and road map was successfully created with  most participants and they took forward the learnings to create sustainable digital engagement plan  for the external customers. This will encourage me to use the tool in future to solve diverse  communication challenges.

Approach:

Continuous improvement in marketing or processes is a dynamic loop. Based on your strategy,  execution has to follow and then the findings/impact have to be fed back as a ‘feedback loop’ to  continuously improve the process. Even when you have explained through VISUALIZATION tool, the  level of understanding might vary across the recipients as some elements may or may not resonate  with them. It’s hence imperative that feedback is collected and based on that continuous  improvement is pursued for improving the visualization.  This is something I intend to follow to  pursue sustainable improvement.

