Business
Over the past half-decade, contingency after contingency has mercilessly exposed the fragility within modern global supply chains. Trade disputes, pandemics, forced labour controversies, environmental disasters, geopolitical conflicts – each crisis has progressively exacerbated the brittleness plaguing enterprise resource flows. While disruptions are inevitable, the COVID-19 pandemic served as a prolonged real-time
Business
In many corners of the Western world, the unrivalled digital utility of apps like Google, Facebook and Amazon has been taken for granted. But across Southeast Asia and other high-growth markets, a burgeoning new category of all-in-one "super app" platforms has rapidly rearranged consumer behaviour and commercial battlegrounds.
Business
If you're apt to think of Twitter's "blue check" as an irrelevant shorthand from Web 1.0, think again. Social media identity verification has become a battleground for brand legitimacy in the creator economy fueling Web3. At the core of Web3 – the sweeping paradigm
Business
Move over basketball and soccer. Increasingly, the athletes of tomorrow are foregoing real-world sports to pursue careers as digitized esports superstars battling on virtual fields of play. While the concept of organized competitive video gaming has existed for over four decades, the 2020s are solidifying esports as a ubiquitous cultural
Business
In the not-so-distant past, luxury purchases were almost solely markers of affluence and indulgence. Rolls-Royce commanded respect for its six-figure price tag and lavish material embellishments. Scoring an exclusive Hermès Birkin bag meant joining the rarified circles of the global elite. However, a rapidly mainstreaming value among modern high-income explorers
In 1999, few could foresee the eventual metamorphosis of consumers that big tech platforms and the smartphone revolution would catalyze. Who could predict a "social media influencer" becoming a coveted marketing channel surpassing TV commercials? If businesses fail to anticipate, analyze and adapt to large-scale consumer shifts or
Business
Consumer behavior in 2023 bends can sometimes feel like a kaleidoscope of contradictions. Gen Z environmental evangelists promoting sustainability, yet splurging on fast fashion. Middle-aged affluent suburbanites craving local farm-to-table meal kits, delivered in single-use plastic containers. Health-conscious urban dwellers cross-shopping supplements with sporadic impulse buys of indulgent sweets and
In our hyper-globalized world, the typical Fortune 500 enterprise generates over 30% of its revenue from international markets. For ambitious multinationals not going abroad, getting left behind is a defining risk. However, expanding across borders also carries substantial hazards. An astonishing 1 in 3 multinational corporations report operating losses from
Imagine being a multinational retailer aiming to plant distribution flags across the lucrative Southeast Asian markets of Vietnam and Thailand. You've allocated substantial capital, performed demographic studies, and even visited a few key cities - but you're still lacking a critical data component: hyper-local intel on
Imagine launching a new product across West Africa, only to realize too late that it doesn't align with cultural traditions and falls flat. Or investing heavily into expanding your business footprint across Southeast Asia, just to miss the mark on consumer pricing expectations and see sales sputter. These
Understanding consumer sentiment is critical in any industry where brands and customer experiences reign. And in the era of big data, new techniques are empowering companies to accurately sense consumer attitudes, emotions and opinions at unprecedented scale. Sentiment analysis is an advanced application of artificial intelligence and computational linguistics that
When prospects and customers interact with your brand, they take a journey spanning multiple touchpoints and channels. And their perceptions from each moment accumulate to shape their experience. It's no longer sufficient for companies to narrowly map customer journeys within siloed channels or transactional processes like sales funnels.