Vice president marketing & digital of Lancôme and L?Oréal Group Shirley Liu on what to expect at the Marketing & CX Pharm event
Social Media Portal (SMP): What is your name and what do you do there for L?Oréal?
Shirley Liu (SL): I?m Shirley Liu and I?m currently serving as the vice president marketing & digital of
Lancôme,
L?Oréal Group, overseeing the Asia-Pacific region?s strategic digital marketing and business growth. APAC is currently one of the most dynamic and exciting global regions and currently one of the industry?s leading growth drivers, so there?s many challenging and fast-moving business opportunities that feeds our ambitions. As a marketer and general manager, it is extremely exciting.
SMP: Tell us about your talk at Marketing and CX in the Pharmaceutical Industry Conference (20-21/09/2018)?SL: My aim is to share
1) Blue-chip technical best practices on latest marketing and digital 360, with a compelling underlying theme of how
2) Psychology and authentic leadership enhances data to make better strategies for business heads. This two-pronged framework, I believe, is transversal across industries and therefore hopefully thought provoking and inspiring to the Pharma audience. Given that, many digital experts approach the digital topic with tech info I hope to add value and make a compelling structural and leadership point from the conviction that:
People are at the heart of Digital transformation.
SMP: What do you hope Marketing and CX in the Pharmaceutical Industry Conference delegates will take away from your talk and why?SL: I will be sharing a real-life case study and on L?Oréal?s digital transformation efforts in the last few years to demonstrate a universal and replicable framework for digital transformation. We will journey together through how a cosmetic giant successfully upgrades itself from a classical marketing academy to an agile, digitally obsessed marketing powerhouse.
From Structural Challenges: How we reimagined our business, re-evaluated our Value Chain, to Cultural Challenges: Externally reconnecting with our Customers in the Millennials, Gen Z, Gen Alpha, and internally rebuilding our organization.
Lastly, on the non-negotiable transition to Authentic, Compassionate Leadership mind set if any organization is to truly thrive in the new era.
Why is Marketing and CX in the Pharmaceutical Industry Conference an important event for the industry (why is it important to share experience)?
SL: Most top players in each industry have a proven record for their USP. As leaders, it is important to stay abreast of how other organizations are succeeding, scout and cleverly leverage those best practices to fuel their own business. Marketing and CX is particularly evolving quickly in the fast moving world due to rapid consumerism changes, conferences is an efficient format of curating best practices and sharp application. Simply, attending a high quality conference is working smart.
Regarding CX and digital marketing, if there was one thing brands should focus on, what should it be?SL: People. Leading a true digital transformation is by putting people at the centre.
Digital acceleration is essential in modern corporation's success and prosperity. State of the art digital technology is fundamental, but not enough. Technology only changes how we do things yet People still decide what we do, and why we do things.
As a business manager I believe in letting the data tell us 'what', but let our human element guide in determining the 'why' and 'how'. All human pillars of our working environment also must become more digital innovation-friendly - employee education and training, people structure, innovative leadership and company culture. Ultimately, human are the key success factor in any digital transformation.
SMP: What do you think the top five things to expect from CX and digital marketing will be over the next 12-18?SL replies with:- Digital marketing ad space will expand on voice-controlled assistant in households like Amazon Alexa, Google Home and Apple HomePod continues to grow.
- Live video streaming, Video and Video ads will become even more prominent in digital media, eclipsing traditional TV.
- Augmented Reality, Artificial Intelligence in the retail space, will revolutionize mass consumer experience. Chatbox will become a norm.
- Social Media will be even more seamlessly and deeply integrated into third party services in consumer daily life.
- Continued rise of the social media CEO and politicians
Is there anything else we should know, or is there anything that you?d like to share?SL: Cultivate interest in looking inwards; learn more deeply about ourselves through the lens of psycho analysis. I believe in understand better how our mind work, so we can better work our minds.
One will be surprised at how much one did not realize about themselves, and how they became who they are. Gaining that insight is extremely insightful, clarifying and rewarding. It will make us a better leader and better person in all that we do, both in professional and private life thus creating greater personal joy and fulfilment. An easy starter I personally recommend is a MITB test on
16Personalities. As we explore further we will realize that getting to understand ourselves and is a fascinating, endless and life-long study.
Now some questions for fun
SMP: What did you have for breakfast / lunch?SL: 6am, hot organic green tea while reading the New York Times on my Osim full body massage sofa ? the first step of my 2.5 hour morning ritual.
SMP: What?s the last good thing that you did for someone?SL: Mentored a young professional. Mentoring is something I do as much as I can at work and in my personal time. I believe that the power of conscious mentoring can positively transform a person?s life. If sufficiently scaled, it can change the world.
SMP: If you weren?t working at L?Oréal what would you be doing?SL: Public speaker and author to promote the importance of Authentic Leadership, Compassionate Profitability in the corporate world and poverty alleviation through Conscientious Mentoring. No matter which organization I serve in, I aim to live a life serving the world, be a carrier of light to people and be one of tens of thousands in our era speaking to raise the society?s conscious awareness of living a purposeful, inspired life.
SMP: When / where did you go on your last holiday and why?
SL: Last week, in the beautiful English countryside in Dartington, Devon attending a study retreat focusing on mother-daughter relationships. Through psychology, I have learnt that regardless of gender, the Mother-Child relationship is the foundation to how all human beings perceive ourselves, how we build relationships with other people and the world.
It also shapes the quality of inner voice we have with ourselves. . In my personal journey of inner work it has led me to realize this is a first principle and pertinent to explore with more understanding and precision.
?Until you make the unconscious conscious, it will direct your life and you will all it fate.? ? Carl Jung
SMP: What?s the first thing you do when you get into the office of a morning?SL: Cappuccino and quickly survey the business frame to see if there are any emergencies that need to be addressed immediately. Then set out to tackle my priorities, navigating between busy back-to-back meetings.
SMP: If you had a superpower what would it be and why?SL: I wish I have the superpower to heal the world population ? all 7.6 billion people?s inner child wounds. Human psychology is complex and fascinating.
The loving or traumatic experience of one?s early life developmental stage has a profound correlation to what individuals are motivated and triggered by later in life as an adult. It shapes the foundation of how we interpret, respond to the world and subsequent behavioural actions. I believe this is a first principle and source of all of the world?s political conflict and sufferings.
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Learn more about CX in the Pharmaceutical Industry Conference at SMP and directly from the event website.