As Head of Digital at Primo Foods / JBS, Renaud Frisé fully embraces the need to accept the constantly changing nature of things. Primo Foods is the largest producer of ham, bacon and smallgoods in Australia. Primo Foods is part of the JBS Group of global companies. Renaud is responsible for all things digital at Primo Foods and has been at the helm of the organisation’s digital transformation journey for the past five years.
A key aspect of Renaud’s job is to try and understand what’s coming next for the business and the opportunities or threats that digital disruption may present. Renaud comments, “There’s tremendous change in our market as people are spending less time cooking at home. They want convenience and more time to do the things they want to do or spend time with their family and friends. People are ordering more meals from delivery services such as Uber Eats or pre-packaged meals they can heat up.”
Head of Digital Primo Foods
The constant need to adapt and change
Renaud leads all digital activities at Primo including strategy, planning, delivery, evaluating marketing, content strategy, workforce transformation and the list goes on. He also has an advisory role for other businesses in the group. Renaud’s approach to his role is based around accepting the need to adapt to constant and rapid change.
“If there is one thing I have learnt in my career and my role at Primo Foods, with regards to digital marketing, it is this – if you think you know it then it’s over. Everything is moving and changing at such a rapid pace, by the time you feel you have complete control or understanding of what’s going on things have already changed and moved on”.
“What customers wanted yesterday is different from today and will be different tomorrow. Ultimately, you can never have complete control – you’re not the one making the decisions – it’s your customers.’
The nitty gritty vs the bigger picture
Renaud acknowledges that for brands, particularly large ones, it is a significant challenge. They are often frustrated or hamstrung from making the changes they know they need to make as they can’t divert sufficient resources from the day-to-day operation of the business.
Renaud comments, “How do you keep in touch and stay up to date while still managing day-to-day tasks, ongoing campaigns and general business operations. It’s a challenge to view the bigger picture while you are caught up in the nitty gritty”.
What’s next for customer experience
There are numerous technology trends out there redefining the customer experience and all aspects of digital marketing. “The big thing we have at the moment is AI (Artificial Intelligence). AI allows marketers to provide greater personalisation, make more accurate predictions about future purchasing behaviours, and to optimise very targeted campaigns and promotions. This will certainly have a big impact. It’s all about being better and faster than humans.”
“But we are also witnessing rapid advances in AR and video marketing, the greater use of voice enabled experiences and search, the continuing rise of bots and conversational marketing, as well improved data science and analytic techniques”.
“There are plenty of bright and shiny new things to experiment with. Unfortunately, though there are great opportunities for this new technology, there is also a lot of hype around the various solutions being brought to market. To understand what offers real value out there can be difficult with vendors over promising on what their solutions can do.”
These technology trends and new customer channels also have the potential to create unnecessary complexity and cause friction for customers. Renaud warns, “Regarding customer experience I have learnt that you need to be as knowledgeable and prepared as you can be with your digital marketing activities. So many things can impact the overall experience. The impact of the slightest mistake may be felt by numerous customers across multiple channels”.
“It’s important to remember that brands are not just competing with their 3 to 5 direct competitors. They are in fact competing with any company that their audience is interacting with. They might have experienced the ease of use and intuitiveness of a Google or Facebook App or the efficient customer service of Amazon or Uber. If they then land on your website and the link is broken or your customer service rep on chat is not happy that day – the customer’s experience is ruined”.
Renaud is presenting at the Forward Marketing Summit being held on 26th – 27th February. Forward Marketing Summit is Australia’s leading conference where marketing, data and technology converge! Formerly known as Big Data & AI Leaders Summit and Digital Marketing Leaders Summit, this summit will bring together over 300 digital marketers, data scientists, analysts, developers and product leaders.