CASE STUDY ON GREY WORLDWIDE

1. WHAT IS GREY
WORLDWIDE?

2. Grey Global Group Is a full communications
enterprise with 16 global partner companies
focused on distinct communications
disciplines and engaged in a wide range of
marketing and communications activities.
Viveca Chan is the CEO of the company.

3. THE SITUATION

4. Viveca Chan, CEO of Grey Hong Kong and
China, was questioning to what extent the
GRM concept should merge technology
with traditional marketing philosophy to
develop a CRM proposition for its local
clients.

5. CRM
CRM can be defined as a comprehensive
set of processes and technologies for
managing the relationships with potential
and current customers and business
partners across marketing, sales and service,
regardless of the communications channel

6. NEED OF THIS
CASE STUDY

7. OBJECTIVE OF THIS CASE
TO KNOW WHAT LED TO THE CHANGED
APPROACH BY THE COMPANY TOWARDS
THE CUSTOMERS FROM THE TRADITIONAL
ONE.

8. IN THIS CASE WE WILL FOCUS ON
THESE ISSUES
 A CHANGING MEDIA INDUSTRY
 THE CRM INDUSTRY IN ASIA
 GREY WORLDWIDE HONG KONG-CHINA:
E-MARKETING STRATEGY
 GREY RELATIONSHIP MANAGEMENT

9. 1.CHANGING MEDIA INDUSTRY
THE MEDIA M,ARKET IN 2000S FACED THE
FOLLOWING CHALLENGES
 INCREASED COMPETITION
 NEW TECHNOLOGY
 RISNG CUSTOMER EXPECTATION

10. COMPETITION
 THE HEIGHTENED GLOBAL COMPETITION
THE THIN LINE BETWEEN CORE
COMMUNICATION COMPANIES,
TRADITIONAL CONSULTING FIRMS,ONLINE
MEDIA FIRMS AND DESIGN FIRMS WERE
BLURRED.
 WITH INTERNET IT BECAME EASY TO STUDY
CUSTOMER NEEDS AND EXPECTATION.

11. TECHNOLOGY
THE GROWTH OF INTERNET PROVIDED EASY
COMMUNICATION POSSIBILITIESW SUCH AS:
 Internet-centric technologies that
integrated with existing business
infrastructures (e.g., telecommunications,
data communications and other
connectivity could provide cross-media
business solutions and enhance customer
value)

12.  Enhanced Internet telephony and e-
marketing communications that
leveraged new media technologies,
including IP telephony, visual
communications, Internet kiosks,
interactive responses and messaging
portals

13. RISING CUSTOMER EXPECTATION
A concurrent trend driving industry change was
rising customer expectations; this meant that
agencies had to refine their ability to identify and
serve their “best” customers – and create loyal
customers. As a result, previously ad hoc and
fragmented techniques for dealing effectively with
customers were giving way to a more methodical
CRM approach: identifying, attracting and
retaining the most valuable customers in order to
sustain profitable growth.

14. CHARLES SCHWAB REPORTED SOME
CUSTOMER SERVICES COST IN THE US:
 face-to-face (F2F) communication – US
$10 per contact
 call center agents – US$7.50
 voice response unit (VRU) – US$2.48
 Internet – US$0.18

15. 2.THE CRM INDUSTRY IN ASIA
DURING 2003 THE MARKET SITUATION OF THE CRM INDUSTRY WAS LIKE
THIS:
The market size for Asia-Pacific isn’t yet close to growth in the US. We
can say the market size for Asia-Pacific is less than eight per cent of the
US; although its growth rate is almost 200 per cent – even faster than
the growth lines we saw in the US two years ago.10
- James Vogtle, CRM Industry Expert

16. OF LATE THE ASIAN COMPANIES STARTED TO
KNOW THE IMPORTANCE OF CRM
TECHNOLOGY IN ASIA AS FINDINMG A NEW
CUSTOMER WOULD COST THEM FIVE TIMES
MORE THAN RETAINING A CUSTOMER.

17. Viveca Chan felt that certain Asian
specificities needed to be recognised:
 Asian consumers needed to be educated
in e-business and enabling technologies
 The Asian market was more fragmented in
its CRM needs
 The strategy, execution and knowledge
mix in Asia would differ

18.  The global economic slowdown forced
companies to cut down on information
technology spending, but at the same
time, the market needed a quicker return
on investment:
The solution lies in CRM, which can help
companies manage customers better, and
subsequently secure more new clients. Asia-
Pacific is the largest growing market for
CRM.

19. 3.GREY WORLDWIDE HONGKONG
CHINA:E-MARKETING STRATEGY
Viveca Chan advised her team to consider
several issues when developing strategy
ideas:
 How to tackle a dramatically changing
industry cost structure where there was
downward pressure on profit margins

20.  How to attract and retain high-calibre
talent, since agencies were pressured to
cut costs
 To understand the specific market forces
that were driving media and
communications changes, and to identify
how Grey WW-HK/China could manage its
business model in the light of these
changes

21. Successful CRM implementation, according to
Viveca Chan, hinged on a company’s ability
to execute a strategy with the right market
knowledge; she felt no such player existed in
the market yet . Despite cost pressures, though,
Grey WW-HK/China decided not to compete
on price; instead, it would differentiate itself
through a CRM proposition – the GRM
concept. To become that player, Grey WW-
HK/China viewed its Asian challenges in two
specific ways: by managing knowledge and
by executing strategy through managing
technology.

22. MANAGING KNOWLEDGE
Viveca Chan commented that “knowledge
management is critical to capture best
practices and detailed information about
customer usage behaviour, contact history,
product enquiries and corporate data that
marketing people can use to their
advantage.”

23. Theresa Franklin said:
Knowledge is information gathered on
customers through various events and
media. Sharing customer knowledge is our
biggest future asset. Our main challenge is
how to develop a system to build “customer
equity”. In addition ,to “brand equity”;
customer management has become key in
this business. This means managing the
multiple customer contact points,
managing CRM.

24. MANAGING TECHNOLOGY
Grey WW-HK/China felt technology was an enabler, a part
of its strategy sum, not the sum of its CRM strategy. Viveca
Chan elaborated:
We want to enhance our “total customer experience”. Our
definition of CRM is focusing on what we do best:
enhancing brand equity and enhancing customer loyalty
and retention. We want to manage multiple consumer
touch points such as the Internet, multimedia, TV and other
customer information channels to achieve customer
information integration knowledge. Beyond Interactive is
expert on educating consumers, but now we are focusing
on managing customer feedback and moving prospective
customers into loyal prospects

25. Technology is part of our total
communications process, but not
necessarily part of our strategic processes. It
is part of sharing information about our
clients, enhancing our business efficiency
and as an alternative for traditional media
in building media presence on-line. Our
focus is still our brains.
- Candy Wan, Director of Grey Direct

26. 4.GREY RELATIONSHIP
MANAGEMENT
The GRM concept was a four-principle philosophy
developed with a specific customer management
focus:
1. build brands
2. develop and manage customers
3. create a positive brand experience for clients
4. build brand through knowledge about the
customer through constant dialogue

27. Theresa Franklin elaborated on Grey WW-
HK/China’s plan to capitalise on changing
values:
Database management is the backbone of
CRM. We plan to build our credibility in
database management through
understanding how to use and apply
technology.