Launching companies into digital with data & metrics

Nick Reynolds has worked in technology his whole career, from Sabre, to Gateway, to Dell, Apple and Lenovo. Now as global CMO of Hitachi, he’s using everything he’s learned from his business analyst, sales and marketing roles so far to guide the digital transformation of Johnson Controls Hitachi-Air Conditioning. 

“As a marketer now, you need to be pretty good at numbers, data, and stats. That’s a modern day marketer.” But it wasn’t always the case. In the early 2000s, metrics like when customers were buying, how much, how often, and the dollar value were tough to track, usually only in a huge Excel spreadsheet.

But having worked on these spreadsheets himself, Nick has always known the power of being able to track how your marketing affects your business revenue and activity. That’s the attitude he’s taken through his career into Hitachi, a company both willing to change and hungry for it. 

He led the revamp and unification of Hitachi’s global marketing, all of it backed by a unified digital dashboard that visualizes important metrics across the customer journey. The dashboard transforms dull numbers into clear graphics you can interrogate and dive into, and it’s been a massive success, especially with training for teams and executives. 

Change drivers are essential

The key to a company’s successful digital evolution is buy in. “Most companies are not like Gateway, Dell, Apple and Lenovo,” Nick says. “They’re not cutting edge, they’re not leading the way. They’re behind the curve. It’s got to be like that. Someone’s ahead, someone’s behind.” 

But in order to set the curve or catch up to it, a company needs change drivers. These are voices pitching innovation and continuous improvement, as well as those who give such innovation a chance with time, resources and budget. When the buy-in goes all the way up to the C-suite, it’s a powerful message to the entire company that change is desirable and positive.

Nick points to the launch of the Lenovo Yoga convertible PC in Australia. Twice Lenovo had tried to launch into Australia, and twice failed. But Nick pushed for a third try involving an imaginative digital-first campaign in partnership with Ashton Kutcher – and Digivizer! He pitched the idea to his boss, and to his boss’ boss, and finally flew to meet with Lenovo’s CEO – who agreed to give him a budget, keen to see the concept succeed. 

Source: Business Insider

With that campaign, Lenovo went from nowhere to number two in share of voice online. Yoga became synonymous with convertible PCs. Lenovo became a household name, with brand recognition in 70% of households. That would have taken about 10 years with traditional media, Nick guesses. With digital, it was 18-24 months – and Lenovo became the number two selling PC brand in Australia. 

Now, on a mission to grow the share of voice for a company in a new industry altogether, Nick has learned that the industrial sector is somewhat of a digital laggard compared to big tech. By being open to change, however, Johnson Controls Hitachi–Air Conditioning is already harnessing the opportunity to digitally transform it’s marketing and sales strategy. 

The premium air conditioning brand has its roots in Japan, but needs to appeal to a global market. Previously all countries it operated decided individually on their own brand and marketing activities. That made it difficult to align marketing metrics around a global audience engagement strategy. 

Nick’s first priority was to bring these activities all together under one global brand, with one consistent web experience. A new ‘Air is Life’ campaign highlighted customers’ intrinsic connection to the air that we breathe; its importance to human health and comfort. Conversation around improving air quality, especially in indoor spaces, has increased following the pandemic, and so the new campaign positioning is timely.