Executive Meeting with Blanca Pons

New technologies are essential to understand consumers in depth

• According to Blanca Pons, while it is true that most companies already have their own digital channels, they need to go a step further to improve the customer experience through data management.
• "We are now facing a continuous digital revolution. There is such a rapid birth of new technologies that companies have to be constantly adapting their products and services with a clear focus: the customer and their expectations".
• We should not be afraid of Artificial Intelligence, we must know how to use it and be prepared to provide service to customers through it. As Blanca Pons points out, we have already begun to see some of the exciting opportunities that AI can offer us.

In the fourth interview of the Executive Meetings 2023 series, Dr. Casilda Güell, Dean of the School, spoke with Blanca Pons, Managing Director of Accenture Song, about the digital transformation applied to marketing and how the customer experience has evolved since the revolution of new technologies.

The evolution of marketing over the last two decades has been impressive, but the pandemic in particular has been a major turning point. From one-way mass media advertisements that were focused on the product and its features, we moved to putting the consumer and their interests at the centre. We now have a constant exchange with the customer through apps and social media, which has led to a better understanding of what they are looking for, what they need and what we can provide. We offer our products and services in a much more personalised way with the help of algorithms that learn from the data they collect, and this data has now become the most relevant thing in the field of marketing and communication, as it helps to improve the customer experience.

Where do companies stand today?

Blanca Pons believes that most companies today are at an intermediate level; practically all of them have opened their digital channel, but they still lack a good understanding of their customers through the correct handling of data. "Only with a deep understanding can they improve the consumer experience and be relevant to them," she says. And she sees it as essential to continue to evolve constantly in the face of ever-increasing consumer expectations. "At Accenture we are going one step further," says Pons, "and we help our clients to enter into consumers' lives (life centricity), that is, to understand them in all their aspects, personal, professional...". This new approach to marketing that Accenture Song is developing focuses more on what a sale solves for the customer than on the product or service itself.

Constant innovation is vital and technology is an enabler, however, Pons believes that it is also necessary to have an innovative spirit in companies that is willing to exceed customer expectations, to surprise them. "It is not necessary to be a giant or make huge investments in technology (we all have cases like Airbnb in mind), but to know how to analyse what the company needs and how to address it, and then make a roadmap to implement it. From an idea, you can create disruptive models and then scale them up," she says.  "Innovation yes, but without fear of big budgets. The so-called "open source" or democratisation of many technologies can help accelerate a business without the need for a lot of investment.

The role of the Metaverse in this new paradig

Blanca Pons considers the Metaverse as the "Internet of place", where the real and virtual worlds cohere; a new paradigm with immense possibilities (more than 800 billion business opportunities this year). At Accenture Song they have already created the End Floor platform, where all the company's offices worldwide are emulated and where they can have virtual co-creation meetings.

Pons sees this as providing greater attraction of talent, more productivity and improvements in the area of training, as it encourages retention. She also foresees a great future for the metaverse in the field of industry, especially to be able to solve problems in the different plants without the need to travel.

"Both the metaverse and Artificial Intelligence offer the world a lot of possibilities, but we have to be prepared to take advantage of them," she concludes.