Ricky Samuel | Marketing Consumer Electronics Brands In Southeast Asia - Part 2

This episode of The Negotiation is part 2 of our conversation with Ricky Samuel, E-Commerce Lead at Mindshare, a global media agency, where he helps clients in understanding their e-commerce-related challenges to drive success. As I mentioned at the top of the last show, Mindshare was the first purpose-built company created by WPP and today has a head count of over 10,000 that operate in 116 offices in 86 countries around the world. We pick up the conversation with Ricky discussing his move to Schneider Electric, an interesting move for someone with a background in eCommerce, something we ask him about. We also talk about building eCommerce partners in Japan and what he learned about targeting the Japanese market for the first time in his career. We then move on to discussing his work at Mindshare, specifically, some of his biggest lessons learned working in a variety of verticals aimed at the Indonesian market, how success in that market has changed over the last 10 years, and where consumer behaviour and retail strategies will go over the next 5 years. Enjoy!

Show Notes

Topics Discussed and Key Points:

·       Ricky’s experience working with the Japanese market.

·       Adapting to the new normal.

·       The benefits of working with local distributors.

·       What it takes to have a successful omnichannel approach.

·       How the approach to being successful in the Indonesian market has changed.

·       How consumer behaviour has changed.

 

Episode Summary:

Today on The Negotiation, we continue our conversation with Ricky Samuel, E-Commerce Lead at Mindshare, a global media agency, where he helps clients in understanding their e-commerce-related challenges to drive success.

Over the past 10 years, Ricky has served in roles at large corporations, including Bose, ASUS, and HP. In 2019, Ricky moved to Schneider Electric, and in 2021, he joined Mindshare Indonesia as E-Commerce Lead.

Regarding his move to Schneider Electric, Ricky says “I want to understand the regional point of view.”

Ricky also talks about Schneider’s E-Commerce partners, lessons from the Japanese market, adapting to the new normal of Covid, what it takes to have a successful omnichannel approach, changing consumer behaviour, and Ricky looks at the next 5 years.

 

Key Quotes:

“Price has now become less important.”

 

“You don’t need to have the same product in each marketplace.”

 

“Engagement to your customer is the key.”

What is The Negotiation?

Despite being the world’s most potent economic area, Asia can be one of the most challenging regions to navigate and manage well for foreign brands. However, plenty of positive stories exist and more are emerging every day as brands start to see success in engaging and deploying appropriate market growth strategies – with the help of specialists.

The Negotiation is an interview show that showcases those hard-to-find success stories and chats with the incredible leaders behind them, teasing out the nuances and digging into the details that can make market growth in APAC a winning proposition.