ASIA TODAY editor talked with Emma McCormack, ShoreTel Director of Marketing for APAC about the opportunities and challenges faced by a marketing manager who supports ShoreTel's operation across Asia Pacific region.
Q: What is your main responsibility as the new ShoreTel Director of Marketing for APAC?
A: As the Director of Marketing for ShoreTel across Asia Pacific, my main responsibilities are to support the sales and channels teams in growing revenue and market share for ShoreTel across the region.
Q: Please describe your marketing experiences prior to joining ShoreTel.
A: I started my career working for a small advertising agency in North Sydney, Australia – which I think is a great place for any young marketer to cut their teeth. You get exposure to the nuts and bolts of how to execute a campaign; you learn about the technical elements in bringing all the pieces together; and you also develop attention for detail that I wish I would have had during my undergraduate days!
I then worked in publishing for a couple of years before moving into technology marketing. I spent time with Systems Union (who was later acquired by Infor) and then five years with PeopleSoft, both in Australia and the United States.
Most recently, before ShoreTel, I worked at Avaya for nine years, gaining experience across the full marketing mix in Asia Pacific. My responsibilities included managing the APAC Analyst Relations program, as well as the Asia Pacific Business Partner Conference and Technology Expo. Plus I developed consumer-based research into the Contact Centers that helped customers identify how they should structure their customer-service strategy. In addition, I looked after channel marketing for APAC and launched the Channel Marketing Portal to the region, while I also worked on customer database projects.
I have a Bachelor of Arts from Sydney University, as well as a Master in Business Marketing from UTS in Sydney.
Q: Please describe a few innovative marketing campaigns that you have done before.
A: My favorite program in recent times was the Contact Center Consumer Index I initiated and ran for five years at Avaya. Working with a research firm, we identified how consumers chose to interact with a contact center, and from that research and the insights we gained, we developed a range of campaigns to help companies differentiate themselves through the types of customer service they offered. The research was a hook that we used for events, demand generation, public relations, channel enablement and, ultimately, a sales tool.
Q: What are your current main priorities for ShoreTel marketing activities in APAC?
A: My primary focus at ShoreTel is increasing brand awareness of ShoreTel’s brilliantly simple range of Unified Communications and Contact Center solutions, as well as demand generation to support our channel of resellers.
Q: Have you encountered challenges in your new position?
A: The biggest challenge would have to be the sheer size of the Asia Pacific region. ShoreTel has a presence in 15 countries, which covers seven different time zones and multiple languages – and we need to ensure that every region receives the same high-quality marketing support upon which ShoreTel has built its brand.
Q: What is your vision for ShoreTel APAC in 2013 and beyond?
A: I want the Asia Pacific business world to know that ShoreTel offers Unified Communications and Contact Center solutions that our customers love. I also want ShoreTel to be known as the technology vendor of choice that the channel trusts and wants to work with when it comes to selling Unified Communications and Contact Center solutions in APAC.
Q: The world has gone through an economic meltdown in recent years. What are the challenges faced by marketing managers today? How are you dealing with such tough situations?
A: In my opinion, the biggest challenge faced by marketing managers today is driven less by the economic meltdown over the past five years, and more about the increasing sophistication of the end user.
Customers, quite rightly, do not believe corporate marketing spin. So it is important for vendors to be transparent in their communications and develop trust. At ShoreTel, we do this by asking our customers to speak on our behalf and describe their experience in choosing, implementing and using ShoreTel UC and Contact Center solutions. Our customers tell us they love what we do, and this is reflected in our NetPromoters score, which is consistently higher than our competitors and the industry. So we are saying do not take our word for it – talk to the people who are actually using ShoreTel.
Q: What factors do you consider the most important when attempting to influence consumer behavior?
A: In my observation, I do not think vendors should be trying to influence consumer behavior; rather, we should help consumers identify what their requirements are and then provide them with the information they need to make a buying decision.
For example, if someone came to us and said they wanted to buy telephones for teenagers, we would explain very politely, it is unlikely that we would be able to provide them with a solution that would meet their needs.
However, if a corporation came to us and said it was a growing business with 450 employees across four sites with a legacy PBX infrastructure, and it wanted to move to a VoIP system that would save IT administration, would deliver cost savings, and was simple to use and administer, we would say that we believe we have the best solution available globally today and we have customers who are in a similar situation who say the same thing.
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Emma McCormack is ShoreTel’s Director of Marketing, APAC. Based in Sydney, McCormack is responsible for ShoreTel’s marketing strategy across the company’s Asia-Pacific region, which currently encompasses 12 countries.
McCormack has extensive marketing experience in the IT industry, with her career beginning in Sydney in 1997 with UK software firm, Systems Union (later acquired by Infor), then in marketing management roles for PeopleSoft, both in Australia and the US. Prior to joining ShoreTel, McCormack was with Avaya for almost nine years, most recently as Marketing Programmes Manager, APAC for Avaya’s contact centre solutions.
McCormack has experience across all areas of IT vendor marketing, with roles covering marketing operations, channel-marketing strategy, analyst relations and marketing programme management.