Brazil is the Next Frontier
In May, São Paulo unveiled a new bridge—the Octavia Frias de Oliveira Bridge—which spans the Pinheiros River that flows through the city. The bridge deck is unusual due to its form, which is similar to an "X" crossing at the tower.
At night, the bridge shines blue and yellow like a beacon of hope. The unique structure stands as a symbol of change in the massive metropolis of São Paulo’s 20 million residents.
A global power in agriculture and natural resources, Brazil has unleashed the greatest burst of prosperity the country has witnessed in three decades. São Paulo is the 19th richest city in the world and is expected to be the 13th richest in 2020, according to the Brazilian Institute of Geography and Statistics. Brazil itself boasts the largest national economy in Latin American and is the world’s 10th largest economy.
I had the pleasure of attending Peppers & Rogers Group Latin America and Iberia’s Technomarketing conference last week in São Paulo, where, for five days I became immersed in the Brazilian culture. The people are warm, sophisticated, and hard working.
But despite the country's economic and social progress, businesses lag in implementing the tools, processes, and technologies necessary to propel its customer strategies and to communicate with customers in an engaging way.
There are a number of reasons for the delay. Donald Feinberg, vice president and distinguished analyst at Gartner São Paulo, spoke at the conference and blames the problem on IT being bullish with companies’ customer data. “Business can no longer be a slave to IT,” he said.
Feinberg explained that in Brazil, BI needs to evolve beyond simple reporting measures. He said emerging technologies in the region will help that progress. “BI is fragmented and not pervasive in Brazil,” he said.
I also learned that many companies have disparate data sources. Weslyeh Mohriak, president of Peppers & Rogers Group Latin America and Iberia, said that most Brazilian companies don’t know what to do with their data. “Using [customer] information to change the processes and cultures in a company is just at the beginning,” Mohriak said.
Culture is also big problem in São Paulo. Sales and marketing managers understand the benefits of deploying processes and technologies to enable CRM, but convincing the executive boards to appropriate funds toward such long-term solutions is almost impossible.
Joe Kelly, vice president of the marketing automation practice at Quaero, says he’s seen companies paralyzed because of this problem. And in a workshop I attended, it seemed that unanimously, the attendees echoed Kelly’s statement, blaming their cultures and their boards’ narrow focus on short-term cost benefits.
Carlos Alberto Rigato, a marketing manager at Hewlett-Packard Brazil, told me that Brazil is at the very beginning of implementing customer-focused processes and companies must be ready for the evolution. He said companies need an advocate to push these processes through. “We are all in a learning curve,” he said.
Much like the United States during the emergence of CRM a little more than 10 years ago, Brazil is now dealing with similar issues. Brazil will eventually overcome them, but first marketers there will have to start proving their business cases for marketing optimization technologies and proving the long-term benefits for such solutions.
It’s an exciting time for conducting business in and with Brazil right now. And I predict U.S. marketing and CRM optimimization vendors will start bridging the continents and start leveraging and helping this emerging marketplace.
As the Octavia Frias de Oliveira Bridge reminds us, anything is possible.
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