ASEAN needs to ramp up digital strategies – report

The Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN), which includes the Philippines, needs to ramp up its digital strategies in order to capture a bigger growth in the consumption industry.

A new report from Accenture showed robust consumption fuelled by a rapidly growing consumer class, rising incomes, and urbanization will generate $770 billion in new consumer spending within the ASEAN region over the next few years.

“This is creating tremendous new business potential for consumer packaged goods [CPG] companies if they can tap into burgeoning consumer demand by applying digitally-driven strategies to reach the increasingly connected ASEAN consumers,” the report showed.

The report noted that the CPG industry’s growth in the region, forecast to increase by nine percent annually to USD220 billion in 2017, will be enhanced by the formation of the ASEAN Economic Community (AEC), which is scheduled to take effect this year.

“The spectacular growth of the ASEAN economy represents one of the biggest opportunities on the planet for consumer goods companies today,” said Dwight Hutchins, managing director, Accenture Strategy, Asia Pacific.

“All that growth, however, means that markets are changing very quickly while digital technologies lift expectations for more tailored and engaging consumer experiences. Companies that hope to compete for new consumers must be bold and move fast if they are to take advantage,” he said.

According to the report, CPG companies face distinct challenges from delivering products across a physically fragmented landscape to winning the loyalty of rapidly changing consumers.