Talking B2B Tech:
Siew Ting Foo

In 2018, HP hired a B2C marketer as its CMO.

After two decades of marketing to individual consumers with global brands like Unilever, Mars and Diageo, Siew Ting Foo was intrigued by B2B marketing with its different challenges and nuances including longer sales cycles and broader buying committees. More than anything, though, she was motivated by HP’s brief: to earn the marketing function a business seat, drive change and build team capabilities.

She launched herself, head first, into the world of B2B tech but her entry, she says, was a humbling one.

As Siew Ting navigated HP’s organisational structure, she quickly realised why marketing needed to earn itself a business seat.

“Back in Diageo, my team owned all 4Ps of marketing - product, price, place and promotion. This is quite common in consumer goods companies. In HP, however, the 4Ps are shared across three divisions, which means marketing really needs to prove that it’s making an impact on the customer journey,” she pointed out.

Her first order of business was to reframe internal perceptions of marketing. To achieve this, Siew Ting did what came most naturally to her - she started building a strong brand identity for the function.

Branding from within

As a seasoned brand marketer, Siew Ting set out to shed marketing’s image of a service function and reposition it as a strategic partner that drives business impact and brand outcomes.

“Marketing is associated with creativity, which is great, but it doesn’t capture the full spectrum of what we do. Underlying every creative campaign is a ton of data-centric work. I wanted to bring this to the fore and showcase that the marketing function is a unique blend of art and science. Because we bring together creativity and data, we’re able to engage our customers and translate these interactions and insights into commercial results,” she revealed.

Underlying this is another strategic chess move - to have marketing represent the voice of the customer. Not only does this allow marketing to exert greater influence over all 4Ps, in Siew Ting’s case, it has also enabled her team to gain greater credibility with internal stakeholders.

Marketing M.A.G.I.C

By February 2021, Siew Ting had assumed the role of CMO for Greater Asia. She found herself taking charge in the midst of a global pandemic with a team of over 30 direct reports and 30 indirect reports looking to her for direction.

“With so much uncertainty hanging in the air, I felt that we needed a North Star; a marketing manifesto that would unite the team, articulate our purpose, and serve as an anchor point when we communicate the HP brand externally,” she said.

Collectively, her team created M.A.G.I.C to capture five guiding principles: Mastery of brand, Agility, Growth mindset, Integration with other functions, and Customer journey. MAGIC also is a manifestation of her personal purpose to bring out the human potential to perform, resulting in high-performing outcomes.

Specifically, Siew Ting calls out Mastery of brand, which is defined in the manifesto as “[using] deep local customer insights and our flair in executing world-class campaigns under a consistent global framework.” She explained, “These are tough times for brand marketers. Building brand trust is more important than ever before but it’s also become much more difficult to achieve. Our approach is to stay close to our audiences, stay true to our brand purpose, and stay authentic.”

Brand authenticity is essential to HP’s positioning as a ‘Global Brand with Local Soul’ but Siew Ting is quick to clarify that this isn’t simply a localisation mechanism.

“In Asia Pacific, we use a global-level brand mandate as our starting point. This is important because it represents the universal truth about our brand. From there, we bring in local insights, which is essentially a cultural expression of that universal truth. This is where that unique marketing skillset of blending art and science really shines through. Local insights are powered, in part, by hard data - through social listening, market and audience research, and campaign performance analysis, for example. But local insights must also be informed by cultural nuances. This is the softer, creative side of things that only local talent can bring to the table,” she emphasised.

Given her approach to brand localisation, especially in a region as colourful as Asia Pacific, it’s no surprise that Siew Ting is a diversity advocate.

Diversity in thought and talent

As a leader, Siew Ting subscribes to the “diversity of thoughts, collectivism of wisdom” principle and is highly intentional about having diverse talent on her team, placed in right-fit roles.

“I’ll be the first to admit that I don’t have all the answers. What I usually have is a problem statement. I bring this to my team and we ideate for solutions together. This creates a richness in our discussions because everyone pitches in with their own unique perspective. The best idea always wins but, more often than not, the best idea is an amalgamation of several different ideas,” she shared.

This diverse, collaborative environment also supports a culture of learning that has seen Siew Ting picking up tips over the shoulder of a junior data scientist.

“Diversity is so powerful because everyone can bring value to the table if you give them a chance to. We're fortunate that HP is a big believer of talent diversity. Beyond gender diversity, for example, the company is also investing in building a pipeline of Gen Z talent through internships programmes and other initiatives. That's great news for us in marketing because to stay relevant as a brand, we need to stay relevant to our consumers. The Gen Z perspective is invaluable in that regard,” she added.

In a world that changes faster with each passing day, it can be hard to keep up. Being open to change comes with a sense of vulnerability that Siew Ting acknowledges but does not regard as a weakness - not when she’s supported by a likeminded team that’s led by purpose and enabled by diversity. Perhaps that’s where the real magic lies.