Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia – Buy now pay later (BNPL) platform Atome has appointed Daphne Lourdes, former country marketing manager at Meta, to be its newest head of marketing in Malaysia. In an exclusive interview with MARKETECH APAC, Lourdes noted that through her new role, she will be focused on developing a comprehensive 360° brand and marketing plan to drive brand awareness and advocacy, as well as support merchant and user acquisition for Atome in Malaysia.
In addition, she will be leading a team covering partnerships, campaigns and social media marketers to implement the brand and marketing plans and ultimately support merchants to grow their business.
“At the same time, as a consumer brand, we also want to support tech savvy Malaysian shoppers with access and affordability to quality products and services and help them achieve their aspirational life goals, while promoting responsible shopping,” Lourdes told MARKETECH APAC.
During her previous stint at Meta, she was focused on building the company’s B2B marketing in Malaysia, as well as developing and executing digital marketing campaigns for the brand. Prior to joining Meta, she also had worked with consumer TV company Astro for three years, where she served several positions, including general manager for digital and marketing.
“I’ve learnt that Malaysia is not a homogenous society but a melting pot of diverse peoples and cultures, which means they come with different shopping and retail needs and wants. Therefore our approach with merchants as well as consumers, should be marketed as such. This is an important fact to recognise and any branding or consumer outreach campaigns should take this into consideration,” she noted when asked about what she has learned throughout these previous stints.
Speaking about her appointment, Lourdes told MARKETECH APAC, “I am thrilled to join the team and grow the Atome brand in Malaysia by building on the incredible momentum of Atome’s first year of operations in Malaysia.A lot more merchants now understand the value we bring to their businesses. We are keen to develop those relationships, broaden the coverage of industry verticals and support their retail growth across channels.”
She also added, “As people adjust to the new normal post COVID-19, I am also incredibly excited to drive greater consumer adoption of Atome across Malaysia. At the same time, I will continue to focus on growing awareness and education of Atome’s core values of ‘Access, Aspiration and Advice’.”
In her new role, she will be reporting to Trasy Lou, regional general manager at Atome.
“We warmly welcome Daphne to the Atome Malaysia family as we expand and grow the Atome brand across Malaysia. We continue to see strong demand from our retail and merchant partners as well as users, as well as the unique opportunity for BNPL to drive post COVID-19 retail recovery. Daphne’s deep background in tech, marketing and her knowledge of industry networks will allow us to further build and accelerate the growth of the Atome brand in Malaysia,” Lou said.
When asked about her thought leadership on the opportunities in BNPL, she noted two groups of people that will have greater opportunities in the continuing rise of BNPL use in the market.
According to Lourdes, they need to demonstrate the value of BNPL platforms such as Atome to merchants, as well as growing their retail network and partnerships.
“We will also need to continuously upgrade and improve retail and merchant support. We also want to be able to work with merchants to support the recovery of retail post-pandemic, and to also work with our merchant partners to prepare for the day when COVID restrictions are lifted and shoppers can freely and safely return to shops and malls,” she said.
Meanwhile, she noted that on the consumer’s front, they need to continue improving the shopping and payment experience by adding new features and services such as early repayment, capping admin fees in half, and Atome+ rewards.
“We will also partner more merchants to offer a greater range of products and services. Lastly, we will focus on consumer education and features to promote healthy and sustainable shopping,” Lourdes concluded.
