DHL's Donna Attal is seeking the right creative agency to remain on top

There are two things that Donna Attal is dependent on - her trusty Blackberry and Singapore. The senior vice-president and head of marketing for Asia-Pacific and Eastern Europe, Middle East, and Africa (EEMEA) for DHL, credits her mobile device and base in the Lion City as the means that enable her to run an entire gamut of operations and business for the world’s leading logistics firm while being close to her family.

To say Attal currently has a busy schedule is an understatement, as she is charged with all of DHL’s marketing functions spanning two major regions that comprise some 130 countries across 14 time zones.

“Half the complexity is recognising the diversity and acknowledging the experience of people who are running the business on the ground,” she says. “We try to make it easier by clustering the markets so that we’re interacting with the key countries and like-minded clusters. Overall, the output allows us to still have diversity in our uniformity. We maintain a common look and feel, which ensures that the customer experience anywhere in the world has the inimitable DHL stamp while, at the same time, appreciating the uniqueness of each market of each locality, and leverage it to the fullest.”

Despite the vast scope of her brief, the 43-year old head runs a tight ship. “We try to be as nimble as possible,” she says, describing how her 25-strong team spread across Singapore, Dubai and Bahrain helps her stay grounded.

“My team ably handles all the traditional functions - product, pricing, marketing communications, e-commerce, retail, marketing intelligence, research and business performance reporting,” she adds. “But the biggest responsibility we have is to ensure that all the other sub-disciplines play just as important a part in the overall scheme of things. Pricing is as important as marketing communications, the product extension you’re selling or the customer satisfaction research you’re doing.”

One of Attal’s top priorities this year will unquestionably be to maintain and grow DHL’s dominance over the logistics industry, which is not getting any easier.

“We need to make sure that as growth is coming back on, we continue to be a dominant leader. It’s a double-edged sword - I don’t know if we have the good fortune of being the leader or the burden of carrying it,” jokes Attal.

Joe Baladi of BrandAsian notes that for DHL to move forward, the logistics giant needs to maintain product and service leadership by “enhancing efforts and investment in innovation” while complementing its leadership position by “demonstrating genuine and sincere social responsibility and accountability”.

Attal feels that her team and company have “the responsibility to react to the needs of the market” but says they will not be innovative just for the sake of it. More important is to study and understand consumers’ needs better.

“Most consumers won’t know what they want most of the time,” she explains. “It would be foolish to ask our customers what they want. Most of the time, you have to be attentive and listen to what it is that they’re not saying, and then shape the product and service to their needs accordingly. That way we can give them what they want, when they need it, before anyone else can.”

Given DHL’s dominant position in most markets in the region, Attal argues that the company must take up the challenge of being a leader and filter out distractions. “We have a responsibility to keep the focus, to keep things simple, in all the ways we interact with the customer, in the way we build and deliver that unique customer experience.”

In a year when big things are in the pipeline, especially as DHL finalises its choice of a creative agency partner, Attal is mindful of the implications. With a brand well known for its highly visible and award winning campaigns such as the ‘No one knows Asia-Pacific like we do’ drive in 2005, Attal wants to establish a functional and long-standing relationship first.

“We’ve benefited significantly from some exceptional and highly recognisable advertising, which has sustained us till now. The challenge for us this year - notwithstanding the new agency who’ll be coming in - is to make sure that that the overall constellation of agencies across the different sister business units within DHL - and the diverse geographies - all come together in a synergistic manner.”

Donna Attal CV

2009 Senior vice-president, head of marketing, Asia-Pacific and EEMEA
2006 Vice-president, office of the CEO, Asia-Pacific
2005 Director, marketing communications and retail, Asia-Pacific
2001 Head of brand and marketing communications, DHL Express Asia-Pacific

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This article was originally published in the 25 February 2010 issue of Media.