Foreword for MarketingRx

By Sandy Prieto-Romualdez
President, Philippine Daily Inquirer

In the Philippines, the pivotal discipline of Marketing does not only have its 4Ps; it also has its 2Rs. I am referring, of course, to Dr. Ned Roberto and Ardy Roberto, the father-and-son team of marketer-entrepreneurs who write the Philippine Daily Inquirer’s popular MarketingRx column.

MarketingRx is a pillar of our Business Friday section, edited by Margie Quimpo-Espino. The column’s format is simplicity itself: It begins with a real-world question about Marketing, from businessmen or entrepreneurs, from marketing professionals or business students. The two Marketing doctors take turns diagnosing the problem in great detail, and then offer practical, eminently useful prescriptions.

Dr. Ned (as almost everybody in Philippine business refers to him) brings a lifetime of experience in Marketing and marketing research to bear on the questions, helping an about-to-retire employee realize, for instance, that real money can be made from (and real value added by) marketing to the poor. Ardy’s intensive involvement in interactive media (from the targeted relationship management in Direct Marketing to the possibilities of suki mobile marketing) sheds light on 21st-century problems.

Judging from the questions they continue to field (the Robertos have been doing the column for five years), I can only conclude that, first, many of us in business continue to have Marketing-related ailments, and second, the Robertos have helped nurse quite a few of us to good health. Word gets around.

Hence, this book: a selection of over two dozen columns from the last five years with the most useful advice for entrepreneurs, or those thinking of taking the entrepreneurial plunge. Much of the conversational flavor that makes the MarketingRx column an easy and distinctive read has been retained; you can begin reading that particular chapter with the question that best reflects your problem or marketing opportunity. At the same time, the book is organized as a whole; you can read it from cover to cover, profitably.

InqBooks is dedicated to publishing books out of the wealth of Inquirer material in order to help build a nation of readers. It is therefore a double privilege for me to see this must-read book to print, because it promises not only to form readers but create entrepreneurs as well.