Introduction to MarketingRx

By Margie Quimpo-Espino
Business Features Editor
Philippine Daily Inquirer

Soldiers are usually told ‘Ready, aim, fire!’

Entrepreneurs do it differently—first they fire, then they aim.

Sounds funny but it’s true. But then again this is the X factor of many successful entrepreneurs: the ability to see a market or a need, without the benefit of research.

Most entrepreneurs rely on gut feel when making business decisions. Their success is often determined by their ‘no fail, can’t fail attitude.’

But entrepreneurs do thirst for more objective guidelines in their decision-making. They may not like school much, but they hunger for knowledge suited and relevant to their needs. They will still decide, of course, based on how they feel and what their instincts tell them, but they do listen to research and what the market says.

It is this thirst for knowledge about the market, this guidance from experts (without paying a consultancy fee!), that has made MarketingRx popular among business and marketing professionals, entrepreneurs, and students.

Few entrepreneurs would spend on consultants, let alone commission a market study. But they will always maximize situations and opportunities where they can get free advice about their business.

This does not mean though that they are not willing to shell out good money to listen to experts. Over the past several years, there has been a proliferation of marketing seminars and always, in the midst of marketing executives, you will find entrepreneurs.

The first time I got to know Dr. Ned was when I was a new business journalist with the Philippine Daily Inquirer. The Asian Institute of Management, where he was a professor then, often held seminars and short courses on economics and finance for business reporters. Dr. Ned was often one of the lecturers and I was lucky enough to have been among his students.

Even back then, Dr. Ned already had that uncanny ability to captivate his audience and make market research very interesting, at a time when few paid heed to what the market wanted. The dictum then was create wants and needs for the market.

I cannot forget that one subject of his research was Jollibee’s tremendous success in one of its first provincial branches (this was in the 1980s). His research discovered that consumers would go to Jollibee not for its burgers but for its Chickenjoy, with many families bringing their own rice and ordering just the chicken.

To this day Chickenjoy is Jollibee’s bestseller.

Dr. Ned’s partner in the column, his son Ardy, I met in 1990, just before I set off for a fellowship at The Washington Post. He was then working for a magazine and had asked me to look up a friend.

While Dr. Ned was building his reputation as a marketing guru in the Philippines and writing books on the side, Ardy began his writing career, eventually graduating from a professional management course for publishing executives in Stanford University.

He has certainly put his course to good use. As Dr. Ned has said, his earlier books were not selling until Ardy looked at them and repackaged them. Then they flew off the shelves.

A few years ago, Ardy realized that his role was to help spread the gospel of Marketing, in particular market research. And he knew even then that his dad was, and is, one of the best preachers for this.

I NEVER THOUGHT I would become the editor of this unique father-son tandem. The MarketingRx column started in the Philippine Daily Inquirer in 2003. Just like the Business Features section which hosts it, it was a pioneering effort of the newspaper: the first marketing advice column.

Unfortunately, I cannot lay claim to getting the Robertos to write for the Inquirer. The original idea was coursed through one of our executives (credit should go to Ardy for broaching the possibility of a marketing column; he saw the market’s thirst for such). Of course, when the idea was pitched to me, I readily agreed.

Marketing Rx is more than just a column. It plays a crucial role in providing advice and guidance to entrepreneurs who do not yet have the capability and money to tap experts, who can help them grow their businesses.

Marketing consultants charge an arm and a leg. With the column, the price of practical advice is just the price of the Inquirer—in other words, it’s practically free.

The prescriptions Marketing Rx provides are never placebos. I don’t think any letter writer has ever felt short-changed with the answer to his question. Indeed, the answers are almost mini-lectures on Marketing.

But it does not stop there. The column provides the impetus for entrepreneurs to learn more about marketing research as a rule and their markets in particular. This book makes it so much easier for entrepreneurs as they now have the answers to particular situations they might encounter in one book.

I would go as far to say that Marketing Rx contributes to economic progress in the Philippines—as entrepreneurs get effective advice, their businesses expand, wealth is created, and employment is generated. As Filipinos become economically empowered, politicians will become irrelevant. Once they are irrelevant, they will start acting like the public servants they are and . . . serve the public.