Watch this...
Thursday, September 6, 2012
The "underground economy" -- a worthy target market?
Have you ever thought of tapping into "System D"?
Thursday, June 21, 2012
If we go for the DE market with the 'best product' -- is success guaranteed?
So much has happened since we last blogged and posted our MarketingRx articles/columns on this blog. Here's last Friday's. Click here.
Heads up. We missed the deadline for this Friday's submission, so there will be no column tomorrow.
Please bear with us as the challenges in life try to overtake us. We're still here and thank you that you are too. God bless. Thanks!
Heads up. We missed the deadline for this Friday's submission, so there will be no column tomorrow.
Please bear with us as the challenges in life try to overtake us. We're still here and thank you that you are too. God bless. Thanks!
Tuesday, February 14, 2012
The World Marketing Summit at Bangladesh - MarketingRx column Feb 17-12 (ardy.roberto.marketingrxpdi@blogger.com)
 | The World Marketing Summit at Bangladesh - MarketingRx column Feb 17-12 |
Marketing Rx, February 17, 2012
“Can marketing help solve the world’s social and economic problems?”
By Dr Ned Roberto & Ardy Roberto
LAST DECEMBER 7, 2011, Professor Philip Kotler invited the Senior MRx-er to speak at the World Marketing Summit (WMS) to take place in Dhaka, Bangladesh this coming March 1-3, 2012. The WMS 2012 is jointly hosted by the Government of Bangladesh and the Kotler Center for Marketing Excellence, Bangladesh. For health reasons, the Senior MRx-er was forced to decline.
But we wish to extend an invitation to our fellow marketing practitioners, professors and students to the WMS. Here is an opportunity to witness that finally there is this growing recognition that your discipline, Marketing, can help solve social and economic problems not only in our country but in the world.
Let us share with you the pertinent details of the WMS event.
“The theme for the Summit is Creating A Better World Through Marketing. Its objective is to bring together global leaders in marketing and branding to discuss how marketing philosophies and insights can find effective and innovative solutions to some of the biggest challenges of the contemporary world. The WMS is designed to have a place alongside other leading global events such as the World Economic Forum in terms of bringing together leading social thinkers and activists.”
In conferences and meetings among businessmen and professionals, we’ve often noted that speakers at gatherings of world economic leaders such as the World Economic Forum are almost all exclusively financial experts. This is in spite of the fact that leading business authorities and media have pointed out that the lingering global economic crisis has also a marketing side to it. The WMS is signaling that the time has finally arrived to now give due recognition to Marketing’s potential contribution.
What’s the coverage of the WMS event and who will be coming?
The four areas selected for deliberation at the 2012 WMS are:
- Human Resource Development
- Health
- Food Security
- Green Clean Economy
According to Kotler and the organizers, “The WMS will involve a highly specialized group of experts to explore marketing solutions to the challenges in these areas. Suggested solutions will be piloted subsequently in business incubators at renowned universities and institutions around the world before being scaled up.
“The WMS will feature leaders in a broad range of fields covering business, entrepreneurship, academia, public sector, science and technology, health, media, communication, and environment. In addition, a number of global political leaders are expected to inspire the forum and enrich its deliberations. We are confident that the Summit would help us find and then test concrete solutions.”
We should say something about the WMS’ idea of a “Field Incubator.” We won’t talk about the many proposed “Field Incubators.” We’ll mention one of them so that you can have a taste of the flavor of what an incubator is all about. This one is the Field Incubator under the Kotler Center for Marketing Excellence:
“Proposition: Micro insurance for health is an unsought service which can be
made sustainable by using need based approach for changing behavior of people
at the bottom of the pyramid. Bangladesh has been the leader for promoting micro
credit and therefore is the best place to experiment with the concept of micro
insurance. At the same time, Bangladesh is the second largest apparel exporter of
the world which represents 85% female workforce. Thus, it is a perfect setting to
unfold micro insurance in this segment. This will result in creation of a healthy
society, health for all and opportunity for businesses offering insurance.”
To those who wish to participate, please contact Professor Kotler’s Associate in Charge for WMS, Professor Fahim Kibria at fahim@kotlerimpact.com.
Keep your questions coming. Send them to us at MarketingRx@pldtDSL.net or drnedmarketingrx@gmail.com. God bless!
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Tuesday, February 7, 2012
you can now read Dr Ned's SEGMENTING book on Amazon Kindle, iPad, Blackberry and more :-)
Hello, Family and friends!
SEGMENTING reveals how market segmenting, self-segmenting and desegmenting are changing the marketing game.
Segmenting is written by one of Asia's most respected marketing research gurus, Dr. Ned Roberto, who is the first Asian co-author of marketing legend, Philip Kotler.
Let Dr Ned Roberto, PhD, take you through a marketing success map where you will discover why "the right path toward marketing success is to follow the consumers' self-segmentation."
"SEGMENTING should make marketing practitioners excited to see how this simple approach can bring out golden insights that could spur much-desired but often elusive meteoric business growth."
- Gary de Ocampo, Managing Director, TNS Global
"This book explains how I can creatively convert product programs into market and customer plans via the process of the correct market segmentation... In shifting my attention to commonalities between two or more market segments, I can come to identify a market that seems not to exist but happens to be there!" - Sonnie Co, SVP, Professional Health Group, UNILAB
"I have hung on Dr Ned Roberto's every word since I was first introduced to him five years ago. He is the greatest marketing guru I have ever met. He makes methodological research a great adventure to me, with the most attentive inspiring tour on segmenting in finding my brand's full potential. Our company has built three brands in a span of 3 years with more than 100% growth, each catering to different segments." - Cris Albert, CEO, Isportlife, Inc (for FILA, TIVA, Everest and Outdoors)
DR. NED ROBERTO,PH.D is one of Asia's leading authorities on marketing. He is a much sought after consultant, speaker, author, and educator. He has taught at Northwestern University in Chicago, INSEAD in France and at the Asian Institute of Management. In 1983, he received the Philippine Marketing Association's Agora Award for Marketing Education. Dr Roberto has consulted and conducted in-house seminars for Fortune 500 companies in the U.S., Europe, and Asia.
Dr Ned Roberto has also written Social Marketing 2/e co-authored with his friend and former professor at Northwestern University, Philip Kotler (now translated into 7 languages). Dr Ned is also the author of How to Make Local Governance Work, The Marketer's Guide to Socio Economic Classification of Consumers, Strategic Market Segmentation and many other books and articles. He co-writes MarketingRx, a weekly column published in the Philippine Daily Inquirer every Friday, with his son, Ardy Roberto.
For in-house marketing, segmenting and marketing research training by Dr Ned Roberto, please call Salt & Light Ventures at (632) 813-2732/03 or email ardy@saltandlight.ph or ella@saltandlight.ph. For a schedule of Dr Ned's public seminars on Segmenting or Marketing, please visit www.saltandlight.asia or call (632) 813-2732 or email ella@saltandlight.ph
Dr Ned's most recent book, SEGMENTING, is now up and available on Amazon Kindle! Please buy a copy now (or give it as a gift to friends) if you have a Kindle or iPad (just download the Kindle app, if you have an iPad, Blackberry or any Android tablet) or forward to your friends. Click this link to download a sample or buy a copy of Segmenting
Please also leave a comment or review on the Amazon page where you buy the book. Thanks so much!
God bless,
Ardy
p.s. Still prefer the p-book (printed book edition)? Click here to Order online via National Bookstore or visit them. (SRP is P412.50). For bulk school or group orders, call Jenna at 8132703 or email jenna@saltandlight.ph
Dr Ned's Segmenting book is published digitally by Salt-ebooks. Want to know more about publishing your book on Amazon? Just send me an email at this address or ardy@saltandlight.ph and I'll send you more info.
ABOUT THE BOOK:
Segmenting is written by one of Asia's most respected marketing research gurus, Dr. Ned Roberto, who is the first Asian co-author of marketing legend, Philip Kotler.
Let Dr Ned Roberto, PhD, take you through a marketing success map where you will discover why "the right path toward marketing success is to follow the consumers' self-segmentation."
"SEGMENTING should make marketing practitioners excited to see how this simple approach can bring out golden insights that could spur much-desired but often elusive meteoric business growth."
- Gary de Ocampo, Managing Director, TNS Global
"This book explains how I can creatively convert product programs into market and customer plans via the process of the correct market segmentation... In shifting my attention to commonalities between two or more market segments, I can come to identify a market that seems not to exist but happens to be there!" - Sonnie Co, SVP, Professional Health Group, UNILAB
"I have hung on Dr Ned Roberto's every word since I was first introduced to him five years ago. He is the greatest marketing guru I have ever met. He makes methodological research a great adventure to me, with the most attentive inspiring tour on segmenting in finding my brand's full potential. Our company has built three brands in a span of 3 years with more than 100% growth, each catering to different segments." - Cris Albert, CEO, Isportlife, Inc (for FILA, TIVA, Everest and Outdoors)
DR. NED ROBERTO,PH.D is one of Asia's leading authorities on marketing. He is a much sought after consultant, speaker, author, and educator. He has taught at Northwestern University in Chicago, INSEAD in France and at the Asian Institute of Management. In 1983, he received the Philippine Marketing Association's Agora Award for Marketing Education. Dr Roberto has consulted and conducted in-house seminars for Fortune 500 companies in the U.S., Europe, and Asia.
Dr Ned Roberto has also written Social Marketing 2/e co-authored with his friend and former professor at Northwestern University, Philip Kotler (now translated into 7 languages). Dr Ned is also the author of How to Make Local Governance Work, The Marketer's Guide to Socio Economic Classification of Consumers, Strategic Market Segmentation and many other books and articles. He co-writes MarketingRx, a weekly column published in the Philippine Daily Inquirer every Friday, with his son, Ardy Roberto.
For in-house marketing, segmenting and marketing research training by Dr Ned Roberto, please call Salt & Light Ventures at (632) 813-2732/03 or email ardy@saltandlight.ph or ella@saltandlight.ph. For a schedule of Dr Ned's public seminars on Segmenting or Marketing, please visit www.saltandlight.asia or call (632) 813-2732 or email ella@saltandlight.ph
Wednesday, February 1, 2012
12 Books for 2012 - MarketingRx's Reading List - continuation (ardy.roberto.marketingrxpdi@blogger.com)
| Part II - 12 Books for 2012 - MarketingRx's Reading List |
MarketingRx for February 3 , 2012
....
12 books to read for 2012 (continuation)
Last Friday, we published the first nine books on our "To Read" list for 2012. We promised at least 12, so here's the rest of the list. (Please do share what's on your reading list!)
In preparing my list, I scoured what is being recommended by book reviewers, marketing bloggers, and schools. I even emailed our marketing colleagues and asked for their reading list. After gathering the recommendations, here's what's on my "To Read" list this year. What's on yours? (Disclosure, none of these books were sent to us for review by the publisher or by any bookstore.)
If you missed last week's list here's the summary:
1. Speed Reading by Tony Buzan (BBC Publishing).
2. Steve Jobs by Walter Isaacson. (Simon & Schuster)
3. Thinking, Fast and Slow by Daniel Kahneman
5. The Starfish and The Spider, The Unstoppable Power of Leaderless Organizations by Ori Brafman and Rod Beckstrom.
6. Mavericks At Work (Why the Most Original Minds in Business Wins) by Bill Taylor and Polly LeBarre.
7. Reality Check: The Irreverent Guide to Outsmarting, Outmanaging, and Outmarketing Your Competition
by Guy Kawasaki.
8. Rules of Thumb, 52 Truths for Winning at Business Without Losing Your Self by Alan M. Webber.
9. Small Store Marketing by Chiqui Escareal-Go.
Here's the rest of the dozen plus a couple more.
#10. Onward: How Starbucks Fought for Its Life Without Losing Its Soul by Howard Schultz
How can you resist not reading through an opening page that reads like this:
"One Tuesday afternoon in February 2008, Starbucks closed all of its US stores.
A note posted on 7,100 locked doors explained the reason:
""We're taking time to perfect our espresso.
Great espresso requires practice.
That's why we're dedicating ourselves to honing our craft.""
Schultz goes on to relate how they decided to retrain 135,000 baristas to pour the perfect shot of espresso as part of it's comeback plan. The plan to close all of its stores all at once to retrain their baristas, was a difficult one. They would lose millions of dollars of sales, their stock would tumble further down, and it would be tantamount to admitting that Starbucks wasn't good anymore. Perfect fodder for the critics. But Shultz felt strongly about the retraining: "Pouring espresso is an art; one that requires the barista to care about the quality of the beverage. If the barista only goes through the motions (and)...does not care...then Starbucks has lost the essence of what we set out to do 40 years ago: to inspire the human spirit."
Wow.
Sold? We are interested to find out how Starbucks reconnected its brand with its customers and came back from what looked like a Borders kind of impending bankruptcy stemming from over expansion. Would be a good read while you sip a Tall Latte at the corner Starbucks. Here's more from the book description.
"In 2008, Howard Schultz, the president and chairman of Starbucks, made the unprecedented decision to return as the CEO eight years after he stepped down from daily oversight of the company and became chairman. Concerned that Starbucks had lost its way, Schultz was determined to help it return to its core values and restore not only its financial health, but also its soul. In Onward, he shares the remarkable story of his return and the company's ongoing transformation under his leadership, revealing how, during one of the most tumultuous economic times in history, Starbucks again achieved profitability and sustainability without sacrificing humanity.
Offering readers a snapshot of a moment in history that left no company unscathed, the book zooms in to show, in riveting detail, how one company struggled and recreated itself in the midst of it all. The fastpaced narrative is driven by day-to-day tension as conflicts arise and lets readers into Schultz's psyche as he comes to terms with his limitations and evolving leadership style. Onward is a compelling, candid narrative documenting the maturing of a brand as well as a businessman."
(Onward was voted Best Book for April 2011 by Amazon and was a #1 New York Time Bestseller.)
#11. 8 Simple Secrets to Raising Entrepreneurs by Mary Joy Canon Abaquin and Go Negosyo. If we are to raise a new generation of Filipinos with a heart to lift up the Philippines out of poverty, then we need to encourage our kids who show an entrepreneurial bent to go for it. The younger they are trained and encouraged the better. "Teacher Joy", who is an early child educator, school owner and proponent of the multiple intelligence education movement, writes a creative book that parents can read together with their children. Go Negosyo founder and publisher of the book, Joey Concepcion, in his blog about the book says "I hope that all parents will learn from 8 Simple Secrets to Raising Entrepreneurs and be able to guide their children to be the best that they can be. Some of our children may not turn out to be what we expect them to be, but never underestimate them. Who knows? They may turn out to be the next multimillionaire. God blesses each one in different ways. As parents and teachers, it is our duty to bring out the best in our kids or students. In end, what is important is that they realize the value of hard work, love of family, love of country and love of God."
#12. Poor Economics by Abhjit Banerjee.(Perseus Books, UK) Every since we (the Sr MRxer, Dr Ned) got involved in Social Marketing (not the social media marketing, but using marketing to change or influence public behavior towards a better world), books like this have a special place on our reading list. Poor Economics champions "radical new ways of tackling global poverty". It was awarded the 2011 Financial Times and Goldman Sachs Business Book of the Year. Lionel Barber, editor of the Financial Times and chair of the panel of judges, said he had been "blown away by the thoroughness of [Banerjee and Duflo's] empirical research. This is going to be a real basis for innovation in policy, innovation in government, and a guide to intellectual debate. This is a business book in the broadest sense". As a companion reader with this book, watch out also for Dr Ned's Social Marketing Research book in the Philippine setting.
If you receive a 13th or even a 14th month bonus every year, then you should invest in yourself more and read a couple of more titles. Who knows, the investment will result in you getting the equivalent of a 15th or 16th month bonus!
#13. The Zappos Experience by Joseph Michelli. This would serve as a good reading companion to the book, Delivering Happiness, by Tony Hsieh, the founder of Zappos, who just became the newest billionaire when he sold his company to Amazon. The online retailer of shoes and other merchandise has become known through word-of-mouth marketing. It simply had the policy of creating a great customer experience and going the extra ten miles in making its customers the happiest they could be. For Zappos, they made customer happiness the new marketing.
Here's more from the book description:
"The Zappos Experience" takes you through--and beyond--the playful, offbeat company culture Zappos has become famous for. Michelli reveals what occurs behind the scenes at Zappos, showing how employees at all levels operate on a day-today basis while providing the "big picture" leadership methods that have earned the company $1 billion in annual gross sales during the last ten years--with almost no advertising. Michelli breaks the approach down into five key elements: Serve a Perfect Fit--create bedrock company valuesMake it Effortlessly Swift--deliver a customer experience with ease Step into the Personal--connect with customers authentically S T R E T C H--grow people and productsPlay to Win--play hard, work harder.
When you enhance the customer experience, increase employee engagement, and create an energetic culture, you can't help but succeed. Zappos has woven these five key components into a seamless strategy that's the envy of business leaders.
#14. What else should be on your reading list?
We have Mobilized Marketing (How to drive sales, engagement and loyalty through mobile devices) by Jeff Hasen, The Best of Guerrilla Marketing by Jay Conrad Levinson, The Happiness Advantage: The Seven Principles of Positive Psychology That Fuel Success and Performance at Work by Shawn Achor.
All of the books listed should be available at National Bookstore, Powerbooks, Fully Booked and Amazon Kindle as ebooks. I've resisted listing our own books here as it might be perceived as self-serving. (And we've already read them too!) So, go ahead and read and grow your business. We've always found good books to re-energize our spirits when the dips and valleys come in our own businesses. We hope and pray that you find inspiration and wisdom in the books we listed.
Send us your recommended reading list or what you think of the books we listed via email: marketingrx@pldtdsl.net or drnedmarketingrx@gmail.com. Happy reading and God bless!
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Monday, January 30, 2012
12 Books to read for 2012 (part 1)
Here's the list we published last Friday.
MarketingRx for January 27, 2012
....
12 books to read for 2012
Personal growth gurus and career coaches that I have had the privilege to talk with have all recommended that managers or leaders should read a book a week. Now, I hardly have time to read through all the sifted email that my inbox software marks as "important", "priority" or non-spam, more so 52 books a year! Come on. Okay, so maybe it is time that we take up a speed reading course. But to be sure, and not to overwhelm, perhaps a book a month would be fair game?
In preparing my list, I scoured what is being recommended by book reviewers, marketing bloggers, and schools. I even emailed our marketing colleagues and asked for their reading list. After gathering the recommendations, here's what's on my "To Read" list this year. What's on yours? (Disclosure, none of these books were sent to us for review by the publisher or by any bookstore.)
1. Speed Reading by Tony Buzan (BBC Publishing). Well, why not start with this? There's an explosion of books, blogs, articles, reports, white papers, novels to read on iPad, Kindle, etc etc etc that are begging for your attention. If you haven't taken one of those Prosec Speed Reading courses, you can opt for the strategies and tips that Mind Mapping founder (and founder of the World Memory Championships), Tony Buzan recommends. (Disclosure, my company has the license to teach Tony Buzan's Mind Mapping courses, but does not get any royalties from the sales of his books here in the Philippines.)
2. Steve Jobs by Walter Isaacson. I usually don't join bandwagons, but there are good reasons why this book is the number one overall best-selling book of 2011 even though it was released only in October 2011. That includes Amazon, The New York Times list, and yes, National Bookstore. (The sales lady at National said, "we can't count anymore the number of Steve Jobs books we've sold!") I got my copy as a Christmas gift from my sweet wife, Tingting, and couldn't put it down. (Was just going to go for the shortest chapter before going to sleep at 11pm and put it down at 1.30am). Isaacson does a great job in writing the book and getting out of the way, so to speak. Jobs is a control freak but he gave enormous freedom to the author, Isaacson. The value in this book (aside from the "Insider" show type of glimpses of how Job's was in his personal life--surprising how he and his wife were into PDA--public display of affection) as a marketer and business man is the rich insight on how Jobs drove deals and drove himself and his teams to create great PRODUCT first. Profit was not Jobs' motivator. (He believed profit would follow.) He was not a believer in market research per se, but relied on his adept, almost prophetic reading of what consumers WOULD want and got a great kick out of it. The inside story of how Pixar's first movie, Toy Story, came to be, reads like a suspense novel. This chapter is worth the price of the book already. Can't wait to read the rest of this big book.
These next two are recommended by blogger, Joshua Duncan, at www.aRandomJog.com (Where Product is the New Marketing). I've put these on my list as well. Duncan writes:
3. Thinking, Fast and Slow by Daniel Kahneman was selected as one of the best books of 2011 by Amazon. Here's an excerpt from the book description,
In the highly anticipated Thinking, Fast and Slow, Kahneman takes us on a groundbreaking tour of the mind and explains the two systems that drive the way we think. System 1 is fast, intuitive, and emotional; System 2 is slower, more deliberative, and more logical. Kahneman exposes the extraordinary capabilities—and also the faults and biases—of fast thinking, and reveals the pervasive influence of intuitive impressions on our thoughts and behavior.
We live in budget-cutting times, and marketing budgets are among the first to get cut. Why? When non-marketing executives take a hard look at the numbers, they often can't see a tangible link between marketing and overall revenue. So if you're a marketer today, you're probably facing the need to do more with less, justify all investments, show results, and still beat the competition. The secret to this balancing act is having—and correctly using—the numbers.
Recommended books #5 to #8, were submitted to me by the young visionary and social entrepreneur, Jay Jaboneta, who recently spoke at TEDxMontpellier in France about his Yellow Boat project that has helped thousands of poor students in Zamboanga get to school on yellow boats (whereas they were literally swimming to school before!) Here are his recommendations:
5. The Starfish and The Spider, The Unstoppable Power of Leaderless Organizations by Ori Brafman and Rod Beckstrom. The concept of
leaderless organizations in The Starfish and The Spider will blow YOUR mind away. Can YOUR organization function without leaders? No? Learn it from this book.
6. Mavericks At Work (Why the Most Original Minds in Business Wins) by Bill Taylor and Polly LeBarre. Again for those of YOU who may not
be familiar, Bill Taylor is Alan M. Webber's co-founder in Fast Company magazine. They are invariably the two most fascinating writers and authors of our age. Though
Mavericks At Work didn't become a global phenomenon as The Tipping Point, we believe the book has clearly
illustrated many of the shining examples of companies who have blazed an amazing trail in business history.
Mavericks At Work shows companies who have blazed new pathways to business success. Reinvention or as Tom
Peters would have it, re-imagination, is at the core of any innovative and highly-successful company.
Are YOU blazing new trails? Are YOU a maverick?
7. Reality Check: The Irreverent Guide to Outsmarting, Outmanaging, and Outmarketing Your Competition
by Guy Kawasaki. This book hands down is the start-up bible. We deeply encourage every entrepreneur out there who is starting out
and even those who have already started to buy the book, read it in one sitting, read it again, read it some
more and then apply it. And then read it some more. It is probably better to read it together with his other amazing
book The Art of the Start. And Reality Check really offers many solutions to the challenges that every starting entrepreneur faces.
It is not only a guide-to-book but also a great source of inspiration. Guy's blog entitled How to Change the World is a good addition to this book.
Are YOU ready to make meaning? To change the world?
8. Rules of Thumb, 52 Truths for Winning at Business Without Losing Your Self by Alan M. Webber.
On top of the list is Alan M. Webber's Rules of Thumb. It might surprise YOU but definitely Alan Webber has helped revolutionized both the old and new. In
the last 20 years, he has transformed the Harvard Business Review and made it shine. And after that, he co-founded with Bill Taylor, the new magazine of the
century, Fast Company Magazine. This is not an overstatement. Fast Company is one of the most innovative news publishers in the world today. It has invariably
become a hotbed for journalistic creativity having one of the largest contributors from the expert blogging and Internet community.
Alan Webber's book describes not a new world order but rather a new world reality where old practices need to be redefined and re-invented creatively. Alan
Webber as a global detective (as he likes to call himself) has become sort of a trendspotter who has laid for us some of the most interesting rules we will ever
read about. He talks about Teachers are Everywhere and Good Questions Always Beat Good Answers. In fact, this is old news, but no one has laid it down perfectly as Alan Webber today.
His book is a great guide and very handy for any business or business leader as YOU take up the challenge of crafting a strategy that can captivate YOUR consumers' minds.
Are YOU spotting the megatrends in YOUR industry? How about the microtrends?
I wanted to reserve the rest of the list (9 to 12) for business books written by Filipino authors. And then I realized that the pickings were quite slim. It's still the "usual suspects" writing books. So here's a shout out to Filipino business leaders, professors, and entrepreneurs to start becoming authors! We want to read your stories and insights. (By the way, if I may plug our Project Author 2.1 Tuesday night course designed to mentor and guide aspiring authors to write, publish and launch their books. Send an email to jc@saltandlight.ph for inquiries.)
The next recommended title/s are from the dynamic husband and wife duo, Chiqui and Josiah Go (Yes, one of the perennial "usual suspects" who come out with new books every year. (Disclosure: Chiqui and Josiah are friends of ours but the number of books that they have sold speaks for itself.)
9. Small Store Marketing by Chiqui Escareal-Go. This is the first-ever book in taglish (Tagalog-English) for the small stores or popularly knows as "Sari-sari" stores in the Philippines with 25,000 copies sold in 2011. It's been in the top 5 National Bookstore best-sellers list as well. In November of 2011 we featured Small Store Marketing in this column and listed down the 7 principles (e.g. Grow without cannibalizing existing sales, convert from functional to emotional) that small store owners could implement to make their businesses sustainable and prosper. Though it was meant for a specific niche, the insights and principles should be relevant to all marketers. Read this together with Josiah Go and Chiqui Go's Fundamentals of Marketing in the Philippine Setting (2/e). As always, Chiqui and Josiah make the lessons relevant by providing a treasure trove of stories and case studies of successful Philippine brands and businesses.
We are out of space, so we'll continue next Friday. This will also give me the chance to search and review for more books written by Filipinos. Though there are only 3 slots left to round off the recommended dozen books for 2012, we can add a few more titles to the list especially if they come from our readers. (Who knows, after you've read the Speed Reading book, you can expand your list to 24 or 52!) Send us your recommended reading list via email: marketingrx@pldtdsl.net or drnedmarketingrx@gmail.com. Happy reading and God bless!
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Ardy Roberto, Co-Founder
Salt & Light Ventures, Inc and Inspire Phils
www.saltandlight.ph www.inspireleaders.com.ph
"Live a blessed life!"
Facebook, Skype ID: ardyroberto
Author: The Heart of Healing | Ang Buhay na Hindi Bitin | Ang Pera na Hindi Bitin | Adventures in Entrepreneurship | Best of MarketingRx | S4-Success Secrets of the Sales Superstars
Facebook, Skype ID: ardyroberto
Author: The Heart of Healing | Ang Buhay na Hindi Bitin | Ang Pera na Hindi Bitin | Adventures in Entrepreneurship | Best of MarketingRx | S4-Success Secrets of the Sales Superstars
Salt & Light Ventures is the only Filipino training provider to have won both international and local awards, including: Entrepreneur of the Year (Entrepreneur Magazine), Golden Quill Award for Achievers & Leaders Seminar, Anvil Award for The John Maxwell Leadership Summit, Gold Award DM Asia Awards (Singapore), Finalist - Cannes Advertising Awards (France), Gold Araw Award at the Ad Congress |
Salt & Light Ventures is the sole licensee of Tony Buzan's Mind Mapping Creativity workshops and Jay Levinson's Guerrilla Marketing seminars and organizer of: Buzan Creative Thinking Seminars | Guerrilla Marketing Seminars | Achievers & Leaders Summit | Customer Experience | Leading without the Title | From Executive to Entrepreneur | Servant Leader Workshop | Brainstorming to Mindstorming | Developing a GM Mindset | Strategic Thinking & Visioning with Agnes Sarthou Ph.D. | Managing your Finances 101 | Dr Ned's Marketing Series | The EQ Leader with Dr Dups | John Maxwell in Manila | Tony Buzan in Manila | Al Ries in Manila |
Inspire Leadership Consultancy is the sole licensee of John Maxwell's leadership modules and seminars
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Tuesday, July 26, 2011
Wednesday, April 20, 2011
Branding Technology Products
Since the Inquirer is not publishing a column this Friday, here's a redux of a recent column on Branding Tech products. Have a safe and holy Easter break!
Q: We're not a marketer of consumer products like laundry soap or shampoo. We're a dealership chain of technology products like laptops and mobile phones (iincluding their servicing.) So we're marketing brands like Acer and HP for laptops, and Nokia and Samsung for mobile phones. In a supermarket, consumers shop and choose between, for example, a Surf or an Ariel for a detergent, and a Sunsilk or a Palmolive for a shampoo. These are brands of different multinational companies like Unilever, P&G and Colgate-Palmolive.
In our case we sell the company brand such as Acer, HP, Nokia, and Samsung. Acer has different laptops but we sell them as Acer not as Acer 5620. In the same way, we sell Nokia as Nokia and not as N-70, which is one of its variants. Our newly hired marketing director who came from Nestle recommended that we should brand the different variants of Acer and HP laptops as well as the different Nokia and Samsung mobile phone products. Everyone in the office rejected the idea saying that ours are technology products and they're all selling well as an Acer, an HP, a Nokia and a Samsung. The guy countered and said: "Can you imagine how much more they will sell if they are branded?"
Is this true? Aside from claiming increased sales and assuming that our principals will allow us, is there some other more convincing reason why we should brand a technology product? What does your branding experience say about these questions?
A: LET'S START WITH A FEW NECESSARY CLARIFICATIONS. "Surf," "Ariel," "Sunsilk" and "Palmolive" are product brands. On the other hand, "Acer," "HP," "Nokia," "Samsung," "Unilever," "P&G," and "Colgate-Palmolive" are corporate brands.
In the branding circle, the likes of Unilever, P&G and Colgate-Palmolive are known to practice what David Aaker in his 2004 book on Brand Portfolio Strategy, called the "house of brands" strategy to brand architecturing. Each of these FMCG (fast moving consumer goods) companies has several product brands under a given product category. For example, Unilever has several shampoo brands like Sunsilk and Clear. Most often, consumers are more familiar with the product brand like Sunsilk than with the corporate brand that owns the product brand as in the case of Unilever, owner of Sunsilk.
In the case of Acer, HP, Nokia and Samsung, the brand portfolio strategy adopted is known as the "branded house" approach. Here, the driver brand is not the product brand but the corporate brand as in the case of most technology products and companies.
Two exceptions
However, according to Professor Mohanbir Sawhney of Kellogg School's Center for Research in Technology and Innovation at Northwestern University, you should note at least two exceptions. The first is where the technology company created brands that were very product-specific. Such a case actually forced the company in question to adopt less descriptive brand names and to resort to acronyms. Well-known examples include BARCO from the original Belgian American Radio Co., 3M in place of Minnesota Machinery Manufacturing, and IBM instead of International Business Machines. These companies have experienced speedy evolution as well as frequent transformations of their original product category into new and radically different categories.
Just look at the history of IBM and its product's evolution and transformations. In 2004, business newspapers reported that IBM has started promoting its brand in the emerging market for the software of business processes on demand even when this was still in its infancy. This was just the latest in the relatively quick succession of product generations that IBM had experience through the last 3-4 decades. IBM survived and maintained its leadership from one adoption cycle to the next by showing its resiliency and readiness to quickly adopt.
Short-lived
Because technology products move speedily through the adoption life cycle, branding favored the corporate brand more than the product brand whose product category is relatively short-lived. This is in sharp contrast to, say, Colgate that for decades has been in the toothpaste category. It's rare to see a technology brand that is closely associated with specific a product category. The association is with the company and therefore the corporate brand.
Meaningless brand names
The second exception to consider is the set of technology companies who intentionally adopt meaningless brand names. These companies have 2 reasons for doing this. The first is the more compelling. These companies know that their business and original product will quickly evolve into better next-generations and/or morph into a different or even entirely different business and product. So why allow the product to drive branding?
The second reason is related to the first. Adopting a meaningless brand name is easier to get target customers, over time, to learn the meaning that the company wants it to have. That's a matter of repeated exposure. Learning a changed or a new meaning because of the migration into a new category is also a matter of repeated exposure. Which corporate brands belong to this practice? Corporate brands like Xerox, Kodak, Cisco, Adobe, eBay are cases in point.
The foregoing should give you the basis and sources for answering and guiding your newly hired marketing director from Nestle. He's probably misguided in believing in the universality of what he learned about branding at Nestle.
Q: We're not a marketer of consumer products like laundry soap or shampoo. We're a dealership chain of technology products like laptops and mobile phones (iincluding their servicing.) So we're marketing brands like Acer and HP for laptops, and Nokia and Samsung for mobile phones. In a supermarket, consumers shop and choose between, for example, a Surf or an Ariel for a detergent, and a Sunsilk or a Palmolive for a shampoo. These are brands of different multinational companies like Unilever, P&G and Colgate-Palmolive.
In our case we sell the company brand such as Acer, HP, Nokia, and Samsung. Acer has different laptops but we sell them as Acer not as Acer 5620. In the same way, we sell Nokia as Nokia and not as N-70, which is one of its variants. Our newly hired marketing director who came from Nestle recommended that we should brand the different variants of Acer and HP laptops as well as the different Nokia and Samsung mobile phone products. Everyone in the office rejected the idea saying that ours are technology products and they're all selling well as an Acer, an HP, a Nokia and a Samsung. The guy countered and said: "Can you imagine how much more they will sell if they are branded?"
Is this true? Aside from claiming increased sales and assuming that our principals will allow us, is there some other more convincing reason why we should brand a technology product? What does your branding experience say about these questions?
A: LET'S START WITH A FEW NECESSARY CLARIFICATIONS. "Surf," "Ariel," "Sunsilk" and "Palmolive" are product brands. On the other hand, "Acer," "HP," "Nokia," "Samsung," "Unilever," "P&G," and "Colgate-Palmolive" are corporate brands.
In the branding circle, the likes of Unilever, P&G and Colgate-Palmolive are known to practice what David Aaker in his 2004 book on Brand Portfolio Strategy, called the "house of brands" strategy to brand architecturing. Each of these FMCG (fast moving consumer goods) companies has several product brands under a given product category. For example, Unilever has several shampoo brands like Sunsilk and Clear. Most often, consumers are more familiar with the product brand like Sunsilk than with the corporate brand that owns the product brand as in the case of Unilever, owner of Sunsilk.
In the case of Acer, HP, Nokia and Samsung, the brand portfolio strategy adopted is known as the "branded house" approach. Here, the driver brand is not the product brand but the corporate brand as in the case of most technology products and companies.
Two exceptions
However, according to Professor Mohanbir Sawhney of Kellogg School's Center for Research in Technology and Innovation at Northwestern University, you should note at least two exceptions. The first is where the technology company created brands that were very product-specific. Such a case actually forced the company in question to adopt less descriptive brand names and to resort to acronyms. Well-known examples include BARCO from the original Belgian American Radio Co., 3M in place of Minnesota Machinery Manufacturing, and IBM instead of International Business Machines. These companies have experienced speedy evolution as well as frequent transformations of their original product category into new and radically different categories.
Just look at the history of IBM and its product's evolution and transformations. In 2004, business newspapers reported that IBM has started promoting its brand in the emerging market for the software of business processes on demand even when this was still in its infancy. This was just the latest in the relatively quick succession of product generations that IBM had experience through the last 3-4 decades. IBM survived and maintained its leadership from one adoption cycle to the next by showing its resiliency and readiness to quickly adopt.
Short-lived
Because technology products move speedily through the adoption life cycle, branding favored the corporate brand more than the product brand whose product category is relatively short-lived. This is in sharp contrast to, say, Colgate that for decades has been in the toothpaste category. It's rare to see a technology brand that is closely associated with specific a product category. The association is with the company and therefore the corporate brand.
Meaningless brand names
The second exception to consider is the set of technology companies who intentionally adopt meaningless brand names. These companies have 2 reasons for doing this. The first is the more compelling. These companies know that their business and original product will quickly evolve into better next-generations and/or morph into a different or even entirely different business and product. So why allow the product to drive branding?
The second reason is related to the first. Adopting a meaningless brand name is easier to get target customers, over time, to learn the meaning that the company wants it to have. That's a matter of repeated exposure. Learning a changed or a new meaning because of the migration into a new category is also a matter of repeated exposure. Which corporate brands belong to this practice? Corporate brands like Xerox, Kodak, Cisco, Adobe, eBay are cases in point.
The foregoing should give you the basis and sources for answering and guiding your newly hired marketing director from Nestle. He's probably misguided in believing in the universality of what he learned about branding at Nestle.
Friday, April 15, 2011
How can Mang Inasal sustain its success?
Republishing the most requested "Will Mang Inasal still be successful now that Jollibee owns it?" column.
___
Hi Dad,
___
Hi Dad,
I just arrived in HK . I have a couple of hours before my connecting flight to Mla, so let me edit your follow up to my Mang Inasal piece.
I really like how you followed up with the marketing science and the ratio of Mang Inasal's probable success now that Jollibee owns 70% of it.
By the way, Injap emailed to me a response to the column and gives his regards and thanks. I'm sure he'll respond to the 15% probability of success of Mang Inasal...
~~~
"How can Mang Inasal sustain its success?"
By Dr Ned Roberto & Ardy Roberto
Q: Your column on Mang Inasal's success secret is still the continuing topic of our group's conversations. We're a foursome of Asian Institute of Management (AIM) Master in Entrepreneurship (ME) graduates and you taught our batch. There's one question raised during our past two weekly gatherings that we all tried answering. But we heard as many different answers as there were members. So we thought we'd pass on the question to you:"Assuming it's true that the 5 secrets you identified as responsible for Mang Inasal's Edgar Injap Sia's P3Billion success were correct, would these be the same 5 secrets that will sustain Mang Inasal's future success with Jollibee Foods Corp as it's new owner?"
A: CONVENTIONAL WISDOM PRESCRIBES that to do a good job at managing the future do so via the success of the past. But experience tells us that navigating the future with this mindset has proven to be a recipe much more for disaster than for success. For a more enlightened answer, we need a more enlightening framework. Because we're talking about the future, we need a better foresighting basis for diagnosing what can sustain Mang Inasal's success under Jollibee.
A particularly appropriate foresighting framework is in micro-economics and another one in the literature on sustainable competitive advantage. We diagnose by taking each at a time.
It's about "Complementarities"
Stanford University professor of micro-economics and "auctionomics," Paul Milgrom, coined the term "complementarities" to explain synergies from combining compatible business practices. In the case of Sia's Mang Inasal, its sustained competitive advantage over the 7 years when it scaled up to 303 stores came from not only repeating each one of its 5 secrets of success. The more significant factor was its maintaining the 5 practices' complementarity role for one another in the mix. In fact, it's more the mix that counted in the success than the individual elements in that mix.
Let's recall those 5 factors and practices that were supposedly behind Mang Inasal's superior competitive advantage. Those 5 are: (1) Ready, fire, aim!; (2) Work your butt off!; (3) Think innovation. Copy but add something of value; (4) Think BIG!; and (5) Think marketing.
We'll skip the explanation of each and rely on your memory to remember the Mang Inasal column 3 Fridays ago (or check out www.marketingrx.org or www.inquirer.net.) But what needs underscoring at this point is that none of these 5 practices can be said to be anything new or innovative. So treated separately, not a single one of them can be claimed to be a success secret.
The application and exercise of complementarities have shown that business success such as Mang Inasal comes from Sia's creativity. As the innovating entrepreneur, Sia had put to work each one of the 5 factors of success along with each of the other remaining 4 practices. For example, the surprising effectiveness of his peculiar but unknown way of combining "ready, fire, aim" with "work your butt off" yielded an outcome whose value was greater than the simple sum of the effectiveness of each of these two. There was synergy in the way Sia paired the two. And so it must have been with the rest of the mix of his 5 good but very ordinary business practices.
So is sustaining Mang Inasal's success in the future just a matter of maintaining the complementarities of its 5 success secrets and practices? Aren't complementarities just another way of saying you're managing from the past? Isn't this basically imitating the past?
It's about Synergy and the "Mathematics of Probabilities"
There is some truth in saying this and that's why we need to integrate into this discussion David Dranove's thinking about sustainable competitive advantage. Dranove is professor of strategy at the Kellogg School at Northwestern University.
Professor Dranove's provocative thesis came from his analysis of numerous cases of synergy. According to Professor Dranove, you can gain extraordinary results from just mixing but in the right proportions or levels ordinary means. So suppose under Jollibee Foods' system of doing marketing (in putting up in the next 300 more Mang Inasal stores) the new Mang Inasal is able to maintain practicing its 5 success secrets. Assume further that this continuation has a high probability of 70% success. Now, the chances of also successfully replicating all 5 practices in the way that Mang Inasal has done it in its first 303 stores is not going to be 70%.
Why 70%? That's the ownership split under the acquisition and assuming that Jollibee Foods will allow the 30% owning Sia to have his ways 70% of the time until the raising its number of stores reaches 300 more. Professor Dranove's mathematics of probabilities predicts that the likelihood of maintaining the complementarities is 0.70 to the 5th power which equals 0.17 or 17%. So there's just 17% chance that Mang Inasal will go on succeeding and repeat its success in its first 300 stores to be true for its next 300 more stores. That's risking at less than even chance of winning!
What if there's not 5 but 6 secrets to Mang Inasal's success? And what could the extra one secret be?
6th Secret
In Mang Inasal's line of business, that's choice of good location. Edgar Sia had the enviable knack of choosing the most suitable locations for his first to his 303rd store. That's suitable with respect to his target customer segment. With 6 instead 5 practices to maintain complimentarities, the chances of future success goes down from 17% to 12% ( = 0.70 to the 6th power).
But succeeding in the next 300 stores will mean that somewhere along the path toward the total 603 stores, Mang Inasal will have to shift from single market segment targeting to two or even multiple market segment targeting. That will impact the 70% success ratio and bring it down and therefore further bringing down the 12% success ratio.
All these are a form of foresighting according to marketing science. But even science is not fool proof. In fact, we hope Sia's and the new Mang Inasal's marketing art would remain superior over our marketing science. It's a great marketing story to not have a happy ending.
~~~~
The story is not finished yet, and my bet is that Mang Inasal and Jollibee will prove MarketingRx wrong! :-)
Friday, October 22, 2010
Mang Inasal's P3B secret
Mang Inasal's P3B Success Secret
How does one go from one restaurant in his neighborhood mall to selling 70% of his company for P3B in seven years selling Ilongo style native grilled chicken?
Two weeks ago, we talked about the finalists of the 2010 Entrepreneur Magazine Entrep10 Awards program. But the entrepreneur whose name is splashed all over the business headlines for the past few days is Edgar Injap Sia III, the founder of the ubiquitous Mang Inasal. The Jr MarketingRx was one of the judges in the 2009 Entreprenuer Magazine Top10 Awards that gave four thumbs up (including the "thumbs" of my feet) to Sia III during the judging process.
Mang Inasal's success would make any entrepreneur green with envy:
- from one store in Robinson's mall in Iloilo in 2003 to 303 stores as of today
- P3.8 billion in sales a year
- sold 70% of his Mang Inasal's holding company (Injap Investments Inc) for P3B to Jollibee Foods Corp.
(he will be paid a P200M deposit and 90% within 30 days of closing of the deal; the rest of the 10% to be paid over the next 3 years)
- Sia III is only 30+ years old!
According to the data and articles that Entrepreneur Magazine gave us judges (we were trying to get a hold of Edgar, our fellow GoNegosyo Angelpreneur and a recent Most Inspiring Young Entrepreneur of Year Awardee, for his comments) here are the 7 secrets, yes, I know, 7 again, to his P3B success:
1. Ready, Fire, Aim! Sia III was presented with an opportunity when a slot at the Robinson's mall in Ioilo was vacant. He reserved the space without knowing what to put up. His gut just told him that there was an opportunity since he saw potential in the space. It was only after a few weeks that he came up with the concept of a Chicken Inasal fast food store. The first fast-food, value for money type of Chicken Inasal restaurant. His approach to expanding to Metro Manila and Luzon was the same: "I was not very familiar with Manila, because I was born and raised in Visayas. I only visited once a year, and it was usually for very short stays. So I knew I was in for quite a challenge taking Mang Inasal to Luzon," Sia III told Entrepreneur magazine.
2. Work your butt off! Sia III worked his butt off day and night. He wasn't afraid of getting his hands literally dirty. Sia III was known to work long hours and help mop and clean up the first store. Then he would come home and help prepare and marinate chicken for the next day. He realized it was going to be lots of work, but he didn't give up. His work ethic and attitude brought him through lots of disappointments and trials.
3. Think Innovation!! Simple Innovation pays dividends. Just don't copy, copy and add something of value. Sia III entered the chicken Inasal scene late. There were established restaurants already. But he simply did the "Positioning" game of Al Ries and Jack Trout and scored a slam dunk. Mang Inasal was the FIRST Chicken Inasal restaurant that would be a fast food type outlet (quick service) with unlimited rice. For P49 a student or office worker could have a filling tasty, grilled chicken meal.
4. Think BIG! Sia III started getting franchise inquiries fast but held off for two years before offering the first franchise. He did the right thing by networking and getting help from the Philippine Franchise Association (PFA) and coming up with a franchise opportunity that was affordable. For about P800,000 start up franchise fee, you could have your own Mang Inasal franchise. (Total investment is about P3M-P4M). After his first franchise offer in 2005, there are now over 300 branches/franchisees.
5. Think Marketing! The marketing message of Mang Inasal remains simple and focused. All you see is a picture of a tasty looking piece of grilled chicken, the name Mang Inasal, (sometimes you see the price: P49) and a bold tagline : "Unlimited Rice!"
6-7. There's more than 5 secrets to Mang Inasal's success. :-)
The story of Edgar Injap Sia III, aka Mr Mang Inasal will surely inspire many entrepreneurs and marketers for years to come. Thank you to Entrepreneur Magazine and GoNegosyo. Get a copy of Entrepreneur Magazine's December 2010 issue featuring the Top10 Entrepreneurs of the Philippines.
WE welcome your comments and questions. Send them to us at MarketingRx@pldtDSL.net or DrNedmarketingrx@gmail.com. God bless!
How does one go from one restaurant in his neighborhood mall to selling 70% of his company for P3B in seven years selling Ilongo style native grilled chicken?
Two weeks ago, we talked about the finalists of the 2010 Entrepreneur Magazine Entrep10 Awards program. But the entrepreneur whose name is splashed all over the business headlines for the past few days is Edgar Injap Sia III, the founder of the ubiquitous Mang Inasal. The Jr MarketingRx was one of the judges in the 2009 Entreprenuer Magazine Top10 Awards that gave four thumbs up (including the "thumbs" of my feet) to Sia III during the judging process.
Mang Inasal's success would make any entrepreneur green with envy:
- from one store in Robinson's mall in Iloilo in 2003 to 303 stores as of today
- P3.8 billion in sales a year
- sold 70% of his Mang Inasal's holding company (Injap Investments Inc) for P3B to Jollibee Foods Corp.
(he will be paid a P200M deposit and 90% within 30 days of closing of the deal; the rest of the 10% to be paid over the next 3 years)
- Sia III is only 30+ years old!
According to the data and articles that Entrepreneur Magazine gave us judges (we were trying to get a hold of Edgar, our fellow GoNegosyo Angelpreneur and a recent Most Inspiring Young Entrepreneur of Year Awardee, for his comments) here are the 7 secrets, yes, I know, 7 again, to his P3B success:
1. Ready, Fire, Aim! Sia III was presented with an opportunity when a slot at the Robinson's mall in Ioilo was vacant. He reserved the space without knowing what to put up. His gut just told him that there was an opportunity since he saw potential in the space. It was only after a few weeks that he came up with the concept of a Chicken Inasal fast food store. The first fast-food, value for money type of Chicken Inasal restaurant. His approach to expanding to Metro Manila and Luzon was the same: "I was not very familiar with Manila, because I was born and raised in Visayas. I only visited once a year, and it was usually for very short stays. So I knew I was in for quite a challenge taking Mang Inasal to Luzon," Sia III told Entrepreneur magazine.
2. Work your butt off! Sia III worked his butt off day and night. He wasn't afraid of getting his hands literally dirty. Sia III was known to work long hours and help mop and clean up the first store. Then he would come home and help prepare and marinate chicken for the next day. He realized it was going to be lots of work, but he didn't give up. His work ethic and attitude brought him through lots of disappointments and trials.
3. Think Innovation!! Simple Innovation pays dividends. Just don't copy, copy and add something of value. Sia III entered the chicken Inasal scene late. There were established restaurants already. But he simply did the "Positioning" game of Al Ries and Jack Trout and scored a slam dunk. Mang Inasal was the FIRST Chicken Inasal restaurant that would be a fast food type outlet (quick service) with unlimited rice. For P49 a student or office worker could have a filling tasty, grilled chicken meal.
4. Think BIG! Sia III started getting franchise inquiries fast but held off for two years before offering the first franchise. He did the right thing by networking and getting help from the Philippine Franchise Association (PFA) and coming up with a franchise opportunity that was affordable. For about P800,000 start up franchise fee, you could have your own Mang Inasal franchise. (Total investment is about P3M-P4M). After his first franchise offer in 2005, there are now over 300 branches/franchisees.
5. Think Marketing! The marketing message of Mang Inasal remains simple and focused. All you see is a picture of a tasty looking piece of grilled chicken, the name Mang Inasal, (sometimes you see the price: P49) and a bold tagline : "Unlimited Rice!"
6-7. There's more than 5 secrets to Mang Inasal's success. :-)
The story of Edgar Injap Sia III, aka Mr Mang Inasal will surely inspire many entrepreneurs and marketers for years to come. Thank you to Entrepreneur Magazine and GoNegosyo. Get a copy of Entrepreneur Magazine's December 2010 issue featuring the Top10 Entrepreneurs of the Philippines.
WE welcome your comments and questions. Send them to us at MarketingRx@pldtDSL.net or DrNedmarketingrx@gmail.com. God bless!
Tuesday, October 12, 2010
uncomplicated marketing - lessons from simple entrepreneurs
Reality check.
That's what the Jr MarketingRx-er had when he sat as a judge in yesterday's Entrepreneur magazine's Top10 finalists screening. Most of the entrepreneurs we interviewed and peppered with questions didn't really have a clear, verbalized grasp of what their marketing strategies were but one of the finalists best described it for the group.
"My best marketing is being the most reliable and consistent supplier of quality ________ (you can fill in the blanks here with whatever your product or service is) to my customers."
This is from a serial entrepreneur (defined as someone who can't stop putting up new businesses when he/she sees a natural opportunity) based in Davao who multitasks. He doesn't have a marketing team. But he oversees about five businesses. Two of these businesses does more than P150M in revenue per year. Of course, this entrepreneur is not in consumer marketing but his straightforward, simple business to business marketing philosophy was a wake up call for me. Basically, this entrepreneur from Mindanao gave me a refresher:
Focus on the two foundational "Ps" in marketing--Product (focus on quality and delivering what was specified, in the quantity that was specified) and Place (making sure that the customer gets the product where and when he wants it) and your customers will be the one who will chase you. (His clients are multinationals like Dole and Del Monte.) The entrepreneur explained again that this was the best form of marketing for him. Simple and uncomplicated.
Another Entrep10 finalist, a restaurant owner in Quezon City, does about P160M a year for his two restaurants. Recently, he was approached to expand through franchising. When asked about his marketing strategy, he mentioned something about having flyers, ex-deals with tv stations to plug and promote his restaurants, a loyalty discount card and someone on his staff who put up a Facebook Fan Page which has "something like 300 or 3,000" fans. "Sorry, I'm not sure. I'm not a computer person.." His unverbalized marketing strategy, revealed as we probed with more questions, was his focusing on the personal touch--being there at the restaurants for the past 19 years making sure that food quality doesn't slip or suffer (that's the base "P" again - Product); and greeting and talking to his customers directly making sure that they have a good dining experience. He gets feedback directly this way and makes changes swiftly. When asked about his pricing strategy, he said "my marketing pricing strategy is that I have not increased prices for the past so many years. This makes my customers happy and keeps them coming back."
Simple and uncomplicated.
Another Entrepreneur10 finalist that we interviewed flew in from General Santos. Here was a veteran entrepreneur being nominated for his new microfinance venture. Again, he had a simple answer to explain their success in microfinance. "We go from Barangay to Barangay talking to people and offering financing to those who can't get financing from banks or who have been (victimized) by 5/6 (loan sharks.) When they come to the office to transact, we give them coffee. That's enough. No one else does that," says the GenSan entrepreneur with a twinkle in his eye. He focused on a product/service that people needed to a people (market segment that was underserved or unserved) and treated them like real people (give them hot coffee and a chair to sit in. Hey, that would be nice. A bank that served coffee to its customers while they waited for their transactions. Hmmm).
Real simple.
In the 40 years that this former bank employee and GenSan entrepreneur has done business he has focused on the basics and the simple to execute. He has grown his group of businesses (Microfinance, Rural Banks, Shipping, Fishing, Farming) into one of the most successful but most low key and humble multi-billion business empires in Mindanao. "Manny Pacquiao used to work for me. He was a laborer. Nagbubuhat ng isda.(He was carrying fish). Later when he became a boxer, we formed a trust group that would help him and teach him how to manage his wealth. But sadly, he has surrounded himself with gamblers..." But that's another story.
Sometimes it's nice to hear these stories from entrepreneurs and "marketers" who are out in the field doing the actual work and not sitting in a made-in-China particle board office desk pecking, surfing and "laboring" away on a laptop. We columnists and professors like to harp on the complicated and newest marketing strategies when the simple and uncomplicated will do.
WE welcome your comments and questions. Send them to us at MarketingRx@pldtDSL.net or DrNedmarketingrx@gmail.com. Happy birthday to my Swato, Margot Roberto.God bless!
That's what the Jr MarketingRx-er had when he sat as a judge in yesterday's Entrepreneur magazine's Top10 finalists screening. Most of the entrepreneurs we interviewed and peppered with questions didn't really have a clear, verbalized grasp of what their marketing strategies were but one of the finalists best described it for the group.
"My best marketing is being the most reliable and consistent supplier of quality ________ (you can fill in the blanks here with whatever your product or service is) to my customers."
This is from a serial entrepreneur (defined as someone who can't stop putting up new businesses when he/she sees a natural opportunity) based in Davao who multitasks. He doesn't have a marketing team. But he oversees about five businesses. Two of these businesses does more than P150M in revenue per year. Of course, this entrepreneur is not in consumer marketing but his straightforward, simple business to business marketing philosophy was a wake up call for me. Basically, this entrepreneur from Mindanao gave me a refresher:
Focus on the two foundational "Ps" in marketing--Product (focus on quality and delivering what was specified, in the quantity that was specified) and Place (making sure that the customer gets the product where and when he wants it) and your customers will be the one who will chase you. (His clients are multinationals like Dole and Del Monte.) The entrepreneur explained again that this was the best form of marketing for him. Simple and uncomplicated.
Another Entrep10 finalist, a restaurant owner in Quezon City, does about P160M a year for his two restaurants. Recently, he was approached to expand through franchising. When asked about his marketing strategy, he mentioned something about having flyers, ex-deals with tv stations to plug and promote his restaurants, a loyalty discount card and someone on his staff who put up a Facebook Fan Page which has "something like 300 or 3,000" fans. "Sorry, I'm not sure. I'm not a computer person.." His unverbalized marketing strategy, revealed as we probed with more questions, was his focusing on the personal touch--being there at the restaurants for the past 19 years making sure that food quality doesn't slip or suffer (that's the base "P" again - Product); and greeting and talking to his customers directly making sure that they have a good dining experience. He gets feedback directly this way and makes changes swiftly. When asked about his pricing strategy, he said "my marketing pricing strategy is that I have not increased prices for the past so many years. This makes my customers happy and keeps them coming back."
Simple and uncomplicated.
Another Entrepreneur10 finalist that we interviewed flew in from General Santos. Here was a veteran entrepreneur being nominated for his new microfinance venture. Again, he had a simple answer to explain their success in microfinance. "We go from Barangay to Barangay talking to people and offering financing to those who can't get financing from banks or who have been (victimized) by 5/6 (loan sharks.) When they come to the office to transact, we give them coffee. That's enough. No one else does that," says the GenSan entrepreneur with a twinkle in his eye. He focused on a product/service that people needed to a people (market segment that was underserved or unserved) and treated them like real people (give them hot coffee and a chair to sit in. Hey, that would be nice. A bank that served coffee to its customers while they waited for their transactions. Hmmm).
Real simple.
In the 40 years that this former bank employee and GenSan entrepreneur has done business he has focused on the basics and the simple to execute. He has grown his group of businesses (Microfinance, Rural Banks, Shipping, Fishing, Farming) into one of the most successful but most low key and humble multi-billion business empires in Mindanao. "Manny Pacquiao used to work for me. He was a laborer. Nagbubuhat ng isda.(He was carrying fish). Later when he became a boxer, we formed a trust group that would help him and teach him how to manage his wealth. But sadly, he has surrounded himself with gamblers..." But that's another story.
Sometimes it's nice to hear these stories from entrepreneurs and "marketers" who are out in the field doing the actual work and not sitting in a made-in-China particle board office desk pecking, surfing and "laboring" away on a laptop. We columnists and professors like to harp on the complicated and newest marketing strategies when the simple and uncomplicated will do.
WE welcome your comments and questions. Send them to us at MarketingRx@pldtDSL.net or DrNedmarketingrx@gmail.com. Happy birthday to my Swato, Margot Roberto.God bless!
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