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!

Entrepreneur's Gut Feel Predictions for 2010

MarketingRx for Jan 1-010 and Jan 8, 2010

The entrepreneur's gut feel for 2010 (part 1)

or 7 gut feel predictions for 2010

Happy New Year! For this week's column, the junior MRxer looked into his magic entrepreneur's gut to give you seven market predictions for 2010. Here we go:

# 1. In 2010 money will continue to flow in from OFWs all over the world. The World Bank got it wrong, says, economist Bernardo Villegas. The self-proclaimed prophet of bloom, in the midst of all the gloom prophets, has already been proven right. OFW money is not tightening. There's even an increase in remittances. Why? Pinoy OFWs have not been among those axed for employment by companies in the worldwide tightening of belts. Villegas has funny anecdotal evidence as well, which he shares when he makes the rounds of the speaking circuit. “Filipinos take a bath every day—sometimes even twice a day.” Was one reason he cited. The hotel and restaurant industry likes the fact that Pinoys smell good. The workers of nationalities that smell like a deodorant-free underarm at the end of a long hot day? Bye bye! Nothing personal, okay?

Because of this, expect the current growth in retail to be sustained. And we're not talking about single digit growth baby, we're looking at double digit growth! There's a reason why the Sys and Ayalas also have double digit grins this year—and that's definitely one of them (albeit a SM Mall going under water during Ondoy for the Sys and a sensational daytime armed robbery in upscale Greenbelt 5 for the Ayalas.)

So what to do with the continued flow of money from our Expat Pinoys? Don't hold back on promoting your real estate projects (especially those that are above sea level). Go get your lion's share of the 13^th and 14^th month bonuses that were released and remitted. Offer trade-ins for water damaged properties? Hmm. Whatever, the offer is, go and get business.

#2. Pinoy consumers become even more "savings savvy". Despite the continued spending splurge mentioned above, Pinoys will save more. Well, never mind the “kaputting” of Rural Banks owned by the Legacy group that went under at the start of 2009. Banks are reporting that Filipinos are saving more money with double digit growth in the savings deposits. That's a good sign since Pinoys are one of the worst savers in Asia. We are not a nation of conscientious savers. One of the blessings, I guess of the global economic crisis, is that it has taught us to be savvier with our money. Government has done it's small part by doubling the amount that your deposits are insured to P500,000, thereby instilling more than a sliver of confidence in consumers. Still, banks offer investment vehicles that offer rates that are just a little over the inflation rate. With author/speakers like Topaks Colayco (Pera Mo, Paluaguin Mo and One Wealthy Nation founder), Chinkee Tan (For Richer or For Poorer and 'Till Debt Do Us Part), Bo Sanchez (8 Ways to be Truly Rich) and Larry Gamboa (Think Rich Pinoy!) educating more and more consumers on how to invest and be smart with their money—there is opportunity in this area for marketers of legitimate investment vehicles.

"Your money is best invested in a business" is the sentiment of many. Marketers of affordable franchises, especially food cart franchises will boom. So take advantage of the Entrepreneurship fever. On the other hand,  Mutual fund offerings will be in again. Companies like Citisec online will benefit. Insurance companies offering investment products other than the usual insurance-alone options will see a boom in 2010. Gold will continue to increase in value and be a safe haven for investors (as compared to the dollar and even the Euro), so companies that will offer investment vehicles based on Gold or gold itself, instead of the usual cash currencies, will literally be Geese that will be laying golden eggs.

#3. Feel Good Luxury Products will continue to do good this 2010. The middle class whose cars and houses were flooded and water damaged during Ondoy and Pepeng, will turn to products that will make them feel good. They will want to treat themselves to something they think “they deserve” because of all that they have been through. It was marketing author and guru, Josiah Go who first mentioned this in his fearless post-Ondoy marketing predictions that he published in his Facebook account (and which my father and I later re-published in our MarketingRx column last October). It is worth echoing here.

Think Royce luxury chocolates from Japan. Have you tasted their Dark Chocolate coated Macadamias? Probably not, because they were still out of stock, the last time I checked. But they do have enough “I-deserve-this” chocolates stocked in their small stores in Rockwell and Greenbelt 5 to serve those who want to feel not just good, but much better after the turmoil of 2009 (from both man made and natural made disasters). Concerts and the movie industry will make a comeback (actually the growth of the movie industry in the US is eye-popping, thanks a lot to movies like Avatar. Consumers in the US are treating themselves to more movies as an escape from the reality of unemployment scares and subprime mortgage realities knocking on their doors.) Here in the Philippines, the movie industry has been so sickly for so long, it is definitely poised for a stunning turn around. Who knows? Wapakman might have been the answer if Dionisia Pacquiao were in it!

Don't forget to register to vote before the new deadline runs out again! We're out of space but not out of well wishes for all of our readers.Have a blessed new year! Send us your comments or questions to marketingrx@pldtdsl.net or drnedmarketingrx@gmail.com

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 MarketingRx for Jan 8, 2010

The entrepreneur's gut feel for 2010 (conclusion)

Happy New Year! Last week the junior MRxer looked into his magic gut to give you the first 3 of  seven market predictions for 2010.

Here are the remaining 4; here we go:

                

#4.  Let's go tripping! Biyahe na Pinoy! Tourism and travel executives will be smiling. With the so called “democratization” of travel a result of the price wars still going on in the airline industry (thank you Cebu Pacific for starting this!), domestic tourism will continue to also grow by double digits in 2010. Spurred by travel blogs (think of Anton Diaz's Our Awesome Planet blog) and online search for the best deals, Pinoy consumers will be plunking down paychecks into good travel deals. Expect excuses like “time to visit the long lost relatives in Cagayan de Oro, so might as well do some white water rafting” to crop up this year. Literally cool places will be favorite destinations of families again. Baguio will make a comeback (thank you Ad Congress for propping them up with your donation) and Tagaytay's roads will be merrily clogged again this Holy Week. Subic will benefit from the spanking, stateside-like highway also. The addition of the Philippines in NatGeo's List of Must Visit Places in 2010 will add up well for the travel industry. But here's hoping that places like Camsur and Bohol don't go the way of overcrowded-overdeveloped Boracay.

Pinoys will be happy travelling campers this season and it doesn't take a rocket scientist to figure out how to take advantage of this.

               

#5. Consumers as Healthy, Wholesome and Wise. Week-end markets like the Saturday Salcedo Market and the Sunday Legaspi Markets in Makati have been attracting the growing middle class. Films like Food, Inc are wising up consumers to choose what they put into their and their families mouths wisely. Worldwide, Walmart is now marking and labelling which products are organic – and thereby labelling the rest that are not as “inorganic” or less healthy. And we are not just talking about vegetables and fruits. Include meats in that list. What Walmart does, the rest of the retailing world usually follows. So expect a surge in “organic” consciousness. So while it is early, go and make the effort to grow organic and offer meats and food that has not been produced in “farm factories”. Be the first to offer beef and chicken labeled as “Hormone and antibiotic free”. (Just last week, a bill was filed to require even Dog Food marketers to list the ingredients of their products.) Expect new market entrant, Human Nature, which brands itself as "100 percent organic, 100 percent Philippine-grown and 100 percent chemical-free personal care products" to have explosive growth with its decision to go through the direct sales channel (and donate part of the proceeds to its advocacy, Gawad Kalinga. Human Nature is founded by Anna Meloto-Wilk and Camille Meloto, the daughters of GK Founder, Tony Meloto.) We received their products as Christmas gifts from our staff and their affordable and SLS-Free shampoos and lotions could give Body Shop a run for their money.

Seize this segment of the market and be first in it. Please. I will be your first customer and most viral of advocates.

. 

#6. Consumers will shop beyond the traditional. This means that “non traditional” distribution and sales channels will continue to grow thanks to more Filipinos trusting in the channels itself. Think of the internet and the thousands of Mom and Pop Multiply-type makeshift e-commerce sites. Think of the fastfood chains set up for internet ordering. Think of the movie ticket and concert ticket reservations online (more than half of Charice Pempengco's launch concert at the MOA recently was sold via Friendster). Ayala Mall's Sureseats online reservation system allowed this writer to buy tickets online 6 weeks before the Pacquiao-Cotto fight.) Christmas pasalubong shoppers will look online for special deals. Now that the online population of the Philippines has doubled (from 10% to more than 20%), you can't ignore this anymore. 

Finally, you can't count out the Direct Selling channel. Look at this non-traditional channel to sustain growth beyond Christmas. Just think of FernC, the vitamin C supplement that is now a billion peso brand thanks to its direct selling approach. This is something that it's older competitors have failed to do via the traditional Mercury Drug approach. At an international publishing conference in Kenya, I met the marketing director of a Brazilian publishing firm that has sold hundreds of thousands of books, including trendy pink leather bibles for girls, through direct selling giant, Avon.  The market in the Philippines is ripe for that kind of traditional products through non-traditional selling channels.

#7. Manny Pacquiao will knock out Floyd Mayweather (in court or in the ring). IF the biggest fight in boxing history pushes through this year, Filipino consumers (around the world) will be in a carry over fiesta mode from Pacquiao's victory.  Never mind that his Wapakman is a flop or that he won't be able to spend his way into winning a seat in congress in May. (Win or lose Manny should bring home a good chunk of the US$25M that he is reportedly guaranteed for the fight.)Think of this win over Mayweather as the equivalent of giving San Mig Coffee to a hyperactive 2 year old boy. That's what the Pacman's win (and his election spending spree) will do for the national economy and psyche. 

Manny's winning always gives us a break from bad news and bad numbers. Remember the 4 back to back typhoons that devastated the Philippines in 2009? Thanks to the Pacman's victory last 14^th of November,  the country all but forgotten those numbers—albeit even for a day or two. The victory has given us the permission to smile wide, open the wallet somewhat wider and spend to celebrate. And that always bodes well for the food and entertainment industry.

With election money expected to pour in the coming months leading to May, we hope that our inflation rate stays at the lowest is has ever been in more than 20 plus years. And if we elect a president that is smarter than Pumba and as brave and non-corruptible like Simba, then next Christmas Holiday season in 2010, we can all continue to say, as the Kenyans say in Swahili, “Hakuna Matata!” (No worries!). 

Have a blessed new year! Send us your comments or questions to marketingrx@pldtdsl.net or drnedmarketingrx@gmail.com

New Year's greetings and The Entrepreneurs Gut Feel of 2010 - part 1

Two days into 2010 and I feel hope and anticipation in the air. Many are hopeful that the perseverance and character that was sowed in 2009 by all the trials that marketers have been through will reap a harvest of blessings. 

Dr Ned and I wish all of our MarketingRx readers a new year filled with hope, prosperity, love and miracles! Here's to new life.

http://business.inquirer.net/money/columns/view/20091231-244894/The-entrepreneurs-gut-feel-for-2010

FFF’s student dilemma: “What should I do about my (outdated) marketing professors without offending them …?”

MarketingRx for Jan 23-08
By Dr Ned Roberto with Ardy Roberto


We continue to answer the questions and try to allay the fears of student we’ve named FFF (Frustrated and Fearful of the Future).

To recap, here’s part of his letter (for the benefit of those who missed this three weeks ago.)

Dear MarketingRx:

Graduation is fast approaching and I canʼt help but feel insecure of my knowledge and skills. Although I study in a reputable university, I am unfortunate to have outdated teachers whom despite having doctorate degrees stick strictly by the books. They lack in 1st hand experience which I think is highly instructive and crucial for their students.

Our typical classroom discussions range from reading out loud the latest copy of Kotler to embarrassing situations like when they are bombarded with questions they cannot answer convincingly. Another thing I find ironic is that they cannot relate what they teach to a Philippine setting. If not for your column, I would never have heard of marketing gurus such as Kumar or the concepts of customer insighting, communitization nor debunking the age-old belief that customer loyalty is the best business model.

Coming across marketing alumni, they have all expressed the same frustration: what we learn in school does not coincide with what is expected by the employers. This discrepancy highly alarms a lot of the marketing students. We have long expressed our observation that our curriculum needs to be streamlined with what is actually happening out there but it seems that these sentiments fall on deaf ears.

My grades are quite good and they have earned me a spot to be part of a team our department sends to compete in such competitions such as PANAʼs IMC and PMAʼs STRATMark. During these times, my team mates and I take it upon ourselves to learn the whole process and figure everything out on our own since our professors are not very helpful. We try to make the best of what is available but we still feel that it is inadequate. In fact as much as possible I try to attend seminars with key speakers and read up on marketing articles and books, but having no one to direct my questions to, I often get confused. I am now scared that in the future when I am employed I will find myself in situations where I am clueless.
In closing here are some of my questions:
what am I to do about my situation without offending my professors?
could you please give me an idea of how it is to be a professional marketer and what the industry is like?
what reading materials could you suggest to a newbie like me which could be very helpful?
what else should I do that could supplement my education and make my resume more attractive?

~ FFF (Frustrated and Fearful of the Future)


A:

Last week, the junior MRx-er answered questions #3-4, now here’s your answer to question #1.

As your senior MRx-er, and having been a marketing professor for the past 30 years, I have witnessed and continue to see the kind of professors you reasonably find unacceptable. So I start by saying that it’s easy for me to empathize with your situation. Even after three decades in marketing education, I still find myself infuriated by the presence of these professors among us. But over the years, my regard for them has changed and there’s a difference in the way I regard them now. Today, I try to look at things also from their end.

That perspective came out of my co-authoring the 1989 social marketing book. Here’s what I learned from that project and they are lessons directly related to how I will answer your question.

Take the next step after complaining
First, if you look at marketing as a study of market and customer behavior, it’s easy to go from that step into saying that marketing is all about changing “undesirable” public behavior on the part of your target market or customer segment. That’s one way of looking at your situation. Ultimately, you want to change your marketing professors’ undesirable behavior, a behavior you find unbecoming of a responsible committed teacher. When we say “you,” we mean you the student as taking on the role of the change agent. At some point, you have to put a stop to complaining. For the period you’ve complained, that has served its purpose. It was good to complain because it let off the justifiable steam of unfairness inside you. But you know that the solution to your problem cannot be found in complaining. Continuing it can only add to your sense frustration and to no avail.

Launch a change campaign
So ending your frustration is in your hands. Instead, do something. Develop and launch a behavioral change campaign.

And your marketing professors are going to be your target market segment. But who’s going to be the primary target market (PTM) segment? Say, you have five guilty marketing professors who you can rank according to predisposition to behavior change like so:
1 = very resistant to change
2 = more resistant than predisposed
3 = neither resistant nor predisposed
4 = more predisposed than resistant
5 = very predisposed

So who should you target first? You can choose according to two opposing logics. One line of thinking says: “Choose the segment with the most need for change.” That would naturally be the one that’s “very resistant to change.” The other line of thinking says: “Choose the segment that’s most ready and therefore the easiest and probably the quickest to change.” That segment would be the “very predisposed.”

The most resistant will take time, maybe a very long time to change. It’s a segment that will therefore require the most investment in time and attention. On the other hand, the most predisposed will be quick to change and you can therefore use its conversion for leveraging on persuading the other segments to change as well. In your situation as a graduating student, this is the primary segment to go after. It’s a primary target market segment of one professor.

Positioning
After segmenting and after targeting comes the most pivotal step of “positioning.” Here, what does positioning mean? Positioning means persuading your primary target professor that it is to his personal and professorial advantage to leave his “bad” teaching behavior and replace it with the “good.” What’s in it for him to change behavior when he’s obviously satisfying some personal “needs” with what he’s doing now. Are the benefits from the behavior change going to be superior to what he’s enjoying now?

That in essence is the positioning diagnosis you have to undertake if you are to succeed in this behavior change mission that you have committed to pursue. Let’s see if we can help you push forward on this commitment.

The very first thing to do at this point is to understand why your target professor is teaching the way he does. Consumer behavior research says that a consumer, that is, your professor, does things because he’s satisfying some personal need or needs with his current teaching behavior. In other words, he won’t be doing what he’s doing if he’s not getting something out of it. So you should find out this. After finding out, your persuasion task becomes this. Convince him that the benefits from the new and changed behavior stand above and are superior to the benefits he’s getting from his current teaching behavior.

Consumer psychologists also tell us that people do things by “modeling” or according to the “social proof principle.” Since all other marketing professors are behaving this way, then everyone comes to view the behavior as correct or at least as not wrong. So search for the model that can reverse the social proof process.

There’s a third avenue of understanding. This is what consumer behaviorists call “perceived social normative pressure to change behavior.” In other words, if your target professor’s superiors, peers, student association, student alumni and other school stakeholders take a concerted effort to raise the bar of teaching performance, then there’s more likelihood of a behavior change. Of course, we have noted in your letter that you’ve already explored this avenue and you mentioned that it did not trigger that “social normative pressure to change behavior.” But it’s still worth reviewing that effort to see how it can stand fine tuning and sharpening.

“Teaching the teachers”
A fourth behavior change tactic worth mentioning is “empowerment.” In the situation you’re in, that translates to no less than teaching your target professor how to change behavior. The assumption that may seem unreasonable at first glance is that your target professor wants to change but just doesn’t know how to change. There’s no issue here about motivation to change behavior. The question is much more mundane and practical. It’s a matter of knowing the technique, the skill for changing behavior. We’re saying that our target professor wants to change but he just does not have the step-by-step knowhow to effect the change in behavior. Many of us would immediately say: “How can that be true with professors? These are intelligent professors with Ph.Ds after their names.” If you just stop and reflect for a moment, you may come to realize that teachers learn the content, the “what” of their disciplines. Practicing the what, that is, the “how” is often not encompasses in that training and even when it is, whatever learning happens is still all up in the air. Most teachers especially those who are young find it hard to practice what they preach.

Question: Which of these behavior change strategies do you adopt for your target professor?

A social marketer would say try all that’s good in each of them. Be eclectic. I’m conscious that my own “purist” behavioral science colleagues and friends would be ready to pounce of that prescription and call it “opportunistic” because being eclectic is to them the euphemism for being opportunistically Machiavellian. But my own experience with eclecticism over the years has been responsible for consequentially raising the likelihood of success and minimizing the risk of failure of almost all my consulting projects. It is in that spirit of sharing this experience that I write the prescription.


A final word. In my seminars, I am often asked by some well-meaning young marketing managers what they should do with their own bosses who behave just like FFF’s marketing professors. They find their bosses outdated in their command of marketing. If they have become just like FFF’s marketing professors, then our diagnosis and prescription should in their basic content and structure apply.

We’ll end with this advice from a reader named Carlo to be “patient.”

“Over the years, the basics of marketing haven't changed much. That's
what you need to learn in school. The Theory. What you need to learn
from your professors is how they were able to cope with the problems
of their times. Your professors may not be able to cope with current
marketing situations now if they have not updated themselves,
especially if they are not IT savvy and have not considered the new
forms marketing that are evolving such as targeted online marketing,
the social networks and other digital marketing phenomenon.

Nevertheless, you are expected to use your professor's experience and
draw an analogy on how to use this to your era. That's where your
creativity comes in handy as a marketing professional. Don't rush.
You'll get there. Unfortunately, they can not teach 'experience' in
school. Carlo - COBOL.RADIUS@GMAIL.COM

More advice and replies to FFF (Frustrated and Fearful of the Future) continue to come in. We’ll close this series next week with advice from MarketingRx and other readers on FFF’s question on Working in the Marketing Industry and Expectations.

Keep your questions and commentscoming. Send them to us at MarketingRx@pldtDSL.net or post them on www.marketingrx.org or text us at 0919-314-5412. God bless!

Advice for Frustrated and Fearful of the Future (FFF)

MarketingRx for Friday – January 16-08

Last week, in "Should this graduating marketing student fear for his future?" MarketingRx published the letter of a graduating marketing student who, feeling that his four year education will be inadequate for a marketing career, fears for his future.

The same perhaps goes for those who are currently in marketing having been transferred from a different field. We see that all the time. Those in HR, Sales, IT—and even nursing, the arts and engineering are now assigned to a management position (or are running a business) that requires a working knowledge of Marketing.

As for me (the Jr MRx-er), I had no plans to get into Marketing. My initial career path was either law or journalism. Out of college, I started writing about business, entrepreneurship, and health for a monthly lifestyle magazine. Later, I found myself in a management position for the publisher of an international business magazine that tasked me to market books to Asian managers (a new spin-off business of the publisher). I had to learn fast, since the previous manager I had replaced was gone and there was no turnover or formal training. The publisher had faith in me—or rather the fact that I was the son of the Senior MRx-er, THE professor of International Marketing at the Asian Institute of Management (AIM).

I remember doing several things to help me prepare for the position and the responsibility. These three daily "To Dos" also helped me when I started our business.

1. Seek mentors. I picked the brain of the best available resource person on marketing that was available to me—my Dad! The Sr MRxer and I carpooled to work every day. The commute from Paranaque (south of Manila) to our respective offices in Makati became my "University of South Super Highway" with Dr Ned Roberto as my professor. Thankfully, our offices were located within 5 minutes of each other. Since there was no Skyway then, that was about 3 hours of marketing lessons with a teacher to student ratio of 1:1.

First hand, I'd learn about my Dad's clients and the different challenges that they asked the Sr MRxer to help them out with.You may not have the blessing of having a marketing guru as your father, but you can certainly seek out marketing mentors either in the company you work for or as you mentioned, in the various marketing associations and clubs that you have already joined. I also considered my boss, Ashok Nath, the publisher and president of the publishing firm that I worked at, as one of my marketing mentors as well. He was an encouraging influence who allowed his managers to be entrepreneurial. Mr Nath also introduced me to battle scarred marketing veterans who generously shared their expertise.

While you're still in school, offer to be the research assistant of marketing authors and consultants like PMA Agora Awardees, Willie Arcilla and Karen de Asis.

2. Read. The best marketing mentors can be consulted for a few hundred or thousand pesos 24/7 through the books and articles that they have written. Since I marketed books, I had access to the best and latest business books published by Harvard Business Press, McGraw-Hill, Simon & Schuster, John Wiley, etc. Publishers would send me free review copies. Those days are over, but I still invest and budget a princely amount for books every year. I learned much from the classic career autobiographies of advertising legends, Lester Wunderman and David Ogilvy.

When I started my business on a shoe-string budget, I consulted Guerrilla Marketing founder, Jay Levinson through his Guerrilla Marketing series of books starting with "Guerrilla Marketing for the Home-Based Business" co-authored with Seth Godin. (Little did I know that a decade later, I would be hosting Jay Levinson in Manila.) Another book that I used to refer to a lot when I became an entrepreneur was Josiah Go's "The Marketing Plan" book.

Right now, I'm going through "Lovemarks – the future beyond brands" by the Worldwide CEO of Saatchi & Saatchi, Kevin Roberts. It's an inspiring, enjoyable read (brilliantly designed also) that details what and how he's knows what he knows in brand marketing since his start in P&G in 1972 and then through his many international corporate posts until his current position in the global office of advertising giant, Saatchi.

3. Go back to "school." Yes, I know that you've just graduated and are probably glad to be out of school. But you need to go back and continually upgrade your knowledge. A management consultant once told me that the knowledge of a graduating IT student becomes obsolete in about 3-6 months after they graduate. Given that the graduating marketing student's knowledge may have more shelf life, you still have to keep on upgrading and updating by attending "school." So attend cutting edge seminars and conferences where the latest ideas and case studies in business and marketing are presented.

Create your own curriculum. Allow me a shameless plug right here: include the Dr. Ned marketing workshops being offered through Josiah Go's Mansmith & Fielders in your "marketing school calendar."

Lastly, don't be quick to dismiss what you've learned at school—at least you've been exposed to the basics and have a good foundation. What's more important, I think, is that you've learned the discipline of hard work (assuming that you are studying and working hard) while still a student.

Once you get into a corporate marketing position fresh from college, the boss wouldn't be careless and throw the weight of running a marketing campaign to a new hire. There will be a process of company inculturation ("this is how things are done here"), orientation, training and mentoring. For some it will be faster rather than slower. You'll have to learn fast on the job. The discipline of hard work that you hopefully learned in school will be your best friend. Hopefully, you also learned how to work with different people and picked up people and leadership skills with all the group projects that were assigned to you in school.

In business and the corporate world, you won't go far if you prefer to work alone. You'll have to learn how to work with different people.

We'll end with a reply from one of our readers who responded to last week's invitation to send their two centavos worth of advice to the FFF student.

"Marketing is one of the most challenging jobs out there - precisely because it is very hard to define. Marketing usually does so many things all at the same time that it really is hard to create a textbook teaching Marketing to students. …What's important is not what's in the textbooks but rather what have you really learned while in school like how to network with other students, how to build an organization, how to learn the importance of teamwork in sports activities, how to court a girl, and how to influence others - this is what's more important and this is what every student can use when they join the corporate world."
- Jay Jaboneta, Customer Business Development, P&G Distributing Philippines

So, FFF, we hope we've answered at least 1 or 2 of the four questions that you asked last week ("what reading materials could you suggest to a newbie like me which could be very helpful?" and "what else should I do that could supplement my education?")

Next week, the Senior MRxer will answer the other two questions raised by FFF ("what am I to do about my situation without offending my professors?" and "could you please give me an idea of how it is to be a professional marketer and what the industry is like?"

To our other readers who replied, thanks for sending your advice to FFF. We'll forward them directly to him. We're sure he'll appreciate it. Keep your questions and comments coming. Text us at 0918-3386412. Or send them to us at MarketingRx@pldtDSL.net or post them at www.marketingrx.org . God bless!

Hallelujah - we got our first order

Wow. This thing really works. We just sent out our first online order for our book. The first customer who ordered is from Davao.
Coolness from Durian country! Thank you!
Keep 'em coming.

July 4 Book Launch invite - Best of MarketingRx

"The Best of Marketing Rx for Entrepreneurs" is finally available! Dr. Ned and Ardy Roberto would love to see you at the book launch at Powerbooks Greenbelt 3, Makati on July 4, 2008, 6pm.

Join as Dr. Ned and Ardy Roberto "make kwento" (tell the story) about their father-and-son marketing mentor moments and how they come up with the answers to the questions that keep their readers up at night. Come and join to meet up, network and mingle with friends, sponsors, and readers. Food and coffee will be served to the early birds.

The event will be hosted by publisher and MarketingRx column host since 2003: The Philippine Daily Inquirer. Anvil Books, the distributor, will offer the book at a discounted launch price.

See you there!

RSVP. Let us know if you're going to be there by pre-registering for the book launch. (You'll also be included in a special raffle, if you do.) Just e-mail slvguru@pldtdsl.net

Can't make it but want a copy of the book? Please contact Fina at 8132703 or 8132732 if you'd like to order multiple copies (4 or more) delivered to your office. Single copies are available now at Powerbooks, Fully Booked and National Bookstore.

“How do consumers choose what brand to buy?”

By Dr Ned Roberto with Ardy Roberto

Q: We attended the Senior MRx-er’s Consumer Insighting seminar last April. In one portion of the seminar, you dealt with the question of how consumers choose what brand to buy. You presented a consumer decision making model that the image section of the UAI (Usage-Attitude-Image) market survey has been using for the longest time. Your example was about brands of toothpaste.

We’re in the household appliance business. We just had our UAI on refrigerators completed. We looked at the image data together with our dealers. No sooner had we finished the last Power Point slide when our dealers challenged our implied assumption of the data about how ref buyers choose the brand of ref to buy. They said they have yet to see a ref buyer who in choosing a ref brand lined up the available brands. They then evaluated each brand on a set of preselected ref attributes that they have prioritized in importance. Then the buyer’s choice goes to the brand that the buyer rated highest versus other brands on the top priority 2 or 3 prioritized ref attributes.

The dealers’ observations say that buyers’ choice is much simpler. Inside the appliance store, a ref buyer looks over one brand that catches her attention. Then after a cursory inspection outside and inside the ref, the buyer decides to buy. If the buying decision is suspended, the buyer goes to just one other brand. She then does the same cursory inspection and then decides between the first and second brand.

Of course, we remember your telling us that the UAI-based model is just one of many models of consumer decision making. But what should we do now? How do we validate with research our dealers’ version of the “more realistic” way ref buyers choose a ref brand? – Perplexed appliance entrepreneur

A: To start with, we have to say that we’re happy about two things in your note. First, you’re willing to listen to your dealers. After all, they are the ones in direct contact with your buying customers. They know and have a personal understanding of those customers. Second, you have learned the discipline of pretesting in making your own decisions. The father of direct marketing, Bob Stone, says: “To be sure, test, test again, and test some more.”

Let’s now proceed to your question. We’ll first diagnose the two conflicting models of how ref buyers choose the brand of ref to buy.

The UAI-based model assumes that the buyer’s decision strategy is to serve her goal of making the best choice by considering all the alternative ref brands along her prioritized criteria for a good ref brand. If the ref buyer were doing her shopping online, and visiting all the available ref brands in their respective Web sites, this consumer decision making model would probably have a good measure of reality. But in the setting of the appliance store, it obviously would be inferior in explaining ref buyer brand choice as compared to what your dealers had observed.

Romancing vs No-Brainer

Our own research supports your dealers’ model. The ref buyer’s decision strategy is a process of inspecting just one brand or two. Here’s what our observation study had revealed.

The buyer goes to a ref brand that had impressed her. She walks around this ref knocking every so often on its outside panels. She then stands in front and opens the door and then closes it. She again opens and then closes. Then she takes out a piece of paper from her bag and tries inserting it where the door clings to its ref body base. Then she opens again, and looks inside the freezer compartment after opening its vertical cover. She checks if the ref is on and then feels with her hand the floor, sides and ceiling of the freezer compartment. Then she shifts her attention to the bottom drawer where the vegetables and fruits are usually contained. She pulls out the drawer completely and inspects the drawer’s shape and inside space. She then puts back the drawer, closes the ref door and proceed to look for a sales ref to talk to.

When we obtained permission to interview this buyer, we got the following eye opening answers to our several why-questions. She said she was knocking on the outside panels because she wanted to check how thick or thin that “steel” or “aluminum” panels were: “Baka sin nipis lang sila nang Ligo sardine cans” (They might just be as thin as the Ligo sardine cans).

She was inserting the paper to find out if the door seals tightly: “Kasi pag medyo maluwag siya, sasayangin niya ang kuryente na lulusut sa puwang na kahit nipis na nipis lang” (If the door doesn’t seal well, the ref will just waste the coolness inside that will escape out even in the thinnest opening). Her hand was feeling out inside the freezer because she wanted to check if there’s ice forming. When told that the ref brand she was check was “frost-free,” she didn’t ask what that meant. Instead she just said: “Anong klaseng ref yan kung walang yelo” (What kind of a ref doesn’t have ice)?”

When she pulled out the entire vegetable drawer, she said she was disappointed. She said the rear of the drawer could not contain much because the entire rear curved in to a third of the length of the drawer. When it was explained to her that the eaten space was to give way to the ref’s engine, she simply said: “Basta ang daya nyan” (That’s cheating).

It should be clear that for your brand, its advertising communication as well as its sales rep’s selling script will differ according to which consumer decision making model actually prevails. In the UAI-based model, to persuade consumers for a brand choice, the ad message and the selling script will focus on the brand’s satisfaction of the ref buyer’s priority ref attribute or attributes that the brand distinctively satisfies. On the other hand, in the inspection-processed-based model, the focus will be on “the big story” about the ref buyer’s “romancing of the outside and inside of the ref brand she is inspecting.”

From the foregoing, no one should conclude that consumer decision strategies are limited to just these two models. The applicable consumer decision strategy depends on the product category and how consumers have gotten used to buying and using the product. For example, consider the simplest case where the use of the product requires the least or absolute minimum of knowledge as in the case of a penlight or toy battery. Here, the consumer has gotten used to a 2-step “no-brainer” process of inserting the battery and then switching on. Whenever the consumer does this, the penlight works and the so does the toy. In this case, consumer brand choice will be restricted to battery brands she has tried. New brands will have a hard time entering the consumer’s decision “rules” because consumers will look at them as too risky.

Other examples: Memo shirts to Ayala Condos

Our research has identified yet another consumer decision making routine for the purchase of shirts. When tempted to try some other brands of shirt, buyers of Memo shirts (a brand of Penshoppe) compare these other brands to Memo. They don’t compare and evaluate all brands including Memo to one another as in the UAI-based model. If another brand compares well with Memo, then the shopper entertains the decision to try this other brand. A definite decision to try comes when the comparison leads to the conclusion of superiority in some priority dimension in favor of another brand.

According to our research, the buying of a house or a condo points to yet another consumer decision process. In considering the purchase of a house, for example, a prospective homeowner will first take into account only brands that meet some “must” requirements. Examples of such “must’s” would be: (1) it must be located in an exclusive village, (2) the village must be far from the pollution of Metro Manila, (3) the area must have access to clean and safe water, and (4) there must not be any squatters or slum areas nearby. In one research, we in fact found a couple who had only one such screening “must.” This couple said: “We won’t consider buying in any real property development unless it’s by Ayala.” Once this screening stage is passed, the consumer then considers only those brands that passed. Then she chooses a brand on the basis of some other criteria like aesthetics and pricing, or even “trivial” reasons like “the country club swimming pool has a life guard who’s a Piolo Pascual look-alike” or “there’s a Chow-King by the entrance to the Village.”

So where does all these leave you and your question?

Firstly, you have to accept the idea that consumers follow a variety of decision strategies that differ by product category and consumer decision-making style.

Secondly, to find out which of these different decision strategies apply in your specific situation and brand, you should observe and talk to your customers. Observe them in action as they are in the process of buying and talk to them about things you cannot explain from what you’ve observed.

If you want to be persuasive to your customers and motivate them for purchase, craft your advertising communication message and sales script for your brand according to what your observation and interview data require.

Repeat your observation and interview efforts every so often. Keep in mind that even consumer decision routines and decision strategies change over time and on different occasions.

For those of you who have been waiting for it, it’s finally out. The Best of MarketingRx (volume 1 for Entrepreneurs) was released this week by InquirerBooks. Available soon at National, PowerBooks or FullyBooked. Keep your questions coming. Send them to us at MarketingRx@pldtDSL.net or post them on our new blogsite: www.marketingrx.org God bless!

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.

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.