Many tabloids in the country have been operating for a long time on a formula of scandalous attention-grabbing headlines and photos of sexy girls on the front page. One tabloid, Inquirer Libre, decided to take a different route.

Using market-driving strategies, Inquirer Libre presented its product differently while targeting a new market. As explained by marketing guru Josiah Go of Mansmith and Fielders, Inc., market-driving strategies, the latest buzzword in market orientation, call for a breaking of the rules and changing the value proposition or business system or both to grow profit and demand from new and marginal customers. (See previous post here.)

Inquirer Libre is a morning tabloid featuring short news and feature articles that can be read in 15 minutes. However, Go points out that unlike the other tabloids, it is given for free at MRT stations. There are no photos of naked women; the total package is wholesome. The target market consists of office people in their 20s and 30s on their way to work.
[Read the rest of this entry »]

IT USED to be that company executives adopted a sales-driven market orientation–focus was on bringing in more sales so the factory had to churn out enough units to meet market demand.

Then came the market-driven market orientation in the 80s. The customer is key in a market-driven orientation. The marketing objective is to retain customers and be better.

This was followed by the customer-driven market orientation wherein customization is the key to reach niche markets.

And now there is the market-driving market orientation, which Dr. Philip Kotler, the father of modern marketing, identifies as the fourth major market orientation. It focuses on playing a different game, of breaking the rules, rather than just being better. It was first brought up by Prof. Greg Carpenter of Kellogg Graduate School of Business in the ‘90s.
[Read the rest of this entry »]

IT is impossible for anyone who has been to Angeles City in Pampanga at one time or another to miss the Nepo Mall or Holy Angel University, or not use up electricity from the Angeles Electric Corporation (AEC), which supplies power to Angeles City as well as parts of the Clark Special Economic Zone.

There is one family behind all these: the Nepomucenos.

A well-researched book by UST professor Erlita P. Mendoza called A Cofradia of Two: Oral History on the Family Life and Lay Religiosity of Juan D. Nepomuceno and Teresa G. Nepomuceno of Angeles, Pampanga reveals the story of how that family changed the face of Angeles.

Juan was a lawyer while Teresa, although having finished only third grade due to poor health, had business acumen. They had 12 children. The couple started an ice plant, the Angeles Ice Plant (later renamed Teresa Ice Plant), in 1921 at a time when hardly anyone owned a refrigerator.
[Read the rest of this entry »]

LAST WEEK, my friend Jenny wrote on her Facebook status that she ate at an Italian restaurant and found a cockroach in her pasta. Judging from the number of comments posted by her friends, that Italian restaurant has just lost about 10 possible customers as of today. And if each one tells her friends and family about it, tsk tsk, that restaurant may be doomed sooner or later.

This is one example of ‘badvocacy.’ According to a new e-book released by Weber Shandwick called The Good Book of Badvocacy (downloadable for free at http://www.webershandwick.com/Default.aspx/Insights/Advocacy?DivID=7), badvocates are “people who stand on a virtual soapbox to criticize or detract from companies, brands or products. They represent a considerable segment of the global online adult population (20 percent). They are passionate enough to share opinions. Their influence reaches far and wide…on average, they tell 14 other people about a bad experience.”
[Read the rest of this entry »]

AT a marketing seminar I attended last week, participants shared how their companies are affected by the global financial crisis. Two companies dealing with imaging equipment with head offices in Japan said their sales were a bit down this first quarter. A restaurateur in Greenbelt said sales weren’t as high too as before, but since Filipinos love to eat out, they’re still OK.

Housewares exporter Cecilia Josef Gift Collection’s sales were likewise affected this first quarter, says Cecilia Ordonez, one of the partners. “We may have to be content with less and see up to what point we can fill in demand,” she says.

Their case is interesting because not only are they coping with the global financial crisis; they are also part of the declining handicrafts and housewares industry in the country. To cope, Ordonez says, “We did some maneuvers.” (See this link to read about what they did.)

“To survive in the business, you have to be aware of what is happening, be able to utilize current technology, and give the market what they want at their price,” adds Ordonez. In short, don’t sit at a corner and lament declining sales–be creative in finding ways to clinch that sale.