BSBA Major in What?

Most of us, if not all, live in a tradition of making ourselves attain the highest possible college degree just to make our parents proud. Going through those 4-5 years of ups and downs, doing our best not to disappoint them, and getting our hands on that diploma. There are even instances wherein our parents are the ones who choose, on our behalf, the course that we are supposed to take. Nonetheless, we opt for a course that best suits our interest, especially in what we want to become when we graduate. We take a course in medicine if we want to become a doctor or nurse, a course in education if we want to become a teacher, or a business course if we want to run a company someday. The courses we choose also gives us a sense of brand and identity which markets us to the different companies we apply to. But should it stop there? Should we stop there?

Let’s pause for a moment and take a glimpse of history. Thomas Edison, inventor of the light bulb, phonograph, and more. Abraham Lincoln, a lawyer, and former U.S. President. Walt Disney, founder of Walt Disney Company. Coco Chanel, founder of the fashion brand Chanel. Henry Ford, founder of Ford Motor Company. Michael Dell, founder of Dell Computers. Mark Zuckerberg, founder of Facebook. Steve Wozniak, co-founder of Apple. And let’s not forget of course, Steve Jobs, founder of Apple. All of these, according to Elite Daily, believe it or not, are just some of the successful entrepreneurs who did not get a college degree.

In the Philippine setting, getting a good degree is an essential part of our identity. Sometimes even turns out to be a requirement. Oftentimes we would be asked, “What course did you finish?”. Some would even feel ashamed if they did not finish one. Why? Because part of marketing ourselves when submitting our resumes is the description of our educational attainment, which many companies put a heavy emphasis on. But in the American culture, finishing high school is okay, finishing college is okay too. In my perspective, it’s okay if one does or does not get a college degree. Because I believe that it will be up to that person to prove himself to the world.

In an article entitled The Consumer Decision Journey by David Court, Dave Elzinga, Susan Mulder, and Ole Jorgen Vetvik, they have stated, “If marketing has one goal, it’s to reach consumers at the moments that most influence their decisions”. They call these “moments” as “touch points” and have been understood through the metaphor of a “funnel”. Consider these touch points as a child’s educational stage starting from pre-school to tertiary level. The child, who later grows to be an adult, would always be open to influence as he matures. He would oftentimes be influenced by the people who’d always be around him at school – his friends, classmates, teachers, – and at home. But in the end, it will be that child who would soon be submitting resumes, responding to interviews, attending meetings, and signing papers. So who are we to dictate his future?

This blog does not merely tell you to stop pursuing your degree just because many famous people have been successful without one. This simply reminds you never to stop dreaming on your goals and waking-up to achieve them. Getting your diploma gives you a great sense of achievement. But if you’re not really passionate about it, it’s just a piece of paper with your name on it. You may have finished a medicine course because you wanted to become a doctor, but soon you also wanted to start a business? Go for it! Who says you can’t? Is it against the law? All of us are gifted with the freedom to choose who we want to become as we develop physically, emotionally, spiritually, and even financially through the years. Quoting from Bill Gates, “If you were born poor, it’s not your mistake. But if you die poor, it’s your mistake”. So if you were to ask what is the best course to become successful in the future to come? My response would be the most irritating yet most significant question to us when we were kids, “How do you see yourself 10 years from now?”

–end–

Brand New. Brand YOU

How do you usually introduce yourself? How do you people see you? How many friends do you have? How do they judge you? All of these questions obviously pertain to your personal identity, how people perceive you based on their knowledge about you. But let’s rephrase the questions a little bit. What do you put in your description or bio? How many accounts do you have? How many followers do you have? How many likes do you get in your posts? Would you rather change your real name into a username that would catch the people’s attention? Marketing has always been a part of our daily lives. And this one – how do you market yourself?

Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, Pinterest, and other social media platforms would usually require us to input some of our personal information that would be posted publicly on your profile, that could be seen by anyone who would come across your feed. So given the freedom to type in anything you want, would you rather choose a username that would fit your jolly personality? A username that would seem attractive to the users so they would follow you? Disguise yourself with a different personality? Or simply register your name? In my opinion, it depends. It would depend on how you would want people perceive you in social media, with the kind of content you’re posting. I personally use my nickname for Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram simply because I want people to know me based on what I post, and with everything I post comes with what I feel about something or someone. That’s why I think it would be a great idea to use my name itself. But for blogs like this, for me, it would be best to use codenames that would fit your personality. It’s a good way to market your identity.

In an article from Forbes entitled “How to Sell Yourself”, Susannah Breslin enumerated tips on how you can make a unique brand out of yourself, how you can sell yourself at work, in life, to the world. Tip #1: It’s not you, it’s “You”. In her first tip, Susannah advised her audience to refer to “You” as a superhero version of yourself. “Make a list of your best qualities of yourself”, she said. Tip #2: Annoy Others. You need to network, communicate, and engage with people as the “you” you want to be. Tip #3: Be a Unicorn. Internet is good, yes. But according to Susannah, it also enables people to “hawk [your] crap”. To be original, you have to be a unicorn. How to do that? You have to find something nobody else is doing.

Establishing a strong brand is essential in every company. They must be able to create products or provide services that will distinguish them from other brands. They must also be able to uphold their brand promise so that their customers know that it is that brand which brings the quality that meets their demand. In a case study entitled In Search of a Second Act, Elie Ofek, a professor of Business Administration at Harvard Business School, and Jill Avery, an assistant professor at Simmons School of Management, discussed a company who was able to establish a great brand for their customers, however, now faces a dilemma on how to innovate the product they hold without sacrificing their image. Sales were high and people loved the Brrrd. But with the fast-paced evolution of technology, people would always demand for more. Hence, to be able to retain their positive imagery, Alexis Products should listen to what their customers want from them, while bringing innovation to the story. In that way, they may be able to improve their product, and at the same time, gain more customers that would make their brand well-known.

Creating your own brand is hard. To be able to gain loyal customers for your brand is even harder. But at the heart of every brand, is the unique characteristic that they hold. As an individual, you have your own name, your own identity. How do you become rich from it? Through the love that you receive from your family and friends. In a company’s perspective, you may not always be on top because of your competitors. You’d use all your marketing efforts to push them down. But once that you establish a promise that they cannot mock, it is then that you become invincible to their peril. And with that, you become the brand that you were supposed to be. You.

–end–

Marketing Tomorrow

Marketing has always been a part of our everyday lives. Little do we notice it, but everything that we see around us is brought about by Marketing. We purchase items as simple and cheap as a rubber band, to items as expensive and extravagant as an airplane. Why? Because it was marketed to us. But the question now is, what difference did the traditional Marketing people did before, that has led to the need of an evolution of Marketing today? Is there a need for change?

Evident among the different acts of Marketing are the many types of collaterals produced such as print, broadcast, direct mail, and through telephone calls.  These are all under what we call Traditional Marketing. According to network television powerhouse NBC, through these traditional means of Marketing, many brands were able to gain the advantage of staying power and became iconic and instantly familiar to millions of people of the 20^th century. These brands include: McDonald’s “You deserve a break today”, Nike’s “Just Do It”, Marlboro’s “Marlboro Man”, Coca-Cola’s “The pause that refreshes”, and Volkswagen’s “Think Small”.

While many people still favor the use if traditional marketing means, marketers find it necessary for a change or an evolution of Marketing to be able to adapt to the rapidly changing environment. In an article from Forbes by Freddie Laker, VP for Global Marketing Strategy, and Hilding Anderson, Research and Insights Director, both working at SapientNitro, the colleagues have enumerated Five Challenges for Tomorrow’s Global Marketing Leaders. “What we found was surprising,” they said. “Just 15% of senior marketers feel prepared to deal with the rapidly changing consumer, and just 8% believe agencies are succeeding in their support of global brands”. With this, they have conducted a six-month research study of 114 CMO-level Marketers and were able to identify these five significant challenges that should act as a wake-call to global marketers: 1. Disruptive Technologies, 2. Globally Connected Consumers, 3. Localization Revisited, 4. Multi-channel Misses, and 5. Organizational Structures. “These trends leave us to believe in the rise of a new breed of “marketer” with a global marketing mindset…Mastering this evolved Marketing mindset could be what defines the most successful brands of the next decade.

With the compelling need of an evolution from Traditional Marketing in an answer to the arising challenges for tomorrow’s Global Marketing Leaders, Digital Marketing seems to be the solution. The Statistical Analysis System (SAS), a Business Analytics software, was able to define Digital Marketing in a way to persuade the marketers to adapt this concept – “digital marketing is the promotion of products or brands via one or more forms of electronic media. [It] differs from traditional marketing in that it involves the use of channels and methods that enable an organization to analyze marketing campaigns and understand what is working and what isn’t – typically in real time.” With the use of Digital Marketing, CMOs can now identify which strategy is best to use in promoting their brands, with less cost, and may be an even higher ROI.

As the world of technology continues to rapidly evolve today, marketers are always faced with the challenge of continuously innovating their ideas in order to adapt to these changes. The seniors of today’s CMOs have to also face the fact that whether or not they still believe in their old practices, the need to balance the use of Traditional and Digital Marketing is now at hand. They must be able to efficiently allocate their marketing budget in implementing these means to which will generate the most audience and profit. Hence, an increase in their brand image and equity, and higher ROI.

–end–

Who Did It?

Coke and Pepsi. McDonald’s and Jollibee. Krispy Kreme and J.CO. Starbucks and Coffee Bean. Nike and Adidas. Globe and Smart. AT&T and Verizon. Google and Yahoo!. SM and Ayala. And the most popular as of today, Apple and Samsung. These are just some of the many brands that are cut-throatingly competing with each other with their respective industries. They have all done promisingly well in dominating their markets and uplifting their brand image through different marketing strategies. But the question lies between the most popular competition of today – the Apple and Samsung – who is actually on top? Which of them is most successful with their strategies? Who did it right?

In the most basic definition, according to Wikipedia, a Smartphone is “a mobile phone with more advanced computing capability and connectivity than the basic feature phones. [They] typically include the features of a phone with those of another popular consumer device, such as a personal digital assistant, a media player, a digital camera, and/or a GPS navigation unit”. Sounds familiar? They all seem to describe the first iPhone released by Apple. In a Product Portfolio Analysis on Apple Inc. by Michael Mallin and Todd Finkie, Apple marketed the first iPhone in 2007 as the “most sophisticated smart phone” which featured music playing capabilities, a 3.5 inch high quality interactive touch screen, a 2 mega-pixel camera, GPS capability, and access to thousands of internet applications. Some years after, Samsung released a similar device called the Samsung Galaxy S in 2010 which featured similar characteristics as that of Apple’s iPhone.

Targeting the right market is one of the most significant strategy a CMO should make prior to the creation or innovation of the company’s product. On a case study presented by Jill Avery and Thomas Steenburgh entitled Target the Right Market, they have discussed a software company – SparkPlace – debating on its strategic focus. Towards the end of the study, two recommendations were presented: that is to focus on only one type of market by Mike Volpe (Marys, medium-sized businesses), and to have a balance of both by Roger Martin (Sams, small businesses, and Marys). In the Philippines’, Apple’s iPhone is viewed as a high-class, only-rich-people-can-afford, smartphone. While Samsung is viewed somehow the same in their latest units such as the Note 4, their continuous innovations brought a wide variety of smartphones that made the latter ones cheaper and more affordable to the lower classes. Comparing this kind of situation to the said case study, Apple seemed to have adopted a Volpe’s theory. They continuously focused in the creation and innovation of high-class products which are most of the time favored by the upper-class market. On the other hand, Samsung adopted a Martin’s theory with the generation of their products which always seem to be cheaper than their major competitor.

In order to become a successful brand, a company must be able to effectively and efficiently utilize all their employees. In their article, The Ultimate Marketing Machine, authors Marc de Swann Arons, Frank van den Driest, and Keith Weed pointed out, “Marketing has become too important to be left just to the Marketers. To deliver a seamless experience, one informed by data and imbued with brand purpose, all employees of the company…must share a common vision”. With that said, let’s review how Apple and Samsung went about this. ZDNet, a business technology news website providing professionals in the latest IT trends, issues, and events, featured last August 16, 2013 news regarding Samsung’s poor working conditions. On the said article, it tackled how the company handled the lawsuit filed against them by the Brazilian Ministry of Labor. Not only that, it also made mention on the former issue about Apple’s working condition, as it also received complaints from its workers before. Although the two companies were brought to similar conditions, they handled the situation differently. In Apple’s story, Tim Cook made sure that “he was seen flying to China” to personally demand changes. While with Samsung, when they were questioned about the lawsuit, they simply sent a one-paragraph statement, which said that it is “committed to providing a workplace that adheres the highest standards in the industry in relation to safety, health, and well-being”.

Looking at both of the companies’ physical Marketing efforts, many would say, “They’ve really done well with this product”.  And they really did: Responding to customer feedbacks, adapting to rapid change in technology, upgrading their operating systems for better user interface, etc. A lot of their products continuously evolved simply to satisfy what their customers want and demand from them. No doubt, both of these companies are successful in the industry of technology. They performed extraordinarily well with their sales recently in competition with one another. Who actually did it? I’d be biased if I say Apple since I’m an avid Apple user. But if I were to ask who the real winner is? It would be the happy, satisfied customer – whether be it an Apple or a Samsung user.

–end–