Towards the "Good Will" Marketing Revisited

I would like to share a little experience that might be useful for the rest of the members. As a marketing director I was sent by my company to Melbourne for two days to present in a yearly exhibition called Australian Toys and Nursery Fair. This event is actually very important for every manufacturer, wholesaler, and retailer in the toy and nursery industry. This is the chance for manufacturer to exhibit their products and promote their creation to the wide range of wholesaler. To the wholesalers, this is a great opportunity to create more connections with retailers. Of course as a retailer, I found this exhibition is a great chance to recognize the latest trend in the industry, develop more contacts, and predict the future of the industry.

That was actually the first time for me to be there. I really did not expect that toy industry is actually THAT BIG!! The ranges of the categories were exhilarating. It started from art and craft toys, nursery products, extreme games, puzzles, board games, soft toys, learning and developmental toys, action figures, extreme hobbies, die cast, and the list goes on and on. The size of the companies that exhibited there also ranges from a very small company to the humongous sized companies, such as Mattel (the creator of Barney the Dinosaur, Barbie dolls, UNO, etc) and Hasbro (the creator of Monopoly, Sesame Street, Bratz dolls, etc).

My most important mission was to develop contacts to the great suppliers and manufacturers. As a retailer, especially a small retailer like us, it is important to secure the deal that enables us to obtain the great items. This deal will enable us to follow the trend in the industry. However, in order to secure the deal sometimes it takes more than just money. The ability to purchase a great value of transaction does not necessarily secure the deal.

Somehow some manufacturers and suppliers have a good will with their existing customers. They have the exclusivity secured in order to maintain the desired price of the products. As an online retailer I was rejected by some of the companies. Firstly, online stores usually sell items at crazily discounted price which could be lethal to the brand identity of the item. Secondly, the global internet market could kill the existing local conventional stores by eroding their market (an online store in America could sell to Australia).

At the end of the day, the manufacturers have spent millions of dollars to build their brand and of course it is understandable for them to reject me. Mercedes Benz is always meant to be a luxurious car. Therefore, discounted selling of Mercedes Benz would be lethal for them. You do not want to create confusion within the market towards your brand identity.

My question is: Is it another practice of the good will marketing by the manufacturers to their existing customers or just merely business tactic?

Feel free to contribute, you are more than welcome!!

David Herlambang

MarketingFirst

Less Expensive Marketing Plan For Your Business

No matter what your business concentration and no matter whether your business is brand new or has been in the market for some time you need to have a marketing plan. Otherwise, surely you will not be in business for a long time if you cannot sell your tangible products or services.

A marketing plan outlines what the current market conditions, company goals, competitions, and of course detailed brainstorm of your marketing strategy to penetrate the market. This also means understanding your current position in the market compared to your competitors. Another issue that some marketers often forget is the detail on how the customers perceive your company in the market. This issue is necessary since you can further analyze your company performance, correct any past mistakes, and of course redefine your positioning in the market. Some companies somehow like to throw away their marketing dollars by using ineffective advertising. Therefore bear in mind that cheaper marketing budget does not mean less effective to your business.

In this column I would like you to share some cheap marketing strategy that I have used in the past. Try it!!! They might boost your sales =)

• I am a great fan of Public Relation (PR). This is free!! Create a good relationship with the local media, local editors, and writers in order to obtain company press release. Moreover, somehow PR has proven to be more and more effective. Well, you can ask Al Ries if you do not believe me =)


• Create more connection within the industry by joining the industry organization which could enhance your networks to the potential customers or even suppliers.


• Get online!!! Develop a website with features that could actively involve your customers. For instance, create a blog and forum. This is another form of PR which also could increase the chance of your company to be found by the potential customers (Blog could increase the hit rate through the major search engines eg. Google, Yahoo, MSN).


• Work together with your customers. Appreciate them and affiliate with them in order to find the new customers. Keep them up to date.


• Word of mouth is the king of publicity. Try to encourage this. Every business would have the unique way in encouraging word of mouth.


• JUST DO IT!!!

David Herlambang

MarketingFirst

Creating Communities

In this column I would like to introduce the new marketing strategy which is creating community for your business. When the information age became substantial surely the marketing strategy changed in so many different ways. Internet has proven itself to create a great information flow without boundary. In the internet, people who live in an isolated area could be as famous as Brad Pitt. The hassle for long distance communication was eliminated by the existence of email, MSN messenger, and the highly engineered web cam. There are a lot of activities that were impossible could be done easily in this age.

One of the true values of internet in redefining marketing is its ability to create communities. All businesses are basically organizations. Moreover, organizations could be perceived as communities since “people factor” is actually the main ingredient. Therefore great business is actually a great community. Through community we could share our opinions, obtain important information, create relations, and learn more knowledge. A great company could communicate effectively to their customers. Likewise, within community we could communicate effectively as a family.

This important value somehow becomes important in marketing. Mr. Solomon posted a great article about blog and has proved how blogging could increase the customer’s awareness of the particular company. Blogging is a living proof of community creation since it allows anyone to communicate closely with another people. Through blogging people could freely express their thoughts and being heard by the global society. This phenomenon creates the sense of closeness between the company and its customers. No wonder a lot of great marketers such as Hermawan Kartajaya, Seth Godin, Al and Laura Ries create their own blog to communicate with their target market. Even the one and only Tiara Lestari becomes more famous through her blog. This community creation then further establishes the wonderful value behind any product or service.

The sense of closeness through community could actively involve the customers. The constant sense of being involved then would further encourage the comfort feeling within the customers’ psychology. By creating the huge comfort zone people tend to be loyal to our business.
Welcome to the community age!!!

David Herlambang

The Road to Success is Always under Construction

A very successful Australian entrepreneur once told me that the road to success is always under construction. My real life experience could be treated as a great example. Fourteen years ago I was still a very young and naive student in a small primary school. My teachers told me that I was a bright student. I managed to be the leader of the class at that moment. My parents were so happy and very proud of me. At that time I was over the moon and felt like the greatest person in the world. I was thinking that if I could be the champion of the class now, I will always be the best student regardless which grade I am. However, the reality spoke differently. I became lazy and did not pay attention during the lecture. I left all my homework behind and did not prepare myself for the exams. My marks crazily plummeted. I was really young and naïve to think that the road to success is actually always under construction.

My father opened a Chinese food restaurant in Jakarta around ten years ago. At that time our restaurant was one of the pioneers in the location. In fact, the Jakarta hospitality industry was not as competitive as now. As the pioneer we basically controlled the local market and business basically was really good. Again he was over the moon and was indulged by being one of the leaders in the restaurant industry.

It is the nature of business that success will invite competition within the market. Even sometimes the new competitors would come to the market with better concept and bigger capital. Competition in the market shapes the customers’ requirement of better products or services. Not just competitors, a lot of different social and politic events also changed the business environment. For instance, the Asian crisis really diminished our sales. Both competition and the social changes created a new customer lifestyle and eventually a new consumer consumption pattern. As a kid I witnessed the fall of my father’s business. From that moment I realized that being a leader in one situation does not necessarily mean an eternal success. Even the five times world cup champion, the mighty Brazil, is not actually undefeated.

At the age of 22 I started a small business in Australia. It is basically an online retail business based on eBay, called Klick ‘N Save (http://www.klicknsave.com.au/). With a very little capital, I managed to obtain sales worth of AU$22,000/month. Since I am only a human, again I was over the moon and became too proud of myself. I did not thoroughly consider in sustaining the success by ignoring the competition and being insensitive towards the market. I absolutely failed as a marketer. I did not conduct any further market research in order to adjust my items selections. I was just too happy with the items which were highly on demand without realizing that latent competitors were actually getting closer to us. As I frequently said that in this modern society business environment changes very quick. Therefore, it requires us for being sensitive towards it. In the matter of months, the success was wiped out.

Approximately a month ago I started the new Klick ‘N Save with the new team. Within weeks, I have already faced a lot of challenges which can make me suffer from headache. Creating a sustainable business means than just being a temporary market leader. I have seen a lot of great businesses went down just within weeks. Even the mighty IBM could not sustain when Dell, Acer, and Compaq erode its market share.

I am still far from being successful but I hope this small sharing could strengthen the entrepreneur and marketing spirit of the rest of the group. The road to success is always under construction.

Comments, opinions, and questions are greatly appreciated.

David HerlambangMarketingFirst

You have to be an experience customer, before you can be a good seller (Part II)

In the first article, I plainly said that: “You have to be an experience customer (first), before you can be a good seller.” The question of what could be possibly wrong, even though I have carefully planned everything, I have made acceptable assumptions, and I have done my market research, remains unanswered.

At that point, I usually still argue that I have done my planning and made acceptable assumptions and it should be enough. The problem with “acceptable assumptions” happens because I make that assumption, I confidently enough act on behalf of my target market. Those assumptions came from my reasonable state of mind and not my customers. If I have never breathed their air, eaten their foods, and had their life, I might have different way of reasoning.

Another problem with small entity may come from its market research. We just do not have those big companies’ resources to do a proper market research. We all know that the accuracy will increase with the number of people surveyed and how the surveys are conducted. In one sense, as a small firm we will not get accurate information because of our limitation. By having a good experience as customer in a market, it may give us better understanding for that particular market and this might overcome the problem.

If I have to choose, I would rather engage in a field where I have experience, knowing the soil inside out. This way, I could better understand my market and my customers. I would be able to understand my expectations as customer and at the same time the difficulties in fulfilling those expectations as seller. Managing these two issues might give me a competitive edge in that market. But I do realize that life is not always as smooth as it could be. Sometimes, we end up in a new market and we are left with no choice. In this case, we will have a lot of learning to do. This will not be easy but it can be overcome. In this instance, I would try to understand by experience, I try to understand not from above but from within the market itself. I mingle with them, experience what they experience, being one of them. Putting it in the real world, I would not totally understand the difficulties as an entrepreneur if I have never been in one. I can study literature, report, reading article but without experiencing, my understanding will be limited to my imagination.

We are here learning new things each and everyday. Being a teacher and student at the same time will lead us to a greater pool of information. The challenge is not only processing that information into a new applicable knowledge and implementing this knowledge, but how we understand the nature of that information which will lead us to better conclusion.

Author: Michael A Oei - MarketingFirst Group

You have to be an experience customer, before you can be a good seller (Part I)

People say that by understanding you learn and succeed. Julius Gaius Caesar once said: “Veni, Vidi, Vici” – I came, I saw, I conquered. We have to urge ourselves to face the problem (I came), then we digest the problem, understand the issue and planning our strategy (I saw), lastly we take appropriate action, implement our strategy which is the product of our understanding (I conquered).

In the peace time we have other problem to conquer. One instance, we may want to start a new business to feed the family. A business, regardless of its position in the supply chain (manufacturer, distributor, retail, etc), industry (finance, agriculture, automotive, etc), or type of goods (goods – products, or services), it is basically buy and sell. You buy, and then you sell it at profit. It sounds really simple. But once you are engaging in one, it suddenly becomes complicated.

One problem arises after the others, complicate the already complicated matters. One of the issues usually there is not enough return. We have all these running costs, but it seems that the graph is going under and will never pick up. Out of the confusion, usually we are thinking about cost cutting. But wait! If we carefully analyze this problem, roll it back carefully. We may find that the problem is with our products. It is either the products do not sell as quick as we want or do not sell at the price we are expecting. What is wrong here? I have carefully planned everything, I have made acceptable assumptions, and I have done my market research, what could possibly be wrong here?

Shall we go back to this article title: “You have to be an experience customer (first), before you can be a good seller” – “experience customers” in general and for that particular product (target market) The true meaning behind all these is; understanding. You have to be able to understand your customers, their expectations and their values. It is not only knowing who is your customers and what they do, but how they “feel” your product and put yourselves in their shoes.

There is one problem still, which usually pops up. Someone said to me, I am an experience customer but yet I am not a good seller. Hearing this issue, it brings my memory to an old saying: “Wherever there is profit, virtue is taken lightly.” People tend to forget their experiences in deciding further actions. They have their experiences, but they do not apply that knowledge. Or even worse, they do not see the bigger picture and the long run impact. They feel the need for cash inflow now, and only think in short term timeframe. They are willing to take this short term profit even that it will jeopardize the bigger goal and long run return. Usually, when they realize that they are off-track, it’s already too late.

The past is not there to be forgotten. It is there not to be used to lean backward but to push us forward in the right direction. Moreover, it is not the actual state of being understand that we need, more importantly is the application of knowledge as a result of our understanding.

Author: Michael A Oei - MarketingFirst Group