Add More Reasons to Your Product for People to Buy

In the Sydney Central Business District (CBD) there are a lot of restaurants. They are not necessarily good restaurants however they are always packed and very busy every lunch time. They are quite expensive from the price point of view. Moreover, there are a lot of café in every street corner, building, and shopping mall in the CBD. Likewise, they are always very busy every morning and not all of them serve the high quality coffee. Why is this happening?

Another important reason for the costumers to buy their foods and coffee probably is the convenient location that they offer. As my friend, Michael Raharja, stated in his earlier sharing there are a lot of factors that affect the costumers’ decision in buying a product. Surely quality is not the only driving force to win the marketing war.

The former McDonald’s boss, Ray Kroc, in his seminar once asked to the audience “Who can make better burger than McDonald’s?” Expectedly, there were more than a dozen people raised their hands. He then asked “Why can’t you sell more burgers than we do?” This shows that marketing war is more complicated than just the product itself. However, marketing without promising product would also be a dangerous situation.

Approximately a year ago, an Australian supermarket called Woolworths decided to create a charity day which intended to give all the profit generated on that particular day for charity purposes. The sales went crazy on that particular day and one of the employees told me that it was the busiest day after two years of experience to work in the store. Not just a good PR strategy, this act also added one more reason to shop at Woolworths on the top of the convenience and low price which is to do something good.

McDonald’s could conquer the marketing war because of the vast reasons that they have created for people to buy their burgers. They have convenience, reasonable taste, goodwill values with their charity, wide selections, and it is even getting healthier in Australia. Therefore, they manage to answer the hesitation of Australians to buy their products the health concern.

Marketing is a beautiful concept since it could be implemented into our daily routine regardless the business level we are involved in. As a person we are marketers. Warren Buffett once said that “If you have a chance to invest in 10% of one of your colleagues’ life, which person will you pick? I am sure that you will not choose a person based only his ingenuity. I am sure you would rather choose a person with a good heart, great vision, positive attitude, and of course great intelligence”. At the end of the day it is good to have these qualities as a person.

Do you agree with me?

David Herlambang

MarketingFirst

Indonesia oh Indonesia

On September, 08 – 10, 2007 there will be a great event for Indonesian students who study overseas. The International Conference of the Indonesian Students will be held in Sydney. Hopefully the president would be able to attend this conference after the APEC meeting. As a graduated student in Australia, and also as an Indonesian, I think this is important for me to promote this event through this sharing.

The topic that will be discussed in the conference is “Pulang atau mengabdi dari jauh” in English “Come home to Indonesia or devote from overseas”. As one of the Indonesian students who studied overseas, I also have the dilemma whether should or should I not come back to Indonesia as soon as I finished my university. I am sure that all Indonesian students that study overseas would have this dilemma of the century.

The majority of the students that I have met and talked to said that they will stay overseas for a couple of years in order to gain the valuable experience and the financial stability, before they come back to Indonesia. What happens to Indonesia? Even their own students do not believe that their home country could offer them the valuable experience and financial stability.

From the population point of view, there are 200 million people; therefore this is ten times the market size in Australia. With the great land, we could grow most of the plants in Indonesia. With the great panoramic view, we can be one of the best tourist destinations in the world. With the great natural resources, we should be one of the richest countries in the world. More importantly, with a lot of ingenious Indonesia students, we should be one of the leading countries.

From the marketing point of view, there should be a lot of great stories to be told to the world about Indonesia, especially with those qualities lined up. However, there is always and only bad publicity that I heard about Indonesia. Seth Godin stated that a great idea sometimes stays in dormant unless it could be marketed properly. In the marketing war, the winner is the person who can spread their ideas, regardless what the idea is.

Godin also stated that in 1912, Otto Rohwedder invented a slicing bread machine. However, he concentrated only to the idea (patent, production issues, etc) instead of the marketing and ended up a failure. There is no one cared about the sliced bread until seventeen years later, a company called Wonder White, marketed slice bread in order to spread the ideas.

Is Indonesia similar with the sliced bread? Why is it happening? As an Indonesian of course I love my country. However, how can we be expected to come home if there is no guarantee from the country for our own life security and stability? How can Indonesia position itself in the marketing war against the other countries?

Ideas, opinions, and questions will be greatly appreciated.

David Herlambang
MarketingFirst