The "X" Factor in Marketing

I have been living in a suburb called Kingsford since the first time I came to Australia. This is not the most beautiful suburb in Sydney however as a student I found it very convenient to live in Kingsford. It is only ten minutes away from the University of New South Wales (UNSW). Therefore, this suburb is packed by a lot of different international restaurants and students.

In Australia it is very common to see local bars and pubs in each and every suburb. Australians are very familiar with alcoholic beverages, particularly beer. Therefore, drinking beer with the companion of a couple of friends will be a regular routine in Australia.

There is an interesting phenomenon of a local bar called Churchill’s bar. I assume this bar has been established for a substantial period of time. Therefore, it should have a strong locality exposure and brand in the area. However, the reality showed an interesting contradictory. Approximately four years ago this bar was practically sleeping even during the weekends. The locals somehow prefer to go to the city and enjoy the better designed and more luxurious bars.

Until approximately June 2006, when the last world cup was on, this bar started to wake up from the long time sleep. At the same time Australia went into the world cup for the first time in the last 32 years. Therefore, a lot of Australians were involved in supporting their beloved country in the world cup. The bar was practically crowded from midnight until 7 o’clock in the morning.

After the world cup, the bar started to be diligent in advertising itself in the local newspaper and create a lot of different events in order to attract the locals. Moreover, approximately in the beginning of June 2007 this bar renovated the venue and becomes even more attractive and convenient. Somehow it is always more crowded than some years ago every time I pass the bar.

I realize this example exhibits the luck factor in marketing which sometimes is equally important in business. However, it is the management ability to sustain the good time after the luck is also important in order to wake the sleeping brand up. As I stated before the suburb is packed with a lot of international residents. The bar even advertised in the international magazines in different languages. They start to realize that their market is no longer limited to the local Australians.

A friend of mine told me that success is a combination of luck, courage in taking risk, and the great level of competency. Do you believe it? Let us discuss this “X” factor in marketing.

MarketingFirst

David Herlambang

The Media Power Revisited

Is there anyone in the forum who trade or invest in the share market? If the answer is yes, how many of you have sold your stock in the last one month? How many of you that cannot get your eyes off of the finance news in the last a couple of weeks? How many of you have told your colleagues, relatives, and family about the share market activity that could be considered as a bumpy market?

In Australia, the All Ordinaries index has plummeted 10% within 19 days. The ugly movement of the global share market began approximately five weeks ago. There are a lot of commentaries in the media, both the negatives and the positives in regards to the current market condition. Somehow these commentaries really affect the investors’ emotion which eventually could alter their investment decisions.

I am here not to share the wisdom of the stock market however I would like to point out how the media really could affect the opinions within the society towards any particular issue. I also stated how Jakarta Undercover became such a phenomenon in Indonesia. The uniqueness of the book and the creativity of Moammar Emka in finding the right niche in the market enhance the media publicity. A lot of reviews by the independent newspaper were issued and a lot of testimonials from the influential people were published. These factors surely affect the marketing strategy of the book.

The flow of information becomes even faster in this century with the assistance of the internet. A century ago it might take a couple of days for the Australian investors to note the important issues that spread in Wall Street. However, it only takes probably a minute to read and understand, or even not to understand, the important Wall Street issues. Consequently, a new investment or trading pattern increases the volatility in the share market.

Is there anyone in the forum that has seen the X rated Paris Hilton movie? In my personal point of view this is the only reason why she becomes so famous. Even her father, the founder of the Hilton Empire, stated that it was a greatest marketing that cannot be replaced even by a billion dollar. This is an example of another media power.

Could anyone mention their experience or sharing in accordance to the media power?

The Problematic Truth

My mama always said life was like a box of chocolates. You never know what you're gonna get – Forest Gump (Tom Hanks)

The Interesting quote above from the movie Forrest Gump somehow is very true in this life. I would like to share a little about my experience in business and life. This sharing is a continuation of my previous sharing “The Road to Success is Always under Construction”.

As I stated before that we started the new Klick N Save on January 2007. Basically we concentrated on the nursery products with an online marketing approach. The whole team began the journey with full of passion. Let me show the deepest appreciation to the great team, and I feel so lucky to have a chance to be one of them.

However, there are a lot of different problems not only from the business point of view. Different problems also came from the personal life of the members. One of them had to go back to Indonesia due to the sickness of the family member. The other had to go to China to pursue his education. I personally experienced a very bad mental breakdown approximately a couple of months ago due to the financial situation, pressures from the business, and of course the difficulties from the transition period since I just finished my university.

With so many problems we decided to stop the online business operation at the end of September 2007. I will continue the security analysis division to live my dream. Probably I am the most stupid person in the world due to the fact that I still want to keep the company and try to work on it. I really cannot imagine where I will bring the company and how I will drive the company. I just try to concentrate to make up the pieces of the puzzle and hopefully I can create a complete picture in the future. I know there will be more challenges in the future so please wish me luck!! Honestly, I feel so sad about the situation.

Hopefully this little piece of experience would be useful to the fellow readers.

David Herlambang

MarketingFirst

Open For Changes…Anyone??

I had a soft skill training which took the whole of my Thursday. This soft skill training focused on the topic understanding yourself and others. In this training I really see how people are so different from every angle. These different characters could also be influenced by different roles, background, values, and reasons from the inside of the person. Therefore, the behavior that we see is just a small exhibit from the whole picture.

The most interesting part of the discussion is the fact that different characters have different tendency towards the changes in life aspects. Some people enjoy changes and see it as innovative and interesting steps in life. On the other hand, others might hate changes badly.

Marketing involves the whole aspects within the society therefore changes could not be avoided. According to Philip Fisher, a great investment opportunity comes from a company which realizes that a success from a single product is not an eternity. The management should realize that competitors will attack the market from different angles therefore it will change the customer and the society behaviors. The management has to understand that almost all success will fade if no further innovation, improvement, and probably extension to be implemented.

Approximately, two months ago I received a bad news from my family about the failure of my uncle in his optometry business. A decade ago his business was going very well and everything seemed to be very perfect. The Asian crisis, the occurrence of a lot of new and attractive shopping malls, the existence of new and different segmentations within the market, and a new costumer spending patterns turned the situation upside down. This is another sad story that I need to share to you.

Let's Talk About Reputation

This is my second week with the new company. There are a lot of great moments in terms of self development and new experiences. I have a chance to work with some great engineers in Australia. I could be exposed to a lot of different great and important projects.

Every morning I and two of my seniors always go down to a café and have a bit of coffee to boost our day. We basically just have a good chat about every single issue that we meet in the day before. They have been in the industry for at least ten years. As one of the youngest in the company I always like to listen to my seniors experience and get to know them better. Therefore, I always try my best to be able to attend all the activities in the company.

This morning in the café one of my seniors emphasized how important reputation is in the professional world. He told me a lot of great stories in regards to the reputation of the outstanding young engineers who have accomplished a lot of great achievements within the company. He also pointed the importance of our reputation not just according to the managers but also according to the clients. Eventually, the clients would be more than happy to send the recommendation letter in regards to our promotion to our managers if we have a good relationship with them.

Good reputation of us among our colleagues is also important. There is no point to be very successful, however being hated by a lot of our colleagues. Therefore, it is very important to have a good reputation in any respect.

How can we correlate reputation with marketing? I believe that a good reputation would be the proof of the true quality. Good quality would eventually lead to the good customer experience. It takes more than just mere products and services to beat the marketing war. The great customers’ experience is a necessity in marketing. Look at Mr, Hermawan Kartajaya with his reputation as a marketing guru!! His reputation does a great deal of marketing for himself and his company.

We live in the information age where society’s perception could be easily changed by a lot of factors. Therefore, reputation in marketing would be very useful.

Welcome to the "Reputation Era"

David Herlambang
MarketingFirst

People, Performance, and Results

Approximately a few weeks ago I received an awakening call. This call stated that I am accepted by a great company, Kellogg Brown & Root, to fill in one of their graduate positions. This company is a multinational company in project management industry. The company is actually one of the leaders in engineering multi disciplinary consulting industry.

I just started the employment on Monday, July, 09, 2007. This is actually my first experience in the industry. There are a lot of exciting projects to be completed, ranging from small into humongous financed projects. Their completed projects surely have formed the history of our global society. Therefore, it is such an honor to be invited to actually join the group.

However I found something which is more interesting than the company’s history and the projects, which is its marketing strategy. As an engineer, the company really treats me as an apprentice to be educated, trained, and prepared for their future leaders. There are a lot of development programs that I will be enrolled by the company. Moreover, I will be working closely with my seniors in different projects in order to provide with enough exposure within the industry. They encourage me to set a goal and career objectives, therefore the future development will be easier for me to be obtained.

I really find that this company has a great people orientation in delivering great performance and results. In my previous sharing, I asked how professional companies market themselves. I think I have found one of the answers. Without the proper people, a system will be redundant. Marketing is all about people since a brand is just a brand, hence the people behind the brand who actually create the image.

I have never worked as a professional in the other countries. Therefore, it would be greatly appreciated to hear about your career experience in any company. Do they focus on the people? Do they provide great trainings to their graduates? What are the other marketing strategies that they have?

Opinions, questions, and comments are greatly appreciated.

David Herlambang

MarketingFirst

The Shrinking Universe

Have you ever shopped online? Have you read online news? Have you tried to invest some of your money in the other country? Of course all of you have communicated through email. In fact this sharing is being read by you wherever you are, even though I am sitting in front of my computer in Sydney Australia. These situations probably were not possible some decades ago.

A couple of decades ago, it took us a long period of time to communicate with our relatives in another part of the world. Nowadays, all you have to do is log in to your windows messenger and do an online chat with them. It was impossible to order a bunch of flower from London to our loved ones in Jakarta. Nowadays, some online florists could even reach you wherever you are. It was a troublesome to make a payment without cash. Nowadays, all you have to bring is your credit card and you could easily access your money practically everywhere. Nowadays, you can find all the international brands (McDonald’s, Burger King, Starbucks, Carrefour, etc. in Jakarta. The more I think about it, the more I am amazed by this phenomenon. I call this phenomenon a shrinking universe.

This phenomenon also affects the whole business atmosphere. In marketing this phenomenon somehow increases the competition level within the market. The local giants can no longer claim its country as their market. The occurrence of Carrefour surely affects the Hero Supermarket business in Indonesia. Gramedia bookstore is facing both international online and offline competitors within Indonesia (QB Bookstore and Amazaon.com). Moreover, the local professionals are also threatened by the expatriates in the job markets.

Another change in marketing due to the shrinking universe is the existence of the horizontal marketing. Initially marketing was conducted vertically from the company to the customers. Vertical marketing means educating the customers via advertisements. The shrinking universe summons the existence of blogs, online community centers, and forums. These mediums create the possibility to accelerate new information to percolate throughout the society. They also create the freedom to the society to voice and communicate their opinions easily. Therefore, the engagement of marketing through these mediums becomes more and more important.

Are you an entrepreneur? Are you a professional? Or are you a student? What do you think of the shrinking universe phenomenon from your profession point of view? What are the disadvantages and the advantages? Feel free to give your opinions!!

David Herlambang

MarketingFirst