If there is a gap in the market…Is there any market in the gap?

I have stated for a couple of times that I am running my own company which is currently evolving to two different business units. Since the establishment, one of the partners has been willing to volunteer to let his house to be our head quarter. The house is very big and we could literally combine both the warehouse and the office together. I have told a story on how our emerging company is still facing a lot of problems to be solved. It starts from the diminishing sales, crowded competition, and the progress of business networking is also a tricky issue. It all does not end there!!

Approximately a month ago my partner was noticed by the owner of the house that it will be sold in the near future (my partner rents the house). It means we have to move our office and warehouse immediately. It does not sound very exciting, does it? Our business is not strong enough to rent a warehouse. Firstly, it is expensive and secondly, our items are just not enough to fully utilize the space of the warehouse.

In Australia, and probably in the other countries such as Singapore, Hong Kong, United States, and United Kingdom there are a unique business which is called self storage. The basic idea was developed from the fact that people often do not want to throw their items even they are not needed anymore. I am no longer using this item, but I might need it later (sounds familiar??). It often happens that we feel that our house is no longer convenient and not big enough for our items. Hence, self storage basically provides us space to store our items.

The typical self storage is a very huge warehouse and a lot of cubicles are set up in order to create a lot of storage rooms. The size varies from very small into a 40 feet container. This idea really answers the needs of the society. With the proper marketing, the society being more and more educated about the importance of self storage. It now evolves into wine storages, and even a lot of businesses use them as their warehouse (including us hehehe).

A great marketer told me that when there is a gap in the market, it does not always mean that there is market in the gap. I have seen a lot of unique businesses that did not excel in the market (could you name the examples?). It takes more than mere market research to actually understand the market. Sometimes we have to educate the market in order to create the sense of necessity of our product or service. I am also still learning these marketing principles and would like to hear more sharing in regards to this issue.

What about your business? Does it fill the gap within the market? What marketing strategy did you introduce in order to promote the unique positioning of your business? How did you determine the niche market?

Comments, opinions, and questions are greatly appreciated

David Herlambang

MarketingFirst

Another Form of the Good Will Marketing

In January 2007, I wrote a sharing with a title towards the good will marketing which combines the marketing and public relation strategy. This sharing outlines how to be a good company within the society by being a philanthropist and how the good will actually increases the awareness of the society towards the company. Moreover, this practice will allow us to give back to our society since we are living in the society.

I March 2007, I revisited the good will marketing with another approach. I believe that all manufacturers must have a good will towards their distributors and retailers. They always try to keep the good profit margin by creating the healthy competition in the market. They would not allow people that will sell at discounted price to enter the market easily since this would kill the rest of the network. Moreover, they would also kill the positioning and the branding of the products.

For the third time I would like to point out the importance of the good will marketing within the business. Have you heard the name Enron? Have you heard the name Arthur Andersen? Hermawan Kartajaya stated that business has to be conducted in honesty in order to be sustainable. I personally believe that true honesty, good wills, and great management skills that would create a sustainable business.

Enron employed around 21,000 people (McLean & Elkind, 2003) and was one of the world's leading electricity, natural gas, pulp and paper, and communications companies, with claimed revenues of $111 billion in 2000. Fortune named Enron "America's Most Innovative Company" for six consecutive years. It achieved infamy at the end of 2001, when it was revealed that the reported financial condition was sustained mostly by institutionalized, systematic, and creatively planned accounting fraud. Enron has since become a popular symbol of willful corporate fraud and corruption.

Arthur Andersen was once one of the so-called "Big Five" accounting firms (the other four are PricewaterhouseCoopers, Deloitte Touche Tohmatsu, Ernst & Young and KPMG), performing auditing, tax, and consulting services for large corporations. In 2002 the firm voluntarily surrendered its licenses to practice as Certified Public Accountants in the U.S. pending the result of prosecution by the Department of Justice over the firm's handling of the auditing of Enron, the energy corporation.

It is so amazing how giant companies like Enron and Arthur Andersen abruptly disappeared and bankrupt because of merely not being honest to the public. This example really shows how a leader in one situation does not mean an eternal leader. Their bankruptcies really affect the global business climate. After the September, 11 attack the New York Stock Exchange (NYSE) suffered bear market for a month. However, when Enron case happened it suffered a three months bear market. How many people being redundant after the falling for these giants? The answer is too sad to be true.

Comments, opinions, and questions are greatly appreciated

David Herlambang
MarketingFirst

They Call this Customer Service

Australia Post…part of everyday life. That is the slogan of the one and only Australia Post. Australia Post is proudly owned and operated by Australian. However, in the courier industry Australia Post has a lot of rivals from other private companies. Due to the fact that the increase in the competition in the courier industry and to maintain their popularity, for the last couple of months they have heavily advertised themselves to the public through all the media and hopefully the public will become their loyal customers.

In my previous sharing I stated that sometimes marketing takes more than just advertising. I also believe that customer experience is an integral part of marketing. In the current competitive business environment advertising without action means nothing. Massive campaign without strategy and better customer service will only waste your money.

I have an online business. As we know that online and mail order businesses become the main customers for Australia Post. A couple of days ago I went to the post office to dispatch my items. The sign in front of the office said “Operating hours: 11am-7pm”. I was waiting in front of the office at exactly 11am. Finally the gate opened and I directly gave my items to be dispatched. However, the officers told me to come at 11.30am in the future. He told me that they are not set up at 11am. Instead of apologizing for the delay caused, he made me feel guilty that I came at 11am.

I also helped my parents run their own restaurant in Jakarta. We opened at 8am and set everything up of course before 8am. Therefore, we would not disappoint or even told customer to come later if they come at 8am. In business we have to understand that customers have their own time table. What is the point of advertise your company if the only thing that you can give is bad experience. Now, I am more than happy to advertise the badness of Australia Post to the public after the experience.

In my point of view Australia Post has established for ages in Australia. Instead of using massive advertising, they should polish their system. Increase the brand loyalty instead of the brand awareness. I believe that the cost of losing an existing customer is more expensive than acquiring a new one. I am sure that most Australians still use Australia Post service. I think Australia Post should go back to university and study marketing.

Comments, opinions, and questions are more than welcome

David Herlambang

MarketingFirst

The Irrelevant Marketing

The existence of music has given a lot of influences to our daily routines since the early age. We probably started to listen to music since we were still in our mother’s womb. As we grow older our taste of music becomes more complicated. We start to recognize different genres of music, such as jazz, classic, rock, pop, RNB, etc. Our taste of music is mostly influenced by our daily habits, environment, friends, and of course our own personality.

The sophistication of our taste of music and the existence of the wide range of music genres create the complicated segmentation within the music entertainment market. With such complication and competition between the musicians, the music industry could be considered as a red ocean market. Moreover, with the huge amount of song traffic in the society it would be very hard for musicians to capture the attention of their target market for a long period of time.

As I explained before, the complication of our music taste increase as we grow older. I personally think that our desire to music could be perceived as one of our needs in life. A kid would be more than enough to be equipped with a pencil and an eraser to go to the kindergarten. However as he grows older and becomes an architect, he probably needs more than a pencil and an eraser. Similarly, as we grow up there are a lot of variables that changes the need of music. We start to understand the lyrics, recognize the tunes, and correlate the songs to our daily routines.

Approximately two decades ago a band called the Wiggles was formed in Australia. Since its formation in 1991, the group has achieved worldwide success with its children's albums, videos, television series and concert appearances. According to Business Review Weekly magazine, The Wiggles were Australia's highest grossing entertainers for the year 2005, earning more than AC/DC and Nicole Kidman combined.

As I stated before that sometimes being simple is the answer. The Wiggles unique positioning in the music industry shows the simplicity of the band. Surely not like adults, the kids’ taste of music is much simpler. They would not care too much on the sophistication of the lyrics, the technique behind the song, or even on how handsome the singers are.

Their combination of happy tunes in their music with funny movements plus the funny characters such as Dorothy the Dinosaur and Henry the octopus somehow becomes unique both from the music and children entertainment point of view. I personally think that the Wiggles created a blue ocean market within the music industry. They created an irrelevant competition within the market. Somehow they do not compete with the Top 40 artists although they are actually in the industry. Moreover, they also do not compete directly with the cartoon characters such as Dora the Explorer, Thomas the Tank Engine, Bob the Builder, etc. With such unique positioning I think there is no where to go but forward for the Wiggles.

Be Irrelevant to win the marketing!!!

David Herlambang

MarketingFirst

Business Globalization

I was sitting in the car on the highway to meet a business colleague on Wednesday. There are a lot of interesting phenomena that I observed during the trip. These phenomena come from a great burger company, with a big yellow M as their slogan, a funny clown as their character, the one and only McDonald’s. The title of this sharing is business globalization since I think that big businesses somehow become the culture of the global society or even create the new habit of our society.

My old business lecturer once told me that a business would be able to control a country when it becomes too big. Microsoft surely creates new habits for our global society. Imagine if all Microsoft Windows Operating System are stopped in a night. I think the whole planet earth will become even more chaotic than when the Tsunami devastated the Asian countries. In fact, the global economy is actually influenced by these businesses.

Imagine if Coca Cola suddenly disappear from our society. I think a lot of people will be unemployed, the New York Stock Exchange will be suddenly shaken, and all the restaurants on the globe will experience diminishing in their profit. Moreover, all the coca cola fans will become furious.

In the world McDonald’s surely is everywhere. When I was driving on the highway I can clearly see two McDonald’s restaurants situated exactly opposite to each other, one for each different route. It becomes the executive daily habit to grab the McDonald’s meal in the morning since it is simple, easy, and of course fast. On the highway I could also see even the road directory contains McDonald’s sign in it. This really shows how the company affects the Australian government and Australian culture.

Ten years ago I could still live happily without a mobile phones in my pocket. Somehow the world was small enough to get in contact with our friends and family without the mobile phones. However after Nokia introduced their 5110 series to the world, the whole society becomes addicted to mobile phones. I really cannot live without a mobile phone now. Somehow it becomes so troublesome without it.

A simple sharing about business globalization. Do you have another experience that shows how businesses could affect your habit? Please share it to the group

David Herlambang
MarketingFirst

It's All About People

A couple of weeks ago I asked to the public How the Professional companies market themselves? This question was answered wonderfully. Continuing the story, I managed to go through the second stage of McKinsey's recruitment process. In the second stage I will be required to undergo a problem solving test in an hour. If I could do well in this stage I will face a couple of different interviews before I could get into the company. I think this is a very great and challenging recruitment processes. No wonder they could always find the outstanding individuals to work for them.

As I think about the processes I try to correlate this with marketing. One of the most important elements in marketing is product, and in this situation, their consultancy services. In order to deliver an outstanding product they surely require the right people to build the solution. These people then do the marketing for the company. The results that they deliver to their customers will speak out louder than anything.At the end of the day it is our people that build the company, the system, and the marketing.

In the real life situation we can see how an influence of one great person could alter the final result. Marvin Bower brought McKinsey&Co. up to this level. Our own, Hermawan Kartajaya has brought MarkPlus&Co. to be one of the respected companies in the Asia. These examples show the power of people in marketing.

My dad once told me that in Chinese there is a saying: "It takes only 20 years to grow a tree however 100 years would not be enough to grow a person". This means it takes forever to create an outstanding person since life is a constant learning experience. I think great companies surely know the people power in business and they really invest in the development of their employees rather than focus merely to their profit. I mean, the profit will come when your people show outstanding results.Let us learn to be a better person in life. Just a simple sharing. Comments, opinions, and questions will be greatly appreciated

David Herlambang
MarketingFirst

Sometimes Being Simple is the Answer

I would like to share a bit phenomenon that I just found out this afternoon. My company just decided to create a new subsidiary and I will be the main operator. The subsidiary will concentrate on the diversified financials which basically will be investing the parent company’s money in a lot of different financial products. Hopefully, in less than a hundred years this could grow and become like Merrill Lynch, UBS, Morgan Stanley, or Macquarie Bank (fingers crossed…hehehe).

Secretly, I also have a deep interest in the financial market. I started trading in the Australian Stock Exchange approximately three years ago. There are a lot of interesting phenomena when I was analyzing the companies within the market. Today, in particular, I started the analysis by collecting the important raw data and information to be processed to the next step of the analysis. I came across to a company which almost has never attracted the media attention. Interestingly, this silent company somehow has grown for almost 700% in price within the last five years.

The name of the company is The Reject Shop. They are basically the discount variety retail sector. Therefore, their target market obviously does not expect luxurious and branded items. Basically, there are a lot of discount shops like them in Australia. What makes them special and different from the others? Why the customers prefer to shop in the reject shop instead of the two dollars shop in the corner?

Unlike the majority of the discount stores which usually very unorganized and uncomfortable, The Reject Shop differentiate themselves by creating organized and comfortable stores for their customers.

Tight budget does not always mean sacrificing comfort and tidiness. This is a very simple concept. Shopping items at the discounted price in a “shopping mall” like store. No wonder their share has increased crazily for the past five years. Sometimes we forget about simple things in marketing. There are a lot of new luxurious supermarkets fighting to obtain more market share by doing more promotion. Therefore, sometimes being simple is the answer.

What do you think about simplicity in marketing? Do you have more examples that show simplicity in marketing? Do you have a simple idea that can change the market? Please share it to the rest of the group.

Just a simple sharing!!

David Herlambang

MarketingFirst