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

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