Fresh from the publishing oven is our second in a series of MarketingRx book compilations of your favorite columns. This one was specially compiled for marketing and brand executives. Thanks to Anvil Publishing and PDI. It should be available at National and Powerbooks by next week or so.Friday, March 20, 2009
Best of MarketingRx for Brand Execs now out!
Fresh from the publishing oven is our second in a series of MarketingRx book compilations of your favorite columns. This one was specially compiled for marketing and brand executives. Thanks to Anvil Publishing and PDI. It should be available at National and Powerbooks by next week or so.
Tuesday, January 20, 2009
FFF’s student dilemma: “What should I do about my (outdated) marketing professors without offending them …?”
MarketingRx for Jan 23-08
By Dr Ned Roberto with Ardy Roberto
We continue to answer the questions and try to allay the fears of student we’ve named FFF (Frustrated and Fearful of the Future).
To recap, here’s part of his letter (for the benefit of those who missed this three weeks ago.)
Dear MarketingRx:
Graduation is fast approaching and I canʼt help but feel insecure of my knowledge and skills. Although I study in a reputable university, I am unfortunate to have outdated teachers whom despite having doctorate degrees stick strictly by the books. They lack in 1st hand experience which I think is highly instructive and crucial for their students.
Our typical classroom discussions range from reading out loud the latest copy of Kotler to embarrassing situations like when they are bombarded with questions they cannot answer convincingly. Another thing I find ironic is that they cannot relate what they teach to a Philippine setting. If not for your column, I would never have heard of marketing gurus such as Kumar or the concepts of customer insighting, communitization nor debunking the age-old belief that customer loyalty is the best business model.
Coming across marketing alumni, they have all expressed the same frustration: what we learn in school does not coincide with what is expected by the employers. This discrepancy highly alarms a lot of the marketing students. We have long expressed our observation that our curriculum needs to be streamlined with what is actually happening out there but it seems that these sentiments fall on deaf ears.
My grades are quite good and they have earned me a spot to be part of a team our department sends to compete in such competitions such as PANAʼs IMC and PMAʼs STRATMark. During these times, my team mates and I take it upon ourselves to learn the whole process and figure everything out on our own since our professors are not very helpful. We try to make the best of what is available but we still feel that it is inadequate. In fact as much as possible I try to attend seminars with key speakers and read up on marketing articles and books, but having no one to direct my questions to, I often get confused. I am now scared that in the future when I am employed I will find myself in situations where I am clueless.
In closing here are some of my questions:
what am I to do about my situation without offending my professors?
could you please give me an idea of how it is to be a professional marketer and what the industry is like?
what reading materials could you suggest to a newbie like me which could be very helpful?
what else should I do that could supplement my education and make my resume more attractive?
~ FFF (Frustrated and Fearful of the Future)
A:
Last week, the junior MRx-er answered questions #3-4, now here’s your answer to question #1.
As your senior MRx-er, and having been a marketing professor for the past 30 years, I have witnessed and continue to see the kind of professors you reasonably find unacceptable. So I start by saying that it’s easy for me to empathize with your situation. Even after three decades in marketing education, I still find myself infuriated by the presence of these professors among us. But over the years, my regard for them has changed and there’s a difference in the way I regard them now. Today, I try to look at things also from their end.
That perspective came out of my co-authoring the 1989 social marketing book. Here’s what I learned from that project and they are lessons directly related to how I will answer your question.
Take the next step after complaining
First, if you look at marketing as a study of market and customer behavior, it’s easy to go from that step into saying that marketing is all about changing “undesirable” public behavior on the part of your target market or customer segment. That’s one way of looking at your situation. Ultimately, you want to change your marketing professors’ undesirable behavior, a behavior you find unbecoming of a responsible committed teacher. When we say “you,” we mean you the student as taking on the role of the change agent. At some point, you have to put a stop to complaining. For the period you’ve complained, that has served its purpose. It was good to complain because it let off the justifiable steam of unfairness inside you. But you know that the solution to your problem cannot be found in complaining. Continuing it can only add to your sense frustration and to no avail.
Launch a change campaign
So ending your frustration is in your hands. Instead, do something. Develop and launch a behavioral change campaign.
And your marketing professors are going to be your target market segment. But who’s going to be the primary target market (PTM) segment? Say, you have five guilty marketing professors who you can rank according to predisposition to behavior change like so:
1 = very resistant to change
2 = more resistant than predisposed
3 = neither resistant nor predisposed
4 = more predisposed than resistant
5 = very predisposed
So who should you target first? You can choose according to two opposing logics. One line of thinking says: “Choose the segment with the most need for change.” That would naturally be the one that’s “very resistant to change.” The other line of thinking says: “Choose the segment that’s most ready and therefore the easiest and probably the quickest to change.” That segment would be the “very predisposed.”
The most resistant will take time, maybe a very long time to change. It’s a segment that will therefore require the most investment in time and attention. On the other hand, the most predisposed will be quick to change and you can therefore use its conversion for leveraging on persuading the other segments to change as well. In your situation as a graduating student, this is the primary segment to go after. It’s a primary target market segment of one professor.
Positioning
After segmenting and after targeting comes the most pivotal step of “positioning.” Here, what does positioning mean? Positioning means persuading your primary target professor that it is to his personal and professorial advantage to leave his “bad” teaching behavior and replace it with the “good.” What’s in it for him to change behavior when he’s obviously satisfying some personal “needs” with what he’s doing now. Are the benefits from the behavior change going to be superior to what he’s enjoying now?
That in essence is the positioning diagnosis you have to undertake if you are to succeed in this behavior change mission that you have committed to pursue. Let’s see if we can help you push forward on this commitment.
The very first thing to do at this point is to understand why your target professor is teaching the way he does. Consumer behavior research says that a consumer, that is, your professor, does things because he’s satisfying some personal need or needs with his current teaching behavior. In other words, he won’t be doing what he’s doing if he’s not getting something out of it. So you should find out this. After finding out, your persuasion task becomes this. Convince him that the benefits from the new and changed behavior stand above and are superior to the benefits he’s getting from his current teaching behavior.
Consumer psychologists also tell us that people do things by “modeling” or according to the “social proof principle.” Since all other marketing professors are behaving this way, then everyone comes to view the behavior as correct or at least as not wrong. So search for the model that can reverse the social proof process.
There’s a third avenue of understanding. This is what consumer behaviorists call “perceived social normative pressure to change behavior.” In other words, if your target professor’s superiors, peers, student association, student alumni and other school stakeholders take a concerted effort to raise the bar of teaching performance, then there’s more likelihood of a behavior change. Of course, we have noted in your letter that you’ve already explored this avenue and you mentioned that it did not trigger that “social normative pressure to change behavior.” But it’s still worth reviewing that effort to see how it can stand fine tuning and sharpening.
“Teaching the teachers”
A fourth behavior change tactic worth mentioning is “empowerment.” In the situation you’re in, that translates to no less than teaching your target professor how to change behavior. The assumption that may seem unreasonable at first glance is that your target professor wants to change but just doesn’t know how to change. There’s no issue here about motivation to change behavior. The question is much more mundane and practical. It’s a matter of knowing the technique, the skill for changing behavior. We’re saying that our target professor wants to change but he just does not have the step-by-step knowhow to effect the change in behavior. Many of us would immediately say: “How can that be true with professors? These are intelligent professors with Ph.Ds after their names.” If you just stop and reflect for a moment, you may come to realize that teachers learn the content, the “what” of their disciplines. Practicing the what, that is, the “how” is often not encompasses in that training and even when it is, whatever learning happens is still all up in the air. Most teachers especially those who are young find it hard to practice what they preach.
Question: Which of these behavior change strategies do you adopt for your target professor?
A social marketer would say try all that’s good in each of them. Be eclectic. I’m conscious that my own “purist” behavioral science colleagues and friends would be ready to pounce of that prescription and call it “opportunistic” because being eclectic is to them the euphemism for being opportunistically Machiavellian. But my own experience with eclecticism over the years has been responsible for consequentially raising the likelihood of success and minimizing the risk of failure of almost all my consulting projects. It is in that spirit of sharing this experience that I write the prescription.
A final word. In my seminars, I am often asked by some well-meaning young marketing managers what they should do with their own bosses who behave just like FFF’s marketing professors. They find their bosses outdated in their command of marketing. If they have become just like FFF’s marketing professors, then our diagnosis and prescription should in their basic content and structure apply.
We’ll end with this advice from a reader named Carlo to be “patient.”
“Over the years, the basics of marketing haven't changed much. That's
what you need to learn in school. The Theory. What you need to learn
from your professors is how they were able to cope with the problems
of their times. Your professors may not be able to cope with current
marketing situations now if they have not updated themselves,
especially if they are not IT savvy and have not considered the new
forms marketing that are evolving such as targeted online marketing,
the social networks and other digital marketing phenomenon.
Nevertheless, you are expected to use your professor's experience and
draw an analogy on how to use this to your era. That's where your
creativity comes in handy as a marketing professional. Don't rush.
You'll get there. Unfortunately, they can not teach 'experience' in
school. Carlo - COBOL.RADIUS@GMAIL.COM
More advice and replies to FFF (Frustrated and Fearful of the Future) continue to come in. We’ll close this series next week with advice from MarketingRx and other readers on FFF’s question on Working in the Marketing Industry and Expectations.
Keep your questions and commentscoming. Send them to us at MarketingRx@pldtDSL.net or post them on www.marketingrx.org or text us at 0919-314-5412. God bless!
By Dr Ned Roberto with Ardy Roberto
We continue to answer the questions and try to allay the fears of student we’ve named FFF (Frustrated and Fearful of the Future).
To recap, here’s part of his letter (for the benefit of those who missed this three weeks ago.)
Dear MarketingRx:
Graduation is fast approaching and I canʼt help but feel insecure of my knowledge and skills. Although I study in a reputable university, I am unfortunate to have outdated teachers whom despite having doctorate degrees stick strictly by the books. They lack in 1st hand experience which I think is highly instructive and crucial for their students.
Our typical classroom discussions range from reading out loud the latest copy of Kotler to embarrassing situations like when they are bombarded with questions they cannot answer convincingly. Another thing I find ironic is that they cannot relate what they teach to a Philippine setting. If not for your column, I would never have heard of marketing gurus such as Kumar or the concepts of customer insighting, communitization nor debunking the age-old belief that customer loyalty is the best business model.
Coming across marketing alumni, they have all expressed the same frustration: what we learn in school does not coincide with what is expected by the employers. This discrepancy highly alarms a lot of the marketing students. We have long expressed our observation that our curriculum needs to be streamlined with what is actually happening out there but it seems that these sentiments fall on deaf ears.
My grades are quite good and they have earned me a spot to be part of a team our department sends to compete in such competitions such as PANAʼs IMC and PMAʼs STRATMark. During these times, my team mates and I take it upon ourselves to learn the whole process and figure everything out on our own since our professors are not very helpful. We try to make the best of what is available but we still feel that it is inadequate. In fact as much as possible I try to attend seminars with key speakers and read up on marketing articles and books, but having no one to direct my questions to, I often get confused. I am now scared that in the future when I am employed I will find myself in situations where I am clueless.
In closing here are some of my questions:
what am I to do about my situation without offending my professors?
could you please give me an idea of how it is to be a professional marketer and what the industry is like?
what reading materials could you suggest to a newbie like me which could be very helpful?
what else should I do that could supplement my education and make my resume more attractive?
~ FFF (Frustrated and Fearful of the Future)
A:
Last week, the junior MRx-er answered questions #3-4, now here’s your answer to question #1.
As your senior MRx-er, and having been a marketing professor for the past 30 years, I have witnessed and continue to see the kind of professors you reasonably find unacceptable. So I start by saying that it’s easy for me to empathize with your situation. Even after three decades in marketing education, I still find myself infuriated by the presence of these professors among us. But over the years, my regard for them has changed and there’s a difference in the way I regard them now. Today, I try to look at things also from their end.
That perspective came out of my co-authoring the 1989 social marketing book. Here’s what I learned from that project and they are lessons directly related to how I will answer your question.
Take the next step after complaining
First, if you look at marketing as a study of market and customer behavior, it’s easy to go from that step into saying that marketing is all about changing “undesirable” public behavior on the part of your target market or customer segment. That’s one way of looking at your situation. Ultimately, you want to change your marketing professors’ undesirable behavior, a behavior you find unbecoming of a responsible committed teacher. When we say “you,” we mean you the student as taking on the role of the change agent. At some point, you have to put a stop to complaining. For the period you’ve complained, that has served its purpose. It was good to complain because it let off the justifiable steam of unfairness inside you. But you know that the solution to your problem cannot be found in complaining. Continuing it can only add to your sense frustration and to no avail.
Launch a change campaign
So ending your frustration is in your hands. Instead, do something. Develop and launch a behavioral change campaign.
And your marketing professors are going to be your target market segment. But who’s going to be the primary target market (PTM) segment? Say, you have five guilty marketing professors who you can rank according to predisposition to behavior change like so:
1 = very resistant to change
2 = more resistant than predisposed
3 = neither resistant nor predisposed
4 = more predisposed than resistant
5 = very predisposed
So who should you target first? You can choose according to two opposing logics. One line of thinking says: “Choose the segment with the most need for change.” That would naturally be the one that’s “very resistant to change.” The other line of thinking says: “Choose the segment that’s most ready and therefore the easiest and probably the quickest to change.” That segment would be the “very predisposed.”
The most resistant will take time, maybe a very long time to change. It’s a segment that will therefore require the most investment in time and attention. On the other hand, the most predisposed will be quick to change and you can therefore use its conversion for leveraging on persuading the other segments to change as well. In your situation as a graduating student, this is the primary segment to go after. It’s a primary target market segment of one professor.
Positioning
After segmenting and after targeting comes the most pivotal step of “positioning.” Here, what does positioning mean? Positioning means persuading your primary target professor that it is to his personal and professorial advantage to leave his “bad” teaching behavior and replace it with the “good.” What’s in it for him to change behavior when he’s obviously satisfying some personal “needs” with what he’s doing now. Are the benefits from the behavior change going to be superior to what he’s enjoying now?
That in essence is the positioning diagnosis you have to undertake if you are to succeed in this behavior change mission that you have committed to pursue. Let’s see if we can help you push forward on this commitment.
The very first thing to do at this point is to understand why your target professor is teaching the way he does. Consumer behavior research says that a consumer, that is, your professor, does things because he’s satisfying some personal need or needs with his current teaching behavior. In other words, he won’t be doing what he’s doing if he’s not getting something out of it. So you should find out this. After finding out, your persuasion task becomes this. Convince him that the benefits from the new and changed behavior stand above and are superior to the benefits he’s getting from his current teaching behavior.
Consumer psychologists also tell us that people do things by “modeling” or according to the “social proof principle.” Since all other marketing professors are behaving this way, then everyone comes to view the behavior as correct or at least as not wrong. So search for the model that can reverse the social proof process.
There’s a third avenue of understanding. This is what consumer behaviorists call “perceived social normative pressure to change behavior.” In other words, if your target professor’s superiors, peers, student association, student alumni and other school stakeholders take a concerted effort to raise the bar of teaching performance, then there’s more likelihood of a behavior change. Of course, we have noted in your letter that you’ve already explored this avenue and you mentioned that it did not trigger that “social normative pressure to change behavior.” But it’s still worth reviewing that effort to see how it can stand fine tuning and sharpening.
“Teaching the teachers”
A fourth behavior change tactic worth mentioning is “empowerment.” In the situation you’re in, that translates to no less than teaching your target professor how to change behavior. The assumption that may seem unreasonable at first glance is that your target professor wants to change but just doesn’t know how to change. There’s no issue here about motivation to change behavior. The question is much more mundane and practical. It’s a matter of knowing the technique, the skill for changing behavior. We’re saying that our target professor wants to change but he just does not have the step-by-step knowhow to effect the change in behavior. Many of us would immediately say: “How can that be true with professors? These are intelligent professors with Ph.Ds after their names.” If you just stop and reflect for a moment, you may come to realize that teachers learn the content, the “what” of their disciplines. Practicing the what, that is, the “how” is often not encompasses in that training and even when it is, whatever learning happens is still all up in the air. Most teachers especially those who are young find it hard to practice what they preach.
Question: Which of these behavior change strategies do you adopt for your target professor?
A social marketer would say try all that’s good in each of them. Be eclectic. I’m conscious that my own “purist” behavioral science colleagues and friends would be ready to pounce of that prescription and call it “opportunistic” because being eclectic is to them the euphemism for being opportunistically Machiavellian. But my own experience with eclecticism over the years has been responsible for consequentially raising the likelihood of success and minimizing the risk of failure of almost all my consulting projects. It is in that spirit of sharing this experience that I write the prescription.
A final word. In my seminars, I am often asked by some well-meaning young marketing managers what they should do with their own bosses who behave just like FFF’s marketing professors. They find their bosses outdated in their command of marketing. If they have become just like FFF’s marketing professors, then our diagnosis and prescription should in their basic content and structure apply.
We’ll end with this advice from a reader named Carlo to be “patient.”
“Over the years, the basics of marketing haven't changed much. That's
what you need to learn in school. The Theory. What you need to learn
from your professors is how they were able to cope with the problems
of their times. Your professors may not be able to cope with current
marketing situations now if they have not updated themselves,
especially if they are not IT savvy and have not considered the new
forms marketing that are evolving such as targeted online marketing,
the social networks and other digital marketing phenomenon.
Nevertheless, you are expected to use your professor's experience and
draw an analogy on how to use this to your era. That's where your
creativity comes in handy as a marketing professional. Don't rush.
You'll get there. Unfortunately, they can not teach 'experience' in
school. Carlo - COBOL.RADIUS@GMAIL.COM
More advice and replies to FFF (Frustrated and Fearful of the Future) continue to come in. We’ll close this series next week with advice from MarketingRx and other readers on FFF’s question on Working in the Marketing Industry and Expectations.
Keep your questions and commentscoming. Send them to us at MarketingRx@pldtDSL.net or post them on www.marketingrx.org or text us at 0919-314-5412. God bless!
Advice for Frustrated and Fearful of the Future (FFF)
MarketingRx for Friday – January 16-08
Last week, in "Should this graduating marketing student fear for his future?" MarketingRx published the letter of a graduating marketing student who, feeling that his four year education will be inadequate for a marketing career, fears for his future.
The same perhaps goes for those who are currently in marketing having been transferred from a different field. We see that all the time. Those in HR, Sales, IT—and even nursing, the arts and engineering are now assigned to a management position (or are running a business) that requires a working knowledge of Marketing.
As for me (the Jr MRx-er), I had no plans to get into Marketing. My initial career path was either law or journalism. Out of college, I started writing about business, entrepreneurship, and health for a monthly lifestyle magazine. Later, I found myself in a management position for the publisher of an international business magazine that tasked me to market books to Asian managers (a new spin-off business of the publisher). I had to learn fast, since the previous manager I had replaced was gone and there was no turnover or formal training. The publisher had faith in me—or rather the fact that I was the son of the Senior MRx-er, THE professor of International Marketing at the Asian Institute of Management (AIM).
I remember doing several things to help me prepare for the position and the responsibility. These three daily "To Dos" also helped me when I started our business.
1. Seek mentors. I picked the brain of the best available resource person on marketing that was available to me—my Dad! The Sr MRxer and I carpooled to work every day. The commute from Paranaque (south of Manila) to our respective offices in Makati became my "University of South Super Highway" with Dr Ned Roberto as my professor. Thankfully, our offices were located within 5 minutes of each other. Since there was no Skyway then, that was about 3 hours of marketing lessons with a teacher to student ratio of 1:1.
First hand, I'd learn about my Dad's clients and the different challenges that they asked the Sr MRxer to help them out with.You may not have the blessing of having a marketing guru as your father, but you can certainly seek out marketing mentors either in the company you work for or as you mentioned, in the various marketing associations and clubs that you have already joined. I also considered my boss, Ashok Nath, the publisher and president of the publishing firm that I worked at, as one of my marketing mentors as well. He was an encouraging influence who allowed his managers to be entrepreneurial. Mr Nath also introduced me to battle scarred marketing veterans who generously shared their expertise.
While you're still in school, offer to be the research assistant of marketing authors and consultants like PMA Agora Awardees, Willie Arcilla and Karen de Asis.
2. Read. The best marketing mentors can be consulted for a few hundred or thousand pesos 24/7 through the books and articles that they have written. Since I marketed books, I had access to the best and latest business books published by Harvard Business Press, McGraw-Hill, Simon & Schuster, John Wiley, etc. Publishers would send me free review copies. Those days are over, but I still invest and budget a princely amount for books every year. I learned much from the classic career autobiographies of advertising legends, Lester Wunderman and David Ogilvy.
When I started my business on a shoe-string budget, I consulted Guerrilla Marketing founder, Jay Levinson through his Guerrilla Marketing series of books starting with "Guerrilla Marketing for the Home-Based Business" co-authored with Seth Godin. (Little did I know that a decade later, I would be hosting Jay Levinson in Manila.) Another book that I used to refer to a lot when I became an entrepreneur was Josiah Go's "The Marketing Plan" book.
Right now, I'm going through "Lovemarks – the future beyond brands" by the Worldwide CEO of Saatchi & Saatchi, Kevin Roberts. It's an inspiring, enjoyable read (brilliantly designed also) that details what and how he's knows what he knows in brand marketing since his start in P&G in 1972 and then through his many international corporate posts until his current position in the global office of advertising giant, Saatchi.
3. Go back to "school." Yes, I know that you've just graduated and are probably glad to be out of school. But you need to go back and continually upgrade your knowledge. A management consultant once told me that the knowledge of a graduating IT student becomes obsolete in about 3-6 months after they graduate. Given that the graduating marketing student's knowledge may have more shelf life, you still have to keep on upgrading and updating by attending "school." So attend cutting edge seminars and conferences where the latest ideas and case studies in business and marketing are presented.
Create your own curriculum. Allow me a shameless plug right here: include the Dr. Ned marketing workshops being offered through Josiah Go's Mansmith & Fielders in your "marketing school calendar."
Lastly, don't be quick to dismiss what you've learned at school—at least you've been exposed to the basics and have a good foundation. What's more important, I think, is that you've learned the discipline of hard work (assuming that you are studying and working hard) while still a student.
Once you get into a corporate marketing position fresh from college, the boss wouldn't be careless and throw the weight of running a marketing campaign to a new hire. There will be a process of company inculturation ("this is how things are done here"), orientation, training and mentoring. For some it will be faster rather than slower. You'll have to learn fast on the job. The discipline of hard work that you hopefully learned in school will be your best friend. Hopefully, you also learned how to work with different people and picked up people and leadership skills with all the group projects that were assigned to you in school.
In business and the corporate world, you won't go far if you prefer to work alone. You'll have to learn how to work with different people.
We'll end with a reply from one of our readers who responded to last week's invitation to send their two centavos worth of advice to the FFF student.
"Marketing is one of the most challenging jobs out there - precisely because it is very hard to define. Marketing usually does so many things all at the same time that it really is hard to create a textbook teaching Marketing to students. …What's important is not what's in the textbooks but rather what have you really learned while in school like how to network with other students, how to build an organization, how to learn the importance of teamwork in sports activities, how to court a girl, and how to influence others - this is what's more important and this is what every student can use when they join the corporate world."
- Jay Jaboneta, Customer Business Development, P&G Distributing Philippines
So, FFF, we hope we've answered at least 1 or 2 of the four questions that you asked last week ("what reading materials could you suggest to a newbie like me which could be very helpful?" and "what else should I do that could supplement my education?")
Next week, the Senior MRxer will answer the other two questions raised by FFF ("what am I to do about my situation without offending my professors?" and "could you please give me an idea of how it is to be a professional marketer and what the industry is like?"
To our other readers who replied, thanks for sending your advice to FFF. We'll forward them directly to him. We're sure he'll appreciate it. Keep your questions and comments coming. Text us at 0918-3386412. Or send them to us at MarketingRx@pldtDSL.net or post them at www.marketingrx.org . God bless!
Last week, in "Should this graduating marketing student fear for his future?" MarketingRx published the letter of a graduating marketing student who, feeling that his four year education will be inadequate for a marketing career, fears for his future.
The same perhaps goes for those who are currently in marketing having been transferred from a different field. We see that all the time. Those in HR, Sales, IT—and even nursing, the arts and engineering are now assigned to a management position (or are running a business) that requires a working knowledge of Marketing.
As for me (the Jr MRx-er), I had no plans to get into Marketing. My initial career path was either law or journalism. Out of college, I started writing about business, entrepreneurship, and health for a monthly lifestyle magazine. Later, I found myself in a management position for the publisher of an international business magazine that tasked me to market books to Asian managers (a new spin-off business of the publisher). I had to learn fast, since the previous manager I had replaced was gone and there was no turnover or formal training. The publisher had faith in me—or rather the fact that I was the son of the Senior MRx-er, THE professor of International Marketing at the Asian Institute of Management (AIM).
I remember doing several things to help me prepare for the position and the responsibility. These three daily "To Dos" also helped me when I started our business.
1. Seek mentors. I picked the brain of the best available resource person on marketing that was available to me—my Dad! The Sr MRxer and I carpooled to work every day. The commute from Paranaque (south of Manila) to our respective offices in Makati became my "University of South Super Highway" with Dr Ned Roberto as my professor. Thankfully, our offices were located within 5 minutes of each other. Since there was no Skyway then, that was about 3 hours of marketing lessons with a teacher to student ratio of 1:1.
First hand, I'd learn about my Dad's clients and the different challenges that they asked the Sr MRxer to help them out with.You may not have the blessing of having a marketing guru as your father, but you can certainly seek out marketing mentors either in the company you work for or as you mentioned, in the various marketing associations and clubs that you have already joined. I also considered my boss, Ashok Nath, the publisher and president of the publishing firm that I worked at, as one of my marketing mentors as well. He was an encouraging influence who allowed his managers to be entrepreneurial. Mr Nath also introduced me to battle scarred marketing veterans who generously shared their expertise.
While you're still in school, offer to be the research assistant of marketing authors and consultants like PMA Agora Awardees, Willie Arcilla and Karen de Asis.
2. Read. The best marketing mentors can be consulted for a few hundred or thousand pesos 24/7 through the books and articles that they have written. Since I marketed books, I had access to the best and latest business books published by Harvard Business Press, McGraw-Hill, Simon & Schuster, John Wiley, etc. Publishers would send me free review copies. Those days are over, but I still invest and budget a princely amount for books every year. I learned much from the classic career autobiographies of advertising legends, Lester Wunderman and David Ogilvy.
When I started my business on a shoe-string budget, I consulted Guerrilla Marketing founder, Jay Levinson through his Guerrilla Marketing series of books starting with "Guerrilla Marketing for the Home-Based Business" co-authored with Seth Godin. (Little did I know that a decade later, I would be hosting Jay Levinson in Manila.) Another book that I used to refer to a lot when I became an entrepreneur was Josiah Go's "The Marketing Plan" book.
Right now, I'm going through "Lovemarks – the future beyond brands" by the Worldwide CEO of Saatchi & Saatchi, Kevin Roberts. It's an inspiring, enjoyable read (brilliantly designed also) that details what and how he's knows what he knows in brand marketing since his start in P&G in 1972 and then through his many international corporate posts until his current position in the global office of advertising giant, Saatchi.
3. Go back to "school." Yes, I know that you've just graduated and are probably glad to be out of school. But you need to go back and continually upgrade your knowledge. A management consultant once told me that the knowledge of a graduating IT student becomes obsolete in about 3-6 months after they graduate. Given that the graduating marketing student's knowledge may have more shelf life, you still have to keep on upgrading and updating by attending "school." So attend cutting edge seminars and conferences where the latest ideas and case studies in business and marketing are presented.
Create your own curriculum. Allow me a shameless plug right here: include the Dr. Ned marketing workshops being offered through Josiah Go's Mansmith & Fielders in your "marketing school calendar."
Lastly, don't be quick to dismiss what you've learned at school—at least you've been exposed to the basics and have a good foundation. What's more important, I think, is that you've learned the discipline of hard work (assuming that you are studying and working hard) while still a student.
Once you get into a corporate marketing position fresh from college, the boss wouldn't be careless and throw the weight of running a marketing campaign to a new hire. There will be a process of company inculturation ("this is how things are done here"), orientation, training and mentoring. For some it will be faster rather than slower. You'll have to learn fast on the job. The discipline of hard work that you hopefully learned in school will be your best friend. Hopefully, you also learned how to work with different people and picked up people and leadership skills with all the group projects that were assigned to you in school.
In business and the corporate world, you won't go far if you prefer to work alone. You'll have to learn how to work with different people.
We'll end with a reply from one of our readers who responded to last week's invitation to send their two centavos worth of advice to the FFF student.
"Marketing is one of the most challenging jobs out there - precisely because it is very hard to define. Marketing usually does so many things all at the same time that it really is hard to create a textbook teaching Marketing to students. …What's important is not what's in the textbooks but rather what have you really learned while in school like how to network with other students, how to build an organization, how to learn the importance of teamwork in sports activities, how to court a girl, and how to influence others - this is what's more important and this is what every student can use when they join the corporate world."
- Jay Jaboneta, Customer Business Development, P&G Distributing Philippines
So, FFF, we hope we've answered at least 1 or 2 of the four questions that you asked last week ("what reading materials could you suggest to a newbie like me which could be very helpful?" and "what else should I do that could supplement my education?")
Next week, the Senior MRxer will answer the other two questions raised by FFF ("what am I to do about my situation without offending my professors?" and "could you please give me an idea of how it is to be a professional marketer and what the industry is like?"
To our other readers who replied, thanks for sending your advice to FFF. We'll forward them directly to him. We're sure he'll appreciate it. Keep your questions and comments coming. Text us at 0918-3386412. Or send them to us at MarketingRx@pldtDSL.net or post them at www.marketingrx.org . God bless!
Should this graduating marketing student fear for his future?
MarketingRx for January 9, 2009
Dear Marketing RX,
Hope you could help me out. Iʼm a 4th year student taking up Marketing Management. I have stumbled across your column a few months back and I was really pleased that it was helpful and clarified some questions that I had. So I took a chance and decided to ask for your expert advice on my problem.
Graduation is fast approaching and I canʼt help but feel insecure of my knowledge and skills. Although I study in a reputable university, I am unfortunate to have outdated teachers whom despite having doctorate degrees stick strictly by the books.
They lack in 1st hand experience which I think is highly instructive and crucial for their students. Our typical classroom discussions range from reading out loud the latest copy of Kotler to embarrassing situations like when they are bombarded with questions they cannot answer convincingly. Another thing I find ironic is that they cannot relate what they teach to a Philippine setting. If not for your column, I would never have heard of marketing gurus such as Kumar or the concepts of customer insighting, communitization nor debunking the age-old belief that customer loyalty is the best business model.
Coming across marketing alumni, they have all expressed the same frustration: what we learn in school does not coincide with what is expected by the employers. This discrepancy highly alarms a lot of the marketing students. We have long expressed our observation that our curriculum needs to be streamlined with what is actually happening out there but it seems that these sentiments fall on deaf ears.
My grades are quite good and they have earned me a spot to be part of a team our department sends to compete in such competitions such as PANAʼs IMC and PMAʼs STRATMark. During these times, my team mates and I take it upon ourselves to learn the whole process and figure everything out on our own since our professors are not very helpful. We try to make the best of what is available but we still feel that it is inadequate. In fact as much as possible I try to attend seminars with key speakers and read up on marketing articles and books, but having no one to direct my questions to, I often get confused.
I am now scared that in the future when I am employed I will find myself in situations where I am clueless.
In closing here are some of my questions: ·
what am I to do about my situation without offending my professors?·
could you please give me an idea of how it is to be a professional marketer and what the industry is like?·
what reading materials could you suggest to a newbie like me which could be very helpful?· what else should I do that could supplement my education and make my resume more attractive?
Thank you and I hope that you could help me by answering through your column because I feel that there is a lot of potential among us and if given a chance we could become good marketers. Sincerely, Frustrated and Fearful of the Future (FFF)
+++Next week, we'll start addressing FFF's concerns and questions one by one. But what do you, our dear readers, think? Send us your suggestions for FFF and we'll include it in our column. If you're a marketing student please write to us and share your experience. We're sure that there are professors and schools out there that are exceptions to this future marketer's lament.Send them to us at MarketingRx@pldtDSL.net or post them at www.marketingrx.org .
We can also receive your reactions via text at 0918-3386412. (Pls include your name and co./organization/school.) Our prayers and thoughts are with our editor, Margie Quimpo-Espino who suffered a stroke while on a business trip to India last month. She's still recovering from a hospital in India and everyone who's read this column is encouraged to say a little prayer for her swift recovery. Thanks and God bless!===============
Dear Marketing RX,
Hope you could help me out. Iʼm a 4th year student taking up Marketing Management. I have stumbled across your column a few months back and I was really pleased that it was helpful and clarified some questions that I had. So I took a chance and decided to ask for your expert advice on my problem.
Graduation is fast approaching and I canʼt help but feel insecure of my knowledge and skills. Although I study in a reputable university, I am unfortunate to have outdated teachers whom despite having doctorate degrees stick strictly by the books.
They lack in 1st hand experience which I think is highly instructive and crucial for their students. Our typical classroom discussions range from reading out loud the latest copy of Kotler to embarrassing situations like when they are bombarded with questions they cannot answer convincingly. Another thing I find ironic is that they cannot relate what they teach to a Philippine setting. If not for your column, I would never have heard of marketing gurus such as Kumar or the concepts of customer insighting, communitization nor debunking the age-old belief that customer loyalty is the best business model.
Coming across marketing alumni, they have all expressed the same frustration: what we learn in school does not coincide with what is expected by the employers. This discrepancy highly alarms a lot of the marketing students. We have long expressed our observation that our curriculum needs to be streamlined with what is actually happening out there but it seems that these sentiments fall on deaf ears.
My grades are quite good and they have earned me a spot to be part of a team our department sends to compete in such competitions such as PANAʼs IMC and PMAʼs STRATMark. During these times, my team mates and I take it upon ourselves to learn the whole process and figure everything out on our own since our professors are not very helpful. We try to make the best of what is available but we still feel that it is inadequate. In fact as much as possible I try to attend seminars with key speakers and read up on marketing articles and books, but having no one to direct my questions to, I often get confused.
I am now scared that in the future when I am employed I will find myself in situations where I am clueless.
In closing here are some of my questions: ·
what am I to do about my situation without offending my professors?·
could you please give me an idea of how it is to be a professional marketer and what the industry is like?·
what reading materials could you suggest to a newbie like me which could be very helpful?· what else should I do that could supplement my education and make my resume more attractive?
Thank you and I hope that you could help me by answering through your column because I feel that there is a lot of potential among us and if given a chance we could become good marketers. Sincerely, Frustrated and Fearful of the Future (FFF)
+++Next week, we'll start addressing FFF's concerns and questions one by one. But what do you, our dear readers, think? Send us your suggestions for FFF and we'll include it in our column. If you're a marketing student please write to us and share your experience. We're sure that there are professors and schools out there that are exceptions to this future marketer's lament.Send them to us at MarketingRx@pldtDSL.net or post them at www.marketingrx.org .
We can also receive your reactions via text at 0918-3386412. (Pls include your name and co./organization/school.) Our prayers and thoughts are with our editor, Margie Quimpo-Espino who suffered a stroke while on a business trip to India last month. She's still recovering from a hospital in India and everyone who's read this column is encouraged to say a little prayer for her swift recovery. Thanks and God bless!===============
Wednesday, November 19, 2008
“What’s self-segmentation and is there such a thing?”
MarketingRx for October 31/November 7, 2008:
By Dr Ned Roberto with Ardy Roberto
Q: We heard that you recently gave a talk on market segmentation and self-segmentation. We read your book on market segmentation and we’ve been helped by the segmentation approaches you introduced. But that book didn’t at all talk about self-segmentation.
Our news said that you told your audience that self-segmentation is more useful than market segmentation. What’s the difference between market segmentation and self-segmentation? How exactly is self-segmentation of more practical use?
Is this a new book of yours? If it is, where can we buy it? If not, please give us a brief explanation so we can benefit from it just as we gained better understanding of market segmentation from your book.
A: That recent talk isn’t that recent. It’s been some two months ago. Anyway let’s take up your questions. We’ve been asked those questions before and for quite a number of times.
The most instructive way to be clear about the difference between market segmentation and self-segmentation is to think of segmentation as a behavior. Our traditional practice of market segmentation is the marketer’s segmenting behavior. That’s basically your partitioning as a marketer of your total market into segments.
The partitioning may be by socio-economic classification. This is probably the most used segmenting variable. It’s a conventional practice in the shopping mall, restaurant and hospitality services business. The practice typically yields the Class AB (upper class) segment, Class C (middle class) segment, Class D (borderline poor) segment, and Class E (extreme poor) segment. In another occasion as in the apparel and food supplement categories, you may partition by age to come out with the young adult segment, the mature adult segment, and the post-mature adult segment. Others like to partition by gender (the male segment versus the female segment), or even by geographical residency.
The classic pHCare example
Self-segmentation is the consumer’s segmentation behavior. This was what the pHCare market launching team at Unilab found in the feminine wash market in year 2000. The total population of menstruating women at that time self-segmented themselves into the femwash user segment and the femwash non-user segment. According to AC Nielsen, the user segment made up 12% of the total menstruating population while the non-users were a large 82%.
The 82% non-users self-segmented into 3 sub-segments. There were about 50% out of this 82% who for their feminine hygiene needs used 2 substitutes, namely, soap or water. This 50% divided about equally between soap and water. The remaining 32% out of the 82% were the “true” femwash non-users whose reason for non-use was something like this: “Wala naman akong UTI. So di ko kailangan yan.” (I don’t have UTI. So I don’t need that.) This is the most difficult market segment to go after for converting into femwash usage.
The other 2, the soap-using segment and the water-using segment, are not as difficult a segment for conversion. This is because the first of these 2 is already unhappy with soap as a femwash substitute. Soap users say something like this: “It makes me dry and itchy down there.” So demonstrating that a femwash like pHCare won’t dry and won’t make its user feel itchy will lead to conversion in favor of pHCare. On the other hand, the water-using femwash prospects reason out this way: “Okay na ang tubig. Gastos pa yang feminine wash” (Water is okay. It’s extra expense to use feminine wash.) That’s a resolvable issue of affordable value-for-money pricing.
In population size, each of these 2 non-user segments is somewhat larger than the current18% femwash users. The consumers in the soap-using segment count to 20.5% prospective femwash users (= 25% x 82% non-users). That’s the same population size of consumers in the water-using segment.
Converting the soap users into becoming femwash users doubles (about a little bit more) the current femwash user market. Then bringing in the consumers in the water-using segment will more than triple that current femwash user market! As you can see, this is the argument in favor of taking advantage of consumer self-segmentation for its more practical business-growing benefits. As we often tell our seminar participants, the ultimate source for growing your business is a new user market segment. Find one and your double or even triple your business. Because the period of owning a new market segment has been getting shorter and shorter, you can appreciate why searching and locating a new user market segment has become ever more critical.
The AyalaLand example
Here’s another instructive case that reinforces this practical business-growing advantage of self-segmentation but with a different twist. This is the self-segmenting behaviour of home owners of AyalaLand.
Originally, the market segmentation that AyalaLand adopted was by the socio-eco classification of the upper-upper class, i.e., the Class A market. This real property company partitioned the Class A market into the Class AAA (triple A) segment, the Class AA (double A) segment and the Class A (single A) segment.
Over the years, as these market segments got “saturated,” research on home owners in these segments revealed that home owners here were self-segmenting themselves into a first repeat customers for another house and lot, and even as second repeat customers. At the life cycle stage of “Full Nesters 1” where the couple’s youngest kid is less than 6 years old, this Class A customer has been observed to be at its first peak repeat home buying. This is a potentially double-the-business opportunity.
Then at another life cycle stage of “Empty Nesters 1” where you now have older couples, with or without kids at home, but the household head is still working, a Class A customer in this stage has been recorded to be at its second peak repeat home owning. This time and in most cases, this customer buys for gift giving. One of the children is now getting married and what can be a more welcome wedding gift than a house for the newly wed. That’s potentially another double-the-business opportunity.
Where’s the difference in this case? Notice that the new market at each of the 2 peak repeat home buying opportunities comes from the same original customers. The same customer has segmented himself or herself to participate in 2 new market segments. That’s growing business from your already acquired customers. It’s not new customer acquisition as in the femwash case. That’s the most cost-effective sourcing of business growing.
So there you are. There’s hopefully the clear difference between market segmentation and self-segmentation, and the true practical business-growing advantage to navigating through this fast changing waters and times via customers’ self-segmentation.
Keep your questions coming. Send them to ardy.roberto@gmail.com or visit www.marketingrx.org . God bless!
By Dr Ned Roberto with Ardy Roberto
Q: We heard that you recently gave a talk on market segmentation and self-segmentation. We read your book on market segmentation and we’ve been helped by the segmentation approaches you introduced. But that book didn’t at all talk about self-segmentation.
Our news said that you told your audience that self-segmentation is more useful than market segmentation. What’s the difference between market segmentation and self-segmentation? How exactly is self-segmentation of more practical use?
Is this a new book of yours? If it is, where can we buy it? If not, please give us a brief explanation so we can benefit from it just as we gained better understanding of market segmentation from your book.
A: That recent talk isn’t that recent. It’s been some two months ago. Anyway let’s take up your questions. We’ve been asked those questions before and for quite a number of times.
The most instructive way to be clear about the difference between market segmentation and self-segmentation is to think of segmentation as a behavior. Our traditional practice of market segmentation is the marketer’s segmenting behavior. That’s basically your partitioning as a marketer of your total market into segments.
The partitioning may be by socio-economic classification. This is probably the most used segmenting variable. It’s a conventional practice in the shopping mall, restaurant and hospitality services business. The practice typically yields the Class AB (upper class) segment, Class C (middle class) segment, Class D (borderline poor) segment, and Class E (extreme poor) segment. In another occasion as in the apparel and food supplement categories, you may partition by age to come out with the young adult segment, the mature adult segment, and the post-mature adult segment. Others like to partition by gender (the male segment versus the female segment), or even by geographical residency.
The classic pHCare example
Self-segmentation is the consumer’s segmentation behavior. This was what the pHCare market launching team at Unilab found in the feminine wash market in year 2000. The total population of menstruating women at that time self-segmented themselves into the femwash user segment and the femwash non-user segment. According to AC Nielsen, the user segment made up 12% of the total menstruating population while the non-users were a large 82%.
The 82% non-users self-segmented into 3 sub-segments. There were about 50% out of this 82% who for their feminine hygiene needs used 2 substitutes, namely, soap or water. This 50% divided about equally between soap and water. The remaining 32% out of the 82% were the “true” femwash non-users whose reason for non-use was something like this: “Wala naman akong UTI. So di ko kailangan yan.” (I don’t have UTI. So I don’t need that.) This is the most difficult market segment to go after for converting into femwash usage.
The other 2, the soap-using segment and the water-using segment, are not as difficult a segment for conversion. This is because the first of these 2 is already unhappy with soap as a femwash substitute. Soap users say something like this: “It makes me dry and itchy down there.” So demonstrating that a femwash like pHCare won’t dry and won’t make its user feel itchy will lead to conversion in favor of pHCare. On the other hand, the water-using femwash prospects reason out this way: “Okay na ang tubig. Gastos pa yang feminine wash” (Water is okay. It’s extra expense to use feminine wash.) That’s a resolvable issue of affordable value-for-money pricing.
In population size, each of these 2 non-user segments is somewhat larger than the current18% femwash users. The consumers in the soap-using segment count to 20.5% prospective femwash users (= 25% x 82% non-users). That’s the same population size of consumers in the water-using segment.
Converting the soap users into becoming femwash users doubles (about a little bit more) the current femwash user market. Then bringing in the consumers in the water-using segment will more than triple that current femwash user market! As you can see, this is the argument in favor of taking advantage of consumer self-segmentation for its more practical business-growing benefits. As we often tell our seminar participants, the ultimate source for growing your business is a new user market segment. Find one and your double or even triple your business. Because the period of owning a new market segment has been getting shorter and shorter, you can appreciate why searching and locating a new user market segment has become ever more critical.
The AyalaLand example
Here’s another instructive case that reinforces this practical business-growing advantage of self-segmentation but with a different twist. This is the self-segmenting behaviour of home owners of AyalaLand.
Originally, the market segmentation that AyalaLand adopted was by the socio-eco classification of the upper-upper class, i.e., the Class A market. This real property company partitioned the Class A market into the Class AAA (triple A) segment, the Class AA (double A) segment and the Class A (single A) segment.
Over the years, as these market segments got “saturated,” research on home owners in these segments revealed that home owners here were self-segmenting themselves into a first repeat customers for another house and lot, and even as second repeat customers. At the life cycle stage of “Full Nesters 1” where the couple’s youngest kid is less than 6 years old, this Class A customer has been observed to be at its first peak repeat home buying. This is a potentially double-the-business opportunity.
Then at another life cycle stage of “Empty Nesters 1” where you now have older couples, with or without kids at home, but the household head is still working, a Class A customer in this stage has been recorded to be at its second peak repeat home owning. This time and in most cases, this customer buys for gift giving. One of the children is now getting married and what can be a more welcome wedding gift than a house for the newly wed. That’s potentially another double-the-business opportunity.
Where’s the difference in this case? Notice that the new market at each of the 2 peak repeat home buying opportunities comes from the same original customers. The same customer has segmented himself or herself to participate in 2 new market segments. That’s growing business from your already acquired customers. It’s not new customer acquisition as in the femwash case. That’s the most cost-effective sourcing of business growing.
So there you are. There’s hopefully the clear difference between market segmentation and self-segmentation, and the true practical business-growing advantage to navigating through this fast changing waters and times via customers’ self-segmentation.
Keep your questions coming. Send them to ardy.roberto@gmail.com or visit www.marketingrx.org . God bless!
“What about de-segmentation? What’s that for?”
MarketingRx –November 14, 2008
By Dr Ned Roberto with Ardy Roberto
Q: We read your recent column on self-segmentation. We never thought about market segmentation that way. That is, as a consumer behavior and not only as a marketer behavior. We were having a lunch discussion on this concept when someone reminded us that in one other previous column you were also talking about another segmentation idea, namely, “desegmentation.” The lady who reminded us said she read it in your column regarding Kartajaya’s Philippine Marketing Association keynote speech where he provoked the audience by saying that marketing is better off today if it gets rid of market segmentation.
Then another person told us that you actually talked about desegmentation in your last Blue Ocean Forum two months ago. He told us that the title of your talk was in fact “Market Segmentation, Self-Segmentation and Desegmentation.” In your column last Friday, you explained the first two but didn’t say anything about the third, that is, desegmentation.
So please tell us about desegmetnation. How useful is this for us marketing practitioners? What is it for? It seems to us that market segmentation and self-segmentation are enough for our segmentation requirements. A mystical sounding third called desegmentation sounds to us like a redundancy and even a contradiction.
A: The concept of “desegmentation” comes from the best seller and voted #1 strategy book of 2005 and 2006, Blue Ocean Strategy. That’s by W. Chan Kim and Renee Mauborgne, 2 professors from INSEAD, Europe’s leading MBA school. In chapter 5 of the book, Kim and Mauborgne explain desegmentation by defining it as follows: “Desegmentation is putting a stop to the pursuit of finer segmentation”… when you’ve identified a “product category non-customer” segment who when combined with the “current product category customer” segment surface a “common product category value” that can be satisfied with a new offering that will reach and “aggregate to a new much larger demand.”
Of course, every time we quote that we hear marketers say and ask: “Wow! That’s a whole lot. What does it mean?” It is a lot to chew and swallow. So read carefully and you’ll be amply insightfully rewarded.
Let’s start from what desegmentation obviously is not. It’s not doing away with segmentation. Unfortunately, that’s the most common first impression that our clients and students get from just reading this compound term. In forming the compound, desegmentation, the use of “de-” creates in the reader’s mind a negation of the term to which it is affixed. That is what happened to you and your business friends in your own impression of the contradictory connotation of the term. So if you want to understand the concept and put it to practical use, this misinterpretation is what you have to first unlearn.
This clears the way for understanding what desegmentation really is. Firstly, it’s about doing several levels of segmenting. It’s first a process of “finer and finer segmentation” of your total market. Secondly, it’s about knowing at what level of refinement to stop the process. And thirdly, it’s about stopping at the level where your best candidate PTM (primary target market) segment represents a source of “a new much larger demand.” It is this unique 3-step disaggregating of the segmenting process that is the outstanding contribution of Kim and Mauborgne to the strategy of market segmentation.
The idea of segmenting beyond the first level and refining down to the “behavioral segments” is not Kim and Mauborgne’s. That’s from the senior MRx-er’s Strategic Market Segmentation book. The logic of the process is simple. The first level segmentation is usually by socio-eco and demographic variables such as, for example, by socio-economic classes like Class AB (rich) segment, Class C (middle class) segment, Class D (borderline poor) segment and Class E (extreme poor) segment. Or by age, or by gender, etc.
To target any one of these first level segments and change its purchase or usage behavior, the marketer must ask: “Are the consumers in, say, the Class C segment the same in, for example, their sensitivity to pricing?” The answer will almost always be “no.” This means that for targeting and consumer behavior change purposes, that Class C segment should further be segmented by price responsiveness. When this is done, it will result, for example, in identifying an economy Class C price segment (whose consumers are immediately price sensitive), a premium Class C price segment (whose consumers are less price sensitive), and even a super-premium Class C price segment (whose consumers are not at all price sensitive).
Let’s have an example of the multi-level process of segmenting so we can continue discussing in the concrete. The senior MRx-er recently had a 3-day marketing consulting engagement with the Singapore government’s Civil Service College. In one half day of the 3 days, the consultant had a workshop session with the Health Promotion Board. One of the programs discussed during this session was the Board’s campaign to accelerate the acceptance and participation by Singapore company employees in the Board’s “Workplace Physical Activity Promotion Campaign.” The idea of developing a 3-level segmentation of the total market of company adult employees was proposed and taken up.
The Board was already segmenting at a first level by age. This identified 3 segments; (1) young adult company employees, (2) mature adult employees, and (3) post-mature adult employees. To get the 3 age segments into identifying each one’s “behavioral segments” called for going beyond this first level segmentation. In order to proceed to a second level segmentation, the Board members in attendance were asked to first answer this question: “Which segment among the 3 has the most need for the workout?” This was for setting priorities among the 3 identified age segments.
The Board chose the young adult segment. This segment became the subject of a second level segmenting. This time it’s segmenting by the working out behavior. This led to 2 identified behavioral segments: (1) the young adult company employees who are now working out, and (2) those young adults who are not working out.
Since the Board wanted to get to a “finer” third level behavioral segmentation, it had to prioritize the 2 just identified second level segments. To do this, the consultant the audience to answer this question: “Between the 2 segments, who is less difficult to reach and persuade about more regular or more intensive work outs?” The Board’s answer was “those now already working out.”
For the third level segmentation, segmenting was by “working out frequency.” The session on this yielded 3 third level behavioral segments: (1) those working out irregularly, (2) those are regular in their work out, and (3) those working out vigorously. To arrive at a prioritizing of these 3, the Board answered this question: “Among the 3 segments, who has the most need for help in their working out frequency?”
After some quick exchange of opinions, the Board members ended by choosing as its PTM (primary target market) segment those who are irregularly working out. Those following a regular work out schedule were designated as the STM (secondary target market) segment. The TTM (third target market) segment was the segment of employees who are vigorous in their work out frequency.
So as this example illustrates, repeating the responsiveness question for some other segmenting variables like product needs or benefits can bring the process to a next or another level segmentation. This particular level will identify what used to be popularly known as “benefits segments.” As our Singapore example shows, it’s possible to go on repeating but every time a marketer is tempted to make the repetition, the critical and practical question must first be answered: “Where do I stop? Is it in the next level of finer segmenting of the market or in this level?”
Here is where the Kim and Mauborgne “desegmentation rule” comes to a most welcome rescue and serves as a most useful decision handle. So in our example, we saw that the Health Promotion Board deciding to stop at the third level segmentation. At that level, it chose for its PTM segment, the segment of those young adult company employees who are already working out but doing so irregularly. Does this choice satisfy the desegmentation rule? That is: Is this the segment representing a source of “a new much larger demand?”
There was not enough time for answering the question with “facts and figures” and not just anecdotally. But one or two Board members mentioned that in terms of segment population size, the chosen PTM segment is known to make up the larger population size. There are also some experts’ opinions to consider. Psychologists and physical therapists working in the campaign hold that it is this young adult segment that promises more than any other segments a “multiplier effect” on other segments including mature adults and post-mature adults. Both of these 2 segments look up to the youth for healthy working out practices and reminisce about their own youth period when they were at the “pink of health.”
There was a final challenging and quite provocative question that was raised. It asked something like the following: “What about those other 2 segments of mature and post mature adults? This is a real problem with segmentation. As a government agency, we must reach all, everyone. That’s the democratic rule. The desegmentation and market segmentation rule violates the mandate of democracy. So how can all segments be reached?”
This basic objection to segmentation has been raised before. Government and non-government organizations who are struggling with the relevance of marketing in their work are particularly concerned about it. There have been different answers from marketing experts. Here’s the answer and explanation in abridged form from the consultant:
“The Rule of Democracy is usually interpreted as the Majority Rule. The logic assumes that if you reach and serve the majority, the minority will soon be reached and served as well. But the history of democracy tells us that this is rarely true. Once the majority is served, the minority is forgotten. And this is why Sir John Mortimer, the noted English barrister and playwright, came out with what we may call the Mortimer Rule of Democracy. It says: “The test of democracy is not that the majority should always get its way but how far minorities are respected.” Majority and minority. These are essentially market segments. And the Mortimer Rule is no different from the Segmentation Rule. So to reach both segments, follow the Mortimer version of the Rule of Democracy, which is the Segmentation Rule.”
Keep your questions coming. Send them to us at MarketingRx@pldtDSL.net or visit www.marketingrx.org . God bless!
By Dr Ned Roberto with Ardy Roberto
Q: We read your recent column on self-segmentation. We never thought about market segmentation that way. That is, as a consumer behavior and not only as a marketer behavior. We were having a lunch discussion on this concept when someone reminded us that in one other previous column you were also talking about another segmentation idea, namely, “desegmentation.” The lady who reminded us said she read it in your column regarding Kartajaya’s Philippine Marketing Association keynote speech where he provoked the audience by saying that marketing is better off today if it gets rid of market segmentation.
Then another person told us that you actually talked about desegmentation in your last Blue Ocean Forum two months ago. He told us that the title of your talk was in fact “Market Segmentation, Self-Segmentation and Desegmentation.” In your column last Friday, you explained the first two but didn’t say anything about the third, that is, desegmentation.
So please tell us about desegmetnation. How useful is this for us marketing practitioners? What is it for? It seems to us that market segmentation and self-segmentation are enough for our segmentation requirements. A mystical sounding third called desegmentation sounds to us like a redundancy and even a contradiction.
A: The concept of “desegmentation” comes from the best seller and voted #1 strategy book of 2005 and 2006, Blue Ocean Strategy. That’s by W. Chan Kim and Renee Mauborgne, 2 professors from INSEAD, Europe’s leading MBA school. In chapter 5 of the book, Kim and Mauborgne explain desegmentation by defining it as follows: “Desegmentation is putting a stop to the pursuit of finer segmentation”… when you’ve identified a “product category non-customer” segment who when combined with the “current product category customer” segment surface a “common product category value” that can be satisfied with a new offering that will reach and “aggregate to a new much larger demand.”
Of course, every time we quote that we hear marketers say and ask: “Wow! That’s a whole lot. What does it mean?” It is a lot to chew and swallow. So read carefully and you’ll be amply insightfully rewarded.
Let’s start from what desegmentation obviously is not. It’s not doing away with segmentation. Unfortunately, that’s the most common first impression that our clients and students get from just reading this compound term. In forming the compound, desegmentation, the use of “de-” creates in the reader’s mind a negation of the term to which it is affixed. That is what happened to you and your business friends in your own impression of the contradictory connotation of the term. So if you want to understand the concept and put it to practical use, this misinterpretation is what you have to first unlearn.
This clears the way for understanding what desegmentation really is. Firstly, it’s about doing several levels of segmenting. It’s first a process of “finer and finer segmentation” of your total market. Secondly, it’s about knowing at what level of refinement to stop the process. And thirdly, it’s about stopping at the level where your best candidate PTM (primary target market) segment represents a source of “a new much larger demand.” It is this unique 3-step disaggregating of the segmenting process that is the outstanding contribution of Kim and Mauborgne to the strategy of market segmentation.
The idea of segmenting beyond the first level and refining down to the “behavioral segments” is not Kim and Mauborgne’s. That’s from the senior MRx-er’s Strategic Market Segmentation book. The logic of the process is simple. The first level segmentation is usually by socio-eco and demographic variables such as, for example, by socio-economic classes like Class AB (rich) segment, Class C (middle class) segment, Class D (borderline poor) segment and Class E (extreme poor) segment. Or by age, or by gender, etc.
To target any one of these first level segments and change its purchase or usage behavior, the marketer must ask: “Are the consumers in, say, the Class C segment the same in, for example, their sensitivity to pricing?” The answer will almost always be “no.” This means that for targeting and consumer behavior change purposes, that Class C segment should further be segmented by price responsiveness. When this is done, it will result, for example, in identifying an economy Class C price segment (whose consumers are immediately price sensitive), a premium Class C price segment (whose consumers are less price sensitive), and even a super-premium Class C price segment (whose consumers are not at all price sensitive).
Let’s have an example of the multi-level process of segmenting so we can continue discussing in the concrete. The senior MRx-er recently had a 3-day marketing consulting engagement with the Singapore government’s Civil Service College. In one half day of the 3 days, the consultant had a workshop session with the Health Promotion Board. One of the programs discussed during this session was the Board’s campaign to accelerate the acceptance and participation by Singapore company employees in the Board’s “Workplace Physical Activity Promotion Campaign.” The idea of developing a 3-level segmentation of the total market of company adult employees was proposed and taken up.
The Board was already segmenting at a first level by age. This identified 3 segments; (1) young adult company employees, (2) mature adult employees, and (3) post-mature adult employees. To get the 3 age segments into identifying each one’s “behavioral segments” called for going beyond this first level segmentation. In order to proceed to a second level segmentation, the Board members in attendance were asked to first answer this question: “Which segment among the 3 has the most need for the workout?” This was for setting priorities among the 3 identified age segments.
The Board chose the young adult segment. This segment became the subject of a second level segmenting. This time it’s segmenting by the working out behavior. This led to 2 identified behavioral segments: (1) the young adult company employees who are now working out, and (2) those young adults who are not working out.
Since the Board wanted to get to a “finer” third level behavioral segmentation, it had to prioritize the 2 just identified second level segments. To do this, the consultant the audience to answer this question: “Between the 2 segments, who is less difficult to reach and persuade about more regular or more intensive work outs?” The Board’s answer was “those now already working out.”
For the third level segmentation, segmenting was by “working out frequency.” The session on this yielded 3 third level behavioral segments: (1) those working out irregularly, (2) those are regular in their work out, and (3) those working out vigorously. To arrive at a prioritizing of these 3, the Board answered this question: “Among the 3 segments, who has the most need for help in their working out frequency?”
After some quick exchange of opinions, the Board members ended by choosing as its PTM (primary target market) segment those who are irregularly working out. Those following a regular work out schedule were designated as the STM (secondary target market) segment. The TTM (third target market) segment was the segment of employees who are vigorous in their work out frequency.
So as this example illustrates, repeating the responsiveness question for some other segmenting variables like product needs or benefits can bring the process to a next or another level segmentation. This particular level will identify what used to be popularly known as “benefits segments.” As our Singapore example shows, it’s possible to go on repeating but every time a marketer is tempted to make the repetition, the critical and practical question must first be answered: “Where do I stop? Is it in the next level of finer segmenting of the market or in this level?”
Here is where the Kim and Mauborgne “desegmentation rule” comes to a most welcome rescue and serves as a most useful decision handle. So in our example, we saw that the Health Promotion Board deciding to stop at the third level segmentation. At that level, it chose for its PTM segment, the segment of those young adult company employees who are already working out but doing so irregularly. Does this choice satisfy the desegmentation rule? That is: Is this the segment representing a source of “a new much larger demand?”
There was not enough time for answering the question with “facts and figures” and not just anecdotally. But one or two Board members mentioned that in terms of segment population size, the chosen PTM segment is known to make up the larger population size. There are also some experts’ opinions to consider. Psychologists and physical therapists working in the campaign hold that it is this young adult segment that promises more than any other segments a “multiplier effect” on other segments including mature adults and post-mature adults. Both of these 2 segments look up to the youth for healthy working out practices and reminisce about their own youth period when they were at the “pink of health.”
There was a final challenging and quite provocative question that was raised. It asked something like the following: “What about those other 2 segments of mature and post mature adults? This is a real problem with segmentation. As a government agency, we must reach all, everyone. That’s the democratic rule. The desegmentation and market segmentation rule violates the mandate of democracy. So how can all segments be reached?”
This basic objection to segmentation has been raised before. Government and non-government organizations who are struggling with the relevance of marketing in their work are particularly concerned about it. There have been different answers from marketing experts. Here’s the answer and explanation in abridged form from the consultant:
“The Rule of Democracy is usually interpreted as the Majority Rule. The logic assumes that if you reach and serve the majority, the minority will soon be reached and served as well. But the history of democracy tells us that this is rarely true. Once the majority is served, the minority is forgotten. And this is why Sir John Mortimer, the noted English barrister and playwright, came out with what we may call the Mortimer Rule of Democracy. It says: “The test of democracy is not that the majority should always get its way but how far minorities are respected.” Majority and minority. These are essentially market segments. And the Mortimer Rule is no different from the Segmentation Rule. So to reach both segments, follow the Mortimer version of the Rule of Democracy, which is the Segmentation Rule.”
Keep your questions coming. Send them to us at MarketingRx@pldtDSL.net or visit www.marketingrx.org . God bless!
Tuesday, October 28, 2008
Anvil to publish Book 2 of The Best of MarketingRx
Anvil and MarketingRx/Inquirer have just agreed to publish the Best of MarketingRx for Executives this December.
The first volume for Entrepreneurs is just about sold out. (I think.)
Hope book two does just as well.
The first volume for Entrepreneurs is just about sold out. (I think.)
Hope book two does just as well.
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