Q1: Before becoming an entrepreneur, you were the Marketing Director of Unilever Philippines and President/CEO of Unilever-Bestfoods, tell us what your most memorable launches are, both successes and failures, in your corporate life and why? A1: As Marketing Director of Unilever Philippines, I must say it was the launch of Surf detergent bar which was then followed by the launch […]
Value chain allows companies to define the sequence of activities as well as key players in their industry. It also helps firms understand potential players that can prevent consumers from buying their products. Entrepreneurs and marketers must be able to read the intent of these four groups – channel, competitors, substitutes and imitators. Channel: Think of the bargaining power of […]
Q1: You ventured into manufacturing bread immediately after college in the 1980’s. After two decades, you launched the first two of a series of innovations, namely the Walter Sugar Free Bread in 2005 and the Double Fiber (wheat plus apple) Bread in 2006. What was the turning point for the sudden change of direction? The market was getting crowded with […]
Q1: Congratulations on being part of the first batch of recipients of the Mansmith Market Masters Awards, the first and only recognition for senior executives based on outstanding mentoring of young marketers as brand builders. What is your people development philosophy? A: From my perspective, succeeding in developing people requires 3 elements – a compelling sense of purpose, an aligned […]
Happy silver anniversary to the Ateneo Junior Marketing Association (AJMA)! It is the campus organization that I initiated in the second semester of SY 1990 when I was still a rookie marketing lecturer at the Ateneo de Manila University. I asked my brand management students to form AJMA using my part-time teacher’s salary as its initial fund. The Ateneo Management […]
Q1: Prior to Francorp, you have worked in Unilever for over a decade handling brands in 4 different countries. You have also studied in Manila, Singapore, Vancouver, and Oxford. How are you applying international lessons learned to Francorp? A: A major lesson I’ve learned working in Unilever and studying Innovation & Strategy in Oxford is that to truly grow global, […]
Mansmith and Fielders has grown in ways we first thought were not possible – and only because we decided to shift to be advocacy-based when we found out that our clients and mentees attended our programs not just to learn but to rise and be better. Now on our 25th year, we reflect on how this could have happened – when […]
Q1: You have won a few awards as a software businessman, what’s your latest software project? A: I joined the Tech industry when I started a typical IT company in 2005, but when I met Tito Tony Meloto of Gawad Kalinga, my business outlook took a turn for the better. Tito Tony inspired me to aim for bigger things that […]
There is a saying that “If you give a man a hammer, he will see everything as nails.” Similarly, when a person learns about the marketing mix (product, price, place and promotions) as a way to attain marketplace advantage, he may apply it without questioning the bigger picture for validity. Below are two truths espoused by over 99 percent of […]
Q1: What is insighting and why is it important for a marketer or a businessperson to have insight? A1: Insighting” is basically the process of understanding what consumers need or want. It is getting to the heart of people’s thoughts, motivations and behaviors to inspire business opportunity. In that simple definition, one can immediately understand why “insighting” is important – […]