Q1: Your competitors have attacked your makeup and skincare categories. How are these products doing now and what did you do then to defend your turf? A: Being the world’s number one beauty company gives us two huge competitive advantages in “defending our turf.” The first one involves product innovation. Given our huge investment in our Research & Innovation division […]
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Q1: As someone who rose from the ranks, what are some of your most unforgettable experiences while starting out as a rookie? A: Fresh from college, I joined Gillette as a sales trainee where all new recruits were required to survive the grueling 6-month long boot camp training. Each month, at least one trainee would be sent home for not […]
Q1: You have been president or managing director of San Miguel Brewery, Kraft, URC and many other companies, then you shifted to the government as president of Philippine International Trading Corporation (PITC) – Pharma. I understand you were able to turnaround PITC, (“a consistently profit-challenged” government company) within your 14-month stay. What issues plagued PITC and how did you […]
There was a frantic call one morning. The man on the other side reminded me that we met in one of the marketing and innovation conferences he attended where I, together with some colleagues from Mansmith and Fielders, Inc. spoke. He then pleaded I should make time to meet him the same day – – his wife was about to […]
I started www.josiahgo.com on May 9, 2014 with an interview with marketing expert Edwin Totanes. The interview was quite long and it had to be split into two parts. It remains the all-time favorite of readers in 2014. My top 10 Q&A blog posts for 2014 according to the number of readers are: Q&A with Universal Robina Corporation’s VP-Marketing Edwin […]
Q1: One of your competitors was first to launch a sugarfree bread variant in 2012, which captured a significant 15% market share in the wheat & health bread category. How did Gardenia protect itself from this competitive attack? A: Gardenia responded by studying further the consumers to understand their behavior and to know what they truly desire. We found out […]
(Thanks to Inquirer for publishing this article last Jan. 10, 2014. The co-author of this article, Chiqui Escareal-Go, is President & CEO of marketing training firm Mansmith and Fielders, Inc. An updated trends article will be published at the Inquirer again on Jan. 4, 2015) 2013 was quite a year—for lack of a deserving superlative to describe it—most especially for Filipinos. […]
Q1: Retailing appliances has many pain points where customers go through a process of information search, face-to-face inquiry, product demo, delivery and after sales. How is Abenson addressing customer irritants and annoyances? At ABENSON, our mission is to bring the ‘Good Life’ to every Filipino Home. In our 45 year history we have seen how differently our customers’ priorities have […]
Q1: When you were still with P&G Philippines and Singapore, you helped Pampers defend against EQ diapers, regaining leadership in 2003. You also found yourself doing the same for Whisper when you turned it around to win against Modess. What were your strategies then? When does a brand decide to defend or not to defend? A brand’s decision to defend […]
In 2004, Ding Salvador (then newly–retired ASEAN president of Johnson and Johnson’s) and I put up MarkProf Foundation Inc. to help develop future leaders of the Philippines. We saw some biases happening in the corporate world where hiring of important entry-level positions, including management trainees, was usually limited to three schools, namely: Ateneo, De La Salle, and University of the Philippines (not necessarily in […]