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Q1: East West Seeds is the dominant market leader in vegetable seeds in the Philippines controlling majority of the market. How was this made possible in your industry? A: This was made possible by a strong research and development, being close to the market (localized breeding and variety development), understanding the needs of our customers (farmers), excellent technology transfer services and […]

Without a market-driving strategy, a marketing plan focusing solely on the served market is incomplete as it risks losing the underserved or unserved markets (sometimes even bigger than current customers) to other competitors.  Thus, market-driving strategy should be viewed as a source of innovation and growth for old businesses as well as a new and major revenue source of firms. Market-Driving […]

Why do some marketing strategies work with some companies but not with others?  Besides having bad products, pricing and a host of related issues that affect awareness, trial and repeat purchase, the answer may have something to do with the company’s operating model. A colleague with over 20 years of experience in the food and beverage industry shared a frustration that […]

(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 […]

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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 […]

Years ago, the franchise manager of a company was trying to convince me to invest in a barber shop franchise. I figured that a barber shop has a high repeat visit frequency so I was interested to know more. When I asked what was unique about the barbershop, I was told that it would be thematic, with the barbers dressed […]

Josiah Go features the movers and shakers of the business world and writes about marketing, strategy, innovation, execution and entrepreneurship

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