Q1: You are an industrial engineer and you started as a methods officer in the finance function in 1977 for Unilever (then PRC). How did this influence your thinking process in your long career in Customer Development? A: Industrial engineering, in my view, is the application of science in business.Ā  The professional advance of Customer Development (previously called Sales) from […]

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 […]

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Q1 Question to Max VP for AsiaĀ Joey Sarmiento:Ā Using layman’s terms, what is pyramiding and what’s the main difference between legitimate multilevel marketing (MLM) and pyramiding? Answer: Network marketing or MLM is a legitimate mode of business wherein products are sold via person to person selling instead of the traditional way of selling from a fixed retailĀ location;Ā theĀ objective is to sell products […]

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MLM is an acronym for Multi-Level Marketing, also known as network marketing. It is a form of direct selling but with the compensation plan as its core innovation; rewarding sales from people directly and indirectly recruited. The MLM compensation plan is designed in a way that network members will recruit their own downlines, which used to be the never ending […]

I normally write marketing articles and do Q&A with industry movers and shakers in this blog, but I would like to deviate from that and instead, write about the hospitality industry. My start-up company in Jakarta started selling Waters Bio Mineral Pot for homes in the 4th quarter of 2014. To accelerate our sales, I began to visit my company, […]

There are so many little things that corporate leaders ignore.Ā Ā Just take a look at the following industries and you can see many blind spots.Ā Ā Some examples of old truths that are still unchallenged to date are: In the retail banking industry, there is no fun and enjoyable experience while inside a retail bank. For the supermarket industry, shoppers have no choice […]

I metĀ Dexter Chee AhĀ about a decade ago when he askedĀ for a meet-up to explore the possibility of him becoming a speaker and marketing consultant at Mansmith and Fielders Inc. He came prepared with an endorsement letter fromĀ no less thanĀ Dr.Ā Eduardo Roberto, his professor at the Asian Institute of Management.Ā Ā He must have made an impression on the hard-to-impress Ned, one of the […]

Last July 2012, I was blessed to be invited to speak at both the Asiannovation Conference of the Philippine Marketing Association (PMA), and the Franchise Asia Convention of the Philippine Franchise Association (PFA). I talked about marketing innovation in PMA while I talked about premium branding in PFA. In both talks, though I presented several marketing case studies, there was […]

It is always good to be mindful of mass-based consumers and the poor and marginalized. It’s even better to stay with them to watch what they do and why. A. Family heritage Dad became a market vendor / kargador at age 11. He had to support a family struggling to makeĀ  ends meet. I have always embraced this fact and […]

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

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