In Love With Marketing

Thank God that I do not use "Axe" or I will definitely cause the death of society columnist Malu Fernandez. I used to like her because of her funny and sarcastic comments about Kris Aquino and other creatures from our small planet, but her rumblings about our Overseas Filipino Workers (OFW) is simply awful. While, we could make fun of the social climbers,preposterous politicians, and tawdry showbiz starlets, OFW's should be treated with respect for they fuel our economy-- or all of us would be eating Lucky Me forever.

This is a late entry about Malu Fernandez; if you don't know her, then you should probably stop watching those crazy telenovelas and realize that there is a more cerebral thing to pursue than watch Dyesebel and Wowowee. This is a late rejoinder for the Malu Fernandez brouhaha, but I just remember her after my speech at the Asian Institute of Management (AIM) for a seminar sponsored by the Philippine Marketing Association (PMA). I was the last speaker, and I had the chance to listen to the two speakers before me ( I normally arrive twenty minutes before my talk, but since I wanted to "feel" the crowd and devise a way to truly connect with my audience, I came three hours early) It's an intimate event, I actually like it when I could interact freely with my audience. I hate big seminars with one thousand to three thousand people in attendance... there is no connection. I rather read books, and listen to Podcasts than sit for an hour and listen to a "hotshot" speaker. In Reality, you do not really "learn" from these seminars, you only attend to "validate" or "invalidate" your assumptions, and probably network and meet potential clients. I give seminars, I make money from giving speeches , but I do not suggest that a would-be-entrepreneur attends a seminar to confirm his or her "gut feel". I remember a story of this blind man who sells hotdogs in the busy street of Manhattan in New York. He is a very dedicated man and well-loved by his customers. Whether the stock market is down or up he is always there selling his food stuffs, recession or no recession, he still delivers. A very driven man, he was able to build an empire -- a chain of hotdog stores in the streets of New York, enabling him to send his only child to a prestigious business school. Immediately after college, the son took over the business. And because of his learning's in college, he conducted major market research surveys, change operations policies, and seek advice of some consultants because time was hard when he took over the business from his father. In the end, the son realized that business is really bad and decided to closed a substantial portion of the hotdog business. All the while, the father was just allowing his son to run the business. When the son was about to totally shut the business, he asked his father how he managed to survive and run the business despite the many problems he encountered in the past? The father told his son "... You see my son, I am a blind man, I did not even finish school and the only thing I know is make great hotdogs and be true to my customers, and since I am blind, I don't read newspapers, I don't even know what's happening around me, I don't know that there is a stock market crash, or a political turmoil, I just don't care, I just do what I do best... and that is to make great hotdogs, sell them and make my customers happy".

What is the essence of this story?

Sometimes we tend to analyze things so much, paralyzing our spirit to fight and go on with our battle plan. We tend to believe everything that our friends, the community, and the media tells us. They stop us from pursuing our visions and goals simply because we no longer believe in what we are capable of doing. We listened and followed cold statistical data as if they are absolute truth, and not following them would mean disaster to our business. Don't get me wrong, I believe in research but research and insights are there to guide us, to inspire, or aid us to make calculated moves.

In the end, successful business people and marketers are those who believe in his/her capabilities and are truly "connected" to his market.

Going back to my speech and the OFW, I stressed the importance of "bringing back the love" between the customers and the company. Love is the very reason why our OFW's are killing themselves to work in barren desserts, cook for aged lunatics and maniacs in Europe and Hongkong, and survive the cold winter in New York. Love is what is lacking in business and marketing today. Customers no longer feel the sincerity of the companies that sell products to them. How could a company stomach putting melamine in a milk that is supposed to make a child grow healthy and not kill him? Why would local retailers even sell smuggled goods tainted with formalin and banned in other countries?

One local company is encouraging a family to eat together-- to connect. Good try, but will our children be healthy with these instant noodles? or while the sinabawang gulay is a good campaign to encourage kids to love ampalaya, are these food additives safe? or we are just teaching mothers to simply ignore natural ingredients and just rely on these MSG-laden food additives?

I am a marketing person, I know the power that we have to convince, change perceptions, and influence people. But I hate the entire "seduction" phase that we employ just to hook our "markets".

I want real love. I want the kind of love that our OFW's are giving just to provide decent meal and piece of clothing to their love ones --- and to us in general.

I want real love not some kind of milk laced with melamine to improve business profitability.

I want real love in marketing.

I am so in love in marketing. I want to show it. I changed the tempo of my speech at AIM.

I saw from the faces of my audience that I connected well with them. Because I showed that love is the essence and the real meaning of marketing.

It's a good start.

I am so in love, I am writing about it, and will continue to advocate it.

Love me or hate me for it.

But, I will bring back LOVE in marketing.