Building national brand entails knowing market

CEBU, Philippines - Although exploring a wider market such as Mega Manila may be quite tempting for successful homegrown businesses, it can be very challenging and entails a tough process and creative branding strategies.

Filipino professor and marketing specialist Dr. Ned Roberto said knowing the market segments is one of the important steps to take when deciding to build a national brand.

Roberto said that he has observed that in Cebu, particularly the customers of restaurants located in malls, are those who belong to the class AB (rich) and class C (middle class) segments based on their socio-economic classification or SEC.

“So successful ka nga sa high-end customers, class AB or upper C but you cannot assume kung ganun ka ba rin sa Maynila,” the Asian Institute of Management professor told The FREEMAN in an interview. “Therefore, that’s your biggest challenge to identify your target market doon.”

Roberto, who spoke during the Cebu Business Month’s Entrepreneurship seminar on Building A National Brand & Going Nationwide, further warned that a product that is successful in the domestic market may not always be doing well in other markets.

He said, “you can’t assume that the product successful here can also be successful there.”

He has advised local brand marketers to consider profiling the primary target market for positioning which means identifying the consumers’ priority product values, saying that “your products must be able to satisfy the priority values ng mga customer mo.”

Product values are attributes that buyers see in a product and make them patronize it.

The most common error that homegrown companies commit is their wrong perception that majority of the local consumers particularly in Cebu know them already, Roberto also noted, emphasizing that brands should “always start where your customers are, not where you are as a marketer. Because some would like to assume na kilala na sila.”

Prepare

“Those are one of the unpredictables,” the marketing guru said when asked on the level of probability that a certain national brand creation can become successful.

However, business owners can still prepare, he said, and the steps have to do with the basic marketing principles, starting with market segment identification.

The segmentation is done through grouping consumers who have common needs and priorities.

The strategy, Roberto explained, is to identify the target customers as to what segments they belong whether in primary target market, secondary or tertiary.

Advertise and promote

In addition, he also noted that there’s no such a thing as “most effective medium” in advertisement however he stressed that advertising and promotion must be combined for efficiency. 

“It should always be A (advertise) and P (promote) not A or P; if you advertise you must also promote,” he also added as he explained advertising as a “pull promo” while promotion as “push promo”.

“When you advertise you pull the consumer. It is promotion that will also push them.”

Roberto has told Cebu-based companies that the key to long-lasting brand awareness is keeping abreast with the customers’ behavior and attitudes and constantly maintaining them as the “lead”.

The value that a brand is representing will “reflect and resonate” the consumers’ value, he added. “And the moment consumers change their value because everybody imitates you maghanap ka na ng bago. And don’t forget to always talk with your customers.” (FREEMAN)