Marketing Management

Showing posts with label Marketing Management. Show all posts. The posts are listed in chronological order. Click the post title to read more.

Monday, April 11, 2016 in ,

Startup Party: Missing Link

Indonesia, an emerging startup pool in Asia. There have been lots of startups popping out of nowhere in the last 5 years. That means venture capitals begin to see the potential in Indonesia's emerging market. One thing in the majority, mobile apps.

It surely is an attractive market, digital marketing research agency, Emarketer predicts that Indonesia will be the fourth biggest smartphone user in the world after China, India, and America. Even if I would open my own startup it surely is a mobile app. Sure, Indonesia with approximately a quarter-million people would have many great apps developers, and the market was too great to be missed out. There even someone said that "Anything you sell in Indonesia, even if it's the most stupid thing to sell, sold." It's always great to see how they got an early success, and how they splendidly secure those big shot investments for these past years. Let me cut the chase. More startups mean more investment flow which is good. As long as those startups capable to survive.

The hard truth, according to Statistic Brain, only 37% of startups survive their third year.


There are many reasons why those "great" opportunities failed to make an impact and just wither in time. If you asked those veteran startup owners, they often said 2 reasons to base, for not be able to penetrate the market and not getting enough funds to survive.

Let's observe the first reason, "not be able to penetrate the market", or the other words, "they make the product no one wants" is usually a phare used by those so-called "experts", startup analysts, or in my phrase, commentators. I personally always believe that no creation comes without imaginations. "If you can see it, you can have it" thing comes from imaginations, and imaginations are a subtle form of human needs. Basically human is an egocentric being, as human will never think of something that we never need in general. When you are hungry, you will start to imagine all sorts of delicious things to eat, right?

Sometimes, the problem did not lie within the product or the needs. When bottled water first introduced in Indonesia, many people also said: "they make the product no one wants". Lots of things said, like "We are the largest archipelago on earth, waters everywhere, why should we buy bottled water?". Most of the problem comes to not enough marketing effort to create the needs within the market. This is also encompassing what the late Apple co-founder Steve Jobs famously said, "A lot of times, people don't know what they want until you show it to them."

Usually, startup companies are founded by a tech-geek, a great inventor, really know how to create a magnificent UX (User eXperience), and all that you need to make a great product. Sometimes they also do a market research and product concept test to strengthen the product. Well, it's all about the product. They do a customer-centric approach just to end up in a product-centric development.

If you got a great opportunity to found an obvious unmet needs of the market like Go-Jek, then half of the job is automatically done. But please, realize that most startups, start from latent needs and need extra efforts to develop the market. That's where your small-sized capital should be used efficiently to make sure the business stays alive, even for minimum break-even point.

Did anyone aware of the needs of a digital video recorder? Tablet smartphone? Self-driving cars? Google glass, like 15 years ago? When people just caught up in the hype of PDA in the early 2000s, did most of the market think that they need an eCommerce mobile apps?

Even in the early 2010s, mobile apps discoverability is still being the greatest challenge for the developers. Low organic downloads due to the belief of 'the product no one wants' was killing lots of startup companies. The solution? Invest in a mobile marketing campaign.

Yes. The solution seems simple, MARKETING effort. Unfortunately, lots of startup founders read marketing as SALES. If we cite, The American Marketing Association defines marketing as the activity, set of institutions, and processes for creating, communicating, delivering, and exchanging offerings that have value for customers, clients, partners, and society at large. I can see that sales (exchanging offerings) is the last mentioned thing in the definition. Sales are the thing that keeps you living, but in order to achieve the sales, you need to pave your way first, and that's what most startup fails to realize.

Through proper marketing, you will know how to properly improve your product without an expensive market research project, you will know where and who to target your resources on, or even an investment you need the most. It's a lifeline that being forgotten, which even some big companies failed to realize this, and keep insisting to read marketing as sales.

Want to make a difference? (CBA)

Thursday, March 10, 2016 in

Brand First or Sales First?

Lots of people ask for this kind of advice lately. Sometimes making a decision between brand or sales will be a tough one to make, especially for those who only have a limited amount of budget to spend.


Let's assume that everybody knows that Brand will be a great asset for a longer run, and sales will ensuring your survival fo the short run. Both are important for a business entity. Unfortunately, not all of us can afford to develop both at the same time, once again due to limited resources.

If you ask me which one to do first, I will ask you first, what kind of product do you sell? In my experiences and opinion, the decision between brand or sales eventually comes to the nature of the product and nature of your target market. Great sales effort won't be much effectual to products that need a lot of trust and credibility to appeal to the customer. (i.e. Medical, Insurance, MLM, etc.), for the other brand only have little impact or even won't have any effect at all.

For that kind of problem, if your competitor has more trust and credibility, no matter how much benefits, discount or promotion you give to your customer, you won't win even half of their customer. For example, did you even consider buying medicine for your kids from the unknown manufacturer that you or your friends never heard of before?

On the other side, if your product is the only player in the market, or you are in a commodity market, without a large budget available, developing a brand first will only exhaust yourself without many results. 

The other side of this question is to look at your customer target. Those who are in middle or higher income spectrum would love to add their value with branded products, while those who are in the lower-income spectrum, fulfilling their needs takes priority than a brand, of course, branded one would be nice, but it still lies on their "nice to have" list.

Another target that we could look over is the youth market. Those who in their journey to seek their values, their goals, are easily tempted with branded items, just to look higher / better spec than their flocks. They don't even consider their financial capabilities. From a social viewpoint, it's a serious problem, but for a business viewpoint, good opportunity indeed.

It could be an interesting field to explore for those who are in the "conversation" commerce market like YesBoss or HaloDiana. in Indonesia It would influence their product offering logic, and it could drive more sales than ever if they could do it right. (Some might said that it's a Human Behavior Data Exploitation, but as long as it's legal and within acceptable ethical boundaries, it's beneficial to do.)

So, which one you decide on, will it be Brand or Sales? Share your thought! (CBA)

Wednesday, October 2, 2013 in

Promotion Vs Branding

Seringkali para pelaku pemasaran tidak memiliki paham yang sama terhadap dua kata diatas. Ada yang bilang "sama aja, tuh!", yang lain bilang "branding lebih luas dari promotion." Berbagai macam pendapat biasanya muncul kalau membahas topik ini, terkadang makin dibahas makin bingung.

Pada dasarnya, promotion adalah salah satu elemen dari marketing mix selain product, price, dan place. Sedangkan branding merupakan kegiatan untuk mengangkat / memperkuat brand dari sebuah produk/jasa. Satu dengan yang lainnya berkaitan, namun memiliki tujuan yang berbeda secara konseptual.

Jika kita bertanya ke pakar marketing, ada yang berkata bahwa promosi memiliki tiga tujuan dasar, yaitu:
  1. Memberikan informasi kepada konsumen dan masyarakat, 
  2. Membantu meningkatkan permintaan.
  3. Mendiferensiasikan produk.
(Kurtz, Dave. (2010). Contemporary Marketing Mason, OH: South-Western Cengage Learning.)

Sedangkan Asosiasi Marketing Amerika (AMA) mendefinisikan brand sebagai sebuah nama, ungkapan, desain, simbol, atau hal lainnya yang bertujuan untuk membedakan antara satu produk dengan produk yang lainnya.

Jadi sebenarnya gimana, sih?

Sederhana saja, keduanya merupakan saudara seiman yang punya tujuan akhir yang sama, yaitu mendiferensiasikan sebuah produk. Tapi jika kita mau melihat dari sudut pandang yang sedikit berbeda, ada satu perbedaan mendasar yang memisahkan antara kegiatan promotion dengan kegiatan branding, yaitu tingkat urgensi dari kegiatan tersebut.

Walaupun sama-sama memiliki tujuan untuk membedakan satu produk dengan produk lainnya, waktu efektif dari masing-masing kegiatan itu berbeda. Branding merupakan satu set kegiatan yang melibatkan banyak channel kegiatan maupun media untuk menciptakan persepsi yang unik terhadap sebuah produk di benak konsumen atau masyarakat dalam jangka waktu yang panjang, sedangkan promotion merupakan kegiatan yang bersifat jangka pendek dan lebih didorong oleh kebutuhan untuk menciptakan angka sales. Tidak mungkin nilai brand equity yang bagus dapat dibangun dalam satu malam, sedangkan untuk menilai apakah sebuah kegiatan promosi yang dilakukan sukses atau tidak bisa langsung dilihat dalam waktu beberapa jam.

Jadi bisa dibilang, promotion dan branding saling mendukung satu sama lainnya, makanya ada perusahaan yang memiliki bagian Marketing Communication sekaligus Sales & Promotion dalam satu departemen marketing.

Namun perlu diperhatikan, bahwa kegiatan promotion yang salah bisa merusak brand dari sebuah produk. Coba bayangkan kalau Apple membuat promosi, beli motor bekas diskon harga iPhone 5s 25%? Nilai brand dari Apple pasti jatuh di mata konsumen setianya bukan? Mungkin angka penjualan iPhone dalam sekejap akan naik, sejalan dengan efek promosi yang berlangsung dalam jangka pendek, namun dalam jangka panjang jika hal ini dilakukan terus-menerus, maka dapat dipastikan bahwa Apple akan kehilangan kalangan konsumen kelas atas yang seharusnya mereka pertahankan sebagai loyalis Apple, kebanggaan dalam menggunakan Apple iPhone yang selama ini ditonjolkan dan dicari akan hilang, dan mungkin Apple akan segera berjejer di etalase toko gadget bersebelahan dan dikerumuni oleh telepon genggam murah antah berantah dari negara seberang.

Well then, which one is more important to you, Promotion or Branding? (CBA)

Tuesday, July 17, 2012 in

GLOBAL Vs GLOCAL



Kondisi pasar saat ini mulai bergerak meluas, perusahaan mulai merasa bahwa pasar lokal sudah tidak bisa membuat mereka ‘puas’ akan hasil yang mereka dapatkan. Well, sebentar lagi ASEAN–China Free Trade Area (ACFTA) akan berlaku di Indonesia. Produk-produk yang selama ini hanya berputar di konsumen lokal sudah mulai mempersiapkan diri untuk dapat diterima oleh konsumen global.

Hal ini tentu saja berdampak pada strategi pemasaran yang akan diterapkan. Tetap melakukan domestic marketing atau international marketing. Tentu saja, international marketing menawarkan keuntungan yang jauh lebih besar lagi, namun marketeers harus sudah siap dengan dua atau lebih variabel yang tidak dapat dikendalikan, seperti perbedaan budaya, peraturan, politik, dan sistem ekonomi negara yang berbeda dari satu negara dan negara yang lainnya. Kalau menurut versi Lufthansa, “You don’t learn to fly overseas overnight.”

Tidak banyak perusahaan yang ‘becus’ untuk act global dewasa ini, karena kondisi market makin bervariatif, makin kompleks, makin ‘ribet’ kalau kata orang betawi. Pasar tidak lagi mencari produk untuk memenuhi kebutuhan mereka, namun standar sudah di set pada pemenuhan keinginan mereka. Jeffrey B. Schmidt mengelompokkan produk menjadi 3 kategori besar, core product, actual product, dan augmented product. Saat ini, semua orang berlomba-lomba untuk bisa menghasilkan produk dalam kategori augmented product. Research, research, and more research.

Lalu, apakah produk yang sudah dipaksakan berada dalam lingkup augmented product itu bisa menjamin produk tersebut bisa diterima secara global? Sangat diragukan. Lalu bagaimana?

Patrick Geddes, seorang aktivis sosial, mencetuskan cikal bakal dari kalimat yang berbunyi “Think Globally, Act Locally.” Sebagian dari perusahaan di jepang, seperti Sony Corporation sudah menerapkan kalimat ini dalam setiap strategi branding dan periklanan mereka sejak tahun 1980an. McD Indonesia hampir jadi korban keganasan dunia international jika tidak berlaku lokal. Idealisme mereka dengan burger dan kentang, tidak cocok dengan ‘hukum’ warga Indonesia, ‘ndak makan nasi, ndak makan’, kalau waktu itu mereka tidak ‘mengalah’ dan berpikir secara lokal, Anda mungkin tidak akan menemukan McD saat ini.

So? Belajarlah dari mereka dan tinggalkan ego yang berangan-angan ingin berdiri di puncak dunia hanya dengan pemikiran global tanpa mau menyesuaikan diri dengan kondisi lokal dimana Anda berdiri. It’s not gonna work ayway.Think Global, Act Local, Be GloCal. (CBA)