CASE STUDY: KNOW PINOY'S QUIRKS, BOOST YOUR SALES

Pointing at objects with one's mouth, using a spoon to cut meat and having a taboo in the bathroom are just a few of the delightful quirks that mark a Filipino anywhere in the world. Filipinos display the same quirky traits in their buying behavior and these are what consumer companies keep an eye out for when they craft their marketing strategies. Such knowledge is the ultimate power in today's cutthroat retail world.

Robust Sales

The Coca-Cola group in the Philippines is another company that has reaped dividends from knowing its market. An unassailable proof is its Coca-Cola beat game advertising campaign that saw Filipinos of all ages singing the beat game jingle and trying their hardest to do the moves since the first ad aired early this year. Coke group brand manager Katherine B. Martinez says the Coca-Cola beat game is the company's most successful advertising campaign in four years with a copy brand recall of close to 46 percent, according to industry figures. And it is not all about recall. The campaign also translated into higher sales for the company. Company data showed that daily consumption among 12-19 year old was up 4.7 percentage points from last quarter and up 2.1 percentage points over the same period last year. Consumption for the 20-29 year old, on the other hand, was up 4.6 percentage points from last quarter and 2 percentage points from last year. To follow up on the success of the advertising campaign, Coca-Cola recently embarked on the promotional aspect of the beat game campaign, which will involve raffles and instant prizes. Martinez says that Coca-Cola banked heavily on past lessons in designing the mechanics of the "Coke ko 'to, Crown ko "to, Cash ko 'to" promo, which was launched Easter Sunday. "One of the things that we did was to do away with giving away millions in peso-prizes because Filipinos say that they have very little chance of winning if the prize is too high," Martinez says. Thus, in the Coke beat promotion, Coke featured instant- win prizes with lower value, so that more people will go home with a prize. Simplicity is also the key in coming up with the mechanics, Martinez explains, as many Filipinos get turned off by having to go through a complicated process before they even manage to join or drop in their entries. The less said, the better "We learned that the mechanics must be simple and easy to understand. The concept must also have a masa appeal to drive excitement and participation," she says. Coca-Cola also learned that Filipinos prefer promos where there are different ways of joining. In the case of the Coca-Cola beat campaign, participants can join by either looking under the crown for the beat game winning code, join in the raffle by sending in an envelope with five crowns, or by joining the beat game challenge in a popular noontime television show. Martinez says Coke always has this desire to come up with something unique and make its promotions and campaigns different but experience showed that going the way that Filipinos want their raffles or promos is a less expensive and more effective way to promotions success.

Things needed:

1. Viewpoint (person responsible)

2. Central Problem(one main problem only)

3. Alternative courses of Action (3 alternatives are needed, they all need to answer the central problem)

Reference:

Principles of Marketing 2008. Authors: Felina C. Young and Cristobal M. Pagoso Page 279-281

https://books.google.com.ph/books?id=zVjqxyQcb-8C&pg=PA281&dq=tina+arceo+dumlao+may+28+2004&hl=en&sa=X&ved=2ahUKEwi2-5vu1t30AhXErlYBHa_yCTMQ6AF6BAgHEAI#v=onepage&q=tina%20arceo%20dumlao%20may%2028%202004&f=false