Finding " it " in the Philippines

So , your first thought is probably what is " it " . Actually , " it " can be anything you are trying to locate in the Philippines . " It " can be something as simple as trying to locate a particular address , piece of information , a product or any number of other things . Finding " it " is , however , rarely simple .

Old Goats like myself that migrate from western pastures have , for the most part , grown up knowing where to look for information leading to " it " through advertising . Advertising in the Philippines is not , however , anywhere near what one would be accustomed to in a western culture .

In western culture when one needs to find a business the first reference point is often a Telephone Book . Telephone books usually have extensive " yellow pages " specifically designed  for advertisers of various products and services . If that fails one tends to look in the white pages if one knows the name of the business .

 But , most folks in western cultures have land line telephones and most folks in the Philippines do  not . Now , there is no need to expound on exactly why that is the case except to sum it up by mentioning one word.. infrastructure , or lack thereof .  Those that have lived in Philippine pastures for a while know of what i speak . Those that might be just recently arrived will soon know .   :-)

Now , we do have a land line telephone in our house but not so much because we have to have it but rather because we are required to have it by PLDT as a part of our internet service . This being the Philippines one is not allowed to just pay for the internet service without the land line . Of course , that gives PLDT reason to charge you another 300 peso a month whether you use it or not .   :-)

Marketing

Marketing is the process of communicating the value of a product or service to customers , for the purpose of selling the product or service . It is a critical business function for attracting customers, or so says Wikipedia . Actually , in western cultures some would say marketing is the most important part of a business model . Let's face it , if no one knows you exist as a business or what you are offering how much of a business will you have ?

Now , not talking about the mom and pop " sari " type operation here folks . Folks in the neighbourhood know you are there because you are in the neighbourhood . But , what about the " big boys " ? The S & M's , Robinson's , Gaisano's , Rustan's , etc .

No 6 - 8 page on line ads with pricing here to be seen as is common elsewhere .
 From a foreign perspective they don't do a particularly good job in promoting their products . Some do better than others of course but in general none of them embrace the corner stone of business know as marketing very much . Biggest " bug " i have  is that many of these big boys run national ads rather than ads for specific locations .

Just because their national ads features specific products does not mean those products will be in your location .   :-) My first visit to Rustan's in Cagayan de Oro comes to mind . Here i was foolishly thinking that i would have access to cheeses of many different types and tastes only to discover 2 types ( colby & cheddar ) and one taste ( mild ) . Ok , my bad and silly me for thinking otherwise .   :-)

I also have no problem with using Facebook as an advertising venue " but " should it be your primary or only advertising venue ? Some have suggested that the " big boys " don't see a need for advertising the way foreign cultures do because they have a captive audience or put another way ... little competition . There would seem to be some merit to those ideas from this " old goats " perspective .

What do you think ?