Monday, May 17, 2010

Reaching Curacao 2010 Looking Good

Reaching Curacao 2010 is looking good, like we envisioned.

Almost 100 participants have registered already, representing the following companies:

Fatum, ENNIA, DAE, Curacao Beverage Bottling Company, HUCOR NV Holding Company, Selikor N.V., Freeport Jewelers, Insel Air, Distribier, Maduro & Curiel's Bank N.V., Fun Miles Antilles N.V., Kooyman BV, Building Depot, Hector Henriquez N.V., Curacao Laboratories & Senior & Co, Janssen de Jong Project Development, McDonalds Aruba & Curacao, SFT, EJPEG, DEZ, Chamber of Commerce, Curacao Mobile BV, ActionCoach, Manrique Capriles, Licores Maduro, OBNA, Epiphany BV, NAOC, DirecTV, El Tributo, Martijn Trading, Securitas Antias, Gosucon NV, ACTS, Regina Pacis VSBO, PRGV 100% Creatie, BAKEN Management Consultancy, Mosaic Marketing & Coordination, FEFFIK, SIAC NV, Axum Caribbean, Jonckheer Advertising and Marketing Cons. BV, Artutrust N.V., VMA (Varia Marketing & Advertising), Noort Advies, Rao & Co. N.V., Kleinmoedig & Partners Attorneys at Law, Curacao Financial Advisory Services BV, Plantijn Secure Advice BV, DENKENenDOEN, Tera Group Advertising and Public Relations, Dragonfly Media Chatlein Notaries, COR Antilles, SaBiCa NV, Openbaar SBO Ban Bria, In Zaken, MIXmarketing, Stradius, Hagen Advertising, TexPic.

Friday, May 7, 2010

Reaching Curacao 2010 - Why do we do it?

MarkStra Caribbean is not an advertising or media placing agency. We do not make advertisements. We do research, advise on competitive strategy, new products, prices, distribution channels, innovation, etc. But, once in a while we have to make media recommendations to clients, or assess in which medium good or bad publicity has the most impact, and thus warrants action.

I can never give a firm recommendation, and the advertising or media-buying agency we are working with cannot either. Our work is more complicated because of the extreme media proliferation in Curacao: 20something radio stations and almost 10 daily newspapers? When I had my first media job, in 1983, the landscape was quite different.

Yes, my colleague Disrael Orphelin did media surveys many years ago, mostly as a hobby. And yes, there is a media survey sold quite exclusively to a number of large advertisers. But the rest of our clients?

No matter how you turn it, in 2010, with so many highly educated marketing and advertising professionals working in Curacao this is simply not possible. It is also not possible because foreign companies do have the information, putting our local companies at a competitive disadvantage.

So why are we where we are with regards to media, while we do have lots of ongoing research with regards to other products and services?

I don't know the answer. Do you?

Meanwhile, learn more about Reaching Curacao 2010








Tuesday, May 4, 2010

Reaching Curacao 2010 - The Report

But how many people are we talking about? what media is best to place this particular advertisement in?

It is obvious that we need (more) hard data on Curacao for good strategic and marketing decision-making.

At MarkStra Caribbean we are on a mission to make a difference by collecting market related data for Curacao (doing surveys) and making this available in a report to selected parties or via presentations.

The first report is Reaching Curacao 2010, containing:

  • Size of Curacao market segments
  • Our total combined spending on different product categories
  • Our use of radio, television and newspaper and new media in Curacao by age, sex and social-economic class (SEC), and time most watched or listened
  • Where we shop and roads most travelled by age, sex and SEC
  • Global trends regarding media attitudes and generations! Yes, the generations are different.

Reaching Curacao 2010 - The Report is available at the special introductory price of ANG 1.500 if bought before June 1, 2010.

How is the Report different from the Event? It provides more detailed data:

  • readership and audience by age, sex and SEC for all media
  • more detailed data about spending on product categories
  • more detailed information about media attitudes

Worried that you will have paid for the information while everybody else copies it?

  • Valid concern. We will select the companies who can buy the report.
Thinking about ROI? If the report helps you:
  • place two 3colx25cm ads better, you will have made your money back
  • make a better decision about sponsoring radio newscasts for two months you will have made your money back
  • reduce the one debate about market potential or guesswork about market size, you will have made your money back

Methodology

Reaching Curacao 2010 - The Event

You can see the quality of our work and to enable small businesses to get at least some info. We hope to see you and your business development and marketing staff there!

To reserve your copy, please contact us at tlacruz@markstra.com or call 767-3085.








Reaching Curacao 2010 - Media Survey Methodology and FAQ

Methodology and frequently asked questions before the event.

Methodology
  • March 2010 was the 2nd time we conducted a survey about media usage as part of a Caribbean wide effort. The first was time was February 2009.
  • The same survey has been done in at least 10 Caribbean countries at the same time.
  • It's a telephone survey, among 320 respondents, representative of Curacao. We have made sure that each age group, sex and educational status is represented in roughly the same proportion as in Curacao. In addition, we have tried to make each group large enough so that we can base some realistic conclusion on the findings. If you only have the responses of 10 males between the age of 18-24, you cannot base much of a conclusion on that.
  • Respondents were selected from our database (panel) and from random telephone listings. Why not just telephone listings? Because increasingly people do not want to answer questions from 'strangers'. Increasingly, around the world, market researchers are moving towards 'panels'.

What did we ask?
  • newspapers most read the past month
  • radio and tv stations listened to/watched each time of day
  • ownership of several items, including computers, internet, cellphones, BlackBerry/Iphone
  • use of internet
  • use of Facebook and frequency
  • most visited local website and frequency
  • roads most travelled (2009)
  • mode of transportation (2009)
  • geographic areas most shopped (2009)
  • demographics: age, sex, education, economic status (working, retired, student, etc.), profession, size of household
What can we report?
  • all of the issues above by age group, sex and education. We have developed a system to determine Social-Economic-Class (SEC) based on some of the demographics above. We report that, instead of education.
How exact is the data?
  • At a sample size of 320, the margin of error is around 5%. That means, if we find that 35% of all respondents reads newspaper Z, you can be 95% certain that the exact number is between 30% and 40%. Not exact enough? Consider what you are basing your media placement decisions on now...
Why didn't we use a larger sample size to provide more exact numbers?
  • Cost. After Reaching Curacao 2010 The Event and The Report, we will see what the appetite is for this type of studies. If it is big, we will do larger surveys. We certainly hope it will be!
  • ROI. When a research agency puts 1000 radio&tv monitoring boxes in households in Holland, advertisers stand to gain 100x more from the exact data these produce, than they would in Curacao. Why? Because the Dutch market is 100x larger and conducting a survey in Curacao is not 100x cheaper than in Holland. We can let ourselves be demotivated by the limitations of a small market or we can try to make the best out of it.
  • For more information on this subject: Survey sample sizes in small markets

Reaching Curacao 2010 - The Event

Probably the first event on Curacao for Strategy and Marketing professionals, accessible to all business owners, CEO's, CMO's, other strategy, marketing and advertising professionals

And probably the first seminar most of us will attend at the brand new Hyatt Regency Curacao.

Yes, I am excited that this will be in partial celebration of MarkStra Caribbean's 15th anniversary!

Save the date!

Tuesday May 18th,
4pm-5:30pm, followed by networking
Hyatt Regency Curacao Arrawak Ballroom
Fee: ANG 95 or USD55


Some people asked if there is an international speaker.
No! This will be the first time we will be discussing primarily Curacao strategy and marketing hard data, all together. Gezellig!

I promise it will be a unique and fun presentation, by myself, in English. But above all the data will be useful! Heads up for the preview

Please help us: if you are coming please try to register by May 10th.
We must indicate the number of attendants wayyyyy in advance.




Reaching Curacao 2010 - An introduction

A frequent cry: “There is no data on Curacao”. Often followed by the realization of the acute need for hard data for good strategic and marketing decisions

At MarkStra Caribbean we would like to bring a difference by collecting market related data for Curacao (doing surveys) and offering this for sale in a report or via presentations.

Our first one is Reaching Curacao 2010. It provides:

  • A compilation of the important demographics in Curacao, including the size of different market segments, to help you or your client determine how attractive a consumer segment really is
  • Our combined spending on some important product categories
  • Our use of radio, television and newspaper and new media in Curacao by age, gender and social-economic class
  • Where we shop and roads most travelled. Ever wonder where the best places are to put billboards, without having to revert to "you-say-I-say"?
  • Global trends regarding media attitudes and generations! Yes, the generations are different.